Saturday, May 21, 2011

MobileCrunch

MobileCrunch

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Nokia Sees Lowest Market Share In 14 Years: Gartner

Posted: 20 May 2011 07:43 AM PDT

Things have never been so bleak for the world's largest handset maker. Fresh off of rumors that Nokia would be selling off its handset division to Microsoft, new numbers from Gartner reveal that Nokia's current market share is the lowest its been since 1997, nearly 14 years ago.

Over the course of the last few years, Nokia's market share has dropped to 25 percent, pretty on par with its market share in 1997. Between Q1 2010 and Q1 2011, Nokia's share fell 5.5 percentage points. What's worse, no one else seems to be feeling the pain like Nokia.

While Nokia's share was plummeting, worldwide mobile devices sales jumped 19 percent year-over-year. Google's Android takes a 36 percent-size slice of the pie and Apple doubled the number of iPhones it sold last year.

[via All Things Digital]

Apple Strikes Back in Amazon “App Store” Tiff

Posted: 20 May 2011 07:12 AM PDT

Shockingly enough, Apple isn't down with Amazon's claim that the term "app store" is generic, and recently denied such a claim during the ongoing tiff between the two application providers. Amazon argues that the term "app store" is generic, and when the words are put together, they signify a store where one can buy and download applications.

"Apple denies that, based on their common meaning, the words 'app store' together denote a store for apps," said Apple in a federal court filing. Other businesses such as Microsoft and Google have found a different way to brand their application stores, with terms like Windows Marketplace or Android Market. Because "app store" is not a commonly used term by similar businesses, Apple maintains that the non-generic term "app store" is an infringement on Apple's trademark.

Back in March, shortly after the launch of the Amazon Appstore for Android, Apple sought a court order to stop Amazon from using the term "App Store" for its application portal. Amazon fought back with an April 26 court filing, arguing that the words, when together, are a generic term that Apple has no exclusive rights over.

As of now, this is far from over. It doesn't look like either party is anywhere closer to backing down, while both have the resources necessary to keep the fight going. However, if Apple should get the win, Amazon will likely have to start brainstorming for a new name.

[via Bloomberg]

Video: Fujitsu’s Symbian/Windows 7 Dual Boot Cell Phone Up And Close

Posted: 20 May 2011 06:12 AM PDT

We showed you the LOOX F-07C earlier this week, Fujitsu's Symbian/Windows 7 dual-boot cell phone that Japan's biggest mobile carrier NTT Docomo plans to market this summer. In case you were wondering how the device looks like in action, our friends over at Diginfonews in Tokyo have shot a video (in English).

To recap, the LOOX F-07C comes with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a 4-inch LCD screen, a 5MP CMOS camera, and is powered by a 1.2GHz Intel Atom CPU that’s under-clocked to 600Mhz (full feature set here).

It turns out Docomo is trying to market the device as full mobile PC/cell phone hybrid and that it takes 3 seconds to switch from computer to phone mode after pushing the button.

Here’s the video:

Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread Coming To Xperia Play, Arc Next Week

Posted: 20 May 2011 05:36 AM PDT

Hot on the heels of last week's announcement of Facebook Inside Xperia, the deepest Facebook integration we've seen to date on a mobile device, it's also looking like the gaming-centric Sony Ericsson Xperia Play and the Xperia Arc smartphone will be receiving updates to Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread next week in the UK, according to Recombu.

This update, assuming all goes to plan, will mark the first non-Nexus phones to see the likes of 2.3.3. Gingerbread. The Xperia Play and Xperia Arc are the only members of the Xperia family to see the update as soon as next week, we expect to see the rest of Sony Ericsson's product line including the Xperia Mini, Mini Pro, and Neo get the update shortly thereafter. Although updates are always fun, this one doesn't bring a whole lot of excitement to the table. Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread basically just improves on the overall Gingerbread experience while patching up a few security leaks.

Xperia Play and Arc owners do have something else to be excited about though. Facebook Inside Xperia adds "the social network" to every corner and crevice of a phone, giving the user the ability to link music to a Facebook wall from inside the media player of the phone, and share photos from within the media library. Facebook Inside Xperia also syncs contacts on Facebook with those on your phone, to make sure everyone the user knows is easily available, right from the address book.

[via Phone Arena]
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