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Chart: Android owns two-thirds of smartphone sales – or does it?

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 18, 2016

Some intriguing numbers were released Monday on how one research firm views the smartphone race between iOS and Android. According to Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, Google's Android averages a 64 percent unit share of the smartphone market across ten countries.

Apple leads in Japan while Android's doing its best in Spain, where the mobile software owns an astounding 93 percent of the smartphone market.

In the U.S., the race is much tighter, with Android holding 49.3 percent and Apple owning 43.7 percent of the domestic market. But the rivals might be even closer as observers question how accurate Kantar is, given recent iPhone sales reports by U.S. carriers...

Apple acquires several new imaging patents from Kodak deal

Cody Lee ∙ April 30, 2013

Earlier this year, Kodak completed the sale of more than 1,000 digital imaging patents in an effort to help restructure the company after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It wanted $2 billion for the portfolio, but only garnered $500 million from a group of companies.

That consortium consisted of several tech giants, including Google and Apple. And according to a new report, their names are starting to turn up on transfer filings with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, meaning Kodak's patents are changing hands...

Windows Phone ad sees iPhone and Android owners trading insults at wedding

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 22, 2017

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z19vR1GldRI

Despite the massive marketing blitz, Microsoft's Windows Phone platform has managed to regain but a fraction of market share lost to iOS and Android in years past. Figuring it could take a page from Samsung's marketing handbook, Microsoft on Monday published on its YouTube channel a new Windows Phone commercial which takes a mandatory jab at Apple's iPhone and its Siri digital personal assistant while also poking fun of Gorilla-sized Android devices from Samsung. The funny ad is aimed at boosting Microsoft's and Nokia's stagnant sales of Lumia handsets in the United States...

If Apple loyalty holds up, iPhone will surpass Android in U.S. market share by 2015

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

Whenever I stumble upon a survey predicting that Apple's iPhone will loose traction to not just Android, but Windows Phone as well, my blood starts to boil in my veins.

And just like clockwork, you can count on the likes of IDC and Gartner to come out of the woodwork every now and then with wild predictions of the iPhone's demise by 2015, 2016 or 2017.

History has taught me to take such long-term predictions with a healthy dose of skepticism, even more so if data comes from big name firms whose crystal ball peering is based on "polls" that sample a few hundred random people, at best.

With that in mind, here's a survey that paints a rather rosy future for the Apple smartphone. Noting that Android is actually losing one out of every six customers to other phone vendors, Yankee Group ran their spreadsheets and determined that Apple will surpass Android in U.S. market share by 2015, provided Apple brand loyalty numbers hold up in the coming years...

A first: smartphone shipments outnumber feature phones

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated February 28, 2017

For some time, the mobile phone industry has been shifting toward more powerful smartphones and away from basic mobile phones. Now comes word that smartphones outnumber feature phones for the first time. The line was crossed in the first quarter of 2013 with 216.1 million smartphones shipping, accounting for 51.6 percent of all handsets sold. Smartphone shipments grew 41.6 percent during the quarter, up from 152.7 million units shipped during the same period in 2012, one industry research firm announced Thursday...

Behind the numbers: iPad market share falls but usage belies Android gains

Ed Sutherland ∙ April 25, 2013

Let the post-mortem begin. It is a ritual on Wall Street: forecast Apple's quarterly numbers, then afterwards dissect the data the iPad maker releases. And once more, the coverage conflates shipment with usage to determine the status of Apple or Android.

Although Apple Tuesday announced selling 19.5 million iPads during the first quarter of 2013 - an improvement from 11.8 million tablets sold during the same three-month period in 2012 - the focus Wednesday was on the iPad shedding market share to Android. But do unit sales trump actual usage?

Comex getting ready to intern at Google

Sébastien Page ∙ April 24, 2013

If there is someone in the hacking community that is filling up his resume with some of the top tech companies, that would be Nicholas Allegra, aka Comex. Although he hasn't been really active in the iOS community since he released JailbreakMe 3.0, the young hacker hasn't been resting on his laurels either.

After carrying out an internship for Apple in 2011 (which was terminated in October 2012), Comex has now announced on Twitter that he is going to intern at Google...

Chitika: iPad usage kept rising in March

Ed Sutherland ∙ April 24, 2013

One day after Apple announced selling 19.5 million iPads during the second quarter, new numbers show the tablet dominated online traffic as late as last month. The device held the market in a stranglehold, controlling 81.9 percent of tablet web traffic in the US and Canada, according to an online advertising network. According to the Chitika Ad Network, the 1.4 percent increase is the first month-on-month advance in the iPad's share of web traffic since December 2012....

Companies still deploying iOS first as Android remains MIA online

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 11, 2018

You would think, given Android's raw numerical advantage, that app developers would first build for the larger market. However, Apple's iOS appears to offer companies other, more valuable qualities. Indeed, one need only look to last Friday, when Twitter unveiled its #music service - available initially only to iOS users. Another iOS exclusive, Twitter's Vine, has yet to hit the Android platform.

Key to why companies are still developing apps first for iOS are findings that Apple's mobile software is both used more often and the users are more loyal to the apps they download. What is Android's response: change how such things are measured....

ITC drops Motorola’s complaint against Apple over proximity sensor patent

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 23, 2013

Apple's patent troubles with the struggling handset maker has largely been viewed as a proxy fight with Google, which acquired Motorola Mobility along with its vast patent portfolio in August 2011 for $12.5 billion. Two and a half years ago Motorola asserted its proximity sensor patent against Apple. Monday, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) threw Motorola's complaint out of the window, invalidating Motorola's patent because it's too obvious. That's good news for Apple as Google was hoping to leverage that patent to seek an import ban against iPhones...

Google launches new ‘Places for Business’ app for managing business listings

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 22, 2018

Good news for all of you local business owners out there today. Google has just released a new application called 'Google Places for Business' that should make managing business listings through its different services much easier.

The app allows business owners to update their business information (hours, address, contact info, description, etc.), as well as post pictures to their Google+ page and track web traffic for their listings right from their iPhone...

Google’s new Babel chat platform includes ‘first class iOS experience’

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 9, 2016

More details are trickling in on what to expect of Google's upcoming unified messaging platform called Babel. Google's internal documentation and code snippets discovered Wednesday indicate the Babel thing will support media transfers during chat sessions and group chatting ability. More importantly, the service will be available as a native app on both Apple's iOS and Google's own Android platform.

Of course, Babel is also going to be available on the web, as a Chrome web app and inside Gmail. The upcoming messaging platform should solve Google's instant messaging conundrum that confuses users with nearly a doze different chat service that include Talk, Gmail, Google+ Hangout, Google Voice and Chat for Drive.

Even if way overdue, Babel will unify Google's many messaging platforms into a single service. The Internet giant is likely to formally announce Babel at its upcoming Google I/O conference, which runs May 15-17 in San Francisco...