In April Apple passed smartphone pioneer or should I say veteran BlackBerry to the second spot. BlackBerry already had lost its top spot (occupied for many years) to Google’s Android.

iOS accounts for 26.0 percent of all U.S. smartphones, behind Android at 36.4 percent. That takes Research In Motion’s BlackBerry platform to third at 25.7 percent, down 4.7 percent from January 2011. Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform lags behind at a distant fourth at 6.7 percent.

This is needless to say TERRIBLE news for BlackBerry. I am pretty sure that heads will start to roll at RIM soon enough and so they should. It is a crime that they have fallen so far behind when they have every reason to succeed. Come on lets be honest anyone who has added multiple email accounts to an iPhone, an Android phone and a BlackBerry knows why RIM system is the best. No hassles, no SMTP, no pain.. just your email address and password. everything else is down for you. And in terms of getting mail I am sure anyone who has had a BlackBerry knows that you get your mail on your BlackBerry before you get it on your laptop or desktop. The only problem is that is all BlackBerry does well!! Everything else is quirky. Like restarting in the middle of an ever so important phone call ! Or the dearth of apps. Or the funky OS. Etc.

The question is can they actually ever get back on track ? To do that it would require something extraordinary. Some big changes… I guess we will have to wait and see.

Mobile, Fixed and Internet operator in Jordan is launching Orange Apps Award 2011 aimed at mobile developers companies or individuals. With applications in Arabic ( english is a plus) for Android/ Blackberry/ Java /Symbian /Windows only are accepted.

Orange Jordan divided the winning prizes into 5 categories: Community Category, Entertainment Category, Business Category, Orange Employees Category, Students top prize on each one is 5,000 USD, then 3,000 USD then 2,000, overall prose: 10,000 USD.

Developers can start registration starting from 16 of May 2011 till 3rd of June 2011, then Orange will start filtering the ideas of the applications and will notify the participants of top 50 ideas by email & SMS to submit their applications. The deadline for submitting the applications will be on 30 of June, 2011. top winners will be awarded during the Award ceremony which will be after med of July.

More info at the Award website.

This is from Arabcrunch

Ok for you Blackberry fanatics out there… a short video of a touch enabled Bold.

It’s no secret that gaming is one of the most popular, and money-spinning, forms of mobile content in the market, whether they are casual games for basic devices, or high-end titles that utilize all the advantages of the latest smartphone technology, or a simple flock of angry birds. But some believe there will be much more to come, in terms of how money will be made from them. While today the majority of gaming revenues are coming from the traditional pay-per-download model, by 2013 that will shift to in-game purchasing, says Juniper Research.

Juniper believes that by 2015 mobile games revenues will be around $11 billion, nearly double the total revenues from gaming in 2009.

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Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) has been driving the market for mobile games, says Jupiter, both in terms of giving developers a platform that is quick and easy to develop on – Objective-C – and also because of its support of the in-app billing model.

Juniper is betting big on in-app billing and the “fremium” model for games: their argument is that the increasing number of titles in the market will mean that publishers will need to, more and more, give games away just to get their foot in the door with players. Once involved in the game, in-app purchases could be used to buy advancing levels of difficulty, or accessories for playing the game, or access to other features such as multiplayer modes. This model is increasingly getting used by other kinds of content publishers as well to get users engaged in their products.

In its report, out today, Juniper picks up on another important issue: discoverability of games, which is getting increasingly difficult as more games flood the market. But with several aggregators in the market already such as Scoreloop, Game Trail and Chomp, and more like TeePee vying to get into this area, these may end up getting as lost as the long tail of games themselves.

I came across this awesome article that I believe is very interesting for all of us at MobilOpen.

Hello, everyone. It’s been awhile since I posted anything to this blog, a fact brought to my attention not too long ago by a certain ZDNet editor who wondered what had happened to this wandering blogger. Time constraints – and near-constant programming – have squeezed the writing part of my brain. But, as I noted then, even if my normal ruminations on the the issues that obsess the technical cognoscenti are curtailed, I can at least talk about what I do to earn a living…

…which, I must admit, is somewhat unusual.

I work in telecommunications, specifically telecommunications in developing world markets where most consumers don’t have access to data capable mobile devices…much less smart phones. I am writing this as I return from a resort in Puerto Rico, site of the CARICAM 2010 wireless conference, which I attended as an exhibitor and speaker. The conference is a gathering of carriers and service providers in the Carribean area and Central America.

This is my company’s first foray into Latin America after spending the past year and a half focusing almost exclusively on Africa. In Africa, we have approximately 12-15 licensees in various stages of development (with more popping up every month). Our biggest live instance is GloWorld in Nigeria, a network with around 24 million subscribers, and the product is Glo Messenger, a solution for bringing Internet communications to even low-end phones using universal protocols, such as SMS and USSD.

The Symbian Foundation said starting next spring it will no longer focus on platform development and will instead license software and other intellectual property, a decision that clears up confusion that had been swirling about the non-profit group’s strategic direction.

The decision, which was made by the foundation’s board of directors, puts Symbian platform development back in the hands of Nokia, which is now one of its only majo sponsors.  Nokia bought Symbian in 2008 and set up the Symbian Foundation to develop the platform and freely share Symbian’s source code with other handset vendors. Recently though, both Samsung and Sony Ericsson dropped future Symbian product development.

Nokia, meanwhile, reaffirmed its commitment to the platform, and in a company blog post, Jo Harlow, Nokia’s senior vice president of smartphones, said the company’s plans for the platform have not changed. “Do not confuse the end of the Foundation with the end of the Symbian platform,” she wrote. “The Foundation has been very important in steering the platform through increasingly challenging waters, but the Foundation and the platform are not the same.”

Nokia also said it is committed to making future development of the Symbian platform available to the ecosystem via an “alternative direct and open model.”

This seems though quite a hard challenge as Symbian will be dependant on Nokia solely. Why would any other handset manufacturer actually want to use Nokia’s OS ? Like why would Sony Ericsson or LG want to use Samsung’s Bada. Just doesn’t make sense. It looks like a OS field where most OSs are one horse deals : Samsung > Bada, Apple > iOS, Palm/HP > WebOS and RIM > Blackberry. That leaves only Android and Windows 7 truly open.

US console startup Zeebo has inked a deal with China Digital TV, which could see its technology launched in China. Zeebo is a Qualcomm spin-off, making a console that would download games over 3G mostly targeting emerging markets.

Zeebo is not a mobile device, but it downloads games via 3G and hardware features make it appealing for mobile games developers looking for new revenue streams in emerging markets – where consoles like Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (and their digital stores) have low penetration.

So far, it has launched in Brazil and Mexico and they have been working on a China deal for nearly a year.

Zeebo is apparently working with local Chinese developers to create games for the device, including Nebula Soft. When Zeebo launched in Brazil, a number of mobile games publishers were on board.

Ran across a cool article from a friend of mine : Levi Shapiro

John Chen loves his iPhone. Like many of his colleagues at Sybase, he hates carrying a separate, “secure” handset. Corporate IT departments large and small now find themselves with a new challenge – balancing enterprise security with the Smartphones, tablets and other gadgets that are an inseparable part of our lives.

This has particular urgency for CIO’s (Chief Information Officers) at companies like Sybase, where John Chen is also the CEO. The CIO’s Forum, organized last week by VC firm Gemini Israel asked CIO’s from seven prominent American companies about enterprise mobility. Their insights suggest that CIO’s are not moving quick enough in the following areas:

I. Support a broader variety of IP-connected devices:

At a minimum, companies should embrace “bring your own device” policies, similar to Kraft Foods, Sybase and Texas Instruments. In this model, the enterprise pays monthly data charges for personal Smartphones but ensures password protection and remote erase. At Sybase, nearly half of the employees now have personal Smartphones running their work-related applications, 30 percent higher than last year.

Brian Bonner, the CIO at Texas Instruments, appreciates the productivity gain from this approach.

Everyone who has a smart device also has a PC, so you could say this increases cost. What is true is that it adds to our productivity and that the cost to a corporate IT department for maintaining a smart phone is minimal, due to the thin client nature of these products.”

Despite the benefits, only a handful of Fortune 100 companies have similar processes in place. While the others dawdle, Nielsen Mobile forecasts that Smarphones will be the majority of new handsets sold in the US next year. Moreover, tablet usage in the enterprise is booming. iSuppli predicts 40 million US iPads sold in 2012. Even Research in Motion, which dominates the US enterprise handset market, will release its first tablet next month, the “Black Pad.”

Many corporate IT departments are choosing to ignore this transition. One CIO who was invited to participate in the discussion commented, “This is not a priority for us. (We have) no plans to deal with this in the next year.”

While some would say CIO’s are moving too slowly, Francesco Bombassei, CIO Europe at Boeing, disagrees.

It is Apple or Google that have not yet found the time to add enough business features to their inherently consumer platforms. I’m anxious to see iOS and especially Android mature to the point where they replace the Windows platform on all but the most specialized tasks. After all, if iOS or Android could demonstrate to be secure and remote administrable, we would love to transition to those platforms. Unfortunately, I think they are not yet ready for very large, security-oriented companies like Boeing.”

II. Transition from desktop to a mobile-centric model:

The desktop era is winding down. Ring Central reports that a third of employees are using Smartphones for business even more than they use the desktop. In this context, the ‘consumerization’ of IT is likely to add devices, not reduce them. The challenge for CIO’s is therefore how to enable this trend. Marty Chuck, former CIO of Agilent Technologies and Electronic Arts, says “the new workforce expects these tools. This is a challenge for CIOs who want global, consolidated, standard and secure solutions”. He cites the CIO of a local $2.5B medical systems company that integrates iPhones and iPads, but not Android. “Granted, they are not a financial services or digital goods company but this has been done before. ..shouldn’t all CIO’s do this?”

Organizations using cloud-based, Google applications for the enterprise seem to be most enthusiastic about ditching the desktop. New York City’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), where Steve Peltzman is CIO, is getting ready to deploy Google apps for the enterprise. Although the iPad offers limited (and non-expandable) storage, it can access the immense storage capacity of the cloud.

The cloud makes it easier to manage mobility for the enterprise, and will even allow us to provide more staff with remote access via their personal devices.  For a small business, that is a big savings and productivity gain. This is a nice long-term solution for us.”

Francesco Bombassei at Boeing attributes the cost savings to the cloud, rather than the transition to mobiles. “Smartphone devices are more predictable than the PC and can reduce the cost of monthly support. You save money by moving stuff to the cloud.”

III. Integrate external productivity applications

Eventually, large enterprises will need to integrate the growing ecosystem of productivity applications in the cloud. Currently, consumer app stores function on the client-server model, which are a security risk for enterprises. Marty Chuck recognizes these challenges but emphasizes the benefits.

From a user perspective, I would love the notion of an enterprise application store. This implies variety, flexibility and different apps for different needs.”

Currently, just 600 of the 11,000 iPad-only applications are for business. One of these is the free application from Citrix Systems, downloaded more than 150,000 times. Citrix enables employees to access internal corporate programs from their iPad. Brian Bonner at Texas Instruments (TI) is “experimenting with the Citrix application for a virtual desktop within a secure server environment. We have a limited number of people using this within the firewall as we try to debug and identify pitfalls.”

Other applications, such as LinkedIn, SalesForce and LogMeIn, are increasingly supported by corporate IT departments. Girish Varma, CIO at Qwest, acknowledges “this is in the beginning stages but we are seeing the movement. Most of our applications for external customers are already moving into mobility devices.”

The CIO’s acknowledged that more and more applications bought or downloaded externally should interface with the enterprise. However, as noted by Brian Bonner of TI, “this is still unfinished business for us and currently we don’t manage that. Right now, I get fairly limited access to the enterprise from my iPad.”

Perhaps the greatest catalyst for change may be the labor market. Even in a down economy, companies still have to compete fiercely for engineering talent. Marty Chuck asks:

Are you going to lock the doors and not bring in the 20-somethings? Imagine a consumer company that blocked social networking sites; they would not attract the workforce they need. We need a blending of traditional enterprise tools with how people are living and working today.”

Steve Brown at Omnicare, speaks for many CIO’s when he discusses recruiting a younger workforce. “We will lose talent if we don’t offer the kind of environment that is comfortable to them; even if there are security issues.”

Corporate IT departments, listen to your peers. There is higher productivity, lower costs and enhanced recruiting with the transition to a mobile-centric model. Your colleagues (and maybe even the CEO) will appreciate the flexibility…AND the ability to play Angry Birds on company devices. What are you waiting for?

After the breaking story by the WSJ that Amazon was launching an Android app store that would compete with Google’s Android Market I was left with lots of questions. In fact I must admit I am puzzled.

I can completely understand that Amazon wants a piece of the pie. I also acknowledge that using their payment solution makes great sense. They already have tens of millions of people who have registered credit cards attached to their Amazon login so payment can be streamlined just like iTunes and like Google is trying to do with Google Checkout.

But why oh why would Amazon go and do the same thing as Google ?

Amazon’s success thus far lies in 2 main reasons :
1) You can find everything in terms of content on Amazon. Even rare books, second hand books, books that would takes years of looking can be found in minutes. The long tail.

2) Their suggestion engine is generally accepted as awesome. You find something your looking for and bammm you get a suggestion of another title by the same author, same genre or according to other purchasers selection.

Now Amazon apparently is only doing Android ?? What about Symbian, iPhone, Java, Windows, Palm ? So no long tail. It would seem that small developers would not be bothered to get their apps listed either. Thus rare or free content will be limited.

As for the awesome suggestion tools that Amazon has I will be very interested to see if they can actually do that on a mobile. Or will it be the usual mistake of having a web approach to mobile content ?

I guess we will have to watch this space and see.

GSMA, the organizers of the annual, huge Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, have announced a couple of new developments. For one, the organization is to expand the developer-focused program at the event to include new elements such as Macworld Mobile and the Brand App Challenge.  At Mobile World Congress 2011, the GSMA is partnering with IDG World Expo, organisers of Macworld, to produce Macworld Mobile, a mobile developer-focused event that will center around the iOS platform.

GSMA says the Macworld Mobile iOS Developer Conference will provide full-day, in-depth training on the platform, with technical sessions, targeting tools and applications specifically designed for mobile application developers and engineers. The GSMA expects more than 10,000 developers to visit App Planet, the “event within an event” at Mobile World Congress that centers around the mobile applications market, during the four days of Mobile World Congress. At the next event, App Planet will also feature new elements, including the Brand App Challenge, which is essentially a competition / networking opportunity focused on mobile application developers creating “brand apps” for a select number of global consumer brands.

This development is a good one for the development community as Apple was sorely missed last year. In fact taking into the account the importance that iPhone has in the industry it was the missing piece of the puzzle up till now.

That Apple is there alongside BlackBerry, Google and others like Nokia means that in one place developers and mobile business players will be able to rub shoulders.