20 Results for Android

What Lies Ahead As Android Phones and the iPhone Square Off in China?

Slowly but surely, Apple has been trying to crack the Chinese market with the iPhone. There have been many obstructions, and China Mobile has already expressed its desire to push Android-based phones, such as Dell's, throughout the country. As MacNewsWorld reported late last week, though, the iPhone's slow boat to China has finally arrived. China Unicom, the second largest wireless provider in China, announced on Friday that it will start carrying iPhones in this year's third quarter. Is there likely to be a smackdown between Android-based phones and the iPhone in China, and how free and open will China's government allow cutting-edge smartphones to be?


Wacky or Not? Three Scenarios for the Future of the Smartphone

Are you old enough to remember black and white TV, vinyl records and 8-track tapes? What about the Pet Rock? If you are old enough, you're acutely aware of how limited and almost laughable old-school technology can seem--even technologies that are not so old in relative terms. The market for smartphones and applications for them is raging, and, whenever I'm out in public I notice how tightly integrated with people's lives their smartphones are.

Open source, is, of course, going to be a huge part of the future of smartphones, and I don't doubt that application contributions from the open source community could shift their future dramatically. This week, I noticed a number of developments that made me think of some seemingly far-out but entirely doable scenarios for the smartphone future. They could make today's phones seem like stripped down novelties, and might even qualify as revolutions.



TV On the Go for Android

As JKOnTheRun notes, SPB Software, well-known for quality Windows Mobile apps, has released its live television app for the Android platform. SPB TV brings over 100 international TV channels to Android devices. There is a free version of the app that offers a restricted selection of channels while the full app is $9.95 in the Android Market. You get an integrated TV guide, a calendar that lets you set reminders to watch shows, the ability to watch multiple shows concurrently, and more. As long as you have Android version 1.5 or better, it will work for you. Check out more here.?


Apple's App Store and Android Market Are Big Businesses

GigaOm has a very interesting report up today on the actual size of the app economies for both the iPhone and Android. There are some fairly shocking data points, which come from mobile advertising startup AdMob, and they illustrate that both Apple's App Store and Android Market are big businesses, with lots of promise. These shockers include: 1) there are some $200 million worth of applications sold in Apple?s iPhone store every month, or about $2.4 billion a year; 2) the Android Market brings in about $5 million a month or $60 million a year; and 3) each month, Android and iPhone users download approximately 10 new apps. I agree with the GigaOm post that the Android numbers will probably rise sharply as many new handsets arrive before the end of this year. It's also interesting to think how big these businesses will be in 10 years. Check out more here.?


Android Phones and Tablets On Tap

JKOnTheRun has a couple of interesting Android-related items up today. First, at the Mobilize 09 conference that GigaOm is putting on on September 10th in San Francisco, Motorola?s co-CEO Sanjay Jha will be launching the company's Android portfolio of smartphones during his keynote. And, yes, the company has a portfolio of Android phones to announce. Second, you can take a look at one of two new Android-based tablet devices that ARCHOS has in the works. It looks to be a touchscreen, video-centric device, and there are several photos of it here. As we've been reporting, Android is really picking up steam.


An Android-Based VoIP Phone

Recently we covered five VoIP (voice-over-IP) applications for Linux, and some of the more unusal types of devices that the Android operating system is headed for. In a play on both the concepts of VoIP and unusual Android devices, a California startup company, Cloud Telecomputers, has a touchscreen, desktop VoIP phone running Android that it is aiming at business users. It runs the open Glass development platform based on Android, and check out this quote from Ed Zander, former CEO of Motorola: In 3 to 5 years, all business phones will look like Glass. That seems a little over the top, but this desktop phone does look interesting.


Android Developer Challenge, Round 2, Open for Submissions

Google developers have announced on the Android Developers blog that the second annual Android Developer Challenge is now accepting submissions. If you're interested in participating, you can submit applications for the Challenge here. There are some hefty cash prizes for the top applications, and all submissions to participate must be entered by 11:59 p.m. Pacific time, August 31, 2009--just a few days from now. Here are more details.


Do We Need New App Stores for Android?

As James Kendrick noted on GigaOm over the weekend, ARCHOS has set a date--September 15th--for the launch of its new ARCHOS 5 Internet Tablet. ARCHOS has made quite a few popular video-centric devices over the years, and this new gadget will have a 5-inch display designed for HD video, a fast chip optimized for video processing, and a 500GB hard drive. In conjunction, though, ARCHOS is also launching AppsLib, a dedicated app store for high-end Android-based devices. Do we really need fragmentation among Android app stores?


Will Android Kill Microsoft's Windows Mobile?

While competition among smartphone operating systems is raging, with the Symbian OS, the BlackBerry OS, the iPhone OS, and Android getting top billing, Windows Mobile is seriously teetering. As GigaOm suggests, Android may very well kill Microsoft's mobile operating system. Mototorola has a huge bet on Android in the works, and appears to have little interest in Windows Mobile, and Microsoft's own top executives are acknowledging mobile missteps. Check out the details here.



Dell Shows Off an Android Smartphone Aimed for China

Could the open source Android operating system possibly find its biggest momentum yet in China? Last week, Telecomasia.net reported on China Mobile's intent to introduce its Ophone smartphone concept this month. The Ophone hardware is made by China-based Lenovo, and runs a version of Android. China Unicom is also preparing to release Apple's iPhone in China in September, but many people believe that Chines users will favor phones based on open source operating systems. Now, as Engadget reports, Dell is ramping up to enter the Chinese smartphone market with its Mini 3i smartphone, running the Android-based Open Mobile System (OMS).


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