Samsung formally unveiled the latest in its Galaxy S line-up of smartphones, the Galaxy S4 (or officially, the Galaxy S 4). The phone features a 5" screen without getting larger than the Galaxy S3 plus an array of features that seemingly put Samsung's own brand ahead of Google and Android. For more about the lack of Google in today's announcement, see our separate story: Samsung Introduces Galaxy S4 With Nary A Mention Of Android Or Google. As for the phone itself, you'll find the formal rundown below. Even further below, you'll find our live blogging coverage. The Specs Samsung said [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile Marketing | Features & Analysis | Gadgets | Google: Android | Samsung

[caption id="attachment_36064" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Andy Rubin, left; Sundar Pichai, right.[/caption] Andy Rubin, who has lead Google's Android operating system efforts, will now be replaced by Sundar Pichai. Google says the move today will leave Rubin time to work on a "new chapter" with the company. Google shared the news on its official blog today, saying: Andy’s decided it’s time to hand over the reins and start a new chapter at Google. Andy, more moonshots please! Going forward, Sundar Pichai will lead Android, in addition to his existing work with Chrome and App [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Features & Analysis | Google: Android | Google: Business Issues | Top News

The Verge is now reporting that Google's virtual assistant Google Now is coming to the Chrome browser and Chromebooks. Google Now will apparently be part of a new notification center in the Chrome OS. There's no question that Google Now is a compelling product. Whether we call it a "virtual assistant" or "predictive search" or "ambient search," it is to Android what Siri is to the iPhone -- a differentiator. Last year, it won the "innovation of the year" award from Popular Science. It's not entirely clear how Google Now on PCs would manifest, perhaps a notification box or pop-up i [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Content Marketing | Google: Android | Google: Chrome | Google: Mobile | Google: Nexus

The US smartphone story has been pretty consistent for well over a year: Android is now on more than 50 percent of US smartphones, followed by iOS. All others are losing share. Samsung and Apple continue to battle for the top two OEM positions in the market (and around the world). January data from comScore largely repeat and affirm this story line. According to comScore's survey data Android had a 52.3 percent market share in January. However the Google operating system slipped a bit (1.3 points) as the iPhone gained. Apple’s share grew 3.5 percent to 37.8 percent. The US is proba [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Apple: iPhone | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Google: Android | Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Market Share | Statistics: Mobile Marketing

While Google's PC search market share may be hovering below 5 percent, Android is the overwhelmingly dominant smartphone operating system in the world's largest mobile market. As a result China may be preparing to take some sort of regulatory action against it. According to a Reuters report the Chinese government released a white paper, through its state-controlled China Academy of Telecommunication Research, that expresses concern about Android's domestic market share. According to figures cited by Reuters Android is on about 90 percent of Chinese smartphones, while iOS has less than 5 [...]

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Google has tried to walk a fine line with Android. While trying to be true to its "openness" rhetoric about the platform, it has also tried to prevent increasing fragmentation. In addition, it has also sought to prevent any single partner or third party from having too much sway over Android. Google's challenges on both fronts are illustrated by cases involving a rival and a close partner: Yandex (the rival) and Samsung (the partner). At the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, Spain, Google rival Yandex formally introduced its own Android app store. (The Yandex Store was first ann [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile Marketing | Google: Android | Google: Business Issues | Google: Mobile | Samsung | Top News

Here's more stuff for Google to sell through its forthcoming retail stores: touchscreen Chromebooks. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google and unnamed hardware partners are developing new Chromebooks with touchscreens: Google Inc. has developed the first touchscreen laptops powered by its Chrome operating system to be sold later this year, according to people familiar with the matter, as the Internet giant tries to go toe-to-toe with Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system. Interestingly, the new Chrome devices also would compete with devices powered by Google's other operati [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Content Marketing | Google: Android | Google: Business Issues | Google: Chrome | Google: Mobile | Google: Nexus

According to ad network Chitika's latest traffic study, Samsung's Galaxy S3 has caught the iPhone 5 in terms of the amount of Internet traffic it generates. The findings are drawn from "tens of millions of U.S. and Canadian smartphone mobile ad impressions" this month. Chitika said that in October 2012, Apple's latest iPhone enjoyed an 8-point lead in Web traffic share over Samsung's Galaxy. Now, it's down to one point, according to the ad network. The chart below reflects the comparative shares of the Galaxy S3 and the iPhone 5 when looking only at traffic coming from the two devices. [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iPhone | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Google: Android | Samsung | Statistics: Market Share | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Popularity & Usage

Woe be to any mobile phone maker that isn't named Apple or Samsung. Numbers out today from IDC show the two combining for a staggering 87.6 percent of all smartphones "shipped" in 2012 on a global basis. In Q4, according to IDC, the two companies' products constituted 91 percent of all smartphones shipped. Shipped is actually a false market share metric. That's because shipments don't always equal sales or usage. However, in the case of Apple and Samsung these data are a reasonable proxy for actual sales. According to IDC, Samsung controlled 42 percent "of all Android smartphone shipment [...]

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Google (and Motorola Mobility) have counter-sued the UK's BT Group (British Telecom) for patent infringement in the US and UK. This follows a 2011 patent lawsuit filing by BT against Google. Google has probably asserted its patents in an effort to provide some negotiating leverage against BT in any future settlement discussions. The patents at issue concern IP telephony, data management, networking and mobile technology. BT claims that several of Google's services infringe its patents, including aspects of Android. By contrast Google says that BT has infringed its patents with the latter's [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile Marketing | Google: Android | Google: Business Issues | Google: International | Google: Legal | Google: Mobile | Legal: Patents

Oracle has filed an appeal in its unsuccessful copyright and patent case against Google involving the Java programming language (specifically Java APIs). Oracle acquired Java when it bought Sun Microsystems several years ago. At trial, Oracle was basically shut out on all its claims. It appears that Oracle is only appealing the copyright portion of the case. The jury originally did find copyright infringement by Google, but also found that Google's selective use of Java in the Android OS constituted "fair use." Fair use is a defense against infringement. The judge in the case, William Al [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Android | Google: Business Issues | Google: Critics | Google: Legal | Legal: Copyright & Trademark | Legal: Patents

People are starting to shun conventional mobile phones also known as "feature phones." But sales of smartphones continue to grow. According to sales data compiled by Gartner, global mobile handset sales in 2012 hit 1.75 billion units. However that was a nearly 2 percent (1.7 percent) drop from the previous year. According to the firm, "Demand for feature phones remained weak in 2012 and in the fourth quarter." Indeed, feature phone sales were off over 19 percent in Q4. By contrast demand for smartphones continues. As already widely documented Samsung and Apple were the two dominant smartpho [...]

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Research firm IDC has released a preliminary global estimate of tablet market share for Q4. The figures are all based on shipments, which are typically not the same as device sales to end users although in some cases shipments do predict sales. According to these numbers, Apple's dominant position in the market declined from 51.7 percent to 43.6 percent. Samsung lead the Android tablet makers with 15.1 percent market share, followed by Amazon's Kindle Fire, with 11.5 percent of the market in Q4. Source: IDC (1/13) Last week Apple reported that it sold roughly 23 million iPads in Q [...]

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For a time, it looked like Apple's $1 billion patent infringement verdict against Samsung would would rock the smartphone world. However, in the months since the landmark decision was handed down, it has proven to be little more than a symbolic victory. Courts and the US International Trade Commission have been loath to ban the import of Android devices regardless of infringement findings. Apple is thus left with its damages and the dubious, symbolic argument that its claims were vindicated by the courts. None of that means anything to the smartphone buying public. By duplicating the "tr [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iPhone | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Google: Android | Google: Business Issues | Legal: Patents | Samsung

Facebook can thank Apple for helping making it the top overall mobile app in the U.S. in 2012, according to new numbers out today from the comScore Mobile Metrix service. ComScore says Facebook ended the year with more than 85 million unique adult visitors -- that's on both Android and iOS. It's about 11 million more unique visitors than Google Maps. After Facebook, Google apps hold down the next five spots. Facebook and Google Maps were pretty much neck-and-neck for several months last year, but comScore says Google Maps usage saw a significant decline after Apple dumped it from iOS [...]

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A report appearing in the Wall Street Journal asserting that Apple cut production orders on components for the iPhone amid weak demand sent nervous investors into a frenzy and sent Apple stock down this week. (The WSJ may have been "used" by people trying to manipulate Apple's stock price.) We'll find out about how stable iPhone demand is next week when Apple reports earnings. What appears to be very stable over the past six months, however, is the amount of traffic that iOS devices are driving compared with Android. According to ad network Chitika Apple devices continue to generate nearly [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Channel: Strategy | Google: Android | Statistics: Market Share | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Uncategorized

This past weekend controversy erupted when someone noticed that Google was redirecting traffic from Google Maps (for mobile web) on Windows Phones to Google.com. Immediately the conspiracy theories began to fly. The claim was that Google had just won an antitrust reprieve from the FTC so now the company was sticking it to competitor Microsoft with impunity. We agree that it looked bad -- and the conspiracy theory made for a sexy and provocative story -- however it simply wasn't accurate. Danny Sullivan wrote an in-depth article about what happened. Google itself offered a number of sli [...]

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This morning Apple issued a press release announcing that the iTunes App Store had reached 40 billion app downloads. It also said in the release that nearly half of those had come in 2012: Apple today announced that customers have downloaded over 40 billion apps, with nearly 20 billion in 2012 alone. The App Store has over 500 million active accounts and had a record-breaking December with over two billion downloads during the month. Apple’s incredible developer community has created over 775,000 apps for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users worldwide, and developers have been paid over seven [...]

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Earlier today comScore released November mobile market share numbers for the US. Android and iOS continued their gains, with Android picking up some momentum over Apple. Some version of the Android OS is now installed on 53.7 percent of US smartphones. Meanwhile the other smartphone operating systems continued their long slow declines, including Microsoft's. ComScore's data suggest no traction for Windows Phones in the US, although there is some evidence of adoption in Europe and elsewhere. The leading handset maker in the US is Samsung, followed by Apple. All others, including Googl [...]

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After a year of massive growth in smartphone adoption nobody is questioning the importance of mobile anymore. Finally the tired conference joke, "Every year for the past ten years has been the year of mobile," will be repeated no more (thank the lord). But even as marketers have yet to fully "get their heads around" the new reality of smartphone-powered consumer behavior they'll have to contend with yet another form factor: tablets. No longer a novelty gadget, the tablet is now a mainstream computing device. Post-Xmas sales data will soon make that very clear. If 2012 was finally, defini [...]

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