Google is getting lots of attention with its Android operating system, which is now adding about 100,000 phones a day, but what about the other Linux-based OS ?
The LiMo Foundation so far has been operating under the radar and has been limited to one handset launch with Vodafone and 60 in Japan and South Korea. You can find all their handsets here : LiMo handsets

LiMo says to now expect three major operators to launch a handset based on the OS this year, reports Reuters. The list of possible carriers include: France Telecom (Orange), Telefonica, Verizon Wireless and SK Telecom.

Morgan Gillis, Executive Director at LiMo foundation, said at the Reuters Global Technology Summit, that he believes the mobile operating system space will consolidate over the mid-term. “I think that the eventual number of industry device operating systems will be no more than five, probably four. Within that … one platform that is not owned by any one company … LiMo is definitely a candidate to perform that role,” he said.

He added that he believes Symbian will make a come-back over the next year or so, and that the other dominant players will be Android, Windows and Apple. That leaves out RIM’s BlackBerry and Palm’s webOS, and others, like Samsung’s bada.

Now I agree with him that there will be around 5 OSs but counting out Blackberry is for me a long stretch as it is presently still the leader of the smartphone market ! The weakest are really Symbian and WinMo but both are back by very large players.. and so can’t be written off so quickly.

I would be interested in what our readers feel on this subject ?

For the first time, the sales of Android powered devices overtook the iPhone sales in North America during the first quarter of 2010. Apple sunk to the third position on the sales charts.

The most popular smartphone in the US remains BlackBerry which took 36% market share. 28% went to Android and Apple took 21%.

That is the question that I am sure everyone is asking after the acquisition of Palm this week. There have been already many pundits doubting the synergies or saying it will be a huge challenge.

Here is my two sense :

HP/Palm can win but only if the can actually manage three things :

1) Manage to really be hip and cool. There is space there I believe cause Apple is, BB manages mail best.. Android is still looking for itself and WindowsMobile isn’t.

2) Succeed in really getting app developers to actually develop on their OS. The two are obviously linked. Palm had in the past a huge developer following. So they need to get those guys and others to develop again.

3) Do something that Apple refuses to do and Android does too much of.. being OPEN. Driving the OS but allowing for cool things to happen by people with cool ideas.

I think that there is still a space out there for Palm/HP… Lets watch and see.

Android’s Web traffic is growing and we all need to take this into account whether we are retailers, app developers or content providers.

This increase in Android web traffic is simple : more devices and better ones. AdMob’s March traffic report shines some light on the subject.

“This month’s report shows that the Android ecosystem is thriving, due to the launch of new devices and versions of the operating system,” said Nicole Leverich, director of corporate communications at AdMob, San Mateo, CA.

“The Motorola Droid was the leading Android handset in March 2010 generating 32 percent of worldwide Android traffic while the Google Nexus One only generated 2 percent of Android traffic in March 2010,” she said.

In March 2010, there were 34 Android devices from 12 manufacturers available on the market.

With this growing number of devices available on many networks (unlike the iPhone, which is only available on AT&T in the USA and in many markets on only 1 network) many are predicting that Android may eat Apple’s market share dominance.

According to AdMob, 11 devices that accounted for 96 percent of Android traffic, up from two devices in September. Motorola and HTC were the leading Android device manufacturers with 44 percent and 43 percent of respective traffic.

According to the study, Motorola Droid was the leading Android handset in March 2010 generating 32 percent of Android traffic, while the Google Nexus One drove only two percent of Android traffic.

In addition, 54 percent of Android traffic came from devices with a QWERTY keyboard.

We all need to get real and stop thinking ONLY iPhone… Android is definitely here to stay. Also we can see from the AdMob report that other OSs such as RIM’s Blackberry are grabbing market share. Developers and marketers need to take this into account.

Palm and HP

In case you didn’t hear, we just announced a merger with a little shop down the street called HP. That little shop happens to be the world’s largest technology company, and certainly one of the most revered companies in all of tech-land. Can you say “webOS acceleration”? We’re pretty excited, and pleased we surprised the world again.

This is on the blog of Palm… it is obvious that they fill a bit giddy. It is true that it is a pretty darn good scenario considering whom they are up against. It will definitely be interesting to see if HP can really do something with this.

This is going to be interesting… Palm the iconic brand and innovator has been snapped up and a fairly good price by HP.

Jon Rubinstein the CEO will remain with the company – but it’s not clear whether Palm as a brand will remain intact just yet – to say nothing of the rest of Palm’s team and infrastructure. For webOS fans, the good news is that this isn’t just a purchase for talent and patents, HP intends to continue on with webOS.

Press release : ALTO and SUNNYVALE, Calif., April 28, 2010

HP and Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which HP will purchase Palm, a provider of smartphones powered by the Palm webOS mobile operating system, at a price of $5.70 per share of Palm common stock in cash or an enterprise value of approximately $1.2 billion. The transaction has been approved by the HP and Palm boards of directors.

The combination of HP’s global scale and financial strength with Palm’s unparalleled webOS platform will enhance HP’s ability to participate more aggressively in the fast-growing, highly profitable smartphone and connected mobile device markets. Palm’s unique webOS will allow HP to take advantage of features such as true multitasking and always up-to-date information sharing across applications.

“Palm’s innovative operating system provides an ideal platform to expand HP’s mobility strategy and create a unique HP experience spanning multiple mobile connected devices,” said Todd Bradley, executive vice president, Personal Systems Group, HP. “And, Palm possesses significant IP assets and has a highly skilled team. The smartphone market is large, profitable and rapidly growing, and companies that can provide an integrated device and experience command a higher share. Advances in mobility are offering significant opportunities, and HP intends to be a leader in this market.”

“We’re thrilled by HP’s vote of confidence in Palm’s technological leadership, which delivered Palm webOS and iconic products such as the Palm Pre. HP’s longstanding culture of innovation, scale and global operating resources make it the perfect partner to rapidly accelerate the growth of webOS,” said Jon Rubinstein, chairman and chief executive officer, Palm. ”We look forward to working with HP to continue to deliver industry-leading mobile experiences to our customers and business partners.”

Under the terms of the merger agreement, Palm stockholders will receive $5.70 in cash for each share of Palm common stock that they hold at the closing of the merger. The merger consideration takes into account the updated guidance and other financial information being released by Palm this afternoon. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including the receipt of domestic and foreign regulatory approvals and the approval of Palm’s stockholders. The transaction is expected to close during HP’s third fiscal quarter ending July 31, 2010.

Palm’s current chairman and CEO, Jon Rubinstein, is expected to remain with the company.

Mike Chambers is Adobe’s principal product manager for the Flash platform. After having complained about the aggressive attitude of Apple in refusing to allow Flash on the iPhone and iPad he had this to say about Android :

Fortunately, the iPhone isn’t the only game in town. Android based phones have been doing well behind the success of the Motorola Droid and Nexus One, and there are a number of Android based tablets slated to be released this year. We are working closely with Google to bring both Flash Player 10.1 and Adobe AIR 2.0 to these devices, and thus far, the results have been very promising.

Because this is Flash, it is rather trivial to port games created with Flash that target the iPhone to target other operating systems, such as Android. At FlashCamp San Francisco on Friday night, David Wadhwani (GM and VP of the Flash Platform) showed off a number of games running on Android that had been created with Flash, many of which had already been deployed as iPhone games. My personal favorites were Chroma Circuit and GridShock created by Josh Tynjala of Bowler Hat Games. Both games were originally developed as browser based games and were then updated to target the iPhone (Chroma Circuit was featured on the iTunes app store). Josh recently updated and optimized them to target Flash Player on Android, and the results have been impressive. There have already been a couple of developers who have moved their Flash based content from the iPhone to Flash on Android (couple of examples below) and I expect that this is a trend we will be seeing more and more of.

Here are some links to developers who originally targeted the iPhone with their Flash content and are now deploying to Android:

* Adobe AIR for Android: Chroma Circuit and Qrossfire Videos
* Jobe Makar : Flash is Speedy on Android
* Jobe Makar’s Fruit Smash Organic (Video)
* Alan Queen’s Star Map Game (Video)

Both Flash Player 10.1 and Adobe AIR 2.0 for Android are in pre-release testing. If you are interested in being notified when we expand the testing, you can sign up at:

* Flash Player 10.1 for Android Beta
* Adobe AIR 2.0 for Android Beta

Personally, I am going to shift all of my mobile focus from iPhone to Android based devices (I am particularly interested in the Android based tablets coming out this year) and not focus on the iPhone stuff as much anymore. This includes both Flash based, and Objective-C based iPhone development. While I actually enjoy working in Objective-C, I don’t have any current plans to update and / or maintain my existing native iPhone applications (including the AS3 Reference Guide, and Timetrocity). As I wrote previously, I think that the closed system that Apple is trying to create is bad for the industry, developers and ultimately consumers, and that is not something that I want to actively promote. Don’t worry though, I definitely plan to get both Pew Pew and Bacon Unicorn Adventure running on Android and am planning on open sourcing both.

Also Adobe’s CEO Shantanu Narayen said “We have a number of excited partners who are working aggressively with us to bring Flash to their devices, whether they be smartphones as well as handsets, and so companies like Google or RIM or Palm are going to be releasing versions of Flash on smartphones and tablets in the second half of the year.”

Just a quick update on this article from last week :

Web browser maker Opera topped the iPhone application download chart within 24 hours of releasing its free browser app.

It has been downloaded 1,023,380 times since its launch on 14 April.

It took three weeks for Apple to approve the program, which has already been developed for other mobile phone platforms.

Opera Mini is not the first alternative to Apple’s Safari to be developed for the iPhone.

Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn recently indicated that the company plans to open “a number somewhere between here and 1,000″ new retail outlets that will focus only on mobile phones and mobile services. Best Buy already offers a store-within-a-store mobile shopping experience at its big box retail facilities and claims they have been successful to-date. Best Buy also has a limited number of stand-alone mobile stores. Best Buy was recently named as a potential candidate to acquire RadioShack, which would offer it a quick way to expand its mobile retail presence across the U.S. in shopping plazas and malls where mobile phones are often sold.

Microsoft has announced their phone the KIN 1 and KIN 2. Formerly know as Project Pink this is a device that is specifically designed to “navigate your social life”.

“My phone is my lifeline. My social glue. My next of kin.”

Microsoft explains why the KIN is special in that “it is a socially aware phone, based on Windows Phone 7, and cloud service. This combination not only makes it effortless for you to capture and share your social moments, but also have them backed up for safe keeping and easy retrieval.”

Also this device connects to Microsoft’s music store Zune and shares many of the Zune’s features such as the browser. Another up side are the 5 and 8 megapixel cameras that come with the KIN 1 and KIN 2 respectively.

Up to this point it seems that finally Microsoft has gotten some features right to make the KIN a success.

Now lets talk about what the KIN can’t do. Flash isn’t supported though which is a bit of a deception. What is quite surprising and  the real clincher though is that it can’t download apps ??!! It seems that this option is blocked. Probably because in the near future Zune music store will want to be doing that. Still this is a feeble… very feeble attempt to do what Apple has done so well namely to make a closed circuit eco-system.