Google's Android mobile operating system will power nearly half of the smartphones worldwide by the end of next year, technology research company Gartner said on Thursday.
Worldwide smartphone sales will reach 468 million units this year, up 57.7 percent from 2010, increase to 630 million units next year and to 1.1 billion units in 2015, Gartner said.
Gartner said Android software, which Internet giant Google makes available to handset makers such as Samsung, HTC and Motorola for free, will be the most popular smartphone operating system(OS) worldwide by the end of 2011 with a 38.5 percent market share, rising to 49.2 percent next year and 48.8 percent in 2015.
Apple's iOS for the iPhone will hold a 19.4 percent share of the smartphone operating system market by the end of 2011 followed by Nokia's Symbian with 19.2 percent and Blackberry maker Research In Motion with 13.4 percent, Gartner said.
Microsoft's Windows mobile operating system will account for 5.6 percent of the smartphone market at the end of 2011 but will rise to 10.8 percent in 2012 and 19.5 percent in 2015, Gartner said.
The iPhone's market share was forecast to remain relatively stable at 18.9 percent in 2012 and 17.2 percent in 2015.
Symbian's smartphone share will decline to 5.2 percent next year and virtually nothing by 2015 as the Finnish telecom giant replaces the current operating system with Microsoft's platform.
Gartner said the rise of Android will bring lower smartphone prices.
"By 2015, 67 percent of all open OS devices will have an average selling price of $300 or below, proving that smartphones have been finally truly democratized," Gartner principal analyst Roberta Cozza said.
"As vendors delivering Android-based devices continue to fight for market share, price will decrease to further benefit consumers," Cozza said.
"Android's position at the high end of the market will remain strong, but its greatest volume opportunity in the longer term will be in the mid- to low-cost smartphones, above all in emerging markets," she said.
Sony Ericsson has added to its Xperia smartphone lineup in India with the launch of the Xperia Arc and the Xperia Play in India for Rs. 32,000 and Rs. 35,000 respectively.
Lets start with the self-proclaimed gaming smartphone: The Xperia Play.
The Xperia Play is a PlayStation certified smartphone running Android 2.3 Gingerbread and boasts of dedicated Dual Shock style gaming controls along with six axis motion controls.
Under the hood, the Xperia Play runs on a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 CPU with Adreno 205 GPU and 1GB ROM. The device has a 4-inch capacitive touchscreen display with a resolution of 854x480 pixel and internal storage of 400MB expandable to 32GB via a micro SD card. The rear of the device houses a 5MP camera with LED flash. The Xperia Play will come preloaded with 6 games and 70 games will be available for download via the PlayStation Pocket Store.
Although the device has a strong lineup of games, it's the hardware configuration that is a little disappointing. While the world is moving to dual core processors in smartphones, the Xperia Play still has a single-core processor. The battery life too is a bit disappointing as the company claims 3.5 hours of juice when the device is used solely for gaming.
Being a gaming phone it sacrifices phone ergonomics in favour of the normal phone. The headphone and charging jacks are placed in a way that they are best used while gaming - while using it as a phone or a music player, the placement does not seem to be as good. The volume rocker has also been displaced to give way to the L/R buttons of the game controller.
Does the device justify a price tag of Rs. 35,000? Take a look at our video review to find out.
The Xperia Arc on the other hand is just 8.7mm thin at its slimmest point. The device boasts of a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 CPU with Adreno 205 GPU, Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS, a 4.2-inch BRAVIA engine reality capacitive touch-screen display with a resolution of 854x480 pixels.
The device has 320MB internal storage expandable upto 32GB via micro SD card. The rear of the device houses an 8.1 MP camera with Sony Exmor R image sensor.
The Xperia Arc is a stunning device if viewed as a standalone product. But compare it to the current market offerings and you have better options out there at better price points. LG has recently launched the Optimus X2 that boasts of a NVIDIA Tegra 2 Dual core processor and Android 2.2 upgradable to 2.3. The camera on both the devices too has an 8MP censor. The Arc however has a larger screen by 0.2-inches and boasts of Sony's BRAVIA technology.
Both the Xperia Arc and the Xperia Play boast of Sony Ericsson's custom built UI called Timescape that integrates all your social media, messaging and communication under one app.
Popular social network Facebook has updated its official App for Apple iOS platform. The new update in the Facebook App includes the much demanded un-friend option that will let you remove people you might have added in haste or those you don't wish to be friends with. Apart from that, users will get to view a Map of the Place they've checked in. Even the News Feed has been improved but there's still no option to hit Like on any comment.
Facebook App for iOS platform hasn't got much visual or cosmetic changes but only feature additions along with bug fixes in the last couple of updates. Even the recent Facebook v3.4 App brings large number of bug fixes for the App. The new nifty additions in this update are:
- Added Map View for Places
- Added the ability to Check in to Events that you're attending
- Added the ability to un-friend from the phone
- Improved News Feed
- Improved notifications UI
Download the new Facebook v3.4 App for iPhone, iPod touch or iPad from here or simply update your current Facebook App from the iOS App Store.
The Apple iPad 2, which is still very difficult to acquire at Apple retail stores, is creating a robust and healthy resale market online.
EBay, the online marketplace, released numbers and an info graphic on Thursday showing just how popular the iPad 2 had become on its Web site.
The company said that 65 percent of iPad 2s sold on eBay were purchased by buyers in the United States. In 2010, only 35 percent of sales of the first generation iPad were sold domestically on the online marketplace. The higher numbers in the United States this time illustrates just how difficult it is to acquire the new tablet through traditional retail stores. Apple stores continually sell out of the new tablet, and the wait to get one purchased online is still five weeks.
Although the majority of sales on eBay have taken place in the United States, people living in Russia, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan and Britain have also purchased a large number of iPad 2s.
The most sought-after models of the iPad 2 are on the low and high end. The basic 16-gigabyte Wi-fi-only version and the 64-gigabyte with 3G data connection account for a majority of iPad 2 sales on eBay. They also net a healthy profit for sellers. EBay said that the low-end iPad 2 was selling for $198 over the $500 retail price and the $830 high-end model was selling for an astounding $406 more.
The least desired iPad 2 is the 16-gigabyte 3G model, making up only 7 percent of iPad 2 sales.
The first-generation iPad is still selling well online too. As I've written in the past, many buyers are still hoping to find deals on the first iPad, which is selling for $200 less than the original price in online marketplaces.
At the recently concluded Photoshop world event Adobe unveiled a working prototype of a future Tablet centric version of Photoshop.
In this case they focussed on the iPad version of the app, which was more on the lines of a full-blown Windows version of the application rather than being similar to the current barebones Photoshop Express which is available for free on the iPad.
In the demo Adobe showed off signature Photoshop features such as Layers, which were successfully adapted for a touch based interface. In the demo the image could be easily be scaled or rotated through the multi-touch interface.
While the Layers feature has been seen in apps like Layers Pro, it is still in its infancy and the
functionality is pretty basic.
Speaking at the conference Adobe's John Loiacono, Head of Photoshop division stated it was a "technology we're looking at".
According to Loiacono, "This is just a concept about how do we take technologies we found in Lightroom and Photoshop and actually extend those to these devices as they become more important to your workflows."
It is no secret that Adobe is investing into image editing apps for touch based devices; already they have Adobe Ideas and Photoshop Express for Android and iOS devices. A more beefed up version of Photoshop would be the natural evolution of the Photoshop Express technology.
Currently the tablet market is already loaded with a plethora of image editing software's such as the award winning paint app Brushes, the vector graphics app InkPad and AutoDesk's SketchBook Pro.
While all these apps work very well they have limited functionality, as heavy-duty image editors require lots of processing power. Hopefully, Adobe will combine all the features available in separate apps. The new found processing power of tablets can only help in making this possible.
This is no April fools joke. Sony Ericsson has launched the Xperia Play also known as the PlayStation phone in India. The device should be visible on store shelves in the coming fortnight. India is the among the 11 countries where the Xperia Play will be launched first.
More than 60 games will be available at launch including the likes of Assassins Creed, Need for Speed and The Sims. PS1 classics too will be available for download via the Android market place exclusively for the Xperia Play. Some of the PS1 classics include Cool Boarders 2, MediEvil, Syphon Filter and more.
No official price for the device is known but it is listed on flipkart.com for Rs. 30,999 and is currently out of stock. Below is the roster of games that will be available for the device within the first week of launch.
Bruce Lee Dragon Warrior from Digital Legends (pre-installed)
FIFA 2010 from EA Mobile
Sims 3 from EA Mobile
Star Battalion from Gameloft
Tetris from EA mobile
Asphalt 6 from Gameloft (free to download)
Dungeon Defenders: Second Wave from Trendy Entertainment
Galaxy on Fire 2 from Fishlabs
Assassins Creed from Gameloft
Need for Speed SHIFT from EA Mobile
Worms from EA Mobile
Nova 2 from Gameloft
Modern Combat Black Pegasus from Gameloft
Guns n Glory from Handygames
Reckless Racing from Polarbit
Real Football 2011from Gameloft
Gun Bros from Glu Mobile
Racer Luma from Arcade/Unity
Cordy from SilverTree Media
Aporkalypse from Handygames
Brothers in Arms Global Front from Gameloft
Guerrilla Bob from Angry Mob Games/Unity
Let's Golf 2 from Gameloft
Zenonia 2 from Gamevil
Cyberlords from Handygames
Guitar Hero� Warriors of Rock Mobile from Glu Mobile
Age of Zombies from Halfbrick Studios
Spectral Souls from HyperDevBox Japan
Splinter Cell Conviction from Gameloft
Air Attack from Art in Games/Unity
Armageddon Squadron from Polarbit
Uno from Gameloft
InfeCCt from Handygames
Spiderman total Mayhem from Gameloft
Millionaire City from Digital Chocolate
Avatar from Gameloft
Raging Thunder 2from Polarbit
Homerun Battle 3D from Com2us Games
Aftermath XHD from Jakyl
I Must Run from GameLion
Baseball Superstars 2011from Gamevil
Ground Effect Pro from Jakyl
ZeNonia from Gamevil
Super KO Boxing 2 from Glu Mobile
Farm Story from Team Lava
Wave Blazer from Polarbit
Soccer Superstars from Gamevil
Battle Bears from Skyvu
Tower Blocks New York from Digital Chocolate
Super Dynamite Fishing from Handygames
Iron Sight from Polarbit
Toonwarz from Polarbit
Restaurant Story from Team Lava
Escape from AMA
Raving Babies from AMA
Bakery Story from Team Lava
Denki Blocks! Deluxe from Jakyl
Rollercoaster Rush from Digital Chocolate
