Mobile

Android is now the leading smartphone operating system in the U.S. in market share, according to a report released Wednesday by NPD Group.

Following a slew of new smartphones released in the second quarter, the Android operating system accounted for 33 percent of all smartphones sold in the U.S. consumer market. That number pushed it ahead of Research In Motion with 28 percent and Apple with 22 percent. It also marked the first time since the fourth quarter of 2007 that RIM dropped to second place, said NPD.

Among the top five Android phones, the Motorola Droid was the best-selling handset in the quarter, followed by the HTC Droid Incredible, the HTC Evo 4G, the HTC Hero, and finally the HTC Droid Eris. Though Android's surge has helped it overtake RIM in market share, the Google OS-based phones still need to compete with heavy consumer demand for Apple's new iPhone 4.

"For the second consecutive quarter, Android handsets have shown strong but slowing sell-through market share gains [which measures the number of items sold against the number shipped] among U.S. consumers," Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis for NPD, said in a statement. "While the Google-developed OS took market share from RIM, Apple's iOS saw a small gain this quarter on the strength of the iPhone 4 launch."

RIM unveiled its new Torch phone with the BlackBerry 6 OS on Tuesday. But NPD sees the Torch's lack of large-screen allure as a negative compared with its bigger and similarly priced rivals Droid Incredible and Evo 4G.… Read more

A new report released Wednesday by market research firm ChangeWave shows that 72 percent of iPhone 4 users are "very satisfied" with the new Apple device.

The report, which tallied the results of 213 iPhone 4 users in July, also said that 21 percent were somewhat satisfied with the device.

ChangeWave said that one third of iPhone 4 users surveyed said the device exceeded their expectations, while 50 percent said it met expectations. Taken together, the iPhone 4 numbers fall short of the satisfaction rating of the iPhone 3GS after its release: 82 percent reported being "very … Read more

This is turning out to be a rough week for BlackBerry maker RIM when it comes to international relations: the latest blow is that the European Commission has opted for the iPhone and HTC handsets over the BlackBerry to roll out to its employees.

The search for a new smartphone began in 2008 when the Commission, the European Union's executive arm, was deploying a new synchronization tool, prompting it to evaluate different devices on the market, including BlackBerrys. The EC has been using PDAs made by Q-Tek (later HTC) since 2003.

"Following this evaluation, the HTC and the … Read more

Clearwire is rolling out a 4G hot spot designed dubbed the iSpot to appeal to Apple users.

The WiMax service provider on Wednesday launched the iSpot, a personal hot spot with dedicated support for the iPad, iPod Touch, and iPhone. In many respects, the Clearwire move makes a lot of sense. Most Apple plans are tethered somehow to AT&T. Clearwire is looking to tap into disdain for AT&T among Apple users to poach a few accounts.

How does the iSpot support Apple gear? Clearwire said the iSpot is made exclusively for Apple devices with a casing … Read more

Saudi Arabia has ordered the country's cell phone service providers to halt all BlackBerry services this week, the latest Mideast nation to announce moves to exercise greater control over data sent by the Research In Motion phones.

The country's Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) on Tuesday asked Saudi Telecom, Mobily, and Zain Saudi Arabia to suspend service to BlackBerry phones on Friday, the Saudi state news agency SPA said in a report detailed by Al Jazeera. The suspension was being implemented because BlackBerry service "in its present state does not meet regulatory requirements," the SPA … Read more

BlackBerry fans have much to be happy about when it comes to the new BlackBerry Torch, but few applauded Research In Motion for choosing AT&T as the exclusive U.S. carrier for the new phone.

Almost immediately during the live blog of the news on CNET's Web site, readers posting comments at the bottom of the story expressed their disapproval.

"Wonderful," said one commenter. "Another good looking, capable phone available only on AT&T's already over taxed network."

"Yet another hardware vendor goes exclusive with AT&T--what the heck?!?!&… Read more

BlackBerry maker RIM officially announced BlackBerry 6 on Tuesday, alongside the company's unveiling of the BlackBerry Torch smartphone.

In fact, BlackBerry 6, RIM's newest operating system, will debut on the BlackBerry Torch. It will be available exclusively from AT&T starting August 12. In addition, BlackBerry 6 will also have backward compatibility for select BlackBerry smartphones, quite probably the BlackBerry Bold 9700, BlackBerry Bold 9650, and the BlackBerry Pearl 3G. Of course, the BlackBerry OS 6 upgrade to those devices and others will be subject to carrier certifications in the ensuing months. RIM has not named specific roll-out dates.

The system improvements and additions found in BlackBerry 6 are no secret, as RIM has been plentifully releasing "sneak peek" videos ever since RIM first announced the new version of its operating system at the WES conference last April.

RIM's official word on the matter is what we expected, with lots of goodies that so far look like a significant improvement to the current OS. CNET Senior Editor Bonnie Cha gives her first impressions here and in the slideshow below. Also stay tuned for her full BlackBerry Torch review.

Interface The interface has been refreshed for devices with touch screens or trackpads. The home screen lets users swipe a ribbon to filter applications and content by five categories (All, Favorites, Media, Downloads, and Frequent). You can also add shortcuts to contacts and favorite Web pages to the home screen. Action Menus, another addition, pop up common tasks when you press and hold with your finger or the trackpad. Multitasking has also gotten a makeover, with a visual grid of running applications popping up when you press and hold the Menu button.

We're most excited by the Universal Search bar on the home screen, which will simultaneously look for keyword matches to your search term in the phone memory, BlackBerry App World application storefront, and the Web.

WebKit browser RIM has received plenty of guff over the years for its laggy browsers. BlackBerry 6 changes this by picking up a variant of the WebKit standard that powers both the Apple iPhone and Google Android browsers. (In fact, the BlackBerry Torch is named in honor of Torch Mobile, the browser company RIM acquired a year ago for this purpose.) The new BlackBerry browser will support HTML5 standards, but there was no word on Flash support. We can look forward to browser tabs, text-wrapping, and pinch to zoom.

… Read more

Editor's note: We used Cover It Live for this event, so if you missed the live blog, you can still replay it in the embedded component below. Replaying the event will give you all the live updates along with commentary from our readers and CNET editor Bonnie Cha. For those of you who just want the updates, we've included them in regular text here. (All updates from Marguerite Reardon unless noted. Also included are her answers to reader questions.) You can find a brief summary of what was announced in our follow-up article "RIM announces the BlackBerry Torch.&… Read more

HTC Desire owners on Vodafone's U.K. network received an over-the-air update early Tuesday that came with some unexpected features.

No, it wasn't Android 2.2, code-named Froyo, which brings with it considerable speed updates, home screen enhancements, and tweaks that make it easier to update and manage installed applications. Instead, it was a handful of Vodafone-branded applications, a new Vodafone-branded restart animation, and changes to the user's home screen applications and Web bookmarks.

Angry users have hopped on Vodafone's forums to voice their disapproval. Many are irate over the fact that these apps, which include … Read more