Chris Ziegler posted a good look at Chrome for Android on The Verge.
MG Siegler brings up a good point:
Second, it’s only compatible with Ice Cream Sandwich which is currently on — wait for it — 1% of Android devices.
So congrats to those 1%, I guess.
BGR:
Impressive data points from Apple’s record-setting holiday quarter continue to trickle out, and new estimates suggest that the company accounted for a staggering share of mobile profits in the fourth quarter of 2011. Morgan Keegan analyst Tavis McCourt wrote in a research note on Tuesday that Apple took in approximately 50% of all mobile industry revenues last quarter. Even more impressive, the analyst says Apple’s high-margin iPhone lineup accounted for more than 80% of all mobile phone profits. Read on for more.
How can this be if Android is winning?
Vancouver Sun:
Canadian singles who use Android phones are more likely to have sex on a first date and partake in one-night stands, in comparison to those with other types of smartphones, according to a results of a survey.
A new study from research firm Kantar Worldpanel ComTech shows that Apple is growing faster in the smartphone market than Android. [...]
Steve Peterson for Industrygamers: Market research firm IHS iSuppli is projecting that in-app purchases will account for 64% of total app market revenue by 2015, up from 39% in 2011. These percentages reflect the total from both iOS and Android … Continued
MG Siegler:
Holy shit, over 70% of the Android phones sold in the U.S. are now contributing money to Microsoft’s pockets. Microsoft, not Google.
Amazing how much money Microsoft is making from Android.
MG Siegler on what he hates about Android:
But I cannot respect their decision to continue to work on this platform that perpetuates our imprisonment. I have to believe most simply chose not to think about these things. But they should. They really should.
MG goes through some of the history of Android and why he really dislikes some of the things that Google does.
Apple makes products that people want. Unlike their competition, they also make products that work and last. Evidence of this is in the latest ChangeWave customer satisfaction survey results. [...]
Last week, I bought an iPhone 4S. I hadn’t planned on buying one, but my upgrade became available eight months ahead of schedule, and I couldn’t help myself.
When I learned that my upgrade was available, my mind didn’t stop for a moment to consider an Android or Windows Phone device, I simply went straight to the Apple Store and bought a 4S.
Matt Alexander:
Rather than building the best device for the user, manufacturers are intent on differentiating themselves from increasingly similar products. Absurd product names, enormous screens, and LTE connections cannot, and will not, disguise the fact that all of these devices are running the same operating system and have largely similar internals.
BOOM!
And Gruber nails it again.
When Google released its iOS Gmail app, I argued that it was a woefully missed opportunity for the software giant. With Gmail for iOS, Google had a unique chance to impress iOS users with a well-designed app for a widely used service. Instead, as we all know, Google released a pathetic implementation reliant on UIWebView, and squandered a phenomenal Trojan Horse moment.
In stark contrast to Google’s well-publicized folly, Microsoft is doing everything it can to impress iOS users.
Elizabeth Woyke for Forbes: This was particularly true of BlackBerry users. More than half (53%) of survey respondents who identified themselves as BlackBerry users said they would like an iPad if they were to buy a tablet. A much smaller … Continued
Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) is ready! No, not really.
Google is done with Ice Cream Sandwich, but the process of getting it to customers is far from over. Having Google release the source code is just the first step in the process — now the real work for handset makers begins.
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes takes a look at six glaring problems with the Andorid ecosystem in a new ZDNet article entitled Six Android issues that Google doesn’t want to address. Among the problems he lists are how most Android handsets now in … Continued
Google’s Eric Schmidt:
“Developers will finally start focusing on Android first instead of iOS in the next half a year, Google chairman Eric Schmidt said in his presentation at the Le Web conference Friday.”
Sure they will, Eric.
Jean-Louis Gassée: Back to Facebook. Both Google and Zuckerberg’s company vie for the same advertising dollars. This makes Google Facebook’s biggest, most direct competitor. The Trojan Horse applications on Android-powered smartphones are a direct threat to Facebook’s advertising business. Just … Continued
The Register: Computer scientists have discovered a weakness in smartphones running Google’s Android operating system that allows attackers to secretly record phone conversations, monitor geographic location data, and access other sensitive resources without permission. Well now, there’s a feature the … Continued
Electronista: Dell on Monday confirmed that it had stopped selling the Streak 7. The tablet is no longer available online and is withdrawing just months after Dell axed the Streak 5. In a statement, it said it would still be … Continued
Samsung’s new ad for its Galaxy S II phone makes fun of iPhone customers.
A new report from NPD shows HP’s discontinued TouchPad outsold Samsung’s still-available Galaxy Tab.
Farhad Manjoo is impressed by some of Android 4.0′s features, but less so by its maddening lack of user interface consistency.
Apple controls about 85-90 percent of the money spent on mobile applications, according to a research note from an analyst on Monday. In the note to clients, Piper Jaffray Senior Research Analyst, Gene Munster said he believes Google’s Android Market … Continued
A new study from anti-virus software maker McAfee shows that almost all of the malware available for mobile devices is on the Android platform, not iOS.
Alan Shimel:
B&N claims that all of these are “trivial” and “insignificant” in terms of Android’s use. They claim Microsoft is using these patents for minor functionality to hold Android hostage. It is not just licensing fee’s either, though they claim is Microsoft is recieving anywere from $5 dollars to $15 dollars or more per copy of Android sold (which is equal to or more thanwhat they charge for Windows Mobile licenses). Barnes & Nobles claims that along with paying the blood money Microsoft demands, Microsoft also makes license holders sign an “oppressive” agreement which gives Microsoft say over future hardware and software configurations and innovations. This according to B&N is to ensure that they keep Android from advancing too far, too fast for Microsoft to keep up. That is in many ways worse than the licensing fees. Microsoft wants to control future Android development and innovation. Positively evil.
Android is definitely winning… the race for the most malware, that is.
According to a new study from the Juniper Global Threat Center, malware on Android rose an incredible 472% since July 2011. That’s only a few months.
BGR:
Following a meeting with the pair of Apple chief officers, Reitzes delivered a note to investors suggesting that the company sees Amazon’s forthcoming tablet as good news for the iPad. The Kindle Fire’s low price point makes it accessible, but Apple believes it further fragments the Android ecosystem, which may cause consumers to flee to the iPad.
This is just what I said back in September. Kindle Fire will be successful, but it’s not an iPad killer.
Reuters: Costly hardware failures are more common on Android devices than on Apple Inc iPhones and Research In Motion Inc BlackBerry phones, which have strict control over the components used in their devices, WDS data showed. You get what you … Continued
Michael DeGusta:
I went back and found every Android phone shipped in the United States1 up through the middle of last year. I then tracked down every update that was released for each device – be it a major OS upgrade or a minor support patch – as well as prices and release & discontinuation dates. I compared these dates & versions to the currently shipping version of Android at the time. The resulting picture isn’t pretty – well, not for Android users:
Wow. That’s all I got for that one.
Good technology on Thursday released a report comparing activations of Apple products to Android-based devices. Among its customers, Apple is still in the lead. The report, which focuses on the third quarter of 2011, counts thousands of enterprise and public … Continued