GfK, a major retail research company in the UK has stated that the Android mobile platform has managed to climb from a market share of just 3% last year to a much larger 13% this year. Market share was not the only number that went climbing fast, according to the research firm, the volume of actual handset sales has increased by a full 350%.
This is big feat for the Android operating system, despite the fact that it is already one of the most used operating systems among smart phones (it is reportedly the OS used in the largest number of devices), but it has also managed to become a constant favorite among users.
Retail store employees have stated that customers would specifically look and ask for Android smart phones by name –showing that these buyer have come to store with the intention of buying and Android smart phone and knowing full well what an operating system is (as opposed to Nokia devices running Symbian, as the devices’ target market are not too keen on what OS is being used).
Even the Apple iPhone OS (now known as the Apple iOS), is going to have trouble dealing with the growing fame of Google’s Android. After all, most buyers of the iPhone are after the handset itself, not because of the iPhone OS. It is believed that an iPhone shaped device that has an Android operating system should do quite well –and while one of Samsung‘s high end Android smart phones (the Galaxy S) fits the bill, the handset lacks Apple’s iBrand to make it work.
In any case, fans of the Google Android operating system would be happy to know that the latest version of the open source mobile platform (version 2.2 Froyo) is expected to be released for other mobile phones (aside from the Google Nexus One) in a matter of weeks.
Posts Tagged ‘Apple-iOS’
Research Shows Market Share Growth for Android OS
Friday, July 30th, 2010iOS 4.0.1 Update: Could This Really Fix the Antenna Problem?
Monday, July 19th, 2010
Considering the fact that the Apple iOS4 has been met with nothing but criticisms lately, it seems only natural for the Cupertino-based company to release a tweak for their operating system. The iOS 4.0.1. update was released in a hurry, perhaps because Apple is trying to appease their fans and make up for the reception issues plaguing the Apple iPhone 4.
This new operating system promises to fix the infamous signal bar discrepancy in the iPhone 4. In the support notes, Apple described the update, saying that it “improves the formula to determine how many bars of signal strength to display”. This sounds a bit misleading, since the real problem with the launch batches of iPhone 4s are suffering from bad design and not an overly optimistic formula.
With reports hinting at a mass recall for Apple, the mobile industry giant may want to reconsider this course of action. After all, their quick fix years before is the one that brought about this big reception quality mess in the first place.
Nevertheless, Apple’s update is compatible with not only the iPhone 4 but also the older iPhone 3G and 3GS models. It is now available through iTunes if you would like to check it out. While it does not improve the reception quality or solve the problem of your hand blocking the mobile phone’s built in antenna, at least it can tell you accurately how bad your reception actually is.
When new users connect their iPhones, there will be a prompt that leads them to the update page. At least Apple is not just sitting back and counting their profits from their 1.7 million fans. Hopefully there really is something good and useful about this upgrade.
This little tidbit was just released, hours before the Cupertino company’s conference. At the moment, the bigwigs are trying to figure out how they can fix the number of things wrong with their device.
Ballmer: Windows Phone 7 is Months Away
Thursday, July 15th, 2010
To be specific, Mr. Ballmer specified that Windows Phone 7 will be out “in months” when he was talking about the upcoming Microsoft mobile platform at the Worldwide Partner Conference. The current CEO of Microsoft discussed several other important points and views about the OS at that event as well.
Steve Ballmer took the stage at the Mobile World Congress last February to give the world a first glimpse at the Windows Phone 7 operating system. Sure, the close system and the restrictions fell quite reminiscent of Apple’s iOS rules, but the way that the is operated, the way apps are integrated and the way the functions are all inter-connected makes WP7 a mobile platform really worth looking forward to.
Originally, Ballmer stated that the OS would be ready by the end of the year, specifically, by the holiday season. But is seems that in the past few months since the unveiling of the OS to the public, the Microsoft mobile development team has been charged up with a new spirit that has driven them to finish a lot earlier than expected.
The launch date was slowly moved from holidays to October, and just recently, rumors are now pointing out the possibility that the OS might be launching as early as September.
Windows Phone 7 will be integrating plenty of new features from Microsoft such as Bing Search –which is heavily competing with Google’s search engine, the Zune media interface, the Microsoft Xbox Live Games service, a new MSN player; support for Silverlight and according to reports, the first updates will include a Flash player and HTML5 compatibility.
Various phone manufacturers have confirmed that they will have devices ready when Windows Phone 7 launches. LG’s Panther is a type two chassis (which comes with a slide out QWERTY keyboard) and HTC has the Mondrian (HTC Gold) and the HTC Mozart.
How Microsoft Missed Out on a Whole Generation
Wednesday, July 14th, 2010
Smart phone owners are certainly unhappy about the Windows Mobile operating system. HTC managed to make it big with the HD2 (though the HD Mini was not as successful), but aside from that, it is rare that a WinMo device would ever be a favorite for smart phone owners as the resistive touch screen based user interface was easily made obsolete with the arrival of capacitive touch screens with multitouch and gestures.
Of course, that alone was not the reason why the general market is not too keen on Microsoft’s mobile platform, the issue is based mostly on the fact that the OS itself was never designed for everyday use. Microsoft’s hold on the mobile phone industry was based on the business market. They held a position that was practically second to RIM. With the general users, Microsoft had no fans.
Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, is quite accepting of this situation. In fact, he even stated that Microsoft missed out on a whole generation of smart phone users. While rival operating systems such as Nokia’s Symbian, Apple iOS and the Google Android slowly grew and expanded their user base, Microsoft was still lagging far behind the race
With Windows Phone 7 however, Microsoft is planning to take a stronger position in the industry. The new OS is dynamic, stylish and geared towards general users. Most of the interface features fully animated tiles and integrated social networking function.
Social networking and media functions are such a big deal for the new OS that most of the features basically revolve about how you can interact with friends and family. Bringing up the maps will let you instant find the closest addresses of your friends. The Xbox Live Games allows users to invite and join games that other people are playing. The whole tiles system can be filled up with specific friends on Facebook or other networked services. Expect to see WP7 in action sometime around October this year.
Understanding Mobile Platforms
Friday, June 25th, 2010
It is a commonly accepted fact that operating systems are part of what makes or breaks a smart phone, and more often than not, gear heads would put aside the hardware issues as long as they get the right operating system.
This is because a good operating system will have an average phone performing well. Whereas a badly designed OS would make even a high powered handset seem clumsy and jerky to use. Take the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X2, this smart phone has plenty of good hardware features, but the Windows Mobile operating system tends to slow it down a lot, and the fact that it relies on a resistive touch screen display means that it requires a stylus to be operated properly.
At the same time, the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini is a very mid range smart phone in terms of today’s hardware standards, but the Android 1.6 Donut OS 
makes it a very well rounded device. Speaking of the Android OS, the HTC Desire and the Dell Streak push the limits in terms of both hardware with their high speed 1GHz CPUs and software (with the newer Android 2.1 Éclair).
Some manufacturers rely heavily on proprietary operating systems. Take the Palm WebOS, RIM BlackBerry OS and the Apple iPhone OS. Since the devices that make use of these platforms are specifically designed to maximize the capabilities of the OS, the user experience is not only uniform, but the all of a phone’s features are also fully utilized.
This is why it is important for buyers to know what kind of operating systems they want before they decide to purchase a mobile phone. Even if the hardware seems like a good fit, if the OS is not compatible with a user’s needs then choosing a different device would be the wiser option.