Android This Week: Google’s Phone Gets Buzz; Who Will Sell Sony Ericsson’s?

Substantial buzz continues to surround Google’s Nexus One Android phone. This week specifications came out for it, and they do make it look like the most powerful Android handset yet, although predictions about it being hugely disruptive seem overblown. One big question being asked about this phone is whether Google Voice, Google Talk and other services could enable people to use it without cellular plans. Meanwhile, check out this video walkthrough of the phone.

Also this week, Mplayit launched its Facebook-centric take on how to get Android apps — akin to an app store. It’s designed to make Android apps more discoverable than they are on Android Market, and includes social sharing features.

Plus, the FCC recently approved two versions of Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X10 Android-based phone — one for AT&T and one for T-Mobile. Who will actually sell it though? Neither company has confirmed plans to sell the device, as InformationWeek notes this week. The first quarter of next year is when we’ll know for sure.

Meanwhile, lots of people welcomed the Android version of Buzzd, the social city and nightlife mobile app. It culls data from Twitter and shows graphical views of which locations in a given area are being talked about. And those hungry for new Android apps will also want to check out NPR’s new offering. It uses open-source code and an open API that will allow developers and NPR stations to iterate and improve the app in the future. Good idea.

http://gigaom.com/2009/12/26/android-this-week-googles-phone-gets-buzz-who-will-sell-sony-ericssons/

Android, iPhone & the Freelance Nation

There’s no question that 2010 is going to be a big year for Google’s Android operating system, which means it’s also going to be competing with Apple’s iPhone for developer attention next year. Apple’s iPhone ecosystem so far has an advantage. Google has some teething problems it needs to resolve..

The competition between these two ecosystems is what prompted me to ask Menlo Park, Calif.-based startup oDesk for a historical comparison of the number of iPhone and Android jobs listed on its marketplace. oDesk is a marketplace that connects freelance developers (and others) with those with jobs for them. I thought it could be a rough indicator of developer interest in the two platforms. oDesk obliged. According to its data, there’s been a slight uptick in the number of Android jobs. iPhone seems to be holding its own. Another data point to note: There are 2,071 iPhone developers listed on oDesk vs. 624 Android developers.

http://gigaom.com/2009/12/26/android-iphone-odesk/

For Apple, a Holly Jolly Christmas

Apple, it seems, had a very nice Christmas — thanks to booming sales of its iPod touch. Apple’s App Store saw a a sharp spike in downloads during the month of December, according to results of a study conducted by Flurry Media, a San Francisco-based mobile analytics company. In 2008, when Apple’s App Store saw similar spikes during the holiday season, the company later reported strong sales of its two flagship products, the iPhone and iPod touch.

The iPod touch, in particular, seems to be enjoying strong sales this year. According to Amazon.com, the 8GB version of the iPhone was one of the best-selling devices during the 2009 holiday season and “Amazon customers bought enough 8GB iPod touches to play 442 years of continuous music.” Flurry’s data offers more anecdotal information about the hotness of the iPod touch.

• App downloads on the iPod touch soared past the iPhone for the first time.
• iPod touch 3G downloads increased by more than 900 percent on Christmas Day vs. the average of all previous Fridays in December.
• Total iPod touch downloads (all generations) jumped by over 1,000 percent on Christmas Day.
• iTunes gift card giving may have driven downloads to older-generation iPod touch devices.

The strong sales of the iPod touch reaffirm my longstanding belief that it’s a critical weapon in Apple’s battle against its smartphone rivals including Google. Here are some of our previous posts that you might enjoy:

• All Hail the iPod Touch
• Is the iPod Touch a Bigger Game Changer Than the iPhone?
• Is iPhone the New Gaming Platform?
• With iPod Touch (& iPhone) Apple Will Rule the Mobile Web
• http://gigaom.com/2009/12/28/for-apple-a-holly-jolly-christmas/

Mobile Web's Explosive Growth

Mobile ad firm AdMob has revealed the dramatic changes the mobile industry has seen in their latest Mobile Metrics Report, released just this morning. Believe it or not, it was only a year ago that the Motorola RAZR scored as the number one phone here in the U.S. while the iPhone was the only touchscreen device to even make the list of top ten handsets.
Only a year later, and so much has changed. Now half of the top ten are touchscreen devices, six include Wi-Fi capabilities, and six have mobile application stores. And as you would expect, this new crop of super-powered phones are making heavy use of the mobile web.

Key Takeaway #1: iPhone Still the Top Smartphone Worldwide and Has Traffic to Prove It

Among the devices making the heaviest use of the mobile web are the iPhone and its non-smartphone counterpart, the iPod Touch. The data traffic created by these two handhelds has increased 19 times from September 2008 to this past month and now accounts for 43% of all smartphone requests worldwide. In the U.S., that percentage is even slightly higher, with iPhone traffic accounting for nearly half (48%) of all smartphone requests.

Apple devices (iPhone and iPod Touch) also claim the top two spots on both the U.S. and the worldwide charts of top handsets. However, feature phones like the RAZR v3 and Samsung's R450 are still making the top ten list as well and account for 60% of ad requests in the U.S. - a figure that's likely due to the unlimited data plans available with each of these devices.

Key Takeaway #2: Watch Out! Android is Rising Fast

Now climbing up the charts, Google's Android, the newcomer to the mobile operating system game, is beginning to have an impact on mobile web traffic as well. From August to September of 2009, the percentage of smartphone traffic generated by devices running the Android OS grew a whopping 13% over the course of the month. That's a dramatic increase in such a short period of time and gives credence to recent reports that Android is poised to become the number two smartphone in the worldwide market. While still far behind the iPhone OS in terms of traffic with only 17% of U.S. traffic and only 10% of traffic worldwide, Google's mobile OS is already beating out competitors like RIM, the maker of Blackberry devices, and Windows Mobile. It has also claimed two spots on the top 10 chart of handset models in the U.S with the HTC Dream coming in at number 3 and the HTC Magic coming in at number 10. Worldwide, the Dream is also number 3, but the Magic only makes it to spot number 15.

Key Takeaway #3: Outside of U.S., Mobile Web Strong in India, Indonesia, U.K., Philippines

When looking at the number of ad requests by country, the U.S. is still dominating with 47.3% of all requests coming from the States. The next nearest country, India, only comes in at 6.5%. Rounding out the top five are Indonesia, the U.K., and the Philippines. These numbers point to heavy mobile web use in each of these countries as compared with the rest of the world.

When grouped by larger regions, North America is number one with 49.5% of requests, most of that from the U.S., and the second largest region is Asia, accounting for 25.3% of requests. Western Europe, Africa, and Latin America follow with 9.4%, 5.3% and 5.0% respectively.

Looking at just percentage increases in traffic growth, a different picture appears. Latin America is showing a large percent increase year-over-year at 0.6%, second only to North America's 1.1%. Other regions in the top five, while still accounting for large numbers of requests, actually saw slight decreases in growth (less than 0.5%) over the past year.

Smartphones are Taking Over, Mobile Web Grows

While none of the data included in this report is all that surprising, it's interesting to see actual numbers put to the reported trends. We can now see the disproportionate amount of web surfing done by iPhone users, no doubt thanks to the phone's Safari web browser, a vast improvement over the browsers included in many other mobile devices on the market.

It's also worth noting how fast Android is moving up the charts right now. It could very well be the next contender to the smartphone crown, especially given the company's plans to continue spreading its OS across numerous devices worldwide. As Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently declared, "Android adoption is about to explode." Also, AdMob noted on an earlier blog entry that there are already 12 Android phones available through 32 carriers in 26 countries. By the time they release their next Mobile Metrics report, those numbers are sure to have increased.

What all this means to the consumer is that smartphones are now edging out feature phones as the devices of choice. More phones than ever come with the advanced capabilities like touchscreens, full-featured web browsers, and Wi-Fi. With features like these, more people will begin to surf the mobile web and download mobile applications. This, in turn, will drive related changes in mobile platforms, communication, e-Commerce, and more, all of which are bound to see similar upward trends over the coming months.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/admob_reports_on_mobile_webs_explosive_growth.php

Apple Will Soon Overtake RIM in Consumer Smartphone Market

A new report by ChangeWave Research provides yet more evidence of the surge in consumer interest in smartphones; and of Apple's iPhone in particular. Last week we reported statistics from AdMob stating that smartphones are now edging out feature phones as the device of choice for consumers. In the race for the highly lucrative consumer smartphone market, blackberry devices still hold the lead over iPhone - but ChangeWave's data shows that the gap is rapidly closing.

We predict that it won't be long until Apple overtakes RIM as the leader in this hotly contested (and vitally important, in context of the Web's shift from PC to phones) market.

RIM's market share is creeping down, while Apple's surges up. ChangeWave puts RIM at 40% of market share, but Apple is now just 10% points behind at 30%. This was mainly due to the iPhone 3GS release, which saw Apple gain 5% since June. Meanwhile Palm's fortunes continue to sag - they're at a dismal 7% according to this report.

39% of the 4,255 people polled by ChangeWave Research said that they own a smartphone. This is an increase of 2% since June and nearly double the level of two years ago. 11.6% now say they plan on buying a smartphone in the next 90 days.

AdMob's report was particularly bullish on Apple, reporting that iPhone traffic now accounts for nearly half (48%) of all smartphone requests in the United States. The ChangeWave report adds some much-needed context into smartphone statistics, by reporting that RIM - the makers of the blackberry - remains the market leader in terms of number of devices.

More people are undoubtedly using the iPhone to surf the Mobile Web, but more people still own a blackberry device.

Perhaps the most telling statistic in the ChangeWave report, also happens to be the most qualitative. 74% of the iPhone owners that ChangeWave polled reported that they're "Very Satisfied" with their iPhone. Less than half of RIM device owners said that.

Given what these latest AdMob and ChangeWave reports found, it's clear that smartphones are poised to hit the mainstream in a big way in 2010 and beyond.

AdMob had reported that of the top 10 mobile phones in the US currently, half are touchscreen, 6 have Wi-Fi capability and 6 have mobile app stores. Apple's iPhone led the way on all of those fronts. Android, RIM and the likes of Nokia are all putting out similar smartphone devices now.

RIM still holds sway over the workplace, but Apple definitely has the momentum in the consumer market.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/apple_rim_consumer_smartphone_market.php

Droid Becomes Fastest-Selling Android Phone to Date?

The Motorola Droid is the newest smartphone on the market to compete for the iPhone's crown. Released by Verizon Wireless on November 6th, the Droid's advertising campaign has been a full-frontal attack on the popular Apple smartphone with a heavy focus on what the iPhone doesn't do. "iDon't run simultaneous apps, iDon't have a real keyboard, iDon't take 5-megapixel pictures," taunts Verizon's Droid ad.

But did the message get through to potential phone buyers? It appears that it did...at least according to mobile analytics firm Flurry. In their latest report, the company found that the Droid is now the fastest-selling Android phone to date, beating the sales of the myTouch 3G by more than four times.

Droid Sales Look Good

Flurry's analytics service monitors over 10,000 mobile applications on both the iPhone and Android, or approximately two out of every three iPhone and Android handsets on the market. While obviously this isn't a look at the mobile ecosystem as a whole, it's a big enough slice to form some initial conclusions about the popularity of the latest mobile device to run Android, Google's mobile operating system.

By monitoring the new Android devices on Flurry's system, the company estimated the first-week sales for the Droid handsets as compared with both the myTouch 3G and Apple's iPhone 3GS. Although the iPhone still outsold the Droid within its first week, Flurry notes that the iPhone simultaneously launched in 8 countries worldwide while the Droid only launched in the U.S.

It's also important to note that the iPhone 3GS was just the latest model of the iPhone to arrive on the market, it is not the original device. Prior to the 3GS, the iPhone had two previous versions, the second which finally allowed for 3G cellular access and GPS capabilities. This update made the iPhone 3G a hugely popular upgrade and the company sold 1 million or so units on their opening weekend. Comparing the third generation iPhone to the first version of the Droid isn't a true "apples to apples" comparison, but on the other hand, the comparison of the T-Mobile myTouch 3G and the Droid is.

According to Flurry, Droid is dramatically outselling the myTouch 3G based on first week sales. That may say something about the quality of the Droid's hardware, the impact of a good marketing campaign or perhaps even people's frustrations with the iPhone's limitations. Or maybe a little of each. Then again, Verizon has nearly triple the number of subscribers as T-Mobile, so they already have a head start.

The Growing Power of Android

In the end, while we can't take any of these numbers to the bank, what we can learn is that the Android OS is making serious headway in the smartphone market. Although no one Android phone on its own may beat the iPhone, as more and more "worthy competitors" launch on numerous hardware platforms, the Android OS's install base may eventually catch up to that of the iPhone's.

In any event, that's what Google believes. In a recent earnings call, Google CEO Eric Schmidt proclaimed that "Android adoption is about to explode," citing 12 Android phones on 32 carriers in 26 countries. Research firm Gartner predicts that the Android OS may end up ranking second worldwide by 2012. However, if more of the Android launches prove to be as successful as it appears the Droid's may be, Android may move up the charts even faster than predicted. Of course, who ends up on top all depends on Apple's next move. If the company decides to launch their phone on more carriers, all bets are off. If that's the case, Apple's market share could double, says Morgan Stanley's Kathryn Huberty. But that doesn't necessarily mean that Android would be left far behind. "Android is "backed by the power of Google's search engine," said Huberty. "Google's other up-and-coming consumer and enterprise products should make [Android] a dominant platform."

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/droid_becomes_fastest-selling_android_phone_to_date.php

Morgan Stanley: Mobile Internet Market Will Be Twice The Size of Desktop Internet -two