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Google is Catching Up Fast with Palm’s Market Share Even Without the Nexus One

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The latest report by comScore on December 2009 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share shows some interesting trend among current top mobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and smartphone OS platforms. The report was based on the share of current mobile subscribers with age ranging from 13 and older. Motorola was the top mobile OEM from September to December 2009. While RIM and Apple top  the smartphone platforms in terms of market share during the said period.

Motorola’s market share from September to December slided down from 24.9% to 23.5%.  Surprisingly following Motorola were LG and Samsung while Nokia and RIM land on 4th and 5th place. For awhile I thought Nokia is still the leader in terms of mobile OEMs although this is understandble since the data covers the U.S. market only. If other countries were included, I’m pretty sure Nokia would top the list.

Moving on to the market share of smartphone platforms, RIM leads the pack with a commanding 41.6% market in the period ending December 2009. Apple is at second place with 25.3%, Microsoft at third with 18%, Palm with 6.1% and Google with  5.2%.

This is quite surprising since the period does not cover sales of the Google Nexus One which was only  released on January 6, 2010. Google’s 2009 market share were probably derived from sales of the Motorola Droid and other Android devices.

Moving on, for January to March data, this will definitely change and if sales of the latest Palm smartphones will not register significant marks, Google will easily dislodge it from the fourth position. Even at a comfortable lead against Google, Microsoft is still in danger of losing its position unless of course the Windows 7 mobile devices should come out sooner.

Originally posted on February 9, 2010 @ 10:04 am

Verizon Gets the Latest Motorola Android Phone – Devour

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There you go, Motorola’s latest “Android-powered-cloaked-in-Motoblur” smartphone called the Motorola Devour. Is it out to devour yet again a piece of the iPhone’s market share? Oh well, let’s just not get into that anymore since the Nexus One is busy doing that task.

So what do we have here? Capacitive touchscreen display checked. Touch navigation pad on-board. Pre-loaded applications such as Gmail, GTalk, YouTube, Google Search, Google Maps and of course direct access to Android market – pretty cool. Plus you’d also get the usual Motorola and Verizon mobile phone features.

Well it looks like Motorola has another good mobile handset here and Verizon is more than willing to take it in to its fold.  But wait, why drop the “Droid” branding? The Motorola DROID sort of put Motorola back into the smartphone map if only Google did not spoil it with the release of the Nexus One.

Is the Motorola Devour just a teaser of a better Motorola Android device to come?  I’ll leave that to your wild imagination folks. In the meantime, in case you find this Android device interesting, Verizon is offering it through various plans such as Nationwide Talk plans for $39.99 monthly access, Nationwide Talk & Text plans at $59.99 monthly access and an unlimited data package access that will cost you $29.99 monthly.

So, are you getting the Motorola Devour or will wait for the next Motorola Android phones to come out? If you’re a  heavy mobile social networking user, the Motorla Devour seems a pretty good handset to have since the Motoblur was designed to cater to that need. If not, well, you’d be better off with another Android device.

Originally posted on February 3, 2010 @ 5:22 pm

Motorola Brings the Android MOTOROI Phone to Korea

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Lookie here, Motorola has just brought in the first Android-powered phone ever to hit the Korean market and it goes by the monicker – the MOTOROI. This was made possible through a deal between Motorola and SK Telecom of Korea. While Motorola may have succeeded in becoming the first company to bring an Android smartphone to Koreans, it however faces tough challenge from local Korean mobile phone manufacturers who are also planning to launch their own Android devices.

But first, Motorola will also have to deal first with the iPhone which launched earlier in the Korean markets. Unfortunately for Motorola, the iPhone may have already gained quite a significant part of the Korean mobile market. In fact, it is said that the iPhone might have ignited the Koreans interest for smartphones.

Still, Motorola seemed poised to conquer the Korean mobile market by bringing out the MOTOROI loaded with features that every smartphone savvy will surely love. Apart from the Android OS, the MOTOROI also boasts of a 3.7-inch display, a whooping 8 megapixel camera with Xenon flash and a 720p HD camcorder. This feature becomes the first among Korean mobile phone users.

In addition, the MOTOROI will also have a terrestial digital multimedia broadcasting service which is very popular today in Korea.

Other features of the MOTOROI include 8GB of external memory which can be expanded up to 32GB. And since it is an Android phone, the MOTOROI will have access to thousands of Android apps available at the Android market  including some Korean-language applications.

The MOTOROI is expected to be priced at around $800 when it goes out in Korea sometime in April 2010.

 

Originally posted on January 20, 2010 @ 7:47 am

Ouch! DROID Beats iPhone for Time’s Gadget of the Year

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Android fans, rejoice! Time Magazine has just published its Top 10 Gadgets of 2009 and surprisingly (yes it surprised me) Motorola’s “recently” released DROID is the no.1 gadget of the year. Now, how is that possible?

No offence meant to Android fans and DROID users. But how could a gadget that was released only during the 4th quarter of the year possibly become “the gadget of the year?” Even if Time didn’t bother to explain their criteria for choosing this year’s gadget of the year from among the other gadgets that were released and became so popular this year, there’s no way that DROID can become the gadget of the year.

Or perhaps I’m not aware of how far the Moto DROID has affected the mobile consumer market. According to Time Magazine:

The Droid is a hefty beast, a metal behemoth without the gloss and finish of the iPhone, but you don’t miss it. The Droid’s touchscreen is phenomenally sharp and vivid, it has an actual physical (not great, but good enough) keyboard, and best of all, the Droid is on Verizon’s best-of-breed 3G network.

But how many users does the Moto DROID have right now? I mean, how many people have already seen if not used it?

Anyway, in case you want to know, Time’s top 10 gadgets of 2009 are the following - Motorola DROID, Nook (another controversial choice), Dyson Air Multiplier, iPhone 3GS, Canon EOS-1D Mark IV, Dell Adamo XPS, FinePix Real 3D W1, Casio G-Shock GW7900B-1, Beats Solo by Dr. Dre and Panasonic G10 Series Plasma HDTVs.

Originally posted on December 9, 2009 @ 5:25 am

Motorola Milestone aka Droid’s Ad Campaign Goes Mellow this Time

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If Moto Droid’s controversial ad campaign sparked some tremendous amount of buzz in the U.S., its European counterpart, the Motorola Milestone seemed to be a tamer version. The Moto Milestone is currently available  in most Europe mobile distributors and earlier report from Expansys indicates that sales is starting to pick up, slowly.

Maybe the dull and boring ad campaign is not helping out Motorola to gain some market momentum for the Milestone? Or is it because Europeans are still not ready yet to embrace Android?

Now, going back to the ad campaign, any idea as to why the European version is not as hard-hitting to iPhone as the American ad campaign? Right now, I could only think of one thing – that Motorola was not after all behind the ad campaign that kept on attacking the iPhone and even AT&T. So, it’s quite obvious that Verizon is the mastermind of the iPhone bashing after all.

Anyway, Motorola Milestone’s video ad aside from not hitting any competitor was also nicely done with a bit of serious tone. It actually suits well with the Motorola Milestone’s features.

So, which of the Motorola Droid/Milestone’s video ads do you like better?

Via Pocket-lint

Originally posted on December 10, 2009 @ 4:54 pm