smartphone

RIM and Apple lead in smartphones, but Android gains

Though Google's Android is still in fourth place in U.S. smartphone usage, it was the only platform to win more market share for the three months ended May, according to the latest stats from ComScore.

During the three months from March to May, 49.1 million consumers in the U.S. owned smartphones, reported ComScore, an 8.1 percent jump from the prior three months. Of those, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion led the market with a 41.7 percent share, followed by Apple with 24.4 percent and Microsoft with 13.2 percent.

Though Google's 13 percent share kept it a shade behind Microsoft, its Android platform was the only one in positive territory with a market share gain of four percentage points, or almost 45 percent, from the prior three months. The other four vendors all lost market share for the period. Those results seem to give the biggest win to Android, but ComScore points out that most smartphone platforms continue to grab more customers as demand keeps surging. ComScore's numbers for Apple also exclude the iPhone 4, which hit the market with a bang in June.

Eyeing the total mobile phone market, 234 million people in the U.S. owned mobile devices during the three months ended May, said ComScore. Samsung claimed the top spot with a 22.4 percent stake of the market. In second place was LG with a 21.5 percent share, followed by Motorola, RIM, and Nokia.

What are all these consumers doing with their mobile phones?… Read more

Samsung Captivate for AT&T available July 18

It looks like AT&T will be the first one to release one of the Samsung Galaxy S smartphones, as the carrier announced on Thursday that the Samsung Captivate will be available starting July 18 for $199.99 with a two-year contract (voice plan and minimum $15 data plan required).

The Captivate is AT&T's most feature-rich and powerful Android device to date, featuring a 4-inch Super AMOLED touch screen, Samsung's 1GHz Hummingbird processor, 16GB of onboard storage, and a 5-megapixel camera, among other things. You can check out our hands-on video for a closer look … Read more

Dialed In 133: More Android, more iPhone issues (podcast)

Finally, we get a bit of relief from this busy summer of cell phone madness, but even though it's a short week, there's still some news to discuss. Motorola and T-Mobile have teamed up on another Android phone, and Samsung and Sprint have done the same. Also, problems continue to plague the iPhone 4, but there are also a number of bright spots. Plus, we take a look at T-Mobile's first LG handset and Pantech's phone for seniors. All this and more on this week's Dialed In podcast.

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) … Read more

Samsung Intercept: Affordable Android for Sprint

If the Samsung Epic 4G is a bit too much for your needs , then let us introduce you to the Samsung Intercept.

Announced on Wednesday for Sprint, the Intercept gives customers a more budget-friendly Android option, coming in at $99.99 with a two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate. The smartphone features a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and, like the Samsung Moment, has a combination of touch-sensitive keys, physical buttons, and an optical trackpad.

The Intercept will ship running Android 2.1 and also includes a 3.2-megapixel camera, stereo Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and GPS. However, it will work only … Read more

T-Mobile turns on the Motorola Charm

T-Mobile has come under the spell of another Android device, and it goes by the name of Motorola Charm.

Available later this summer, the Charm will ship running Android 2.1 and an enhanced version of Motoblur. The latter includes such improvements as resizable widgets (much like the Droid X), better management of your social-networking streams, and the option of different power modes to conserve battery consumption.

Setting it apart from the flood of other Android devices coming this summer is the Motorola Charm's squarish design, complete with a full QWERTY keyboard. It also has a 2.8-inch capacitive … Read more

LG announces plans for Android-based tablet

LG Electronics plans to release an Android-based tablet computer by the fourth quarter, the company announced Monday.

The South Korea-based company said in a press release that it will use Google's open-source operating system but provided no pricing or technical details. The tablet is part of an upcoming line of about 10 smart devices and smartphones that the company plans to release by year's end, LG said.

The press release stated that the first tablet LG plans to release will be based on the Android operating system. It's unknown whether the new tablet will replace or compete … Read more

RIP Sidekick

Thanks for watching Loaded today. We will be off Monday for the long Fourth of July weekend. Why we get off July 5 when the holiday is a day earlier, I am not quite sure. But I am not one to look a gift horse in the mouth! Have a happy and safe Independence Day!

Links from Friday's episode of Loaded:

The U.S. government releases four new smartphone apps Disney purchases Tapulous Google acquires travel software company ITA Microsoft is licensing technology that allows batteries to work no matter how you put them in your gadgets Sex.com … Read more

AdMob: iPhone tops ad requests but Android surging

The iPhone still enjoys a commanding lead of all ad requests on AdMob's network. But the growth of Android phones continues to boost the share of Google's OS, according to AdMob's "May 2010 Mobile Metrics Report."

Released Wednesday, the new stats (PDF) peg the iPhone's share of all AdMob ad requests in May at 40 percent, down from almost 50 percent in May 2009. Android's share hit 26 percent, up from 5 percent a year ago.

Google in late May finalized its acquisition of AdMob, which gives the ad network more visibility but … Read more

A night among Samsung's Galaxy S stars

NEW YORK--Samsung has taunted us for days about its upcoming Galaxy S series, sending out mysterious packages and even releasing the identities and destinations of these Android phones. However, it's one thing to read about these devices, but it's another to actually see them up close.

On Tuesday evening, Samsung hosted an event in New York to introduce the entire Galaxy S series with remarks from J.K. Shin, president of Samsung's Mobile Communications Business, and Omar Khan, chief strategy officer for Samsung Telecommunications America.

The news conference was mostly a repeat of what we already know … Read more

iPad/smartphone printing solution: Buy a Pogoplug, wait for update

If you've been looking for a way to print from your iPad or iPhone without too many headaches, your prayers might have been answered--provided you've already invested in a Cloud Engines Pogoplug.

The plug-and-play device, which we've already reviewed in two different iterations, is a versatile box. It already turns USB hard drives into online-sharable volumes; streams music and photos to phones and the iPad; and can send video, music, and photos to an Xbox 360 or PS3.

Pogoplug cloud printing, available in a software update that hits later this summer, should work with all HP and … Read more