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Android Gingerbread has growth spurt, grabs 38.2 percent device share
Gingerbread has apparently made a substantial mark on Android users, with new figures showing it holds a 38.2 percent share of all Google OS-powered devices. That's some kind of growth from the one percent sliver it held earlier this year. Froyo still remains dominant at 45.3 percent, but fragmentation continues to shrink, with 95.7 percent of all Google-coated devices now running Android 2.1 or above. These figures, taken from Android Market statistics over the last two weeks, give a pretty good illustration of the gulf between Android smartphone and tablets, as well, with Honeycomb versions accounting for a meager 1.8 percent. But the tablet version will likely get a boost from Ice Cream Sandwich -- which, as we all know, is just around the corner.
Nokia developing 'Meltemi' OS for feature phones?
Although Nokia still hopes Windows Phone will round out a "three-horse race" with iOS and Android, it's said to be cooking up an entirely new operating system aimed at lower-end handsets. According to the Wall Street Journal, the OS (codenamed "Meltemi") is meant to cement Nokia's top dog status in emerging markets, where feature phones remain king. Makes sense: low-end phones accounted for 47 percent of the company's device-and-services earnings in the second quarter. We're not sure if the adage "when one door closes, another one opens" exactly applies here, but either way, it looks like we've hardly seen the end of software updates out of Suomi.
Samsung taking Bada open source in 2012?
Samsung invited the world to adventure with its own smartphone OS, Bada, almost two years ago and so far most of us have turned down the offer. Of course, that trip could look more appealing if a Wall Street Journal rumor is true and the company is planning to open source it for use by developers and other manufacturers alike next year. Citing the usual "person familiar with the situation", Samsung apparently isn't interested in snagging any outside companies like, say, webOS, but wants to strengthen its independence from Android after Google announced it will purchase Motorola. Right now, it feels like we've already seen this story play out for the still-kicking Symbian. On the other hand, maybe Samsung, with its massive manufacturing capabilities and current hit-making prowess, can strike the right balance of hardware, software and apps to make it worthwhile. If it tries and fails, well, maybe the folks in Redmond will be looking for another close friend.
HTC chairwoman Cher Wang: we might buy a mobile OS, if it feels right
Samsung seems to be the go-to company these days when it comes to mobile OS acquisition rumors, but now it looks like HTC's on the proverbial hot seat. According to an interview by The Economic Observer in China, chairwoman Cher Wang has affirmed that HTC is at least mulling the idea: "We have given it thought and we have discussed it internally, but we will not do it on impulse." The report goes on to make strong mention of HP's recently-backstabbed webOS platform, but stops short of suggesting that it's the only OS in the running. Continuing on, Wang stated: "We can use any OS we want. We are able to make things different from our rivals on the second or third layer of a platform. Our strength lies in understanding an OS, but it does not mean that we have to produce an OS." Of course, that's a cheerleading session surrounding the outfit's polarizing Sense overlay, and we're guessing that webOS would eventually look a heck of lot different under HTC's control. On second thought, maybe Wang's actually trying to acquire iOS -- she sure seems to love those Apple stores!
Alibaba to launch English version of Aliyun OS this month, tablet by November
Alibaba is just beginning its long and arduous journey into the field of mobile domination, but it's already looking to expand its sphere of influence beyond China to tackle the OS giants. Merely a few weeks after announcing its Aliyun OS, the company has spilled the beans on its plans for the immediate future, which include launching an English version of the platform this month and pushing a tablet to the market within the next two. Details on pricing, release time frame and partnerships are scarce -- the K-Touch W700 wasn't specifically mentioned, either -- but Alibaba confirmed it's currently in talks with global hardware vendors. Baidu, care to offer another rebuttal? You've got a slot at seventh place to protect.
The Engadget Interview: HP's Stephen DeWitt discusses the state of webOS
The last time we spoke with Stephen DeWitt, the head of HP's webOS global business unit was on the defensive about the TouchPad. In spite of -- or perhaps because of -- the anticipation of the device, the first webOS tablet received a lukewarm reception at hands of reviewers. DeWitt vigorously defended the slate against the critics, suggesting that technology writers had been approaching the product the wrong way. A lot has happened since that conversation, of course, including reports of unmoved stock and, more significantly, yesterday's news that HP would effectively be discontinuing production on its webOS devices, the TouchPad included. There's been a good deal of confusion around precisely what yesterday's announcement means for both the company and the mobile operating system that it picked up with its purchase of Palm back in April of last year. In spite of his understandably packed schedule, DeWitt sat down with us to set the record straight and shed some light on the future of webOS -- a future both he and the company remain rather optimistic about. Read on for the full interview.
Nokia RM-670 screen grabs reveal Symbian Belle in all her glory
We caught a glimpse of Nokia's new Symbian Belle OS on some RM-670 spy shots a month ago, but back then we were distracted by the handset's impressive hardware. As if to correct our focus, the attention-seeking successor to Symbian Anna has just revealed herself again in a batch of leaked screen grabs, courtesy of NokiaBlog.ro. The pics reveal different-sized widgets in a range of different positions, suggesting that this OS offers a lot more flexibility in customizing home screens. There's also an Android-esque notifications bar, which gives quick access to core settings too. We don't know how final these revisions are, or how effective they'll be in restoring Symbian's waning popularity when the new OS finally arrives, but there's an encouraging hint of that well-executed simplicity that Nokia does so well. Click the source link below for the full Romanian fandango. [Thanks, Clinton]
Alibaba announces 'cloud-powered' Aliyun OS, K-Touch W700 phone
Ready for another mobile operating system? Alibaba certainly is, having just unveiled its Aliyun OS. The new entrant will apparently be "fully compatible" with apps from Android through a proprietary Waterloo-style emulation layer. We don't know exactly how that'll work, but come September we'll find out when the new OS ships on a rebranded Tian Hua K-Touch, the W700, for ¥2,680 (or around $416). We're also interested in the firm's tightly-knit cloud services, with users receiving 100GB to store their "contact information, call logs, text messages, notes and photos" -- accessible from both PCs and Aliyun-toting handsets. With future plans for tablets and "other devices" in the works, coupled with incessant hinting from Baidu, those of you hellbent on fierce OS competition might want to consider relocating to China.
Sprint's Fared Adib: we made a conscious decision to scale back bloatware on smartphones
If you've ever wondered what companies take your advice (read: complaints) to heart, here's yet another one that is: Sprint. Recently, HTC received oodles of praise from a minuscule-but-passionate group of folks who appreciate the company's stance on unlocking its bootloaders, and today we learned that folks at The Now Network made a similarly impressive change after hearing yet another enthusiastic sect... our readers. If you'll recall, Sprint's VP of Product Development Fared Adib appeared on the November 2010 episode of The Engadget Show, and it was during that appearance that he heard a rather shrill cry of users begging for a smaller amount of "bloatware," or at the very least, bloatware that users could customize or outright remove. For those unfamiliar with the term, it generally refers to applications that are preloaded onto devices from the carrier; by and large, these clutter up the application grid, and many power users aren't exactly enthralled by any carrier-imposed OS changes. In speaking at length today with Adib during a Sprint campus walkthrough, he confessed that he jetted back from NYC and immediately informed his team that the bloatware needed to go. To quote: "Ben, we've got to get rid of these preloaded apps on our devices. A lot of customers don't want this." You may have noticed a dearth of those very apps on the EVO 3D, and according to Fared, customer feedback on the newly cleaned slate has been overwhelmingly positive. We inquired on whether this approach would be pushed across the company's product spectrum, and he seemed eager to admit that it would. In fact, Sprint's taking quite the different approach internally than some folks may be used to. It's effectively trying to get out of the way in as many areas as possible, and in turn, litter your future phones with as little content as possible. In fact, he's pushing to make whatever programs Sprint does preload user-removable, and it's a mantra we can only hope other carriers latch onto. Nothing against NASCAR, of course, but having the ability to burn rubber in our own way is definitely preferred. P.S. - This slide was just one of many, and is definitely not a comprehensive view of partners and plans. We were specifically informed to not read into it as a solo slide.
CyanogenMod 7 hits 500,000 installs, eclipses previous milestone
Looks like another round of roman candles are in order. After already setting off the celebratory fireworks for its previous user install milestone, CyanogenMod 7's done it again -- this time reaching past the half a million mark. The highly customizable Android homebrew is arguably the biggest aftermarket OS in the ROM-flashing campus, and it has the numbers to back it up. According to the site's stats, the official release of 7.0.3 saw the biggest spike in handset installations -- at 76,897 -- with unofficial nightly builds almost doubling that figure. Sure, it sometimes seems like the rooting community is a vast, silent majority, but it's actually a wafer-thin slice of Google's mobile pie. Still, congratulations are in order for this open-source hackdom triumph. [Thanks, Chris]
iOS 5 beta 3 already jailbroken, new features come to light
Who needs sleep, right? Rather than putting in the tried-and-true "eight hours" that your mum still insists that you get, you're going to be doing something a bit more adventurous this evening. Something involving a "jailbreak" of your recently updated iPod touch, iPhone or iPad. Just hours after Apple pushed out iOS 5 beta 3 to its developers, a Sn0wbreeze update has been confirmed to support jailbreaking on that very build. Sadly, it's still tethered for the time being, and the iPad 2 remains unsupported, but those with nerves of steel (and gobs of vacation days) can hit the source links to get started. Furthermore, we're just starting to see what kind of wacky tricks beta 3 has up its sleeve -- things like custom alerts for text messages and what appears to be a shattering of the app grid on the iPad. For more on that, hop on past the break; for more on the jailbreak, we'd encourage you to talk amongst yourselves in comments below. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) starts rolling out to Verizon's Droid Incredible 2
Messin' with hacked ROMs? Fuhgetaboutit. HTC's Droid Incredible 2 is finally getting the Android 2.3 it has long deserved, with the luckiest of Verizon Wireless subscribers seeing the update pushed to their phones this evening. The update (coined 2.18.605.4) brings along performance improvements with mobile IM, solved Hotmail sync issues, better device connectivity, a built-in browser bookmark for the New York Times, the addition of the Wireless Charging UI and a new desktop dock app. Don't be shocked if it takes a week to get to your particular phone, but be sure to let us know how things go in comments once your turn arrives. [Thanks, Jimmy]
Nielsen: smartphones dominate among new subscribers; Android leads, iOS surges, RIM falters
Visit any mobile retailer and you're likely to notice that smartphones are becoming mighty popular. In fact, Nielsen now reports that these wondrous creations now account for more than half of all mobile phone sales -- 55 percent, to be exact -- compared to 34 percent one year ago. The study, which consists of data from March through May of 2011, suggests that while smartphones continue to be outnumbered by feature phones, penetration has risen from 29.7 to 38 percent in a matter of months. Nielsen further states that while Android remains the dominant platform (with 38 percent market share), its growth appears only steady, despite Andy Rubin's recent assertion. Meanwhile, iOS (with a 27 percent stake) is experiencing quite the growth and now accounts for 17 percent of all new activations. Unlike the folks in Mountain View and Cupertino, the crew in Waterloo have reason to worry: RIM's market share has fallen from 27.4 to 21 percent in a few short months, and the platform now accounts for only six percent of new activations. If you're interested in finding out more, just follow the break for another snapshot of the mobile world. And if you're feeling generous, you might consider sending Sirs Lazaridis and Balsillie a get well soon card.
Switched On: webOS wherever
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. This week's release of the HP TouchPad, the first device other than a handset to feature webOS, aptly demonstrates the promise and perils of HP's adopted operating system. The 4:3 tablet provides the large canvas that webOS seemed born to cover. However, like the Xoom and PlayBook before it, the TouchPad suffers from an impoverished app library among other holes. To help share development costs of webOS and expand the market for its developers, HP has warmed to the idea of licensing the Palm-developed operating system. HP's willingness to license webOS while continuing to make devices based on the operating system serves up a healthy helping of déjà vu for those who followed the history of Palm, Inc. The PDA pioneer sought to take advantage of its dominance in handhelds, and stave off rival Pocket PCs powered by Windows CE, by licensing the Palm operating system while continuing to use it. The decision proved to be Palm's short-term salvation and long-term ruin. One of the first companies to license the Palm OS was Handspring, founded by former Palm executives. Handspring created the Treo, which became Palm's entry into smartphones when Palm acquired Handspring. A few other companies licensed the Palm OS for smartphones, including Kyocera and Samsung, but the inherent conflict created by competing with licensees forced Palm to spin Palm OS out into a company called PalmSource, which folded three years later.
Editorial: Dear Nokia, you cannot be serious!
At first blush, the Nokia N9 is everything I'd ever wanted from the company: a smartphone with a competitive spec sheet, exquisite industrial design, and a touch-centric UI that looks to push things forward with the introduction of its own idiosyncratic ideas. Slick in terms of both responsiveness and appearance, the Harmattan interface is Nokia's thunderous riposte to all those (myself included) that challenged the company to get with the touchscreen OS program and cast off the shackles of its Symbian legacy. The only traces of Symbian in the MeeGo 1.2-equipped N9 can be found in the iconography, which maintains the rounded look of its forebear, and support for Qt -- in all other respects, this is a whole new software proposition (distinct even from its Maemo 5 roots), which has so far elicited a range of emotions in me, including delight, desire, and... despair. You must be wondering why, aside from alliterative convenience, I'd be feeling downcast having enjoyed my brief time with the N9 so much. To learn the answer, read on.
Marvell Kinoma Play Android app hands-on preview (video)
First unveiled back in February, Kinoma is Marvell's take on a "new open app platform" targeted at everything from mobile devices to desktops to embedded handhelds. Here in New York, the company is finally showing off a live version of the software in the form of Kinoma Play, an implementation of the platform that runs atop Android 2.2 Froyo -- for the moment at least. The folks from Marvell also had a massive touchscreen loaded up with a desktop version of the software running in a simulator atop OS X for eager onlookers to fool around with. Head past the break for a quick rundown of the offering and plans to do with it, along with some juicy video footage of the stuff in action. %Gallery-126857%
HTC pulls a 180, now says Gingerbread is coming to Desire (updated)
So, here's the tally: as of June 14th, there's just "not enough memory" in the Desire for Gingerbread to run properly. As of the 15th, however, there is. We won't pretend to understand what changed so drastically in the past 24 hours, but what is clear is that the aforesaid handset maker is listening to its most demanding of users. While it's safe to assume that the Average Joe (or Jane) wouldn't be able to recognize the difference between Android 2.2 and 2.3, folks clamoring for the update seem to have coerced the company to make things work. In other words, it looks like the update is back on... now it's just a matter of making it run well. Kudos HTC, and godspeed. Update: Turns out that HTC's engineers will "cut select apps" to enable the Gingerbread update. [Thanks, Frederik]
Google chart shows huge growth in Gingerbread use, the other desserts get jealous
If you've spent more than a split-second of your life wondering how many Android devices are running this or that version, you probably wasted too much of it. Still, Google HQ likes to produce a monthly graph that shows exactly what percentage of its devices are using each type of firmware. The king of the hill is Froyo, which is no stunner, but we were much more interested to see that Gingerbread grew leaps and bounds by five percent over the past month. It sure sounds like a small amount, but when you consider this was at a paltry four percent last month, it's much more awe-inspiring to see it skyrocket up to nine. Can we expect these numbers to grow even more next month, since we'll get inundated with Gingerbread on both new and old handsets alike? We're expecting so, but don't tell Honeycomb -- it's getting a bit jealous.
OTA Gingerbread 2.3 update now available for Droid X
Android 2.3 hit the web for Droid X owners earlier this week, but that update previously required a tethered, manual install. As of today, the update is available over the air, so cable-free purists can finally start cooking with Gingerbread on their Droid X handsets. We first saw 2.3 popping up on the device in March, but if you opted out of rooting your handset for an early look at the new OS, you can now get your feet wet with speedy navigation, a customizable dock, and an overhauled camera app. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Droid X gets genuine Gingerbread update, leaked build floats out for the impatient
Still bothering with that unofficial 2.3 update for your comparatively monstrous Droid X? Good news, eager beaver; right on cue, the bona fide Gingerbread update is rolling out to select Droid X owners this weekend, and if you aren't lucky enough to be included in the initial soak test, you can take matters into your own hands by visiting the source links below. Per usual, we'd caution against a manual install for those who aren't familiar with the process, particularly since the masses should receive it as the week forges on. Naturally, the v2.3.3 changes are subtle (at least in comparison to the changes seen in the leap from Eclair to Froyo), but hey -- an update's an update.
