Is Google’s Android OS a panacea for the decrepitude and irrelevance that are now the hallmark of Motorola’s handset division? The company is betting that it is. “People familiar with the matter” tell The Wall Street Journal that Verizon and T-Mobile USA both plan to offer Motorola handsets running the OS by the end of the year.
If/when Apple uncrates its next-generation iPhone at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June, it will be identical to its predecessor in physical design and boast only a few modest upgrades. This according to the latest rumor making the rounds, which describes the new device as a near “repeat” of the iPhone 3G.
Well, at least the company announced something. Palm hasn’t yet announced a price for its forthcoming Pre handset. Nor has it provided an official release date. But today it did give those waiting with rapt anticipation for news of the device something to chew on: a new carrier. Bell Mobility has negotiated an exclusive on the Pre in Canada.
If Apple is indeed preparing to offer the iPhone 3G in China in partnership with China Unicom, its sales prospects are looking pretty damn good. Bank of America analyst Scott Craig believes the company could claim as much as a fifth of the smartphone market in China when it launches the device there–and in relatively short order.
Though it made no mention of a next-generation handset at its iPhone OS 3.0 preview last week, Apple is clearly hard at work on one. And if history is any guide, the company will bring it to market sometime in mid-June just as it did the iPhone 3G last year. And if history is any guide, this new iPhone will be a great improvement over its predecessor. So “100 percent confirmed” reports leaking out of AT&T claiming Cupertino is doing exactly that aren’t all that interesting.
Despite knowledge that the iPhone 3G cannot maintain consistent 3G service, defendant continues to solicit new orders in a multimillion-dollar television and print advertising campaign for the iPhone 3G. Apple simply replicated the problems by providing consumers with replacement phones and thus subject to the same issues which prompted the replacements.”
– California resident Jason Medway says the iPhone 3G isn’t 3G enough
Apple’s iPhone hasn’t supplanted Research In Motion’s BlackBerry as the gold standard of mobile business tools, but give it another year or so and it just might. According to new research from ChangeWave, the iPhone has steadily increased its market share, growing from just 11 percent in June to 23 percent. Meanwhile, the BlackBerry lost a point of market share, falling to 41 percent in the same period.
T-Mobile’s G1, the first smartphone based on Google’s Android operating system, really is as cheap as it looks. According to a new theoretical tear-down by research firm iSuppli, the G1 costs about 10 percent less to manufacture than Apple’s iPhone 3G.
The T-Mobile G1 won’t arrive at market until later this month and already the carrier is rumored to have presold 1.5 million of them. Clearly, demand for the handset, the first based on Google’s Android operating system, is far greater than anyone had expected.
Get this: Apple’s iPhone 3G is now the second best-selling mobile handset in the U.S. According to NPD Group, the device outsold the BlackBerry Curve, BlackBerry Pearl and Palm Centro between June and August to claim about 17 percent of the U.S. smartphone market. Moreover, about 30 percent of stateside customers who purchased an iPhone 3G during that period switched mobile carriers to do so.
The first Android-powered handset debuted this morning at a T-Mobile launch event in New York. Manufactured by HTC, the G1 is largely as anticipated. Peter Chou, CEO of HTC describes it as “iconic,” but that’s being a bit generous, I think. In design, the device seems to borrow quite a bit from the T-Mobile Sidekick, and its touchscreen GUI clearly owes a thing or two to Apple’s iPhone.
Apple released iPhone 2.1 this morning, and as CEO Steve Jobs said earlier this week, it does appear to “fix lots of bugs.” 2.1 contains many bug fixes and improvements, according to Apple, including a decrease in call set-up failures and call drops, significantly improved battery life for most users, dramatically reduced time to back up to iTunes, and improved email reliability. It definitely feels snappier.
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper.
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
Includes “Pigs in a Polka,” “Rabbit of Seville” and, of course, “What’s Opera, Doc?”
Take the famous ballads and duets of West Side Story, insert a dozen mentions of famous social media sites like twitter and facebook, and this is what you get.
An iPod mini rebuilt with a wooden case
Star Wars meets Magnum, P.I.
Music videos recreated with new lyrics based on what’s actually happening in them. Daydream Believer and Total Eclipse of the Heart are particularly good.
In response to numerous e-mails, I have no idea what planet the giant alien creature is from. Judging from its enormous gills, I’d have to guess it’s from a watery planet. Reminder: please let me know if you plan to be in the office on Memorial Day so I can request HVAC for your floor.
For those of you who mock the wolf shirt beware. There is an old Navajo story about a young man who made fun of another man for wearing a wolf trio shirt. Legend has it that in his sleep, the wolves on the other man’s shirt came to life and tore his body to shreds. They never found any part of that man’s body. The Wolf is something to be respected and feared, not treated like a novelty.
Hands down the most inexplicably bizarre game for Wii I’ve ever seen
Yo mama is so attractive she could be on the cover of Prevention.
The inspiration for this project was to determine who could generate the worst flatulence measurable in a personally unbiased manner.
D is unlike any other executive conference. Since its debut in 2003, D has brought to life the energy and excitement of the digital revolution in an unscripted, upfront and unparalleled way. Read more »
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