Apple shipped 20.3 million iPhones becoming the largest mobile hardware manufacturer and holding a market share of 19%. Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform launched last October has sold 1.5 millions units and sits with about 1% of the market. Microsoft is clearly hoping that the Mango update combined with Nokia devices can start to change those numbers for the better. RIMs market share slipped to 12% from 33% just a year ago. The majority of that collapse is focused on North American, as their global shipment numbers indicate a growth of 11%.

Android and Apple are currently the clear winners in the mobile space, and I’m certain that RIM, Nokia, and Microsoft aren’t going to sit idly by and watch their market share dry up. RIM needs to ship OS7 and present a clear new direction in order to win over the new mobile customer. Nokia needs to get something out on the carriers shelves that people want to buy – and hopefully soon. Microsoft needs to step up the pace and crank out the updates to Windows Phone while turning up the marketing to help gain awareness for the platform – Windows Phone continues to receive rave reviews from the media. With new hardware and refreshed marketing budget, perhaps they can pull up from the bottom hangout among the leaders once again. You can read the full announcement from Canalys in the newsroom on their website.

At the same time, Android surpassed Apple and Nokia’s Symbian as the most widely adopted mobile platform. While that’s great news for Google and Android fans. Apple, Nokia, Microsoft and RIM aren’t going to sit still. With this market growing to pass the desktop market, everyone will be gunning to get a lion’s share of it. It wasn’t too long ago that Symbian and RIM owned the mobile market. All that’s changed  and it looks like 2011 will be a fierce battle for dominance. I can’t wait!!

(Source = Financial Times)

Those of us that have been around the tech scene for a while will recall that Microsoft has a reputation for holding celebrations when the launch a new product or a major revision. It’s a great way for everyone involved that have worked so hard over the past while to blow off some steam and have a little fun at the same time. Plus, from a company standpoint, it’s a relatively easy way to thank your employees for all the hard work they’ve put in. As far as “attacking” the competition goes, Microsoft has always poked fun at their competitors. Anyone else recall when the IE team dropped a massive IE Logo on the front lawn at Netscape’s head quarters? And it wasn’t just Microsoft, other companies got into it as well.

Besides, it’s all done in fun. It’s not like anyone actually believes that the death of the iPhone is imminent now that Microsoft has launched something new. Microsoft didn’t die when Apple launched the iPhone. They did get hit pretty hard because they were slow to react. This is a sign of change – a notice to all that they received the message and have adjusted accordingly. But it’s certainly not the end of the road for anyone.

I look at this event and see a signal that the Microsoft of the last couple years is gone, and that they are back to the faster, more focused organization from a decade ago. Just remember – Competition is good for the consumer. In the last little while the mobile market has exploded with opportunity.

Check out some pictures of the celebration at the Windows Phone Blog site and there’s a bunch posted on flickr too. Looks like a fun time.

Apple iPhone 4 – Well, we all knew this was coming but for those that are fans, nice to see if it here. The iPhone 4 includes an all new sleeker design, very high resolution screen and a much more powerful processor.

Blackberry Torch 9800 – Just announced yesterday, the Torch is a large (huge!) Blackberry device with a slid-down qwerty and touch screen. For many this is going to be a very nice compromise allowing for a larger screen than most Blackberries (Blackberrys?) but still enjoying a nicely sized qwerty keyboard.

Curve 9300 – The Curve line of smartphones lives on with the 9300. There really isn’t a lot to write home about the 9300 other than to say it continues the line of very capable and reliable Blackberries at an affordable price point.

Motorola Flipout – Have you seen this cute little phone!? It is small and square, at least until you swing the screen around, much like the old Sidekick phones. It runs Android and uses Motorola’s Blur interface to stay in touch with friends. Very nice phone for the price for the younger smartphone user.

Galaxy S Captivate – The Juice!! The Samsung Galaxy S line of phones comes to Rogers as the Captivate, the same model as AT&T carries in the US. It’s a beautiful 4″ Super AMOLED display with a VERY thin profile, nice angles and a very fast and powerful processor. It’s a more expensive option, but with the included specs it’s worth it.

Nicely done Rogers! Keep bringing us Canadians lots of choice in phones and we will hug you!

What I don’t like about these predictions is simple – no one can see the future.  In the tech industry, every time there’s a major challenge produced, the analysts come out with these wild predictions about how the world will change because of this new challenge. For the most part, it never happens. There are some times when it does come true, but that’s so rare. I can recall when IBM launched OS 2.1, the analysts predicted that it would capture some ridiculous share of the market in the next 2 years.  They had pages and pages of reasons why this was going to be the case.  I think we all know how that turned out. This is just one example.  Tech history is littered with failed predictions.

So will Google manage to move all the way to second place in 3 short years? If the competition doesn’t change and role with the tide, then sure.  But I really don’t see Palm, Apple, Microsoft, and RIM sitting still over the next few years.  Right now, in the mobile space, you need to be moving forward at a aggressive pace or risk being left behind.  Microsoft was caught taking a nap recently and are already reacting and pumping things up to the level where is should have been. A couple years ago, Palm was caught napping and came very close to losing everything.  They’ve finally started to turn things around and with any luck they could have some serious market share in a couple years.

Apple and Google are here to stay.  And for that matter, so is Microsoft, RIM, and Symbian. All of these guys will have a significant share of the market in 3 years time. I’m not so sure about Palm and Linux but that’s a rant for another day.  Unfortunately, these forward looking statements are not about to go away.  The public and the press need to remember that the future has not been decided yet and that anything can happen.

(source = PPCGeeks)

So what am I getting at? Well, there is a demand for the flip form factor. There’s no question that there are a number of dumb flip phones on the market today. But where are all the smart ones? RIM recently announced a new BlackBerry device to their line-up, the BlackBerry Pearl Flip. None of the other smartphone manufacturers have a flip phone in their product lineup. HTC did have that SmartFlip device, which was a pretty nice first attempt at making a flip phone. Especially if you had the Cingular version with more memory and a larger battery. Before that, we had Motorola, who made 2 different flip based smartphones – the MPX 200 and 220. While the 220 was plagued with problems, both devices where extremely popular for their time. That’s it for the Windows Mobile camp. Sony Ericsson had that P990 Symbian based device a number of years back. However, that wasn’t really a flip phone. It was more a PDA with a protector that covered the keyboard. And Nokia has the Communicator device, but that’s not a flip phone, it’s more of a clamshell. You can still make and answer calls without flipping the phone open. You only need open the phone to use the keyboard. Aside from the Communicator, Nokia does have a Series 60 flip phone – the N76. However, the N76 is already 2 years old.

It certainly looks like all the major manufacturers are ignoring this market segment, except for RIM. I don’t understand why these companies are avoiding such a popular form-factor. There’s no doubt that people like the flip design, so why not offer more smartphone devices with it? I can understand that there is some concern because of the hinge and the risk of that breaking, but I think the majority of manufacturers have been able to make solid hinges that don’t easily break.

The only other concern that I can think of is that the form factor doesn’t allow for easy text entry. Most standard flip phones are using T9 with the standard 12 key layout. Smartphone users tend to want a full QWERTY layout. While this could be hard with the traditional flip phone, I can’t imagine it being a show stopper. I actually prefer the landscape screen found on most messenger style devices over the portrait screen found on the typical flip phone. Combine the full QWERTY with the landscape screen and you’ll have a wider flip phone than most. Nothing’s wrong with that. The option is to use the portrait screen with a SureType-like keyboard. This would provide the traditional flip form factor.

I can’t imagine any other reasons on why this design hasn’t happened yet. I’m growing sick of the traditional smartphone designs. It’s time for a change, let’s see if any manufacturer is willing to step up to the table.

When it comes to mobile devices, Motorola has 2 lines, consumer and industrial. The consumer line tends to be non-touch screen based. But the industrial line, better known as Symbol, is a full blown ruggedized device running Windows Mobile/CE and is touch screen enabled. So, if RIM is poaching employees for use on their touch screen device, does that mean we can expect a RIM based Windows Mobile-based device?

[Source]

Live Search is already available for BlackBerry devices (in beta) and Windows Mobile devices. You can download it directly to your smartphone by visiting http://wls.live.com using your phones mobile browser. The BlackBerry version will be released before the end of the year and is expected to offer better integration with the OS and browser.

The full press release is available at the Microsoft Press Pass website.