Android and iOS dominate smartphone market with 91 percent control

It’s official: the smartphone marketplace is a duopoly. Chances are, if you own a smartphone, your device’s operating system is either Android or iOS. Combined, The Register reports that the two operating systems accounted for 91.1 percent of all smartphone sales after 2012’s fourth quarter, according to analysts at International Data Corporation.

Apple fans will be upset to know that the bulk of that dominance belongs to Android, which topped out at nearly 69 percent of all smartphone sales. (To put it into perspective, there were nearly 500 million Android-powered smartphones sold in 2012, versus the 136 million Apple devices sold, giving them nearly 19 percent of the smartphone market.)

Sales of iOS-powered smartphones were highest in the Western markets, and the increased numbers are largely accredited to the lowered prices of the iPhone 4 or 4S after the introduction of iPhone 5. (We should also mention, the excitement over the release of the iPhone 5 also brought in record sales.)

In comparison, Blackberry device sales plummeted more than 36 percent last year. It’s no surprise, considering how long it took for the company to step up its game and catch up with the innovations that have made Android and iOS so popular. BlackBerry 10 was only unveiled a few couple weeks ago.

But Microsoft phones are still at the bottom of the totem pole, accounting for just 2.5 percent of smartphone sales.

It’s tough to say whether or not there’s a chance for any of the current companies to make any headway in the market, but for the time being, if you’re looking to buy a new smartphone, chances are the device you’ll choose will be powered by either Android or iOS – the Windows and Mac, or Pepsi and Coke, of the smartphone market.

Read complete at digitaltrends.com

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Google Play gaining on iTunes App Store in race for most apps available

The war between Apple and Android wages on, and now the battlefield is the online app market. Google Play, the marketplace for Android devices, has always trailed the App Store in number of offerings, even though it launched just three months after the Apple resource. The App Store has 700,000 products up for sale, according to Apple's iPhone 5 presentation on September 12. But Google Play is nearing that total with 675,000 apps available. The platform also passed 25 billion downloads yesterday and held a major sale in honor of the milestone, with several top apps still available for just 25 cents.

While the number of available apps for each operating system is drawing even, there are still major differences in how each store works. Apple requires an approval process before an app can go up for sale on iTunes, but Google Play has no such vetting procedure. There's an up and a down side to that. It means that Apple went without any spam appearing on its store for five years, and the first malware app popped up on the system just this summer. So although there have been complaints that Apple is inconsistent and overly conservative in the content it approves, you're all but guaranteed a safe app when using Apple.

Google Play has a lot more opportunity for developers, but does require a little more effort for shoppers. If you own an Android device, you'll want to research an app's safety and usability before buying. We have a comprehensive guide that can help you track down great Android apps that will best fit your needs.

[Image credit: LAI Ryanne]

This article was written by Anna Washenko and originally appeared on Tecca

iPhone closes in on Android in growing U.S. smartphone market

As of February, smartphone users accounted for nearly half of all wireless subscribers in the U.S., and Apple's iPhone adoption rate saw growth while Android handset activations slipped.


According to new data from Nielsen published on Thursday, sales of Apple's iPhone accounted for 43 percent of all new smartphone purchases over the past three months, a 6 percent increase from the period ending in December, while Android's share fell nearly 4 percent to cover 48 percent of activations.


Riding on strong iPhone 4S sales, Apple's iOS is slowly closing the gap with Google's Android OS and now accounts for 32 percent of all smartphones. The iPhone isn't eating into Android's market, however, and is instead picking up deserters from RIM's sinking BlackBerry platform. 


Android remained top dog and took 48 percent of the smartphone market, while RIM accounted for a 12 percent share. Other devices like Windows Phone and Symbian filled out the list with an 8 percent stake.


The smartphone market as a whole took 49.7 percent of all mobile subscribers, a 38 percent increase form the same time last year when feature phones dominated the landscape.

During the three months ending in February, more than two-thirds of those who purchased a new mobile device opted for a smartphone.

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iPad 3 vs. Android Tablets at Mobile World Congress

After the 2012 Mobile World Congress wraps up in Barcelona, Spain, this week, the mobile world’s attention will turn to San Francisco, where Apple is likely to announce the iPad 3 March 7. While the iPad 3 isn’t really a product yet, at least in theory, it’s clear that the rest of the tablet industry is already trying to scramble out of the way so that their devices don’t get crushed in the onslaught.


Although Apple isn’t even at MWC, it’s still the 1,000-pound gorilla in the room.


This means that tablet manufacturers have been looking desperately for some way to appear to be different from the iPad.


Asus is an excellent example.


Instead of slugging it out with Apple in an ill-conceived struggle that it’ll never win, Asus has come up with the Padfone. This is a tablet with an embedded smartphone. The 4.3-inch phone acts as the tablet’s brains, while the tablet is really just a docking station and display for the phone. Both devices run Android 4.0—or Ice Cream Sandwich—and there’s a Bluetooth accessory that lets you answer the phone while it’s inside the tablet.


But that’s not all that’s happening at Asus. The company has also launched new models of its Transformer Pad, which lets you convert a tablet into a laptop. This is similar to what Hewlett-Packard started doing a decade ago with a series of Microsoft Windows-based tablet computers that in various configurations had either a foldaway keyboard or a removable keyboard that allowed the tablet to operate independently. The biggest difference between then and now is that the new Asus tablets use Android rather than Windows, and it reflects current practice in tablet design.


HP, meanwhile, still makes those tablets, along with a similar Slate Tablet.


Adding to the mix is something called the “super phone,” or “phablet.”


Appearing at first to be a mild-mannered Samsung Galaxy, the illusion vanishes as you approach it. This phone has a 5.3-inch screen, and recognizing its size takes away from its usefulness as a phone, Samsung has decided to call it the Galaxy Note. The big screen lends itself to note taking (thus, the name) and in a back-to-the-future change, the Galaxy Note includes an active stylus, something that other tablet makers, such as HTC, are also starting to use with their smaller tablets.


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Tablet War: Can Google’s Android Tablets Overtake Apple’s iPad?

With Apple planning to launch the highly anticipated iPad 3 as early as February of 2012, Google appears to be planning on launching a competing device in the near future. In a recent interview with an Italian newspaper, Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt said; “In the next six months, we plan to market a tablet of the highest quality.”

Although Schmidt is normally talkative and eager to discuss Google’s future plans, he was uncharacteristically quiet regarding the details of the future tablet. However, many people are interpreting his statement that the tablet will be of the “highest quality” to imply it will compete directly with Apple’s new iPad 3.

The new iPad 3 is expected to be a much more technologically advanced model than the iPad 2 and experts are predicting it will include a high-end quad-core processor and a high-resolution screen display of 2048 x 1536 (similar to the Retina display in the current iPhone). In addition, Apple has been rumored to be considering producing a smaller version of the iPad with a screen size of 7.85 inches.

Read complete at SearchEngineJournal.com

Android: Could 700,000 Daily Activations Be Just the Start?

On Tuesday night, Android chief Andy Rubin noted that Google is now seeing 700,000 daily activations of new devices using its operating system.


That’s up from a 550,000 activations-per-day figure touted in July and the 300,000 per day figure mentioned a year ago.


But that could be just the start. Appitalism CEO Scott Buckingham predicts that by the end of next year daily activations could reach an astronomical 2.5 million per day — a run rate of more than 900 million a year.


“My view is it is just going to accelerate,” Buckingham said in an interview. While he acknowledged that is a pretty aggressive target, he maintains it is achievable given the momentum behind the operating system and its expansion into emerging markets and to other devices, including tablets and televisions.


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