Hasta La Gadget!

Well, well. Just after Nokia CEO Stephan Elop’s “burning platform” memo leaked out and prompted intense speculation that Nokia would start building Windows Phone 7 handsets, Google’s Vic Gundotra tweeted “Two turkeys do not make an Eagle” prefaced with a #feb11 hashtag — the same day as Nokia’s Capital Markets Day event in London. That’s some pretty serious trash talk, and we’d say it pretty much takes an Android tie-up off the table — we doubt anyone from Google would run around calling Nokia a “turkey” if they were actually partners. Then again, Vic could just be talking about some extremely disturbing genetic engineering research he plans to unveil on Friday — really, anything is possible with Google.

Update: Oh snap. We were just reminded that there’s some serious history behind “two turkeys do not make an eagle” — it’s what former Nokia VP Anssi Vanjoki said in 2005 about BenQ buying Siemens’s failing handset business. (Ouch.) Of course, Vanjoki also just said that using Android is like peeing in your pants for warmth, so we suppose Gundotra’s been waiting for some payback — although his timing’s a little off, since Vanjoki just made a very public exit from Nokia after being denied the CEO job, Still, though — is any burn sweeter than the obscure European handset business history burn? We don’t think so. [Thanks, Seth]

Google’s Vic Gundotra on Nokia: ‘Two turkeys do not make an Eagle’ (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Feb 2011 10:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This podcast is so disgusting that #1 Digitimes bestselling author Paul Miller wants to take a shower. JK, not disgusting at all! Lots of cool stuff, actually. Just look at that topics list! It’s a real beauty, right? We’re not sure we COULD fit any more platforms into a podcast if we tried. Hang out with it. It’s the Engadget Podcast, just the way you like it, with especially special guest Chris Ziegler.

Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel, Paul Miller
Guest: Chris Ziegler
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: Sexy Chick

00:08:24 – Live from Google’s Android event!
00:08:37 – Android in-app purchases hands-on (video)
00:08:55 – Android Market gets a web store with OTA installations, in-app purchases coming soon
00:11:00 – Android Market web store hands-on
00:20:47 – Motorola Xoom first benchmark: 1823 in Quadrant
00:21:47 – Google shows off Fragments API for Android 3.0
00:25:00 – Motorola teases Xoom Super Bowl ad: ‘2011 looks a lot like 1984’
00:36:30 – Motorola’s Atrix 4G coming to AT&T on March 6th for $200, bundled with Laptop Dock for $500
00:51:35 – Verizon iPhone review
00:52:23 – Verizon can now throttle top five percent of bandwidth hogs, downres multimedia transfers
00:53:12 – Verizon breaks first day sales record with iPhone 4 pre-orders — in only two hours
01:01:43 – Nokia, Microsoft announcing partnership next week, possibly involving Windows Phone 7?
01:10:19 – Palm creating palmtop computer with detachable, dockable cellphone?
01:12:15 – HP CEO: New webOS products shipping weeks after February 9 reveal, another big announcement March 14
01:13:35 – Palm ‘Think Beyond’ teaser shows off glimpses of… something (updated with longer video)

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Engadget Podcast 231 – 02.05.2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 Feb 2011 15:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As Nokia comes up on Capital Markets Day next Friday — an event where the company has historically unveiled interesting things and launched important initiatives — rumors are once again swirling that they’re going to be announcing a major platform shift by way of a competitor. Both Android and Windows Mobile have come up in the past on multiple occasions, owing in no small part to the fact that Nokia’s had an outward appearance of spinning its platform wheels on the backs of Symbian and Maemo for far, far too long, but so far, nothing’s materialized. This time around, it’s said that Microsoft will be the partner announced on the 11th — and though Nokia’s uptake of Windows Phone 7 would be the obvious strategic shift, it’s important to note that these companies have actually partnered before with pretty trivial consequences for the market; it’s entirely possible they could be ramping up to do that again, sharing apps and services between Windows Phone 7 and Symbian / MeeGo. We doubt it, but it’s within the realm of reason.

But turning our attention back to the major platform shift, there are a couple factors that add a little more credibility to the rumor this time. First off, the elephant in the room: recently-appointed CEO Stephen Elop comes from Microsoft on good terms and has clearly been given marching orders to take Nokia in a new, more profitable direction; the Symbian Foundation’s gutting happened on Elop’s watch, for example, and he just hinted a few days ago that joining an existing ecosystem could make sense. More importantly, though, we’ve got a trusted source of our own who’s now saying that the tide has turned and this appears to be happening at Capital Markets Day — and that one of Nokia’s existing platforms will be dropped as a direct result. It’s hard to pick which one that’d be: Symbian, though terribly out-of-date, is still wildly popular in Europe and emerging markets, while MeeGo is technically promising but has yet to make any impact in the market whatsoever. On the flipside, noted Microsoft pundit Mary Jo Foley doesn’t put a lot of stock in this latest round of rumors.

So, here’s the question: can Nokia become another Samsung, LG, or HTC, betting its hopes and dreams on its chops as a hardware manufacturer alone? Historically, Nokia has been defined as much (if not more) by its platforms than by its hardware, which lacks Samsung’s capability for end-to-end in-house sourcing. Regardless of what happens next Friday, this should all make for a very interesting MWC indeed.

Nokia, Microsoft announcing partnership next week, possibly involving Windows Phone 7? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Feb 2011 12:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yahoo! Mail is widely available on tens of millions of mobile phones, including those running on Apple iOS, Android, Nokia Symbian, and RIM. The issue on the Windows Phones is specific to how Microsoft chose to implement IMAP for Yahoo! Mail and does not impact Yahoo! Mail on these other mobile devices. Yahoo! has offered to provide Microsoft a near-term solution for the implementation they chose, and is encouraging Microsoft to change to a standard way of integrating with Yahoo! Mail, which would result in a permanent fix.

Yahoo: nonstandard IMAP implementation to blame for Windows Phone 7 data leak originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Feb 2011 11:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looks like another big milestone for Google’s signature smartphone operating system. Android-based smartphone shipments reached 33.3 million worldwide  in the fourth quarter of 2010, now making Android the world’s leading smartphone platform.

In hitting the number one spot, Android has knocked out Nokia’s Symbian platform, which for years has been the leader in global smartphone shipments. Symbian now clocks in at second place with 31 million units shipped worldwide in 2010, according to the report released by research firm Canalys. Android’s sales rocketed up from just 4.7 million units shipped over the same period in 2009.

In the United States alone, Android OS-based phones now account for over half of consumer smartphone purchases, according to a report released by NPD Group.

‘The US landscape will shift dramatically this coming year, as a result of the Verizon-Apple agreement,’ Canalys Analyst Tim Shepherd said in a statement. “Verizon will move its focus away from the Droid range, but the overall market impact will mean less carrier-exclusive deals, while increasing the AT&T opportunity for Android vendors, such as HTC, Motorola and Samsung.”

2010 was a big year for smartphones. The global market exploded with smartphone shipments totaling 101.2 million units over 2010, almost double that of 2009. Android’s growth has been fast and furious, having launched only in late 2008 and already besting the long-established Nokia and RIM platforms. Samsung recently boasted of 10 million Galaxy S handset sales since its June debut.

With 2011 promising new smartphone technologies such as dual-core processors and Near-Field Communications, and with many of those technologies showing up on Android phones, this could be a very good year for Google. However, the coming of the iPhone 4 to Verizon might take some wind out of Android’s sails, as Verizon’s Droid and Droid Pro have been perennial bestsellers for the platform.

Rounding out the top five sales performers for 2010 were Apple’s iOS-running iPhone, which came in third with 16.2 million, and RIM’s BlackBerry OS at fourth place with 14.6 million. With its October 11 launch coming too late in the quarter to get a jump on the holiday sales rush, Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 shipped 3.1 million units.

“Windows Phone 7 entered the epicenter of competition between iOS and Android at AT&T,” NPD Group’s Ross Rubin said in a statement.

See Canalys’ table below for info on 2010 smartphone sales.

Photo by Charlie Sorrel/Wired.com

See Also:

• Google Removes Flash App From Android Market
• Independent App Stores Take On Google’s Android Market
• Your Froyo Tablet Probably Won’t Support Android Market
• Android Market Terms of Service Confirm Googlephone Kill Switch
• Gameloft Sidesteps Android Market for Mobile Assassin’s Creed, HAWX