Unlike getting hold of iOS apps, it’s always been possible to trawl the web for software that doesn’t appear in the Android Market. But that process is about to get even easier, because soon there will be an unofficial store for banned Android apps.

Koushik Dutta, a member of the team behind CyanogenMod and the creator of ClockworkMod, announced that he is in the process of creating an app store that will be home to apps that have been banned from Google’s official Android Market. That will include customs ROMs, retro gaming emulators pulled due to copyright complaints, unofficial tethering apps, Visual Voicemail apps, one-click rooting apps, and, well, whatever else Google says can’t feature in their store.

This will, I’m sure, be of most interest to those who have already rooted their Android handset, as it will provide a one-stop shop for the customs ROMs and apps those devices can make use of. There’s no denying that having all that stuff in one place will be more useful than having to trawl the web. Those who haven’t rooted their handset will still be able to make use of the store though, as there are plenty of normal apps that have to be banned from Google’s store, especially if they violate copyright or a mobile operator’s need to generate revenue from value-added services, like tethering.

I just wonder if it can completely avoid being shut down. One of the reasons that such a wide range of unofficial ROMs and apps continue to survive is that they’re so broadly distributed that it’s difficult to hunt them all down. Put them all in one place and that’s no longer the case.

[Koushik Dutta via TechCrunch]

With the introduction of its critically acclaimed Lumia 900, Nokia Corp. has set the stage to regain some of its lost smartphone market share—and to re-establish Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Phone as a leading contender in the cellphone operating system (OS) business.

Largely based on Nokia’s strong support, Windows Phone is set to regain the No. 2 rank in the smartphone operating system in 2015. Finnish-based Nokia in 2009 lost its second-place worldwide ranking because of rising competition from Google Inc.’s Android and Apple Inc.’s iOS.

In 2015, however, Windows Phone will account for 16.7 percent of the smartphones shipped, up from less than 2 percent in 2011, according to the IHS iSuppli Mobile & Wireless Communications Service at information and analysis provider IHS (NYSE: IHS). This will allow Windows Phone to slightly surpass Apple’s iOS to retake the market’s second rank behind Android, as presented in the table below.

The New York Times has an interesting article this week explaining why HP’s adventure with Palm failed.  The latest explanation is that Web OS just wasn’t ready for prime time, according to Paul Mercer, who was senior director of software at Palm (link).

Paul’s an extremely bright software guy.  It’s unusual for someone with his seniority to go on the record with criticisms of his former product, and I applaud him for it because it helps us all learn.  If Paul says Web OS was unready, I’m sure it was.  But respectfully, I don’t think that’s why Web OS failed. I think the company’s business strategy was fundamentally flawed, in ways that would have almost certainly doomed Web OS no matter how it was built.

The point is important because other companies planning similar products might take away the wrong lesson from Palm’s demise.  (For example, Information Week concludes that it’s too hard for any startup to play in the mobile device market [link]; MIT Technology Review says the lesson is that you have to retain key employees [link].)  To explain what the right lesson is, I need to give you a little background on the dynamics of creating a new operating system.

Nokia (NYSE:NOK) has acquired Smarterphone AS, a developer of software optimized for feature phones. Financial terms were not disclosed. Smarterphone investor Ferd Capital announced the transaction, which was completed in November 2011.

The Smarterphone operating system promises a smartphone-caliber user experience across more basic feature phone devices and is designed to run on limited-resource hardware. Smarterphone (previously known as Kvaleberg) also touts greater flexibility for tailoring handset software to different markets. Partners include Taiwanese manufacturers Compal Communications and Wistron NeWeb.

Although Nokia has made substantial bets on smartphones running Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows Phone operating system, the manufacturer has vowed to continue building lower-end feature phones, with an emphasis on emerging international markets. In September, The Wall Street Journal reported Nokia is building a new Linux-based OS to advance its feature phone aspirations.

Some analysts have questioned the longevity of the feature phone business, however. Low-cost, feature-rich smartphones running Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android operating system are becoming increasingly commonplace, with Chinese manufacturer Spreadtrum poised to introduce Android devices priced below $50.

Over at WindowsITPro, Paul Thurott outlines some details of Microsoft/Nokia’s (purported) marketing plans for Windows Phone in 2012. Amongst them: a $10 to $15 commission for retail sales people who sell Windows Phone handsets over Android or iOS.

In turn, John Gruber asks: “If this strategy was on the table, why didn’t Microsoft start this a year ago?“

Here’s why: because it’s an admission of failure.

It’s only right that the creative individuals behind a multi-billion dollar industry should have access to their own professional body, but for some reason the idea has yet to take hold. That could change at CES, when Jon Potter — formerly of the Digital Media Association — will start selling membership to a new outfit called the Application Developers Alliance. His pitch will open with the concept that “there’s an interesting space in the application developer community that isn’t really organized” and then move on to offer services like an online collaborative network, shared product-testing facilities, discount training schemes and cloud services, and even government lobbying over issues like privacy and IP. Who knows? That sort of thinking could ultimately lead to a fully-fledged union movement to stand up to fat-cat platform owners and let them know who’s boss, but first things first eh?

The three horses are Android, bada and Tizen.

Android : Samsung is currently the overwhelmingly largest Android manufacturer, grown far bigger than number 2 in Android: HTC.

bada : Samsung promised 10 million cumulative bada sales in its first year and only did about 6 million. Samsung shook up its bada organization but has not recently given public statements of its intentions with bada. The global average price for smarpthones continues to decline, and bada is well poised to capture the mass market side of smartphones in emerging markets from China and India to Egypt and Nigeria. Samsung will also be monitoring the statements that came from Sony(Ericsson) and Motorola both which boast high percentages of migrating dumbphones to smartphones – Sony will complete its migration to all smartphones by 2012. For Samsung to do that profitably and with a long-term view, they will need to bring bada to full status. We may well see Samsung numbers shift so, that bada becomes the biggest OS on Samsung smartphones and if that happens, bada will definitely become the third ecosystem during 2012 (not Microsoft Windows Phone with Nokia).

Tizen : Intel and Samsung announced the end of MeeGo and the launch of its replacement smartphone operating system, Tizen. Tizen phones should start to appear during 2012 and those are likely to be high-end smartphones similarly to how the N9 and N950 were high-end MeeGo devices. Tizen would be the logical high end OS of preference for Samsung if and when it wishes to move away from building Google’s Android army. Expect Tizen to be built with plenty of family ecosystem thinking with bada and Samsung’s app store, much like how Nokia’s MeeGo strategy was supposed to work with Symbian and Ovi.

Speech recognition technology provider Nuance Communications has agreed to acquire rival Vlingo. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Vlingo combines voice-to-text technology, natural language processing and the firm’s own Intent Engine to better understand user demands and requests and deliver the most appropriate response. Nuance’s rival Dragon speech recognition software powers search and dictation services spanning Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android, Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS and Research In Motion’s (NASDAQ:RIMM) BlackBerry. In addition, its software is reportedly included in Siri, the new voice-activated control technology integrated into Apple’s iPhone 4S. Nuance and Vlingo previously tangled in court over patent claims.

Nuance credited the Vlingo deal to surging consumer interest in voice-enabled consumer experiences across smartphones, tablets, automobiles, navigation devices and televisions. Nuance adds the two firms will combine their respective technologies and R&D experience to build next-generation natural languages interfaces targeting multiple markets and industries.

The Vlingo deal represents the second major Nuance acquisition during the current quarter. In October, the company scooped up mobile text input solutions firm Swype for $102.5 million. A Securities and Exchange Commission filing states Nuance paid $77.5 million at closing and will fork over the remaining $25 million in 18 months.

To say that RIM has had it rough these past few months is a understatement, but according to a new report from Reuters, it may not have had to go through these trials alone. In a surprising twist, Amazon was reportedly considering a RIM acquisition as recently as this past summer.

According to Reuters, Amazon had tasked an investment bank with exploring the possibility of a RIM buyout, although their sources don’t mention how far both parties were from finalizing a deal. The talks seemed to be largely informal in nature so it may have been nothing more than an open-ended meeting of the minds, but man — what a deal that would’ve been.

The real head-scratcher here is why Amazon would want with RIM in the first place. Analysts from Citigroup predicted last month that an Amazon-branded phone could see the light of day some time next year, and acquiring RIM would certainly give them a platform to work off of. Then again, Amazon made their interest in Android apparent in March when they officially launched their own Android app store, not to mention the fact that they were probably already working on the Android-powered Kindle Fire.

Patents then? RIM holds their fair share of wireless patents many of which could come in handy if Amazon ever chose to pursue a stronger presence in the mobile space. It’s a definite possibility, but with both parties keeping quiet on the subject, we may never know for sure.

Amazon apparently wasn’t the only one floating the notion of a RIM acquisition: Reuters mentions that bankers have tried to convince HTC and Samsung to make a move, although they made the obvious choice to ignore their ailing competitor.

Now it appears that RIM is looking to brave the market alone once again, as the company’s board has told co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis to forget the idea of selling parts of the business. The company also seems to have begun a campaign of bright-eyed optimism in an attempt to convince people that the best is yet to come. Their most recent quarterly financials were filled with such bright-eyed gems as “we are more determined than ever to capitalize on our strengths,” and the company’s pair of CEOs announced shortly afterward that they would reduce their salaries to $1 per year.

Whether or not these maneuvers are enough to ease shareholder concerns is still up in the air, though a quick look at their stock performance shows that it doesn’t seem to be working so far. With share prices plummeting and the release of their next-gen BlackBerry 10 devices being pushed later into 2012, I can’t help but wonder if RIM regrets rebuffing Amazon’s advances.

[This week we're launching the biggest survey on cross-platform developer tools. The results will be available as a free report in Q1 2012. This report will address a segment that is rapidly developing as a convergence of factors has created both opportunity and demand for cross platform solutions.]

With VisionMobile estimating that each app on the Apple App store represents an average investment of US$30,000 to develop, the attraction of tools that help developers target additional platforms with minimal additional investment are obvious. As regular updates to platforms can effect functionality in existing apps, it is not just cross platform development but cross platform app management that can tax the resources of many a developer and brings the need for cross platform solutions to the fore.