O’Reilly Media founder Tim O’Reilly wrote a post recently looking at the state of what he calls an “Internet Operating System.” But does such a thing even exist? And if so, what does it look like, how does it function, and what does it mean?
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[digg=http://digg.com/gadgets/The_Quest_For_Smartphone_OS_Marketshare_Infographic]
Infographic by Column Five Media
A Google (s goog) employee expressed his distaste for the way Apple (s aapl) does business in no uncertain terms in a recent blog post. Tim Bray, a co-inventor of XML and a well-known blogger in his own right, is also a Google employee on the Android team, having recently joined following his time at Sun Microsystems (s java).
The blog post at issue, which appeared on his personal blog, details his reasons behind joining Google, which include a passion for the rapid pace of development on the platform and the fact that it’s an open source system. Another reason is that he “hates” the iPhone. Or at least the context in which the iPhone operates. Read More about Google/Apple Feud Gets More Impassioned, Personal
After the rumor-fest surrounding Apple’s mystery device was stanched the moment Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad, a new trend has emerged; SDK Mining. This is the art of digging through the iPad’s operating system to uncover clues about hitherto-undisclosed functionality.
Since the iPad and iPhone SDKs are so very close in core functionality, SDK Miners have been trying to unearth something (anything!) we didn’t already know about the iPad. I suspect most people simply glance over these reports, shrug, and move on without comment. After all, we’re a bit tired of tablet rumors by now, right? But looking at some of the comments in the articles (linked below), there are some people who take it all very seriously indeed. And that’s probably a mistake, as I’ll explain shortly.
Before I do, here’s a quick rundown of what we think we know so far from the SDK Mining that has happened in the last five weeks. Read More about iPad SDK Mining a Big Tease, But Let’s Stay Level-headed
The iPhone is still doing tremendously well, in case all this buzz around Google’s (s goog) new Nexus One had you thinking otherwise. A new report by Google’s own recent acquisition AdMob says as much. The report details smartphone usage globally over the last quarter of 2009, as determined by requests made by devices for ads on AdMob’s extensive mobile advertising network.
Worldwide, the iPhone accounts for more than half of the total overall smartphone usage. It’s worth noting that doesn’t necessarily mean that the iPhone’s actual market share is double that of all other companies combined, only that iPhone owners use their devices much more than the owners of any of its competitors do. Read More about iPhone Dominating Worldwide Smartphone Usage: Report
I’m pretty sure that late January is traditionally that time of the year when the Apple rumor mill starts heating-up in anticipation of the impending iPhone OS update. A young tradition, to be sure, but a tradition nonetheless.
This year, however, the media frenzy around the mythical-but-completely-certainly-probably-real Tablet seems to be getting all the attention — rather like a new born baby stealing the limelight from its three year old sibling.
At least BoyGeniusReport — in the past a reasonably accurate source of information on upcoming iPhone OS updates — hasn’t forgotten the tradition and, even though no one is paying the least bit of attention, they resolutely committed to web-page what they think they now know about iPhone 4.0. Read More about Rumor Has It: iPhone OS 4.0 Details Leaked Early
Google is experiencing some notable customer service issues as it works to increase its presence in mobile. While such hiccups may have been predictable, they’ll need to be addressed as Android begins to get legs with mainstream users.
Windows Mobile, Microsoft’s (s msft) increasingly embarrassing single entrant in the smartphone OS field, can’t seem to hold onto the attention of the world’s consumers. A new survey by market research firm comScore sees Windows Mobile dropping one place in the overall rankings, and Apple’s (s aapl) iPhone gaining one, which puts it ahead of Microsoft.
The iPhone climbs to No. 2 in terms of general smartphone OS market share in the U.S., while Windows Mobile drops to third. Research In Motion’s (s rimm) BlackBerry OS still tops the list, and in fact does so with an impressive gain in customers over the course of 2009, according to a breakdown of the report by DailyTech. Read More about iPhone Passes Windows Mobile in Smartphone OS Market Share
If you’re still running an old Mac PowerBook 550c or something similar, it must be really annoying to not be able to use Twitter via a native client. That’s probably your No. 1 concern, in fact, on your OS 8.1-running machine. You could always use the web interface, but that’s not really a fair solution, is it?
Now, thanks to Grackle68k, Mac users who are still running Macintosh System 6, 7, 8 and 9 can have a dedicated Twitter client of their very own. Personally, I think the release of this app was just timed to steal the spotlight away from Seesmic for Windows. Obviously this is much bigger news! Read More about Anachronistic Twitter Client Released for Classic Macs
When the Mobile World Congress conference happened at the beginning of this year, Fabrizio Capobianco, CEO of Funambol, a mobile application company, described the Android operating system as “a shocking no-show.” Hardly any smartphones there were based on it. That, of course, has radically changed as we approach the end of the year. There is, in fact, so much action surrounding Android on smartphones (GigaOM Pro, subscription required) that its non-phone prospects are being overshadowed. Android has the potential to be disruptive on many types of hardware platforms, and here are four scenarios for what the OS might do beyond phones. Read More about 4 Scenarios for Android, Minus the Phones
