MeeGo reminds us of webOS multi-tasking; looks pretty decent

Nokia, Intel and Maemo have come together to put their own spin on the latest look of MeeGo. What appears to be a a smooth OS with some pretty UI features, although there is no guarantee that the OS will have the same experience across multiple manufactures. In this new video, see a glimpse of the powerful multitasking UI, which frankly reminds us much of webOS.

[tweetmeme http://wp.me/pv73k-1I1%5D

Non-rooted Nexus gets dressed up in Samsung TouchWiz UI

Looks like the guys over at XDA Dev site put together an app that allows the Samsung TouchWiz UI to load up on your Nexus One. Why someone would want to spoil the pure Android OS is beyond me, but I have to admit that it looks pretty damn nice. It works with both Eclair and Froyo so if you have an hankering for some TouchWiz juice, head on over to their site and check it out.

[via XDA Developers thru Engadget]

[tweetmeme http://wp.me/pv73k-1DE%5D

NPD says Android took Apple’s market share position in the States, RIM still leads

You read that right folks, with Apple’s dominance quarter after quarter, Google has managed to get it’s open OS into second place as far as U.S. phone market share goes. Of course this is all based on a “leading analyst” rather than official numbers, but they feel confident in the information they have found. So if you feel the same way about analyst that most of us do, don’t take these numbers too serious.

In quarter 1 of 2010 Android managed to get 28% of the U.S. smartphone market compared to the iPhone’s 21%. Of the 28%, Verizon accounts for 31%, T-Mobile 17%, and Sprint with 15%. AT&T hasn’t really been involved with Android too much. The Backflip is still brand new on AT&T’s network and it is not really any sort of flagship device like the Nexus One, Moto Droid, or Droid Incredible. At least until the release of Apple’s 4th Gen iPhone, we will continue to see Android take more market share. The Incredible is now out, the Nexus One can be purchased for AT&T, and the HTC EVO will be launching on Sprint very soon making Android quite a dominant force in quarter 2 even compared to quarter 1. Blackberry fans out there, don’t worry, your precious RIM managed to hold its own at a relatively unchanged 36% market share. Blackberry is still Number 1 here in the U.S. and with Blackberry OS 6 and some new hardware on the way, I can’t see this changing for a while either.

[Via Engadget]

[Full NPD Press release]

AdMob survey: Android beating iPhone for requests 46 percent to 39 percent

In not somewhat of a surprising release, AdMob, which serves ads for more than 18,000 mobile Web sites and applications around the world, has put together what is some interesting news in regards to the Android community, it’s starting to kick Apple’s butt. Worldwide, Apple is still at a pretty solid, sitting at 46% compared to Android’s 25%. for March 2010. But when you look at the United States above, home country to both mobile operating systems, Android has pulled away from Apple, 46% to 39%. Although this is not astonishing news considering the varied many handsets delivered in the past year on the Android OS, this does give some credence as to why Apple is suing HTC. Sounds to us like Apple is a bit afraid of Android as a whole and wants to continue to dominate the market, even though, we’ve already seen what’s next in line for Apple’s 4th generation iPhone. A list of some excerpts from the report are below.

• Of smartphones in the United States, Android overtook iPhone usage, 46 percent to 39 percent. (In the UK there’s much greater disparity, with the iPhone leading 70 percent ot 13 percent.)
• The HTC Dream (G1) and Magic (myTouch) made up 96 percent of traffic in September 2009. Seven months later, 11 Android phones make up 96 perecent of AdMob’s traffic.
• In March, traffic was divided between Android 1.5 (38 percent) Android 2.0/2.1 (35 percent) and Android 1.6 (26 percent).
• Motorola scored 44 percent of AdMob’s traffic with the Droid and Cliq. HTC had 43 percent of requests; Samsung had 9 percent.
• AdMob requests from Android phones grew at a compounded rate of 32 percent a month, from 72 million requests in March 2009 to 2 billion in March 2010.

Click for full size image

Please remember that AdMob is in the middle of an acquisition by Google. Also, they have a full disclaimer on the analytic  matrix:

The report is based on the ad requests we receive from our network of more than 15,000 mobile Web sites and iPhone and Android applications. The data contained in the report is a measure of mobile data usage and does not represent the traditional view of market share based on the number of handsets sold.  Our network site composition, product offerings, and business operations all influence the results.

Imagine what kind of first quarter it has been for Steve Jobs: iPad released to tons of fanfare, couldn’t get AdMob acquisition because Google bids higher, closes the deal on Quattro Wireless (their second pick for a mobile ad company for $300 Million), HTC releases the Nexus One and it’s a dandy,  HTC has the Incredible and EVO 4G launching on Verizon and Sprint, engineer leaves a 4th generation prototype iPhone on a bar seat, the dude that found it sells it to Gizmodo – who in turn does a mini review on the phone, now Apple is known to be on the board of REACT – the computer times task-force whom served a search warrant on Giz’s editor and AdMob releases stats showing Android has overtaken iPhone in smartphone requests in the United States. It’s been a busy first quarter and not a fun one to boot.

So if you are interested in learning more information in the report, feel free to peruse the full AdMob report here.

[via AdMod and Android Central]