The report notes that we found references to the “N94″ in the iOS 5.0 SDK earlier this year, which we suspect could be an A5-powered next-gen iPhone (whether it’s the iPhone 4S or iPhone 5 is still unclear). While it’s obvious  this is an “early development prototype” thanks to the “’07-June-2011″ markings, we can’t help but notice it bears a striking resemblance to the iPhone 4 variant that BGR reported was being tested for T-Mobile.

The leaked images today back up rumors of an A5 processor, antenna redesign, and more than likely support for T-mobile. There is still no way of telling whether we’re looking at an upgraded iPhone 4 that will act as an entry-level model, or perhaps an iPhone 4S variant that will become the iPhone 5. However, the prototype in the image, at least, doesn’t seem to support mocks ups based on evidence from leaked case designs pointing to a more streamlined design for the next-gen iPhone.

[Thanks: http://9to5mac.com]

As we head into the back-to-school season and gear up for Fall and the holidays, there is a perfect storm of Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) action coming together. And there’s so much there, all at once, that it might even be enough to drown out the flood of Android smartphones — for a while, at least.

Back in February of this year, Apple started shaking up its iPhone rollout pattern when it started offering the iPhone 4 on Verizon. Not only did another a major service carrier snag the popular iPhone 4 right in the middle of the first year of its expected lifecycle, but that move also put Apple in an awkward position: Even if the company was technically ready to release an updated iPhone 4, say an iPhone 4S this summer, from a customer relations standpoint, that was a nightmare waiting to happen.

Rational or not, plenty of iPhone 4 customers on Verizon would have thrown hissy fits about buying a new phone with a two-year contract only to watch their friends and family walk around a few months later with something even better.

So June and July slid by this summer, and no one got an iPhone 4S, nor did we get an iPhone 5.

No Rush

Of course, the iPhone 4 is a damn good little unit. It’s an all-around excellent performer, so I haven’t heard too many gripes about this summer’s missing upgrade. For instance, months before the iPhone 4 was released, lots of people were anticipating a faster, better camera — with decent video recording capabilities. The iPhone 4 delivered. There aren’t a lot of major holes, so the pressure to upgrade just isn’t as strong as it was back in the 3G model days.

If anything, I was expecting Android to not only gain a lot of market share against all competitors this year, but to also thump up on the iPhone, including an iPhone 5 — partially because the iPhone 4 is so acceptable. Right now, I’m still at a loss to come up with any killer new features that would force my hand to ditch a perfectly good iPhone 4 and upgrade into an iPhone 5.

Change Is in the Air

But now there are other factors at play, and they have nothing to do with a bigger screen or svelte new design. No, Apple is going to have a screamingly good end of the year when it comes to iPhone sales.

Here’s why.

First, the iPhone 3GS is still astoundingly popular, with some reports pegging it as the second most popular smartphone in the U.S., right behind the iPhone 4. Of course, this doesn’t mean that Android phones aren’t popular in the U.S. For instance, the NPD Group reports that Android has 52 percent share in the U.S. over Apple’s second-place 29 percent share with iOS.

But back to the iPhone 3GS. Until this week, it’s popularity seemed 100 percent counter-intuitive to me. No way I’d take on a two-year contract for an iPhone 3GS that has a crappy camera unit in it, not to mention a fading processor and an utter inability to FaceTime with iPhone 4 owners. So, for example, what parent would give their kids the 3GS when they know they won’t be able to FaceTime? Same goes for the grandparents and extended families. What kind of Apple lover would buy this unit at all?

And yet, the lure of a US$49 iPhone seems to be perfect for many buyers. Once I pull back my gizmo blinders, I realize that plenty of potential smartphone users don’t have a need for a great camera on their handset. They might not want to FaceTime with anyone. And cost-of-entry sensitivity often makes all the other gizmo factors in a decision irrelevant. Hey, I’ve been there. There’s a reason I’m not typing away on a 15-inch MacBook Pro right now. Cost of entry.

Meanwhile, this entry-level segment illustrates the big blast of wind that’s going to roll over some Android competition: A low-end iPhone 4.

According to a recent Reuters report, Asian suppliers are busy manufacturing a low-end iPhone 4 that sports just 8 GB of storage (rather than today’s 16 GB option). This phone would be designed in part for growth markets around the world, aimed at customers without the ability to shell out hundreds of dollars for a phone. Would this particular iPhone model make it to the United States? Maybe, maybe not. I would more likely expect the existing 16 GB option to drop down to the low-end position currently held by the 3GS. Either way, if Apple can actually produce a cheap (but excellent) phone for the low-end market, it will be a very big deal indeed.

The iPhone 5 Wild Card

Current rumors seem to be split between an iPhone 4GS, which might simply sport a bigger screen, a faster processor, and a better antenna system, and an actual iPhone 5 with a new form factor. Some think we’ll see something in late September while others think October might be the time frame. It’s likely that an iPhone 4GS will be a bit of a disappoint to some, but to other Apple-loving iPhone 4 owners, it might also be cause for a sigh of relief — they won’t have to shell out again to feed their iPhone addiction until a real iPhone 5 shows up.

Either way, anyone savvy enough to know that a new iPhone is coming this fall won’t have to wait any longer, and this will trigger a whole new set of iPhone sales. Plus, if Apple can offer a $50 iPhone option that’s FaceTime-capable for the holidays, we’ll see a big spike in sales. Period. There’s really no way around this one: A $50 iPhone 4 come Christmastime would be freakishly successful.

No matter what happens, Apple will release a new premier-level iPhone model this fall, and it, as a single definable unit, will be so popular it will bring the rain to all other units.

Enter Sprint

As if all this wasn’t exciting enough, it’s widely reported and expected that Sprint (NYSE: S) will join the iPhone fray in mid-October for the next iPhone launch, potentially selling well over 1 million units before the wrap of 2011. That was immediately followed by news that T-Mobile will get a piece of the iPhone too. Obviously this means that loyal (and contract-bound) Sprint and T-Mobile customers will be able to enjoy the iPhone love. Nice.

Still, all of these bits and pieces — a new entry-level iPhone, a new premier-level iPhone, and new carriers — will be eclipsed by something far more important to Apple’s success: Apple’s world-class marketing campaigns. Face it: No other consumer electronics company can touch Apple’s marketing efforts. Not are they functionally better, designed cooler, and fun to watch, but Apple also understands that it has to spend money to make money. Apple shows us, while we’re watching our favorite dramas on TV, how the iPhone works, how apps work, how the Apple ecosystem works. When I look at the competition’s ads, I see weird lightning and messages about speed and robots that I don’t really understand.

Any way I look at it, the end of 2011 is going to be dominated by the iPhone. By 2012, the storm may abate as Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) builds a good plan with Motorola and Android tablet makers figure out how to undercut the iPad, generating their own little halo effects. But hey, that’s next year. Apple lovers can still watch 2011 unfold with glee.

[Thanks: http://www.technewsworld.com/]

Jobs passed the reins to his right-hand man Tim Cook on Wednesday, saying he could no longer fulfill his duties, raising fears the health of the Silicon Valley icon had worsened.

While Apple and analysts highlighted Cook’s experience, as well as Jobs’ new role as chairman and the company’s extensive management bench, his departure will cause ripples across the Pacific at South Korea’s Samsung.

More than any other firm, Samsung’s fortunes are tied to Apple, both as a competitor and supplier of components.

The companies are fierce rivals, with Samsung’s Galaxy range of smartphones and tablet computers running on Google’s Android operating system seen as the main competitor to Apple’s game-changing iPhones and iPads.

“Even before Steve Jobs’ (resignation), Samsung was getting more and more optimistic that they can actually take on Apple in the smartphone arena,” said Mark Newman, a former director of strategy at Samsung, where he worked for six years.

“The game is really now Samsung’s to lose … They are picking up market share because of the change in dynamics in the smartphone industry,” added Newman, now a senior analyst for global memory and consumer electronics at Sanford C. Bernstein.

Booming market
The Korean giant has taken big strides and is backing itself to unseat Apple.

Samsung this week unveiled four new cheaper smartphones targeting fast-growing emerging markets — again setting it on a collision course with Apple, which sources say is readying a cheaper, 8 gigabyte iPhone.

When Samsung group executives asked Hong Won-pyo, executive vice president of Samsung’s mobile division, at their weekly meeting on Wednesday if Samsung could overtake Apple in the smartphone market any time soon, he told them he was confident , according to a person at the meeting. Hong was speaking just hours before Jobs made his announcement to quit as CEO.

Apple and Samsung are now scrapping for top spot in the smartphone market, having overtaken the market leader for the past decade, Finland’s Nokia , in the second quarter.

Samsung’s smartphone sales soared more than 500 percent in the second quarter, easily eclipsing Apple’s 142 percent growth, though Apple sold about 1 million more units. Nokia sales fell 30 percent.

News of Jobs’ move helped Samsung shares rise 2.4 percent in Seoul on Thursday. The broader Korean market was up 0.6 per cent.

“Investors were concerned that Apple would encroach into Android’s turf, but Jobs’ exit offers opportunities for Samsung to expand its smartphone market share at a time when Nokia is struggling,” said Jeon Nam-joong, a fund manager at Consus Asset Management, which owns shares in Samsung.

Samsung has already stormed past its Asian rivals. Its market value of around $110 billion is comfortably more than Sony, Toshiba and Panasonic combined.

However, Samsung is still less than half Apple’s size, which at close to $350 billion has it competing with Exxon Mobil for the world’s most valuable company. Both Samsung and Apple will face increasingly stiff competition from upstart rivals in China and Taiwan, however.

Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and ZTE Corp , China’s top two telecommunications equipment makers, are stealing a march both in traditional network gear and, increasingly, high-end phones.

Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC is another that is making headway and could benefit from any erosion of Apple’s dominance.

Software push
Samsung still trails Apple badly in tablet sales. Apple racked up 14 million iPad sales in the first half, versus analysts’ sales estimates of about 7.5 million Samsung tablet products for all of 2011.

Some expect that dominance to fade against rivals such as Samsung and LG Electronics

“Apple’s earnings will peak out with smartphones and tablets,” said Jung Kyun-sik, a fund manager at Eugene Asset Management in Seoul, who argued the company didn’t have great products to take on the baton from the iPhone and iPad.

“Samsung and LG have been in the mobile hardware manufacturing industry over a decade and they’ll lead the pack once Apple peaks out.”

Samsung may also move more aggressively in closing the gap in software, one of its weakest links. Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee recently asked the firm’s top managers to come up with various measures including M&A to raise its software prowess, according to South Korean media.

Lee, Korea’s wealthiest man, is the second generation to run the sprawling Samsung empire which dominates the Korean corporate landscape. Like Jobs, Lee is seen as something of a visionary with an obsession for perfection. He once had a pile of substandard mobile phones piled up and burned in front of his employees to improve quality.

He has also been obsessed with raising Samsung’s competitiveness by deepening its patent pool, talent and software abilities and might be tempted to look more closely for opportunities to take on Apple in earnest.

But the South Korean conglomerate also supplied Apple with about $5.7 billion in components last year, some 4 per cent of Samsung’s total sales.

Apple’s portion grew to 5.8 per cent of Samsung’s sales in the first-quarter, driven by booming iPad and iPhone sales, which Samsung supplies chips for, along with Toshiba.

Legal battles
Samsung’s strength, unlike Apple, has not been in innovation but in being fast and cheap to the market with everything from TVs to chips and phones. That has created tension with Apple, which has complained Samsung’s Galaxy range slavishly copies its iPads and iPhones.

Samsung and Apple, along with many of the other players in the fast-growing mobile devices market, are now engaged in costly and acrimonious patent and copyright battles around the globe.

Just on Wednesday, Apple won a preliminary injunction in a Dutch court stopping Samsung from marketing three smartphone models in some European companies.

“It’s difficult to gauge precisely what the impact will be as our relationship with Apple is very complicated and intertwined with so many parts of our business,” said a senior executive at Samsung’s general management division, who requested anonymity, given the sensitivity of the matter.

Bernstein’s Newman agreed. “It’s a very complex relationship and I think that it’s very important to note that not only are they competitors, fierce rivals in the market place, but they need each other. I would say that Apple needs Samsung more than Samsung needs Apple.”

While few expect Jobs’ lesser role to imminently derail the Apple juggernaut, the history of Sony, a company once worshipped by Jobs, is worth remembering.

In the late 1970s, co-founder Akio Morita was firmly at the helm of Sony and the Japanese electronics innovator was wowing consumers and investors with its groundbreaking Walkman music player.

But as an aging Morita’s influence waned, the fortunes of Sony also began to fade. It lost its cutting edge design and attitude and made a series of bad investments.

How far a once-innovative Sony had fallen behind was made clear when Jobs’ Apple stole Sony’s music player mantle with its iPod digital player in 2001.

Back in 2000, Sony’s market value had been more than seven times Apple’s. Today, Sony’s market value is only one seventeenth of Jobs’ creation.

[Thanks: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/]

The past few months have not been kind to Research In Motion. On August 5, Eric Jackson of Ironfire Capital predicted that the company would need a buyout by early 2013. Since that time, the company’s stock has rebounded a bit, likely due to the recent announcement of new handsets and a new BlackBerry Management Center for small business. But if the BlackBerry maker did go up for sale, which of today’s tech giants would be best suited to the acquisition?

As the recent failure of HP’s Palm buyout demonstrates, successful tech mergers require more than just capital. They demand a good match. A failed merger could mean the end of RIM, and that would be bad news for businesses that depend on the company’s technology. To make the most of a potential merger, the acquiring company must be the right match for RIM’s technology, for its customers, and for the future potential of its patents.

There’s no shortage of speculation over possible buyers for RIM, and the two most common names that pop up are, of course, Google and Microsoft. These are good guesses, and you don’t need to be a tech industry or Wall Street analyst to put these two behemoths at the top of your list. In fact, if you walked out onto the sidewalk and asked any random stranger who they think should buy any given tech company, be it Apple, Twitter, or Facebook, the answer you’d get would almost certainly be Google or Microsoft. Of course, obviousness doesn’t make these propositions wrong, and some good minds have offered sound reasons for advancing these two companies as suitors for a flailing RIM.

Back in June, Boston-based venture capitalist Richard Dale suggested Google as the best fit.

“Google could get the patent portfolio to allow them to use (or better, out-license) that great keyboard, instead of the crappy one on, say, the Motorola Droid slide-outs,” Dale wrote in a commentary for CNNMoney. “Google could even choose to spin off the hardware altogether to a handset manufacturer (HTC?), to reap the benefits of getting Android onto the platform but avoid competing with their channel.”

Last month, over in the Crackberry camp where the love of RIM runs deep, blogger Kevin Michaluk offered 10 reasons Google will buy RIM. Among those reasons: QNX would make a good kernel for Android, RIM has lots of neat patents, the BlackBerry enjoys deep enterprise penetration, and “Canada is nice.” While it’s clear Michaluk was stretching to reach 10 bullet points in his commentary, some of his reasons are pretty compelling.

Speaking for Microsoft advocates, PCMag’s Peter Pachal pointed to Steve Ballmer’s attendance at BlackBerry World in May as possibly pointing to a Microsoft buyout. “Microsoft has been very aggressive in the mobile space, pushing Windows Phone 7 hard and forging an alliance with the top handset maker in the world, Nokia,” Pachal said. “Despite device sales that are probably not that great (and some are calling ‘catastrophic’), Microsoft is serious about making WP7 a success, and it’s clearly playing the long game of mobile platforms to win.”

But Microsoft and Google aren’t the only players that could pounce on a vulnerable RIM and make the most of it. Cameron Kane of the investment site SeekingAlpha has proposed Dell as a worthy suitor, though it’s hard to imagine Dell taking on something as uncharacteristically platform-centric as a RIM buyout, particularly after a similar move proved so catastrophic to HP.

In an interview with InformationWeek.com, Current Analysis research director Avi Greengart proposed some more interesting possibilities, and discounted the idea that Google or Microsoft would make the play. “Microsoft and Google do not need the headache of managing a completely separate ecosystem, and Microsoft doesn’t need RIM’s IP,” Greengart said.

“The only companies I could see interested in taking on RIM as-is are Samsung–which has articulated a goal of getting more enterprise mobility business and already has experience managing multiple operating systems–and Chinese vendors such as Huawei, ZTE, or Lenovo, who would want it for market access and brand–but could run into problems with North American government approval for the sale for security reasons,” said Greengart.

The idea of Samsung buying RIM seems particularly compelling. Given the company’s ongoing patent war with Apple, acquiring RIM could arm the company with a large enough pool of intellectual property to push Apple back, and it would give the company an instant in with the enterprise world.

Ultimately, though, Greengart doesn’t really believe RIM needs a buyout. “I don’t think it has to be anyone, frankly. RIM’s sales are down overall and its platform is clearly losing steam, but the company is still extremely profitable and sales in certain markets are actually growing rapidly. RIM needs to complete the transition to QNX and provide a rationale why consumers and enterprises should buy those QNX devices (reaching parity with Apple and Google on user interface is not enough), but it does not need to find a buyer,” Greengart said.

[Thanks: http://informationweek.com]

Warning: the infographic isn’t as comprehensive as one would hope it to be—Ghuohe’s research only covers iOS and Android, and therefore leave out other OS platforms and app stores, for example Ovi on Symbian or China Mobile’s M-Market.

That’s potentially a big omission, given that Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has enjoyed a historically strong position in the Chinese mobile market, with its Ovi app store, by one measure, the most-visited of all mobile app stores in the country. (In that report, M-Market is a very close second to Ovi.)

Still, for what it does cover, the graphic below does provide some illuminating numbers from a hugely influential market that can otherwise often seem impenetrable to outsiders.

The market for in-app advertising in China is still pretty small, but—as a key way of monetizing mobile content—it is growing at a fast clip. Figures from analyst firm iResearch (via the China-based blog TechNode) note that last year revenue from in-app advertising was around $11 million, but by the end of 2011 it should increase nearly five-fold to $48.7 million.

TechNode also notes that when it comes to ad platforms and other middle-men, the Chinese is just as crowded as the mobile market in the rest of the world. Currently, there seem to be at least 30 active mobile ad platforms, including those from major players like Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and China Telecom; web plyers like AdChina and mobile-specific players like MadHouse, Wooboo and Domob.

Some key points from Guohe Ad’s research:

Money talks. Unsurprisingly, big cities and their wealthy denizens account for 80 percent of all mobile ad impressions in the country, with Beijing, at 29 percent of all mobile impressions, being the most active.

Size does matter 1. It notes that Apple’s bigger share of ad impressions—58 percent to 42 percent for Android—is down to its bigger app store that “attracts more user interaction,” but that this is likely to change as the Android Market grows.

Size matters 2. As with Millennial’s figures from yesterday, the sheer number of Android devices on the market means a more diluted stake for each individual OEM. In China, HTC is the biggest of all the Android makers, at 11 percent, with Samsung only in at eight percent of all mobile ad impressions. That’s in contrast to the picture in the U.S., where Samsung is the strongest Android player.

Size matters 3. Interesting correlation of screen size to click-through rates, where the bigger the screen, the less likely, it seems, people are to click through on a mobile ad. Smartphones have a 2.87 percent CTR; seven-inch Android tablets have 2.65 percent CTR and iPads have the lowest of all, at 0.47 percent.

[Thanks: http://paidcontent.co.uk]

Samsung has announced the availability of the Bada 2.0 SDK (Software Development Kit), an application development tool for Samsung’s mobile platform.

Bada 2.0 is expected to be a catalyst in expanding the global distribution of Bada smartphones, which have already received significant global sales, the company said in a press release.

Bada 2.0 supports HTML5 and improved Flash functions to deliver enhanced usability and web experience, the company said. And by supporting the Wholesale Applications Community (WAC) 2.0 standard, Samsung is looking to expand the Bada developer community

Samsung officials said the expansion of the Bada platform is led by the success of the seven existing Samsung Wave devices. The Wave smartphones have been popular in Europe, China and Southeast Asia, where consumers have been attracted to their affordability and functionality. Moreover, the recognizable user-experience and touch interface has helped introduce existing Samsung feature phone users to Smartphone services and application experiences.

“Samsung Bada and our Wave devices continue to succeed around the world, taking advantage of the mobile technology and brand awareness of Samsung’s leadership in the market,” said JK Shin, president and head of Samsung’s Mobile Communications Business, in a statement. “We have brought together our key mobile innovations in Bada 2.0, setting the foundation for it to become a leading mobile platform.”

Unveiled at Mobile World Congress in February 2011, Bada 2.0 includes many new features, including multi-tasking, Wi-Fi Direct, Near Field Communication (NFC) and voice recognition. It also enables smartphone users to experience advanced services such as mobile payment, transport pass-card recharge and file sharing without Internet networking.

“Bada is a significant innovation and a key component in Samsung’s multi-platform strategy; we are committed to investing in its success. We are expanding our developer community and creating a strong ecosystem that benefits both developers and end-users,” Shin added. “Developers have an opportunity to reach a significant customer base with new, entertaining and compelling applications while consumers will receive an outstanding smartphone experience.”

Also another key feature for developer partners is the introduction of In-app Ads. Using the Ads API, Bada 2.0 developers can easily insert advertisements, creating new revenue opportunities. Samsung has also upgraded its application development environment, providing developers with increased support. An Emulator has been added to foster a development process suitable to the target environment. And tools such as Profiler optimize the device’s performance ensuring that resources like memory and processing power are used to their fullest capacity.

Bada 2.0 SDK can be downloaded from the Bada developer site. Samsung has enhanced the ‘Samsung Apps’ retail store and expanded availability to 121 countries. With this 2.0 version, more differentiated functions will be offered from Samsung Apps, including new purchasing options and recommendations. Samsung Apps has been a popular destination since the launch of the Samsung Wave, the first Bada based smartphone in June 2010. It received 10 million application downloads in just three months and passed the 100 million-mark in March 2011. The store currently houses approximately 40,000 applications.

[Thanks: http://www.eweek.com]

AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile all reported disruptions after the magnitude 5.8 earthquake hit outside Richmond, Va. The quake didn’t damage any cell phone towers, but because so many people in major East Coast cities, including Boston, New York and Washington D.C., felt the quake, huge numbers of people started calling each other, jamming the lines.

CITA, the wireless trade industry association, on Tuesday urged people to send text messages and emails to contact loved ones, rather than call each other on networks that were experiencing higher-than-normal traffic.

Despite many advances in cellular technology, massive bursts of traffic can still clog up networks because cellular towers are only able to handle so much traffic, according to CITA.

Many customers were frustrated because of the jammed lines. When people couldn’t get hold of each other by phone, they turned to Facebook and Twitter. Many of these people wanted not only to talk about the tremor, but to complain about not being able to make phone calls.

Sprint also went onto Twitter to ask people to use text messages instead of calling and to announce the “temporary mass calling event.”

An earthquake can shake cell phone tower equipment out of order, but Tuesday’s problem occurred because too many people were trying to use their cell phones, according to Philip Solis, research director of mobile networks for ABI Research, to NBC.

“Since the tremors weren’t strong enough to shake or break things, especially in places farther away from the center of the earthquake, connections are slower than normal because everyone wants to find out if their loved ones felt the earthquake, too,” Solis said Monday.

The growing trend of using social media, rather than calling loved ones directly, may prove more efficient and reduce some of the jamming and allow for true emergency calls to go through.

In June, Facebook officials met with members of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the California Emergency Management Agency to discuss ways the social network may expand the increasingly important role it plays in coordinating response efforts and to explore ways it can be used to notify communities of impending disasters.

Also, apps such as the Auto-BAHN, which allows people to send messages to each other even when cell phone service is jammed or otherwise unavailable, may well be the solution to allowing emergency communications to continue.

Meanwhile, cell phone companies are working to extend 4G services to much of the nation, and as more antennas go up, the problems with jammed cell phone signals may very well become a thing of the past. But companies may still face a challenge providing enough service for everybody, particularly in extreme emergency situations, as cell phone use continues to expand.

[Thanks: http://www.mobiledia.com]

Microsoft is reportedly developing a version of Windows Phone 7 for developing nations and other low-cost markets.

The version, dubbed “Tango,” may be a slimmer version of Windows Phone 7 that includes a number of basic features and services, like Bing search, but does not include all the bells and whistles of the full version, according to a report on a Hong Kong-based blog that tracks the mobile industry.

The blog, WeLoveWP.hk, said that an unnamed Microsoft official confirmed Tango earlier this week during an MSDN seminar in Hong Kong.

Microsoft has not confirmed the report, but such an approach would be consistent with the company’s developing markets strategy in other product areas. For instance, Microsoft offers its Windows 7 Home Basic desktop operating system for low-cost PCs in emerging markets that are particularly price sensitive and where piracy is a problem.

A low-cost version of Windows Phone 7 would also help Microsoft take full advantage of partner Nokia’s status as the largest supplier of mobile phone handsets outside the United States. Nokia has said it plans to port its entire U.S. product portfolio to Windows Phone 7, but has given mixed signals regarding the fate of its Symbian and MeeGo operating systems in other geographies, including emerging markets.

For the short term, at least, Nokia continues to roll out new Symbian phones. The company on Wednesday introduced the Nokia 700, 701, and 600. The phone maker dubbed those devices its “smallest,” “brightest,” and “loudest” phones to date, respectively.

All are based on Belle, the latest version of Symbian. Among other things, Belle increases the number of homescreens on Symbian phones from three to six, leaving more room to display apps and services.

In terms of timing, Microsoft would most likely roll out Tango sometime between the debut of Mango, a Windows Phone update that adds more than 500 new features to the platform and is expected to ship later this year, and Apollo, the next major update beyond Mango.

[Thanks: http://www.informationweek.com]

The research firm found that US BlackBerry OS edged out Apple’s iOS in November, taking 34.4 per cent of market share. Apple’s iOS, serving iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices, recorded 33 per cent in the same month.

The sampling of more than 15 billion page views per month on more than three million websites in StatCounter’s network recorded only U.S. figures.

“These figures suggest that developers should not be developing solely for the iPhone to the exclusion of BlackBerry and Android,” said Aodhan Cullen, the CEO of StatCounter.

Android, the mobile operating system by Google, has also been gaining traction, having tripled to 23.8 per cent of the market this year from 8.2 per cent last November in terms of web usage.

Cullen projected that if the trends continue, BlackBerry and Android together are poised to double the size of Apple’s iOS in mobile internet usage in 2011.

[Thanks: http://www.cbc.ca]

The Motorola Droid 2 Global is available today to Verizon Wireless customers. It was announced on 2010, November and it was released on 2010, November. The size of the Motorola DROID 2 global is 116.3 x 60.5 x 13.7 mm and weighs 173g.

Sound qualities:

The sound alert types are of vibration, MP3 ringtones, and WAV ringtones. It has speakerphone with 3.5mm audio jack. The OS of DROID 2 global is Android OS, v2.2 (Froyo). The CPU is of TI OMAP 3630 1.2 GHz processor, 3D graphics accelerator.

Memory and battery:

It has Li-Po 1420mAh battery, it can withstand in standby mode up to 230h, and in talk time mode up to 8h 20min. The DROID 2 global has internal memory of 8GB storage, 512 MB RAM, and card slot microSD, up to 32GB, 8 GB included. Practically it can have unlimited entries and fields, photocall in phonebook and call records.

GPRS features:

The data collection features like GPRS and EDGE is also present. It has 3G – HSDPA, 10.2 Mbps HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps, / Rev. A, up to 3.1 Mbps. The DROID 2 global also has WLAN – Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA, Bluetooth – Yes, v2.1 with A2DP and USB – microUSB v2.0.

Color and camera:

It is available in stylish Black and White colors. The camera is of 5MP, 592/1944 pixels, autofocus, it includes features such as Geo-tagging, face detection, image stabilization and provides Video feature of 720p@30fps.

Network and other features:

In general, it has 2G Network (CDMA 800 / 1900 and GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900) and 3G Network (CDMA2000 1xEV-DO and     HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100). The display type is of TFT capacitive touch screen, 16M colors and Size is of 480 x 854 pixels, 3.7 inches and it has QWERTY keyboard, Multi-touch input method, Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate,  Proximity sensor for auto turn-off, Touch-sensitive controls and Skype input method.

[Thanks: http://techknowbits.com]