Hasta La Gadget!

In other obvious news, Android and iOS continue to sit pretty atop the US smartphone market, according to a recent NPD study. The current titans of the mobile industry both saw their pieces of the OS pie increase in Q2 of 2011, putting Andy Rubin’s green robot in the lead with 52 percent and Apple at 29 percent. Newly adopted webOS, and Microsoft’s WP7 and Windows Mobile all managed to cling to their respective 5 percent shares with no yearly change, leaving only BlackBerry OS to experience an 11 percent decline. But the real meat and potatoes of the report focuses on Google’s soon-to-be in-house partner: Motorola. Despite the rosy picture painted by recent acquisition talks, the company appears to be facing tough competition from Android OEM rivals, and the wireless market as a whole. In regard to overall mobile phone share (read: dumbphones, et al.) and smartphone-only, Moto saw a 3 percent year-to-year decline, with its biggest loss coming from Android unit sales — a 50 percent drop to 22 percent of the market. Will the rosy glow of Mountain View “help inspire new paths to differentiation” for Moto, or are we just looking at a repeat of the “RAZR era?” While you ponder these pressing questions, head past the break to read the full report.

Continue reading Android still king of the US smartphone hill, Motorola facing a market nosedive

Android still king of the US smartphone hill, Motorola facing a market nosedive originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Aug 2011 17:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Android’s always had a best friend forever (or, for the time being) in Verizon. Together, the two companies were able to establish Andy Rubin’s mobile OS as a serious platform competitor, fighting back against the then threat of AT&T’s exclusive iPhone juggernaut with Moto’s Droid. Flash forward to present day and it’s no wonder Big Red’s SVP John Thorne is giving a public-facing, albeit tentative, thumbs up to Google’s Motorola Mobility acquisition. Thorne’s official line on the deal concerns the “stability [it might bring] to the ongoing smartphone patent disputes,” but the executive declined to comment further, citing a lack of known details for the proposed buyout. Certainly, the wireless operator has good reason to keep a close eye on the takeover, as a recent Chitika survey pegs it with a commanding 41 percent share of active Android handsets. So far, only Nokia has come out from behind Microsoft’s shadow, hailing the move as a boon for WP7 and casting shade on Google’s intentions. As for the rest of the industry, it appears they’re all making heavy use of that nifty statement generator. Hit the more coverage link to see what we mean.

Verizon embraces Google’s Moto Mobility deal, hopes for an end to patent disputes originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Aug 2011 19:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hey, you folks remember the VPhone? Honestly, we had forgotten about it too. The debut handset from Saygus first started making the rounds in late 2009 sporting, what were at the time, high-end features, like a front facing camera and a 624MHz processor. Well, times have changed and now that the Android-powered phone has finally won approval through Verizon’s open development initiative it’s, at best, decidedly mid-range. While the 256MB of RAM and chunky, sliding QWERTY remain, the VPhone has received some minor upgrades on its journey to Big Red — that XScale core has been bumped to a seemingly arbitrary 806MHz and Donut has been swapped for Froyo or Gingerbread. The one thing that the relative unknown still has going for it is hacker friendly features, such as an unlocked bootloader and the ability to run custom ROMs from an SD card. Sadly, there is still no word on an actual release date or price, but at least we know Saygus hasn’t completely fallen off the face of the Earth.

Saygus VPhone finally wins approval from Verizon, not so high-end anymore originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Aug 2011 12:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASUS’ Eee Pad Slider is fast becoming just as mythical as the flying horse the company’s named after. We’ve had several encounters with potential release windows for the slate, only to see it continually creep back into fall. Well, judging by a recent report from Notebook Italia and the tab’s new product page, it looks like we may actually see a September launch for the 10.1-incher — in Italy. Contrary to prior rumors, the company will be offering the Slider in two storage configurations — 16GB and 32GB at potential €479 and €599 price points overseas, while $400 and $550 models should hit the US. We’ve also got a slew of official specs for the Honeycomb-based device, which should ship with Android 3.1 installed, with a promised 3.2 upgrade to follow. The QWERTYfied tablet packs a 1280 x 800 WXGA display, dual-core 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, 1GB of memory, 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera, 5 megapixel rear-facing camera, USB 2.0, mini-HDMI, microSD card reader, WiFi and Bluetooth. The company’s also thrown in one year of “unlimited ASUS Web Storage” for your cloud computing needs. Will the electronics maker finally commit to a concrete launch for the Slider? We’ll find out in a month’s time.

ASUS Eee Pad Slider shows off its specs, may launch in September originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Aug 2011 11:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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An updated version of Skype just appeared on the Android Market sporting a crucial improvement: it now supports two-way video calling on a wide range of current Android handsets, rather than the meager four that had previously received preferential treatment. If you have a recent phone from HTC, Samsung or Sony Ericsson (excluding the Arc), then you’re probably in luck. Oh, and LG Revolution (Verizon) and Acer A5 owners can get their vogue on too. Running Gingerbread is a must, though, because Froyo will only let you use your device’s rear camera, which is obviously quite difficult to pose for. Check out the source link for the full list of supported handsets and let us know if you run into problems.

[Thanks, Nathan]

Skype two-way video chat finally arrives on more Android handsets originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Aug 2011 04:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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