As reported on engadget.com:

“It’s oftentimes easy for us to get swept up in Android mania and forget that Google’s mobile platform is still in its infancy. Then we get cold hard numbers like these — showing iPhone OS owning 28 percent of the US Smartphone market and closing in on RIM’s leading 35 percent — and we face up to the realization that Android handsets still account for less than one in every ten Smartphones owned by Americans today.”

Engadget was reporting on the Nielson Company’s findings on the Android versus iPhone marketshare battle.

From the Nielson report:

Between Q4 ’09 and Q1 ’10, Android and iPhone’s share of the smartphone market grew by 2% each. At the same time, smartphone leader Blackberry lost 2% share to fall to 35% of all smartphones while Microsoft’s Windows Mobile OS also lost 2% to fall to 19%.

Apparently, Android and iPhone devices are eating away into RIM’s Blackberry marketshare in the US and Android is yet to catch up with the iPhone in terms of total sales. This contradicts an earlier claim by NPD that Android had overtaken iPhone in the US market.

Readers will also be interested in Apple’s refutal of the NPD figures, of which Engadget rightly pointed out that Apple was “not disputing NPD’s report here — rather, they’re simply trying to change the subject, as any properly-trained PR department would.”

Another intriguing fact in this research was that there is strong loyalty amongst Android and iPhone owners/users. This insight from the research shows that 80 percent of iPhone owners and 70 percent of Android owners express a preference for the same OS in their next phone.

In contrast, Microsoft and RIM’s loyalty numbers stood at 34 and 47 percent respectively.

The Nielson report covers the US only and does not reflect global trends. The U.S. remains a small fraction of the global smartphone market, where both Android and iPhone, while growing, remain small players.

Here in Nigeria, both platforms have an insignificant standing with the smartphone market massively dominated by Symbian, followed from a distance by RIM (BlackBerry) and Windows Mobile.

Yes, it is now official; the much hyped Chrome OS will be released to manufacturers and into the wild around the 4th Quarter of this year. Google Vice President, Sundar Pichai announced this at the COMPUTEX Cloud Computing forum. This Cloud computing forum featured executives from Google, ARM and Quanta Computers.

Chrome OS will initially be engineered to run on laptops and other mobile devices rather than full blown Desktops and Notebook Laptops. It is widely expected to compete with Microsoft’s Windows 7 as well as other operating systems.

Certification by the company is meant to ensure hardware makers create a quality device for users. Chrome OS will limit certain customization such as user interfaces at first to sustain a single user experience in all their OSes. This is similar to what Microsoft is doing with their Windows phone 7.

The Chrome web apps Store shall open at the same time, so that individuals can download web applications that can then be installed on the Chrome device. “For Chrome OS, we are focused on laptops for this year“, Google’s Vice President said at Computex.

Of course, the news is welcomed, seeing that one of the characteristics of the Chrome OS is speed. Compared to Windows 7 which takes minutes to boot, Chrome is expected to boot within seconds. The OS itself is sparse and would rely greatly on cloud computing and web apps, and so begs the question whether the Chrome OS itself will not compete with Google Android OS. As it is now, you can see Android running on Mobile devices, including phones, tablet form computers and even laptops. In other words Chrome and Android will fight for the same niche.

When asked these pertinent questions about the Chrome vs. Android debate, Mr. Pichai said that “providing open source platforms will allow the market to make the best determination about what operating system will work best in the mass market“. Android has taken off in earnest; it will thus be interesting to see how Chrome OS will develop.

For now, we’ll just wait and see if Chrome OS will give Microsoft or Apple a real challenge when it becomes available in the 4th quarter of this year.

Google got our attention by touting Android as an open source platform for mobile devices. Having had to deal with closed OS platforms, especially Apple’s tight-noose control over what goes on and off the iPhone, mobile enthusiasts looking for greater liberty with their mobile devices flocked over to Android.

Recently, Google flexed its muscles against third party modding of Android, claiming that it violates some of their intellectual property rights. According to CoolSmartPhone, here is Google’s official line on the subject:

“Android apps for many of our services like YouTube, Gmail, Google Voice, and so on [are] Google’s way of benefiting from Android in the same way that any other developer can, but the apps are not part of the Android platform itself. We make some of these apps available to users of any Android-powered device via Android Market, and others are pre-installed on some phones through business deals. Either way, these apps aren’t open source, and that’s why they aren’t included in the Android source code repository. Unauthorized distribution of this software harms us just like it would any other business, even if it’s done with the best of intentions.”

Source: Android – The official line on modding

Compare this with the fact that for years, Microsoft has ignored the tons of modding that is carried out on its Windows Mobile OS, and it is beginning to look like Andoid is not quite as open as we might have thought. If anything else, Android is not looking as attractive as it used to be.

Android fans are vexed and ranting all across the internet – some going as far as saying that they are through with Android OS devices.

It is looking interesting. Your thoughts on this development?

The Android-powered G1 is a great device. From a distance, its looks can throw one off, but get close and experience the functionality and usability packed into the device, and you are likely to get hooked.

I haven’t had this combination of fun and productivity from a mobile device in years! The Android OS is a hit, and developers are lapping it up.

Here’s a collection of pictures of the T-mobile G1 in action, with my commentaries appended. Enjoy!

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Okay, folks. That’s it for now: my small gallery and commentary on the G1. I am loving the Android OS and its first spawn, the T-mobile G1.

Even more exciting is the fact that a number of key manufacturers have announced that they will be releasing Android devices this year. On that list are: Samsung (Galaxy, BigFoot), HTC (Hero, Lancaster), LG, Motorola (Heron/IronMan, Calgary), and Acer (A1), among others.

Andy Rubin, Google’s Head of Mobile, is reported to have said that 18 to 20 Android phones will be launched this year alone. Indeed, if this happens, I must agree with the folks at Phandroid that 2009 be named the year of the Android.

But whether or not we see 18 to 20 phones this year, I have seen the future of mobility, and it is full of robots. Pun intended.

PS: It is now my firm belief that Android is on its way to giving Symbian a run for theeir money in terms of market share. What do you think? Am I simply infatuated?

First in my line of G1 reviews was my very own list of 10 Gripes about the T-mobile G1.

Here is the list of 10 things I like about the G1.

1. The user interface. Touch, swipe, and tap, and with a responsiveness that’s rarely seen in touchscreen devices. The icons are attractive as well, and the UI is generally easy to use. I adapted to the G1′s UI in under 10 minutes. No manual. No previous training.
2. Handling of data. If you have multiple access points for GPRS/EDGE/3G/HSDPA setup, the G1 intelligently uses the one for the SIM currently in your phone. And its all done behind-the-scenes and quickly too. Amazing!
3. Web browsing. The browser on the G1 is fast and gets the job done. Cpanel, WHM, online banking, it has handled everything that I have thrown at it with gracefulness.
4. Android Market. I don’t know where to start with the Android market but just say, “It works”. It works very well. Plus, the G1 automatically notifies you when updates are available for any application that you have installed from the Market. Sweet.
5. Customisable Home screen. The G1 homescreen is glorious. You can set widgets for a number of tasks, contacts, shortcuts to applications, folders, and wallpapers.
6. Integration with Google services. The G1 syncs with your Gmail, including contacts and calendar entries. All you need is your Gmail login details, and the G1 does the rest. There’s also a Google search widget, as well as built-in Youtube and GoogleTalk apps.
7. The QWERTY keyboard rocks! Now, I am Mr. QWERTY keyboard on mobile. When I say that the G1 QWERTY rocks, I mean that in my experience, it is second only to that on the E90. And that is a close second.
8. Notifications. There’s a notification bar at the top of the screen regardless of what menu you are in. You can pull it down to view the details of your notifications and then tap to open that item e.g. new email, new SMS, successful download, etc.
9. USB charging. Plug in the USB cable and connect to your PC, and the G1 tops up its battery charge.
10. Multi-tasking. It is multi-tasking spiced up. You can run multiple applications, and if one gets shut down because you ran out of memory, when you launch it again, it is restored to the very state you left it last time. If a download is interrupted (for example, because the data connection is broken), when the phone re-connects, it also resumes the download. Just sit back and relax.

I still have more detailed reviews coming up.

I must say that I am enjoying using the G1. In spite of the limitations that HTC imposed on this first Android device, it is a phone that grows on you. It has grown on me. Now, if only another manufacturer can deliver a QWERTY Android-powered device with none of HTC’s limitations…

Up next: a picture gallery of various interfaces on the G1.

For some time now, I have been talking about the dated Symbian platform and of my desire to try out some of the newer mobile platforms (for example, see What Nokia Needs to Fix – Right Away!). I need not mention again that I have been “Symbian Inside” all my mobile life. Yes; I tried out my hands on WinMo and Palm once or twice, but Symbian has remained my net of safety. Plus, no-one will argue when I say that those other two platforms I had checked out do not exactly cut it as “newer”.

Anyway, I ran into an offer for a used Android-powered G1 yesterday, and decided it wouldn’t hurt to give it a try. It was a low-cost offer; if I didn’t like the OS, I could chalk the expense as a minor waste.

For the sake of smartphone newbies, Android is the new mobile operating system that the guys at Google developed. And the T-mobile G1 is the very first smartphone based on that platform.

As things go, this morning, ‘Dayo and I drove down to Ibadan to pick up the T-mobile G1. It was a long day, but we are back and with an “Android” in our hands.

I will be doing a series of review articles on the G1 and the Android platform in general, so if interested, please grab our RSS feed or bookmark this site right away.

But before then, the crazy adventurous me went out of my way (with some measure of the usual risks) to make sure that this Android was brought up-to-date.

Gmail Activation

First thing, the G1 still had the email of the original user locked in. Meaning, I could not use it for my Gmail account or Google services in general. I figured that wouldn’t do. So, I did a factory reset.

That wiped out everything on the phone and returned it to a clean state. But I still had to activate it by logging in to my Gmail account (the G1 is designed not to work without an active Gmail account).

The issue was, for some reason the device simply could not login. No data indicators were showing on the screen. Anyway, after minutes of fiddling, I found the APN Settings menu (no other menu would come up besides emergency calls), and put in my network’s data settings.

Voila! In a few minutes, I had the G1 downloading my mails and running as designed. That was step one.

Firmware Update to Cupcake (version 1.5)

The G1 we picked came with firmware version 1.1. But you see, a long-awaited and certainly juicier firmware had been released of recent – version 1.5, dubbed “Cupcake”.

I downloaded the update file from Google, copied it to my microSD card on the phone, and followed the instructions. In roughly 5 minutes, I had a spanking new firmware running on the G1.

Now, I can really put it through its paces. Here are a few pictures from the update process:

‘Dayo Repents!

This introduction will not be complete if I do not mention that ‘Dayo had a brief go at the browser on the G1, and suddenly did a u-turn (or so it seemed).

You see, while I had been toying with the idea of exploring other mobile platforms, ‘Dayo had planted his feet firmly with Symbian, especially Symbian s60 5th edition. He owns a 5800 and has been nursing the ambition of getting the N97 when that is released.

But a few minutes with the G1 user interface and web browser did what I had been unable to do. ‘Dayo simply used certain adjectives to describe the user interfaces and browsers on Nokia (and Symbian) devices. Adjectives like: “rubbish“, and “nonsense“. And remarks like, “Why is Nokia doing us this way?” etc, etc. I’m sure that you get the picture by now.

If this first child of Android could make ‘Dayo have a re-think about S60 5th edition (a much older and mature platform), there must be something to this new kid on the block then.

Hang around!

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Finally, those of us with GPS enabled phones in Nigeria can now at least put them to use, albeit in a limited way.

In the past, most navigation applications that run on GPS enabled devices didn’t come with support for Nigeria and that included the widely popular Google maps. But that has changed now with the release of the latest version (3.0.1.4) of Google maps for s60 devices.
Google maps loaded the map of Lagos when I launched it and it pinpointed my location.

Features like getting direction from your current location to a new location are currently not working, but we can expect that with further updates of the software more and more features will have support for Nigeria.

In case you are itching to see your street on your phone, move over to http://m.google.com on your s60 browser to download the software. And don’t forget to give us feedback of your experiences and impressions.