Android app store will beat Apple's by August 2011

According to latest reports, the Android app store will overtake the Apple app store by August 2011, provided the current growth rate is maintained. In April 2011, the Android market place added 28,000 apps to its app store as opposed to Apple's 11,000 apps.

There's no doubt that Google's Android OS is the new popular kid on the block and is the only one giving the iOS a run for its money. Not only has it brought to notice the potential of mobile OS, but has also helped elevate some great mobile handsets made HTC, Samsung, Motorola and Sony Ericsson from their struggle against the iPhone.

The report has been released by Research2guidance, a research and consultancy firm on everything mobile. The firm stated that at the end of April 2011 the Android Market featured 2,95,000 apps. Sixty-four per cent of these apps are free, which is above-average for a major app store.

The research firm also says that the "free" culture of the Android Market has been one of the main characteristics of the Android ecosystem since its launch. Over the last few months there has been a tendency for publishers to try to shift the balance by submitting more paid apps. In April, the share of free apps submitted to the store slightly decreased to 60%.

It must be noted that the success of one app store over the other doesn't directly correlate with the success of the apps. It is generally observed that the top selling apps remain on the top and the plethora of apps added daily lag behind at the tail end.

Chinese tech giants fight over 4G phones

Two of China's biggest technology companies have launched a court battle in Europe over mobile phone patents in a rare public clash between firms Beijing is promoting as national champions.

The fight between Huawei Technologies Ltd. and ZTE Corp. highlights the challenge for communist leaders who need to manage Chinese corporate ambitions as they try to create global competitors in telecoms, energy and other fields. It is the first case of its kind between major Chinese companies, which usually settle disputes in private.

"We're going to see more of this in this industry and others," said David Wolf, a technology marketing consultant in Beijing. "The government will find, wow, we've got these national champions, but now they're trying to kill each other."

The dispute centers on fourth-generation mobile technology, which companies that are developing it say will deliver more stable connections, wireless broadband and other advances. It is in limited use in the United States and being tested elsewhere.

Control of key patents could help decide which equipment suppliers are positioned to reap billions of dollars in sales once it is rolled out in other markets.

Huawei and ZTE make network gear, the core of phone systems. They have multibillion-dollar annual sales in China, Africa and Latin America and see themselves as potential global 4G leaders. That fits with Communist Party hopes to transform China from a low-cost factory into a creator of profitable technology.

Huawei announced last week it filed patent infringement lawsuits against ZTE in France, Germany and Hungary. ZTE rejected the claims and said it has asked a French court and Chinese regulators to invalidate a Huawei patent.

Huawei and ZTE are among China's first wave of fledgling multinational companies. They compete with Nokia-Siemens Networks, Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent and have a small but growing U.S. and European presence.

Their dispute comes amid mounting complaints by foreign business groups about Beijing's industrial policy. They say China is improperly supporting favored companies by limiting market access and providing low-cost loans and other support.

Huawei's lawsuits accuse ZTE of infringing patents for data cards and improperly using a Huawei-registered trademark on some of its products.

"We will do whatever is required to ensure that the use of Huawei's intellectual property by any company is based on internationally accepted protocols and practices," said Huawei's chief legal officer, Song Liuping, in a statement.

ZTE said its lawsuit accused Huawei of infringing its 4G patents. The company said it also has asked a French court and China's State Intellectual Property Office to invalidate Huawei's patents for a rotary USB connector used to exchange data between devices.

"ZTE respects the intellectual property rights of other companies, but it will not stop protecting its own intellectual property rights," said a company statement.

Huawei, founded in 1987 by a former Chinese military engineer, has 110,000 employees and reported 2010 revenues of 182 billion yuan ($28 billion). ZTE, founded in 1985, has 70,000 workers and reported 2010 revenues of 70 billion yuan ($10.8 billion).

Their status as industry leaders gives both high-level political influence. But Chinese leaders want both to succeed -- a possible reason for a stalemate and the decision to go to court.

An impartial ruling by a European court also might add to the winner's appeal for potential customers by reinforcing its status as a technology creator, rather than a Chinese policy tool.

"They are making an interesting statement by filing those lawsuits not in Chinese courts but overseas, because Chinese courts are perceived to be very political, and they want this matter obviously adjudicated on the legal merits," said Wolf, CEO of Wolf Group Asia.

Huawei and ZTE are unusual among major Chinese companies because they compete directly with each other, offering similar products in the same markets.

Authorities who want China's potential global companies to focus their competitive energies on foreign rivals have tried to head off clashes in other industries by assigning different markets or products to individual enterprises.

In aerospace, a plan to create a homegrown jetliner to compete with Boeing Co. and Airbus Industrie was assigned to one state-owned company while a potential rival was told to develop a smaller regional jet instead.

Huawei has suffered setbacks as it tries to expand in the United States. It was forced in February to unwind its acquisition of 3Leaf Systems, a maker of cloud computing technology, after it failed to win approval from a U.S. security panel.

In a separate case, Huawei won a court order that temporarily blocked the sale of Motorola Solutions Inc.'s network business to rival Nokia-Siemens Networks. Huawei said the deal might reveal business secrets because Motorola sold Huawei equipment. Motorola settled with Huawei for an undisclosed fee.

Also this month, Ericsson said it has filed lawsuits against ZTE in Britain, Germany and Italy accusing the company of infringing patents for handset and network technology. The Swedish company asked the courts to block ZTE from selling mobile phones that contain the disputed technology and some network products.

And now, bendable screens on smartphones

The smartphone is evolving at a furious pace. After buttons, touch screens and tablets, the bendable screen is the newest prototype. How it works - just bend the screen in different directions to get it to do what you want.

Says creator Roel Vertegaal, Director, Queen's University Human Media Lab, "This is the future. Everything is going to look and feel like this within five years. This computer looks, feels and operates like a small sheet of interactive paper. You interact with it by bending it into a cell phone, flipping the corner to turn pages, or writing on it with a pen."

The prototype is called a paperphone and can perform all the actions your smartphone can - store books, play music and make phone calls.

The display of the paperphone consists of a 9.5cm diagonal thin film flexible e-ink display. The flexible form of the display makes it more portable than existing smartphones.

A bendable screen prevents the screen from breaking if dropped, and ensures economy of space as the phone can be folded for storage when not in use.

In the recent past, there have been prototypes of bendable phones from Sony, LG and Philips but none of them have featured a bendable screen as the user interface.

Nokia to introduce dual sim enabled mobiles

Finnish handset maker Nokia would soon introduce "Dual Sim" enabled mobile phones in Indian market, a company official said today.
 
"We will be introducing the dual sim phone very soon (in India). The new model would be produced at the Chennai facility", Nokia India Director (Chennai-factory) Operations Prakash Katama told reporters here.
  
Meanwhile, Nokia after entering India in 2006, has crossed its 500th million mark mobile phone produced from the Chennai plant. The company which set up its first plant with an investment of USD 150 million began producing basic handsets.
  
"In June 2010, we crossed the 400 million mark and now we are proud to announce the 500th million mobile phone manufactured from our facility.", he said.
  
Stating that the company has so far made investments of USD 285 million at the factory as part of its expansion plans, he said they were very proud to cross the 500 million mark in a such a short duration, he said after unveiling the 500th million mobile phone Nokia - C3.
  
The company which initially began producing the basic 1100 model at the factory is currently manufactures 21 models including the QWERTY, dual sim and Touch models.
 
"This has become the largest mobile manufacturing site for Nokia. We have about 8,000 employees at our facility with 70 per cent constituting women", he said.
  
While the handsets manufactured at the facility range from the basic to middle end phones (priced upto Rs 7,000),he said.
   
The phones produced in India have a localisation level of 30 per cent and the company has about five component suppliers in the SEZ itself, he said.
 
On the 500th mobile phone launched today, Nokia India Communications Director Poonam Kaul said their Brand Ambassador - Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan signed phone

would be available for prospective buyers through an e-auction at www.nokia500million.com for bidding.
  
The winner would get the mobile phone personally signed by the Actor himself, she said.
  
Asked on their restructuring plans in which there could be about 300 job cuts in India, Katama later told PTI that 300 job cuts would be done in India by end of 2012. "It is likely to be minimal (in India)", he said.
  
About the proposal to manufacture a universal charger compatible to all mobile handsets, Nokia Communications Director Poonam Kaul said that proposal was "well on track".
   
"We are absolutely on track with that... Thats very much on plan.. It will be introduced in 2012", she said.
   
Nokia currently has 10 manufacturing facilities in nine countries. From the Chennai facility alone, Nokia exports to over 100 countries which contribute 50 per cent of the production. In 2010, Nokia India reported revenues of Rs 25,000 crore. 

Android leads market ahead of Apple

According to research data for Q1 2011,  Android is leading the smart phone market for the second quarter running. Google's OS has 35.7 million units shipped in Q1 2011 increasing its market share to 35%.

Nokia  remains numero-uno in 28 countries. Despite the lukewarm success of their latest Symbian smartphones, the adoption of Windows Phone 7 and the death of MeeGo, Nokia has grown 79% in China with 8.9 million units shipped. However, they has lost the global number one spot to Android.

 Android also saw a 200% growth in the largest smartphone market - USA, where it dominated with 49% market share. Apple's share grew to 31%, a growth of over 150% year-on-year. This growth can be credited significantly to the launch of the iPhone 4 on the Verizon Wireless network, which helped boost sales.

 BlackBerry maker RIM, however, saw a dip in its market share in Q1 2011. Hopefully, the arrival of the PlayBook tablet and a refreshed smartphone lineup will help BlackBerry back on its feet.

 The data comes from Canalys, a research organisation with a focus on technology vendors.

 Quality products provided by vendors supported Androids success. "HTC, Samsung, LG, Motorola and Sony Ericsson drove Android shipments in the first quarter, with each vendor shipping well over 3 million devices," said Peter Cunningham, principal analyst, Canalys. "Samsung also shipped nearly 3.5 million bada operating system-based smart phones, outperforming total shipments of Windows Phone devices by more than a million units."

 "Samsung's own operating system development, combined with the branding and investment in its Wave smart phones at mid-tier prices, has led to good uptake in developed markets, such as France, the UK and Germany", continued Cunningham. "This achievement shows that there is still room for multiple operating systems, and that vendors can benefit from maintaining control of device development to hit the right markets and price points."

 Canalys has also confirmed that Asia Pacific is the largest growing smartphone market with a year-on-year growth of 93%. 37.3 million units were shipped, making Asia Pacific a larger market than Europe, the Middle East and Africa for the first time since 2007. The biggest growth has come from India, China and South Korea.

Playboy Uncensored On iPad? Not Yet

Bad news for all the red blooded males out in Cyberia.

Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy, tweeted early morning today that Playboy would hit the iPad, uncensored, on May 18. His exact words: "Playboy will be available on iPad, complete & uncensored, on May 18."

Speculations went into overdrive. Apple has a strict policy against uncensored apps - had Playboy found a way in?

Just as quickly, the news was scotched. Four hours after the original post, Hugh Hefner's Twitter account clarified that it will indeed be an iPad optimised version of the Playboy website that will launch on May 18. The magazine archives will be available for $8 a month to its subscribers. The subsequent tweet said, "I.Playboy.com gives readers access to every issue--from first to last--for $8 a month."

What a turn-off. 

Apple update fixes iPhone tracking "bugs"

Apple on Wednesday released updated software for iPhones to fix "bugs" that resulted in location data being unencrypted and stored for up to a year.

A note included with the update said that the cache of saved data on devices was reduced and that location information would no longer be backed up at iTunes on people's computers.

Turning off the location services feature on an Apple gadget will cause location data to be deleted, the update promised.

The changes came in an iOS 4.3.3 software update for iPhones, iPads, and iPod touch devices.

According to British researchers, iPhones and iPads running iOS 4, the latest operating system, were storing latitude and longitude coordinates in a hidden file along with a time stamp and the data was easily retrievable.

"By passively logging your location without your permission, Apple made it possible for anyone from a jealous spouse to a private investigator to get a detailed picture of your movements," they said.

The Cupertino, California-based company has staunchly denied tracking iPhone users, maintaining that location data gathered by the smartphones was used for services such as navigation or targeted ads.

"Apple is not tracking the location of your iPhone," the Apple said last month in its first response to privacy questions raised by the two researchers. "Apple has never done so and has no plans to ever do so."

Apple said the iPhone was not logging a user's location but maintaining a database of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers to "help your iPhone rapidly and accurately calculate its location when requested."

Apple said the location data the researchers were seeing on the iPhone is "not the past or present location of the iPhone, but rather the locations of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers surrounding the iPhone's location, which can be more than one hundred miles away from the iPhone."

India's first Honeycomb tablets launched by Acer

Acer today has announced the launch of two 10.1-inch tablets in India. One of the devices will be running Windows 7 and the other, Google's Android Honeycomb OS. Both the devices boast of a 10.1-inch capacitive touchscreen display, strong build, are 13.33 mm thick and show off a full size USB port along with a mini USB port, HDMI output, Micro SD card slot and SIM Card support.

Like all other Honeycomb tablets, the Acer A500 boasts of the NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual core 1.0 Ghz processor and Flash 10.1 support for a complete web browsing experience. Something the iPad still lacks to date.

Acer has also announced the launch of the Iconia dual screen notebook, which is powered by an Intel Core i5 processor and will run Windows 7. Up till now, the only other company to show off a dual screen notebook was Toshiba with the Toshiba W100. The 14-inch Acer notebook will have two touch-enabled HD LED backlit displays.

In addition to the A500 and the dual screen notebook, Acer also launched a 7-inch Android tablet called the A 100 and the Iconia Smart A 300, a 4.8-inch Gingerbread powered smartphone with an 8MP camera.

Honeycomb based tablets in India have been announced recently by Samsung and Olive, but Acer has put it into action with the introduction of the A500. Other Gingerbread smartphones available in the market include the recently launched Nexus S and the Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc and Play. The Samsung Galaxy S 2 and the LG Optimus 3D are expected to hit the streets in the near future.

The 10.1-inch Gingerbread powered A500 tablet is priced at Rs. 27,990 whereas the Windows 7 based tablet is priced at Rs.32,499 and will be available with a keyboard dock.

The Acer tablets are competitively priced against the iPad 2, which was recently launched in India in the price bracket of Rs. 29,500 to Rs. 46,900 depending on the configuration.

Angry Birds flies off with Webby Award

Angry Birds has picked up a Webby Award to go with its millions of addicted fans.

The Angry Birds iPhone application from Finland's Rovio was named Best Mobile Game as the winners of the 15th annual Webby Awards were announced in New York on Tuesday.

Angry Birds was also named the winner of the People's Voice award determined in an online vote.

Other Webby Award winners included teen pop star Justin Bieber, in a comedy category, Arcade Fire for their "The Wilderness Downtown" video and The New York Times, which picked up awards in the How-To, Travel and Mobile categories.

Comedy website Funny or Die scooped up eight awards. Actor Zach Galifianakis was among the winners for his mock talk show "Between Two Ferns."

Former "Friends" star Lisa Kudrow picked up a Webby for "Web Therapy."

Social news iPad application Flipboard won awards in the News and Social categories and check-in application Foursquare was tapped for best use of GPS and location technology.

The advertising agency Wieden + Kennedy won a Webby Award for its popular video campaign starring Isaiah Mustafa as the "Old Spice Guy" and was also named Agency of the Year.

"This year's Webby Winners exemplify the type of profound effect the Internet is having on popular culture and the world at large," Webby Awards executive director David-Michel Davies said.

"From Arcade Fire's reinvention of the music video format with The Wilderness Downtown, or the New York Times coverage of revolution in Egypt and the Middle East, the Internet is the driving force of change in the world today," he said.

The Webby Awards honor excellence in website design, interactive advertising, film and video, mobile and applications in various categories.

Webby Award winners will be honored at a ceremony in New York on June 13, where they will be allowed to deliver speeches of five words or less.

The awards are bestowed by the New York-based International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.

People's Voice winners are selected by online voting at webby.aol.com and Webby Awards by judges who include cooking guru Martha Stewart, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone and Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post.

BlackBerry chooses Microsoft over Google

Research In Motion will use Microsoft's Bing services on new BlackBerry smartphones.

Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer made the announcement Tuesday at RIM's annual BlackBerry World conference in Orlando, Fla. Bing director Matt Dahlin outlined the plans on the Bing Search Blog.

Dahlin says BlackBerrys shipped to wireless carriers will use Bing as its default search and map services. Bing will be the BlackBerry browser's preferred search engine. RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook tablet already uses Bing for search and maps.

According to comScore Inc., Microsoft had about 14 percent of the U.S. search market in March, while Google had about 66 percent. But the growth of smartphones could present opportunities for search engines such as Bing to catch up.

BlackBerry's PlayBook gets Facebook app before iPad

BlackBerry maker RIM has announced a Facebook app for its tablet device, the PlayBook. This will make the PlayBook the first tablet with a Facebook app, over the all mighty iPad.

The app is said to take full advantage of the 7-inch display of the device. The app will be showcased at the BlackBerry World conference later this week and is expected to be available to users by the end of the month.

Users can find friends easily by going through a new grid view of profile pictures. They will be able upload photos directly from the device to their Facebook account. Users will also be able to browse highlights and notifications such as photo uploads, status updates and view links in the BlackBerry PlayBook browser.

BlackBerry announces touch screen phones

BlackBerry has officially announced the touch screen enabled Bold 9900 and Bold 9930, ending speculation over the existence of these devices. The 9900 will be the US version of the device while the 9930 is expected to be launched the world over.

Both devices will come loaded with BlackBerry's latest operating system the BlackBerry OS 7. BlackBerry OS 7 will integrate BlackBerry Balance, which separates personal content from corporate content on the smartphone, giving users the flexibility to use the handset for personal email, Facebook, Twitter, multimedia, games and other apps while satisfying the very real need for corporate data to be highly secure and manageable.

BlackBerry is touting both phones as the thinnest BlackBerry ever made, at a slim profile of 10.5mm. But they still cannot match the anorexic madness of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc and the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S 2, which are measured in the sub 9mm range.

Both devices will pack a 1.2Ghz processor, a Liquid Graphics touch screen and high speed data capabilities including 4G. Previously the BlackBerry Torch was criticized for its slow processor and it looks like BlackBerry hopes to make amends to that trend.

The Liquid Graphics touch screen, is a new feature powered by BlackBerry OS 7, which will deliver fast, smooth performance for highly responsive touch-based navigation, web browsing, pictures, video and graphics intensive games. Through the Liquid Graphics touch display, both the devices will have an impressive resolution of 287 dpi, which is second only to the iPhone 4.

Besides the new processor enhancement both devices will have built in Near Field Communication (NFC) capabilities. Previously only the Samsung Nexus S has come preloaded with this technology and many suspect the upcoming iPhone 5 will also include this feature. NFC is touted to be the next generation transaction technology, which may, in time, replace credit cards.

Both the devices will be released with a preloaded version of 'Documents 2 Go' Premium, which is the top mobile office suite.

As of now BlackBerry has not announced when both of these devices will be available in the market

Android smartphones winning over 'app' makers

Google is the new darling of software wizards out to cash-in on the world's love for customizing smartphones with fun, hip or functional applications.

Developers once obsessed with "apps" for Apple's hot-selling iPhones are touting creations tailored for smartphones built on the Google-backed Android platform.

"In the past seven months, Android has become the de facto second platform out there that people are developing for," AppNation chairman Drew Ianni told AFP during the gathering of software entrepreneurs this week in San Francisco.

"I think there is a general wait-and-see interest regarding platforms outside of Apple iOS and Android," he added.

Mobile platforms being watched by developers include BlackBerry, Microsoft Windows Phone 7 and Hewlett-Packard's webOS.

Ianni expected smartphones based on Microsoft or HP software to increase in allure as they gain traction in the market.

"We need a third platform that is viable, otherwise it is going to be the Android show," Urban Airship chief executive Scott Kveton said after taking part in an AppNation panel.

"Android is growing at a phenomenal rate," he continued. "I'm afraid it is going to be Android running away with it."

Urban Airship provides tools that help developers make money from smartphone programs. Early in April the Oregon-based company added a feature allowing people to make purchases inside Android applications.

"Increasingly, people are finding it a good investment to build for Android and build for tablets and we are trying to support them," Google director of mobile Americas Jason Spero said after an on-stage chat at AppNation.

Android's share of the US smartphone market has surged this year while BlackBerry's sunk, according to recent figures from industry tracker comScore.

Android commanded a third of the market, while BlackBerry ranked second with 29 percent and Apple third with 25 percent, comScore reported.

"Almost everyone developing for iPhone has moved on to Android," said Mario Tapia, director of mobile products at application store GetJar and coordinator of a Mobile Mondays social group for developers in Silicon Valley.

"At the end of the day, it is about distribution," he added. "You move to where the audience is."

Apple had slightly more that 333,000 iPhone applications in its App Store in March, but Google's Android Market boasted 206,000 "apps" and was growing fast, according to figures from industry tracker Distimo.

"The Android Market is going to take over as biggest application store in terms of quantity of apps in about five months," Distimo researchers concluded.

Distimo predicted that Apple's App Store would be relegated to second place, followed by Windows Phone 7 Marketplace and BlackBerry App World.

Windows Phone 7 Marketplace had about 12,000 applications in March while Nokia Ovi Store had 30,000 and BlackBerry had 27,000, according to Distimo.

Distimo expected Windows 7 Marketplace to leap ahead of BlackBerry and Ovi by October.

"If Apple has 150 million iOS devices out there it is almost a no-brainer, you write for iOS," said analyst Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies.

"You see Android coming up the line, and that is almost a no-brainer," he continued. "Where it becomes tougher is making the next step to go after webOS or BlackBerry or whatever with limited money and talent."

Independent application operations typically have only a few, if not just one, software developer, according to Bajarin.

Finding ways to get noticed and make money in a sea of more than 600,000 smartphone applications were hot topics at AppNation.

Attendance at the event grew to 1,700 this year from 1,100 at its premier in San Francisco last year. The number of exhibitors grew to 210 from 80.

Opera Mobile Store that spans more than 200 countries launched an "Appcelerator" program at AppNation to help developers promote and profit from software creations.

"The apps here are great," said Opera Software consumer mobile executive vice president Mahi de Silva. "You are seeing the tip of the iceberg in innovation."

Advertisers are increasingly tuning into the potential to target consumers on smartphones and tablet computers.

"There is no question that ultimately, this is probably the most powerful vehicle for ads that we've ever had," Bajarin said. "Television was obviously significant but if I can do location-based services tied to ads this changes the dynamics of advertising completely."

Mobile ads are more effective for advertisers and can translate into more money for developers, according to Lisa Abramson, director of marketing at mobile video ad network Rhythm New Media.

"Consumers love free and the best way to monetize that is through advertising," Abramson said.

Developers can also make money from in-application transactions, selling virtual goods, or simply charging for software.

"It becomes a collage of monetization mechanisms," Spero said. "Each developer has to be an expert on what their audience has a tolerance for."

Apple juggernaut sends ripples through tech world

Consumer technology companies reporting financial results this week are looking like rowboats bobbing in the wake of Apple Inc.'s supertanker.

Close to oblivion in 1997, Apple is now the world's second-most valuable company, after Exxon Mobil Corp. On April 20, it reported net income of $5.99 billion for the January-to-March period, nearly double that of a year ago. It shipped a record 18.65 million iPhones during the quarter. Its iPad tablet computers are so popular, the company couldn't make enough.

Apple's ascendancy has produced many losers and a few winners, as underscored over the past two weeks:

� Microsoft Corp.: loser.

Apple dethroned Microsoft as the world's most valuable technology company a year ago. In its mid-fall report, it surpassed Microsoft in quarterly revenue. In the January-March period this year, it surpassed Microsoft in net income, too.

On Thursday, Microsoft reported that revenue from the Windows operating system declined for the second straight quarter because people are buying fewer Windows computers.

Some prospective buyers are going to Macs instead -- Apple reported that it sold 28 percent more units. Others are going to iPads. Goldman Sachs now believes that more than 30 percent of iPads sold may be replacing PC sales. In the 90s, the trend was the opposite, as Windows PCs were crowding out Macs.

� Nokia Corp.: loser.

Nokia said this week that it will slash 7,000 jobs through layoffs and outsourcing. It still sells more phones than anyone else, but it's losing share to Apple, especially when it comes to smartphones.

Research firm Strategy Analytics also said revenue from Apple's iPhone sales surpassed that of Nokia's phones in the January-to-March period, as iPhones are much more expensive than the average Nokia phone. That makes Apple the world's largest phone maker by revenue.

To better compete with the iPhone, Nokia is ditching its old Symbian software and adopting Microsoft's Windows Phone 7. But the transition will take time; the first Windows-powered Nokia phones aren't expected until late 2011 or early 2012.

� Research In Motion Ltd.: loser.

The maker of the BlackBerry is in a predicament that's similar to Nokia's. RIM warned Thursday that net income, revenue and unit sales for the quarter ending in May will come in below its previous forecast.

The company's high-end phones are looking old compared with the iPhone and ones running Google Inc.'s Android software. They aren't selling as well as the company expected.

RIM promised investors that new phones with revamped software will bring sales roaring back in the latter half of the year, but investors are skeptical, sending RIM's stock down Friday.

� HTC Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. and Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc.: winners, indirectly.

Although all three companies compete with Apple's iPhone, they are doing well. Unlike Nokia and RIM, the three are betting on Google's Android system, which comes the closest to mimicking the look, feel and functions of the iPhone.

Motorola Mobility is a shadow of the old Motorola, once the world's second-largest maker of phones. But its focus on Android-powered smartphones is showing signs of success. It reported on Thursday a near-doubling of smartphone sales in the first quarter.

HTC of Taiwan has been making smartphones for a decade, and sales are really taking off with the help of Android. On Friday, it reported selling 9.7 million in the first quarter.

For South Korea's Samsung, smartphone sales were a bright spot in the first quarter as overall phone sales declined and other electronics were weak. The company is embroiled in patent litigation with Apple.

� Verizon Wireless: winner.

The No. 1 U.S. cellphone carrier posted a jump in new contract-signing customers -- the more profitable kind -- after it introduced its version of the iPhone on Feb. 10, which ended AT&T Inc.'s exclusive grip on the device in the U.S.

(Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc. of New York and Vodafone Group PLC of Britain.)

� AT&T and Sprint Nextel Corp: mixed.

Verizon's new subscribers came at the expense of AT&T and Sprint Nextel Corp. But neither carrier saw signs of current customers moving to Verizon for the sake of the iPhone. Rather, it seems customers weighing between carriers were more likely to go to Verizon because of the iPhone.

AT&T appeared to be splitting new iPhone customers evenly with Verizon Wireless.

Sprint lost lucrative contract customers in the quarter, but continued its long turnaround by signing up a record number of people on cheaper, contract-free plans.