It’s long been assumed that Google would not be releasing their own phone using the Android platform, but PDAStreet has found evidence to the contrary.
An anonymous source told PBS commentator Robert X. Cringley that Google would be releasing two branded phones: a high-end smartphone and a more traditional mobile phone, both running on the Linux-based Android. According to Cringley’s source, the smartphone will look similar to a BlackBerry, bet featuring a flip-up screen that hides a keyboard. Wi-Fi will be included on both phones, and Google is in talks with Version and T-Mobile about carrying the phones, which Samsung will be building. The smartphone is scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year at an unnamed price, and the mobile phone will hit in 2009 for something less than $100.
Google promised, when Android was first announced, that they would not be releasing a branded phone, so this remains very firmly in the rumor category. Still, it is a very interesting rumor, if true.
Another from the guys at BlackBerry Cool: A survey by Bplay-creator Magmic Games has revealed some interesting numbers about smartphone gamers.
90% of respondents found gaming on a smartphone to be a better experience than on a regular mobile phone, and 91% cited the larger screen, easier control, and easier downloads as reasons why they wouldn’t switch back. A little more than half played more games on their smartphone than on their PC, console, or other medium. 65% purchase at least one game or other type of content (theme, music, etc.) every three months, and 60% said they preferred puzzle games like tetris or sudoku over other genres.
Certainly some interesting numbers to crunch, although I hope we don’t see a rash of tetris-themed games and themes and music and so on (there are more than enough already).
There’s a rumor floating around that Microsoft ponied up as much as $500 million to purchase Danger, the company that makes Sidekicks.
The purchase originally happened just a couple days ago, and now IntoMobile has gotten word via GigaOm that the software giant might have paid a cool half a billion dollars for Danger. The general thought is that Microsoft was willing to give up that much cash in order to leverage their search, mail, and instant messaging solutions on the Sidekick platform.
There has been nothing official from either company on the price, so this remains a rumor for now — although the actual purchase is completely legit.
The team at IntoMobile found some information on an interesting new technology to send large files.
If your phone has Bluetooth functionality and a Wi-Fi antenna some to-be-released new firmware will allow Bluetooth to momentarily make use of Wi-Fi signals to greatly speed the file transfer.
The new technology is scheduled for release some time in mid-2009.
Our friends at BlackBerry Cool got the scoop on another report that looks at the present and future of smartphones.
The report from ChangeWave shows Apple’s large lead, with 17% of mobile phone users polled saying they plan to buy an iPhone in the next six months and 16% planning on buying a BlackBerry. Motorola has continued their downward plunge, with 11% of users planning on buying one of them in the next six months compared to over 30% in July of ‘06.
Apple again topped the charts with 72% customer satisfaction, followed by RIM with 55%. Most other manufacturers hovered in the mid-30s, and Palm sat dead last with only 30% satisfaction.
The gang at PalmInfocenter posted the results of a smartphone usage report by Canayls, which shows off the strong growth of smartphones in 2007.
The report compared market share between some of the bigger players in the smartphone industry. Total shipments grew almost 72% just in the 4th quarter of 2007, from 20 million units to over 35 million. RIM was the leader in growth, shipping 121% more units than in the preview quarter. Newcomer Apple shipped 2.3 million units, beating veteran player Motorola by only around 20,000 units.
Unsurprisingly, Nokia was the strong leader, shipping nearly 19 million units.
The gang at Brighthand have posted a review of Skyfire, the new PC-like web browser that was announced last week.
At the very beginning, reviewer Ed Hardy calls it “the best web browser for Windows Mobile” he’s ever seen. He goes on to discuss the features of the browser — such as Web 2.0 features like Ajax and Flash; thumbnail and zoom view; SmartFit, which automatically resizes text to fit in your phone’s display; and much more — in exacting detail. He also talks about some of its flaws:
As impressed as I am with Skyfire, I’m not blind to its flaws. However, the vast majority of these I chalk up it currently being a beta.
For example, I watched a long clip on YouTube, and after a few minutes the audio and video were slightly out of sync. The application also crashed on me once while I was activating SmartFit. But these are the sort of things I consider “teething pains”, and will likely be cleared up before the full version is available.
All in all, it sounds like quite a browser, and something to look out for.
Our friends at BlackBerry Cool reported that an outage on AT&T’s EDGE and 3G services occurred today from around 8AM until at least 6PM EST for some areas. A forum user at PDAStreet claims to have spoken to an AT&T representative who said that the outage should be repaired tonight but might last until February 5th.
There’s not a whole lot of data yet, but BB Cool will be speaking tomorrow with folks from Zenprise about the outage, and we’ll post any new information as it comes in.
A new report on Business Wire suggests that smartphones will capture 22% of the mobile market in Asia by the end of this year.
A company named Research and Markets compiled the report, which lists 5 “hot topics” for mobile operators and manufacturers this year. Beyond the predicted rise to 22% in the Asian market, the author says that competition in the OS sector will increase and Mobile Linux will be on the rise; that UI innovation will increase dramatically, and even that smartphone companies will merge with UI companies to get an edge on the competition; that touch screens will be used on more and more phones; and that GPS and and Location Based Services based GPS will be the next “killer app” for the mobile market.