Over the past 12 months, Android’s mobile web consumption share jumped 95.3 percent, Quantcast reports. The BlackBerry OS grew 7.5 percent over the same period, and the iPhone OS fell 10.2 percent. Competing platforms dropped 6.9 percent. Quantcast nevertheless adds that iPhone continues to make the biggest strides in respect to absolute mobile web consumption, commenting “the competition have a long way to go before there’s a real fight on their hands.”

source http://www.symbian.org

The Symbian Foundation today unveiled the Symbian^3 (S^3) platform, the first entirely open source release following the platform’s transition to an open source license on 4 February, 2010, which was the largest of its kind in history.
S^3 is expected to be “feature complete” by the end of Q1 and the release will include: significant usability and interface advances, faster networking, acceleration for 2D and 3D graphics in games and applications, HDMI support (High-Definition Multimedia Interface), music store integration, an improved user interface with easier navigation and multi-touch gesture support, a feature-rich homescreen, and the ability to run even more applications simultaneously.

Members of the Symbian community, including device creators, network operators, hardware technology providers, professional services companies and application developers are already engaged with S^3 and the first devices using the platform are expected to ship as early as Q3 this year.

S^3 introduces major advances, which include:

• HDMI support enables users to plug their phone into a TV and watch a high-definition movie at 1080p quality without a Blu-ray player.
• Music store integration embedded within the radio enables users to identify a song and learn more about it. The addition of a “buy now” button, which links with the user’s chosen music store, makes purchasing easy.
• More efficient memory management due to Writeable Data Paging allows more applications to run in parallel for a faster, more complete and efficient multi-tasking experience, especially on mid-range hardware.
• A new 2D and 3D graphics architecture takes full advantage of the hardware acceleration available to deliver a faster and more responsive user interface. Users, developers and device creators will all benefit greatly from the visual enhancements and smooth transitions that will significantly improve the look-and-feel of their applications and services. Combined with industry-standard OpenGL ES, the new architecture also provides a great platform for high performance games – all without slowing the phone down.
• The industry-leading networking architecture, ready for 4G networks, provides next-generation Internet experiences on today’s devices. Consumers will benefit from the architecture’s ability to seamlessly balance each individual application’s needs regarding factors such as bandwidth, latency and jitter. This improves the consumer’s experience of network-dependent applications and Internet services like VoIP and media content streaming.
• One-click connectivity for all applications greatly simplifies the process of connecting to the Internet, without interrupting the user. New global settings allow the user to configure platform-wide behaviour, for example ensuring the device automatically switches from cellular to WLAN when a free WLAN network is available.
• Usability enhancements across the user interface include the adoption of a direct “single tap” interaction model, making it much easier to complete common tasks on a device. Multi-touch support for gestures such as “pinch-to-zoom” forms the basis of a gesture framework that can be extended and leveraged by the developer community.
• The Homescreen takes a big step forward with support for multiple pages of widgets and a simple flick gesture to move between them. The widget manager makes discovery and download of new widgets simple and support for multiple instances of a native widget means that consumers can monitor multiple weather forecasts, news feeds, social networking accounts or multiple email accounts simultaneously through a common interface.

Lee M. Williams, Executive Director of the Symbian Foundation, said: “S^3 is another huge milestone in the evolution of our platform. Now that it is fully open source, the door is open to individual contributors, device creators and third-party developer companies, as well as other organizations, to create more compelling products and services than ever before. We have enjoyed significant momentum since we completed S^2, with companies including Sun, Nokia, Ixonos, Comarch and Accenture, among others, contributing to S^3. We are now looking to build on this momentum and remain on course to complete S^4 later this year.”

The developer experience has also been greatly improved. The Qt toolkit is pre-integrated into all kits and the runtime in S^3 will run on existing devices back to S60 3.1. The Web Runtime support provided in the platform remains a key part of the developer story, allowing web developers to directly re-use their skills in HTML, CSS, Javascript and AJAX to create Homescreen widgets and standalone applications.

- Ends -

About Symbian Foundation
The Symbian Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to enable an open ecosystem dedicated to creating the most innovative user experiences on mobile devices. Symbian maintains the code for an open source software platform based on Symbian OS and software assets contributed by Nokia, NTT DOCOMO, and Sony Ericsson, including the S60 and MOAP(S) user interfaces. The Symbian platform is now fully open source.

The foundation promotes collaboration, contributions and active participation, and operates as a meritocracy. Symbian’s board of directors comprises: AT&T Mobility LLC, Fujitsu Limited, Nokia Corporation, NTT DOCOMO, INC., Qualcomm Innovation Center, Ltd., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, ST Microelectronics NV, Texas Instruments Inc., and Vodafone Group Services Ltd.

The Symbian Foundation has offices in the UK (London), US (Foster City), Japan (Tokyo), Finland (Helsinki), China (Beijing) and South Korea (Seoul).

For more information please visit www.symbian.org and blog.symbian.org.

KT, a company partnered with Apple to sell iPhones in South Korea, revealed its plans to begin selling the 4G iPhone as early as April. We can obviously expect the phone to include new radio hardware for connecting to 4G networks, and KT’s reports indicate the phone will feature a new dual-core CPU for a speed boost. The screen is to be switched from a standard LCD to an OLED model, which could mean a brighter picture and reduced power consumption. There could also be a front-mounted camera for video chat and a battery that’s finally removable by the end-user.

According to Goldman Sachs’ Robert Chen, it won’t lack new features. “Apple’s going to put a lot of innovation, not just on the hardware, but also on the software of the new iPhone,” he said.

There is also rumors that the back of the iPhone will be touch sensitive much like the touch panel used for the Magic Mouse or like the Motorola Backflip, an Android smartphone that can be controlled via a touchpad on the back of the screen.

Apple, of course, doesn’t comment on “rumors and speculation.” But according to Chen, the new iPhone will go into production in April and should be available to consumers in June or July — just enough time for the rumor train to go into full speed.

At first glance, it’s so sleek, stylish and sexy, we were almost wondering: Where’s the Apple logo?

Call it the Google challenge: After a few hours with the new Nexus One, a long time Apple fan will be willing to trade this iPhone. It’s very, very tempting.

Specifications of Google NEXUS ONE

Where could Google succeed, where other competitors have failed?

The Nexus One boasts speed improvements and enhanced camera capabilities, and the device will be sold unlocked.
The unlocked version of the Nexus One, which will be sold directly to consumers via a new web store hosted by Google, will cost $529. A locked version of the phone, which will be sold initially by T-Mobile, will cost $179 with a two-year contract that will cost roughly $80 a month.Apple’s iPhone 3GS now costs $199 with a two-year contract with AT&T.

Still, some new details emerged, so here’s a quick scan:
* In addition to T-Mobile the Nexus One will be supported by Verizon and Vodafone come spring.
* Some of those Android 2.1 goodies — expanded voice controls, including speech-to-text capability for tweets, texts and e-mail; a revamped photo gallery; more homescreen panels; interactive wallpapers; and a Google Earth app.
* In using the Nexus One to launch an online storefront intended eventually to allow consumers to choose from a raft of unlocked handsets and then pick a carrier and a calling plan, Google is revolutionizing the mobile phone marketplace. Or maybe not.

Courtesy of Brian J. Friedman

The other interesting thing is that the carriers will also have the option of customizing the OS to suit their own requirements. bada will definitely give a tough competition to other Linux based mobile OS’s like Google Android and Nokia Maemo. Samsung is  obviously also planning to launch it’s own App Store.

Some additional UI tools include the ability to embed the Adobe® Flash® Player and the WebKit Internet browser directly into native bada applications, allowing seamless integration of premiere UI technologies. Also, the bada map control is easily embedded in your applications to deliver interactive mapping and routing with POI features for your users.

What does this mean for the other OSs that Samsung use today ? Well the forecast would have Symbian gone entirely by 2011 from Samsung phones and Microsoft’s OS at just 20%by 2012 where it makes up 80% of Samsung phones today. Not sure how this will affect Android but it would seem hard to understand that Samsung continue supporting Android against their own champion. The reach and actual popularity of Samsung phones (around 20% of the global market) means that bada will obviously be a force to reckon with if just by shear numbers!

Samsung has a vision of “Smartphone for everyone”, and by offering cheap Bada handsets as well as expensive ones, combined with a focus on in-app purchasing, Samsung hopes to entice developers with greater profits.

Samsung’s hoping to see an influx of applications thanks to the $2.7 million prize that’s been put up for grabs, and so far, EA and Gameloft have been signed up to develop games for Bada.

Bada will initially run on Samsung’s proprietary SHP (Samsung Handset Platform) paired with Samsung’s upcoming TouchWiz 3.0 user interface. It will be entirely multitouch, supporting both resistive and capacitive touch screens. Hardware-wise, it’s chip-agnostic, and Samsung aims for the cheapest bada handsets to be cheaper than the cheapest Android ones. It won’t run on older phones, however, and the first bada handset will arrive somewhere in the first half of 2010.

Definitely an exciting space to watch and see how well they pull this off.

Early this year, Nokia announced it would be using a GNU/Linux based Maemo for their high end smart phones with Symbian pushed down to serve their mid-range offerings.

The Motorola Droid - Coming this October

Measuring 60.00 x 115.80 x 13.70 mm, it’s just slightly thicker than the iPhone 3GS but at least you could change the batteries on the Driod. Supported media formats include: MPEG-4, H263, H264, WMV; AMR-NB/WB, MP3, PCM / WAV, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA (something iPhone refuses to support).

The crypic Da-Vinci like countdown timer on the Driod homepage got the Internet working on the release date – Pharanoid.com broke the code to reveal October 28th as the release date.

BBC technology had an article “Battle of the smartphones begins” where they debate the pros and cons of BlackBerry, iPhone and the Pre. Was the Storm 2 or the Pre a possible iPhone killer. Of course for us mobile professionals, geeks or entrepreneurs in this space we read debates all the time like this. For us it is sort of our daily fare… but not so for the common mortal.

I felt that this was a sign that people are getting more and more attuned to the fact that mobile devices and their ecosystem of apps, mobile content and sites is of interest. This seems to me quantitative leap to what happened when Microsoft were battling it out back in the 80s and 90s where most people didn’t really participate in this battle, or even discuss it that much.

Now though people are interested in what is happening… I mean it still has some ways to go but it is becoming a topic of general news.

The N900 is very similar to the Nokia N97 aesthetically, having a 3.5″ touchscreen above a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and many of the same design features. However, the screen of the N900 is significantly higher resolution (800×480 as opposed to 360×640) and, unlike that of the N97, does not tilt up. Additionally, the N900 does not appear to feature the navi-keys found on the slide-out layer of the N97. And, of course, it runs Maemo rather than S60.

Now, on to the meat.

Hardware Specs:

• Update: A few comments inquired about GPS. Our source has since verified that the N900 does indeed have GPS, along with an accelerometer.
• Dimensions: 59.7mmx111mmx18.2mm
• Weight: 180g
• 3.5″ 800×480 (WVGA) touchscreen
• OMAP3430 500/600 Mhz processor (Fun Trivia: Same CPU as the Palm Pre)
• Bands: GSM Quad-Band 850, 900, 1800, 1900. WCDMA 900, 1700/2100, 2100
• 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss camera with dual-LED flash, autofocus, and sliding cover
• Though the renders we’ve seen show two lens-like circles near the screen, we’ve got no word on what’s behind them. However, we feel safe in assuming that its a proximity sensor and a front-facing camera.
• 1GB total virtual runtime memory (256MB physical RAM, 768MB virtual memory)
• Wi-Fi, HSPA
• 32GB internal storage, expandable up to 48GB via external memory
• Keyboard variants: English, Scandinavian, French, German, South European, Italian, Russia
• In the box: Connectivity cable, headset, charger, battery (1320 mAh), Video-out cable, microUSB adaptor, cleaning cloth

Some of the mentioned software features:

• In all of the renders we’ve seen, it appears to be running Maemo 5.
• Multitasking: “Run all of your favorite applications simultaneously”
• Live Dashboard allows all open tasks and unread messages to be displayed in one view
• Browser: Firefox 3 with support for Flash 9.4
• Built-in automatic update software
• Contacts has some sort of status sharing built in, allowing you to share your status, location, and mood. Support for Contacts on Ovi and Google Talk.
• All SMS and IMs accessible from one view
• Cellular voice or VOIP both supported
• Captures video at 800×480 in AVC/H.264
• Image tagging and geo-tagging support
• Nokia intends to have at least a dozen add-on apps available at launch, including a game called “Bounce”, a Jaiku/Twitter app called “Mauku”, and a few widgets.

If you’re not drooling yet, you should probably get your salivary glands checked. If you are, you’re probably getting curious about availability. Don’t worry, we’ve got details on that, too.

This documents all specifically and repeatedly mention “TMO” launch targets. We’ve never seen this stand for anything besides T-Mobile in this context, and everything still makes perfect sense after swapping out every instance of “TMO” for “T-Mobile”. As such, we assume that is what they mean.

Palm Pre2

The Palm Pre continues to attract attention from analysts who speculate how many devices Palm has sold, as well as what the launch of webOS means for Palm’s future as an independent company.

Charter Equity Research analyst Edward Synder made a splash when he wrote in a recent research note that his contacts in the manufacturing and retail channel indicate that Palm has sold 300,000 Pre units since Sprint Nextel launched the smartphone June 6. The number is higher than many other estimates. Sprint may provide more detailed sales figures when it discusses its second quarter earnings this month.

Further, Synder said Palm will ship 1 million units to Sprint in its first quarter of production. He also said that he expects Verizon Wireless to launch a webOS device in early 2010, with AT&T Mobility following shortly thereafter.

Speculation about Palm as a possible takeover target also continues. Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu said in a recent note that there is “great value in Palm as a strategic acquisition.” He listed Cisco, Dell, HP, LG, Motorola, Nokia and Samsung as possible suitors for the smartphone maker.

And in one more tidbit of Pre news, the website T3 is reporting that early next week Palm will make an announcement about the Pre’s UK launch. Vodafone and O2 have been eyed as possible carriers for the Pre’s Euro debut.