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HP not making Windows Phone 7 devices, focusing on webOS instead
No big surprise here, but HP Personal Systems Group VP Todd Bradley just flat-out confirmed to CNBC that HP will not be making any Windows Phone 7 devices, preferring instead to focus on the newly-acquired webOS for its line of smartphones. Here's the entire exchange: Q: Can you make webOS successful with developers when you're selling Windows Phone 7, maybe Android or Linux at the same time? A: We continue to be Microsoft's biggest customer, and we continue to believe we will drive innovation with Microsoft. At the same time, I think it's clear to say, that we're very focused on the customer, and giving the customer the experience that's important to them. We won't do -- will not do a Linux / Android phone. We won't do a Microsoft phone. Q: So no Windows Phone 7? A: We will continue to more broadly deliver the webOS-based phones that are in the market today, and Jon and his team have driven a strong roadmap for the future. Q: So does that mean you're going webOS only for phones? A: For smartphones it does. Our intent is to focus those resources and really make webOS the best OS it can be. That's a big ouch for Microsoft -- it has to sting when your biggest customer turns its back on your fledgling mobile efforts -- but we can't exactly see HP spending a billion dollars on Palm only to turn around and support multiple platforms. There is a small silver lining for Microsoft, though -- Bradley also reiterated that HP's tablet plans aren't so locked in, and once again hinted that the Windows 7-based HP Slate has become an enterprise product, which is at least better than being killed off entirely. Lose some, lose some slightly less, we suppose. Full video after the break -- the good bit starts around 5:20.
Intel snaps up former Palm and Apple VP Mike Bell for its smartphone push
Seriously, what the hell did HP acquire when it bought Palm? A bunch of pretty patents and a rapidly dwindling talent pool, it would seem. Mike Bell, a celebrated capture for Palm back in 2007 after 16 years at Apple, was most recently occupying the role of Senior VP for Product Development on Jon Rubinstein's team, but he has now switched allegiances to the blue team. Interestingly, though his address might change, his job spec will not -- Mike will act as Director of Smartphone Product Development in Intel's Ultra Mobility Group, where he'll "help build and lead a team to build breakthrough smartphone reference designs to accelerate Intel Architecture into the market." It's hard to imagine how Intel could signal its intent to be a big player in the smartphone realm any more forcefully. Click past the break for the full text of the internal email announcing Mike's arrival.
Apple and HTC lead charge as smartphone market looks set to grow and grow
A recent survey of 4,028 US consumers by ChangeWave has thrown up a number of illuminating statistics, which you might consider as predictable as they are informative. The chief takeaway is that people are keen on buying smartphones like never before, with 16% of respondents saying that they'll be taking the plunge within the next 90 days, which marks the biggest increase in the survey's history. Secondly, and crucially for vendor loyalists, Apple and HTC seem to be the biggest beneficiaries (or are they the stimulants?) of this interest, with both improving their share by over 50 percent between March and June of this year. RIM and Motorola have taken a tumble in that same timespan, while Palm has sadly failed to register even a single percentage point. We can definitely see the Droid X and BlackBerry 6 remedying things for the big boys, but Palm's route out of ignominy seems a little less straightforward. You'll find a chart of customer satisfaction -- dominated by Apple in imperious fashion -- after the break, and the full breakdown at the source link.
LG Application Store aims to sate WinMo, Android and featurephone users alike
Like a bad perm in the 1980s, you just can't be hip in the mobile world these days without an app store. We had secretly hoped that LG would take the wise route, à la Motorola with Android, of supporting a better established app platform and sticking to serving out delectable hardware, but alas it ain't so. The Korean company is today unveiling an "all new" Application Store with over 3,000 apps in tow, about half of which are aimed at featurephones. The rest seem to be targeting Windows Mobile devices, though LG promises Android-compatible apps will also be available later in the year, all set to deliver "greater value and genuine benefits" to owners of LG handsets. Judging by the early roster of 23 countries, this effort has "emerging markets" written all over it, but there are ambitions to bring this Store to Western Europe as well. Oh goodie!
Developers to get native x86 version of Android 2.2 this summer?
We knew that Intel had designs on Android for its Moorestown CPU, and as you might have guessed, the company's plans don't stop there. Renee James, a Senior VP at Intel, recently said as much in a conversation with APC. Apparently, devs can look forward to seeing a fully native x86 version of Froyo at some point this summer. James goes on to say that "all of the code will be fed back into the open branch that will be created for x86." Awesome! Perhaps 2011 will see a yet another flood of generic, Atom-powered Android tablets. Because we don't see enough generic Android tablets as it is.
Yes, you can certainly scratch the iPhone 4 (updated with more photos)
Well, this is not encouraging. The photo you're seeing above is our leader Joshua's iPhone 4 review unit, snapped by Ryan Block just moments ago. Ryan pointed out that there are some nasty scratches on the back of the phone. While we don't have any better photos of it at the moment, Josh told us that they're hard to see unless in bright light, but they look pretty notable to us for a five day-old unit made of Gorilla Glass. We'll get some better photos for you as soon as humanly possible. Update: We should note that while iFixit has said that the new iPhone's front panel is made of Gorilla Glass (and they tend to be right about these things), the material on the back of the phone has not been positively identified, though it is also a hardened glass. Update 2: We've added three higher quality photos after the break, and seen the scratch with our own eyes. It's what we would call "incredibly minor," not visible at all dead on, but in bright light at an angle... well see for yourself if the photos.
Adobe expects Flash on 250 million smartphones by end of 2012
While in the midst of fixing a unicorn-sized hole in the security of its desktop software, Adobe has been talking about its future in the mobile space. According to its rose-tinted forecasts, Flash Player will be featured in a quarter billion handsets by the end of 2012, including 53 percent of all smartphones shipped that year. Those are pretty strident words for a company that has yet to ship Flash Player 10.1 in even one new handset, but we're reminded that Android 2.2's leading position on the issue will be swiftly followed by BlackBerry OS, Symbian, webOS, and Windows Phone 7 supporting the full fat Flash experience. Whether all that momentum will be enough to produce an install base of 250 million, we don't know. What we do know, however, is that people want the blasted thing and Adobe had better start doing a bit more work on its mobile player and a little less talking about it -- that's what we're here for.
'iPhone vs Android' report finds Apple has three times Google's market share
It's oftentimes easy for us to get swept up in Android mania and forget that Google's mobile platform is still in its infancy. Then we get cold hard numbers like these -- showing iPhone OS owning 28 percent of the US smartphone market and closing in on RIM's leading 35 percent -- and we face up to the realization that Android handsets still account for less than one in every ten smartphones owned by Americans today. In spite of collecting 28 percent of all consumer smartphone purchases in the first quarter of 2010 (according to NPD), Google's OS was only able to climb up a couple of percentage points in terms of total market share, showing just how long a road lies ahead of its world-conquering plans. Guess that now explains why Apple's response to the earlier numbers was so nonchalant. Other intriguing figures include a high rate of loyalty among iPhone OS and Android users, with 80 percent of the former and 70 percent of the latter expressing a preference for the same OS in their next phone -- both rather shaming Microsoft and RIM's numbers, which were a mediocre 34 and 47 percent, respectively. Funnily enough, despite its inflammatory title, this report finds Android and iPhone users are more similar to each other than anyone else -- an uncomfortable fact for both parties to deal with, we're sure. The source link contains some more demographic comparisons, so why not go check them out and drop some sage analysis for us in the comments?
iPhone grew more than Android in May
At least that's the word from Net Applications, the company that measures visits to clients websites. The latest report says the iPhone not only keeps a large lead over Android, but it actually enlarged its global share last month, going from 30.4% to 32.8 %. At the same time, Android increased from 5.3% to 6.2%. If you look at a percentage increase, Android is still moving up faster, growing its share 17% month after month, while the iPhone grew 8.25%. Java ME, still in heavy use by many older smartphones, including phones from RIM, Sony Ericsson and Nokia, keeps a number one position as the most popular platform for mobile surfing, but Net Applications says it is rapidly losing market share to both the iPhone and Android. Recently, Apple and Android made news when another research firm, NPD, reported that Android sales were much better than the iPhone in the U.S. But that wasn't unexpected -- there are many more Android handsets to sell, and even NPD admitted that report was "very limited."
PTPT shows off wild Android UI skin, we go hands-on
Last time we heard about ExB's PTPT (pronounced "petite petite"), the software startup was just beginning to show off the basics of its touchscreen interface; since then, the small German company has been polishing up the UI and prepping it for Android phones and tablets. According to the CEO Ramin Assadollah, the company is in talks with a "major hardware manufacturer" that's planning on skinning its Android products with the incredibly unique software. We got to see PTPT running on an Android 1.6-powered Acer Liquid while at the Netbook Summit, and though it took us a few minutes to understand how the interface worked, it's definitely interesting and responsive. The input starts with three circular icons representing people, places, and things and then a bar that represents time. You can simply select an individual person -- you can import contacts from a variety of sources, including, Twitter, Facebook, and so on -- from the halo that appears, and then drag them up to a specific time to get various updates or e-mails from that person. The custom predictive text keyboard in the e-mail interface was very snappy -- it's also just nice to see a change from the stock Android input. Then, you can drag that person to things to see pictures of them. And just like in the original demo, you can then move the pictures icon to a point on the timeline to see pictures from that time. Though the phone and tablet demos we saw didn't have widgets on the homescreen, we were assured that they can be added. We promise this is all better explained in the demo video below, so mosey on down after the jump. We'll be here, wondering what Android devices this software may pop-up on. %Gallery-93739%
Many Verizon customers suffering from "extreme" interest in iPhone, BMX biking
A report over on Digital Daily this morning reveals something that may not come as much of a surprise -- people on other carriers (in this instance, Verizon) want the iPhone. Recent research out of Morgan Stanley shows there is "significant" demand for Apple's cellular delight -- with about 16.8 percent of Verizon's subscribers having "extreme interest" in the product compared to 7.5 percent in the overall population. What does this mean? It means that, if given the chance (i.e. if the iPhone came to Verizon), about 17 percent of current users would switch. That's a pretty high number, to be sure, and Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty estimates that such a deal could move around 7 or 8 million iPhones annually. Of course, all of this comes from an analyst, and it's based on an unscientific survey, so take it with a grain of salt. Still, what's the deal, Steve? We know you love money -- make it happen!
Samsung's AMOLED division is now profitable, expects major smartphone growth in 2010
If you want the dish on what's happening with mobile displays, Lee Woo-Jong, VP for marketing at Samsung Mobile Display, is as good a person to ask as any. The chap has been telling the Reuters Global Technology Summit that his company has finally gone into the black with its AMOLED production line, and that its research projects a 50 percent jump in smartphone shipments in 2010 relative to 2009. This is expected to boost demand, which is already exceeding supply, for high-quality displays. Samsung says shortages might be experienced all the way until next year, but has reiterated its belief that AMOLED is the future with a $2.15 billion investment into expanding its production lines, while also predicting a 30-fold growth in shipments of such displays by 2015. Every handset out there looking like the Wave? We could learn to live with that.
NVIDIA puts its Tegra 2 eggs in Android's basket, aims to topple Apple's A4
Microsoft's Kin One and Kin Two might not turn out to be the most auspicious devices for Tegra's debut in the smartphone arena, but NVIDIA seems to be learning from its mistakes. Admitting that the company committed too strongly to Microsoft with the first-gen iteration, Jen-Hsun Huang has now said that the second generation of Tegra will look to Android devices first and foremost. This newfound focus will materialize with both smartphones and tablets in the third and fourth quarter of this year, and will, according to Jen-Hsun, offer device makers a viable competitor to Apple's A4 SOC. In other news, NVIDIA has now shipped "a few hundred thousand" Fermi cards, and has also achieved 70 design wins with its Optimus graphics switching technology. Eleven of those are now out in the wild, but the vast majority are still to come, mostly as part of the seasonal "back to school" refresh at the end of the summer. These revelations came during the company's earnings call for the first quarter of its 2011 fiscal year, and you can find the full transcript at the source below. [Thanks, TareG]
Apple is unconcerned with NPD's smartphone report
If Apple is losing any sleep over those recent smartphone numbers, it's not showing it. Their official response to the recent news that Android is selling more phones than iPhone OS could adequately be defined as: "meh." Spokeswoman Natalie Harrison says that the survey was "a very limited report," and that Apple is "far outselling Android on a worldwide basis." She goes on to say that "with our new iPhone OS 4.0 software coming this summer, we see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon." Like I said: "meh." It's notable that she does use iPod touch numbers in her calculations, and we're not quite sure if those belong in a survey of smartphones. But she does have a point -- Android may have won this battle, but Apple is still winning the war, and the fight is far from over. There is an interesting parallel here to OS X and Windows -- Apple's OS lives squarely on just a few official devices, while the Android system operates on third-party hardware over any number of platforms. It's certainly possible that Android could win on numbers, even while Apple "wins" on usability and quality. But market share has never been Apple's game, and you can't look at any of the money they've made lately and believe they've done anything but succeed. [via Engadget]
Nokia Head of Design Marko Ahtisaari talks about priorities, competition, and future direction
Marko Ahtisaari will be a familiar name to Dopplr users, being both the CEO and one of the major investors in the startup's social networking software. Having been acquired by Nokia in late September 2009, his team now works to help Symbian regain its world-conquering ways while Marko himself has returned to Nokia to helm its Design group -- an outfit that, judging by the world's disappointment with the N97 and other devices, is frankly in need of some fresh ideas. So, when we were invited to meet him this morning for a journalist get-together where Marko hoped to "begin the conversation" about Nokia's future direction, we grabbed our pen, paper and DSLR and rushed off to go have a listen. The camera came in use when we got to handle a Nokia N8 prototype for the first time, but do join us after the break to see what else we learned.
Intel reaches for the 'smartphone zone' with Moorestown-based Atom Z6, comes up shorthanded
We've seen the future of Intel's mobile platform, and it isn't all roses and sunshine. Three years after the chipmaker told us Moorestown would reduce Atom's energy consumption by a factor of 20, company execs told us earlier today that they've more than reached that goal with the new Z6xx series. Problem is, in the smartphone realm Intel's competitors haven't been sitting idle; according to one of Chipzilla's cantaloupe-and-magenta bar charts, it seems the company has merely caught up in terms of battery life. That's not to say the chips aren't worlds better than previous Atoms -- Intel sees 1.5GHz smartphone processors that slay Snapdragons and up to 1.9GHz in a tablet PC variety -- but 5 hours of web browsing is most decidedly not the 24 hours of productivity Intel previously promised. Besides, who knows: Qualcomm also has a 1.5GHz SoC in the works, though it may not be available by the time Intel's chips ship in the second half of the year. None of this is to say that Intel won't continue to dominate in the netbook marketplace -- we shudder to think at the potential when combining a nice, chunky battery with Intel's nearly leakproof new chips, and perhaps a small serving of switchable graphics while we're at it. But without a single new MID or smartphone to show us this morning -- Aava Mobile and OpenPeak's offerings seemed unchanged from our previous encounters -- we're not sure if the company's other mobile ambitions have any sway. Not technical enough of a discussion for you? Peruse our gallery for the nitty-gritty. %Gallery-92318%
Intel looking to 'deploy capital' on smartphone and other CE acquisitions
Say you're the world's largest producer of desktop processors, you've got a ton of cash ($16.3 billion to be exact) burning a hole in your pocket, and you're watching the entire mobile industry grow into a monster before your very eyes with virtually no skin in the game. Sure, you've got MeeGo and Moorestown up your sleeve -- but considering that they're distant underdogs with no global domination strategy (or product, for that matter) in sight, it might be time to play some hardball, yeah? CFO Stacy Smith commented this week that the company is "looking at what [it believes] can accelerate [its] progress" in the smartphone game -- and, more broadly, the consumer electronics game -- and that it "can and will deploy capital" if it sees something it likes, just as it did with its Wind River Systems buy last year. Intel has had shockingly little relevance in the race to dominate the pocket ever since it offloaded XScale to Marvell a few years back; is it time for these guys to embrace ARM again, or can they find a way to put x86 cores in devices that people like?
Intel adds Android to Moorestown compatibility list, wants to Atomize your smartphone
Alright, so this isn't the first time we've seen Android running on the x86 CPU architecture, but it's notable that Intel has ported the OS to run on its Atom CPUs with the specific aim of offering Android plus Atom smartphone combos. Such is the news that has emerged today at the Intel Developer Forum in Beijing, which means Intel loyalists will have a second option in the smartphone sphere, beyond the already known Moorestown-powered MeeGo handsets. It would seem that Chipzilla is taking the ARM threat to its home markets seriously, and is launching a counter-offensive in the mobile space. As to when that will happen, Intel's bigwigs are saying they're still "on track for introduction during the first half of this year," meaning we'll be seeing (or at least hearing about) the vanguard of its attack by the end of June.
NASDAQ and CEA announce Smartphone Index
The NASDAQ isn't exactly our usual beat here at Engadget, but it's not every day that a consumer electronics market segment gets elevated to the status of having its own index, which is what the stock exchange has now done with a little help from the Consumer Electronics Association. They've teamed up for the NASDAQ OMX CEA Smartphone Index, which consists of 84 companies that are involved in one way or another with the "building, design and distribution of handsets, hardware, software, and mobile networks associated with the development, sale and usage of smartphones." We're having a bit of trouble tracking down the complete list of companies included in the index, but it does apparently have the usual suspects like Apple, Google and RIM, and it has started out with a valuation 250.00.
Samsung Bada handsets of the future revealed in presentation slide
Just in case you had any doubts about Samsung's commitment to the physical keyboard, here's a slide of the Korean giant's Bada OS roadmap, filled with rubbery QWERTY buttons aplenty. At top left you can see the Wave -- which Samsung places in its "premium image brand" together with the Galaxy S -- priced at 20,000 Rubles (just under $700), followed by its as yet nameless and spec-less Bada siblings. Our interest is piqued most by the QWERTY slider that's sat so perfectly atop the 10,000-Ruble line, we wouldn't mind seeing the Super AMOLED screen tech trickling down to such a price point. We wouldn't mind that at all. All About Phones has also spotted two Windows Mobile and one Android handset during the presentation, though Sammy has been predictably recalcitrant about specs on those as well. All we're told is to wait for the autumn. Guess that will have to do. [Thanks, Muhammad]
