22% of U.S. Smart Phones Sold were 4G Capable

About 22 percent of smart phones purchased by U.S. consumers in the second quarter of 2011 were capable of running at 4G speeds. 


A year ago, just three percent of U.S. smart phones sold could run on a 4G network, according to the NPD Group. 

The top four smart phone 4G manufacturers, based on consumer sales in Q2 2011:
1.HTC: 62%
2.Samsung: 22%
3.Motorola: 11%
4.LG: 4%


What the study did not look at, but seems correct, is that "4G" is not yet a distinct "service." It is faster than 3G, which is good, but not yet in any way a truly different "service" than 3G. So far, 4G is a "better pipe," but just that: a better pipe, as a 10 Mbps connection is better than a 5 Mbps connection. 


For 4G is anything more than "table stakes" for mobile service providers, the end use experience will have to change. So far, that hasn't happened. 

20% of Smart phones Sold in Q2 2011 Were 4G-Capable

Motorola promises more Atrix-like Smart Phone Docks

Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha says "you will see multiple devices from us in the second half launching with these capabilities, and we will expand the range of our Lapdock devices so we cover a broader price point, addressing both the enterprise premium tier as well as more consumer tiers."

Some observers say they were disappointed by the Atrix, but lots of concepts do not fair so well in their first incarnation. Consider the tablet device itself, something suppliers have experimented with for more than a decade, and which conceptually has been thought about for several decades.

Not all users will necessarily be intrigued by future implementations, simply because a tablet with a touch interface is what works for them. There is another group of users that requires fuller PC style features in a device, typically because the work tasks to be accomplishments require more horsepower and a wider range of interface options.

And not all the initial issues were Motorola's doing. See http://www.bgr.com/2011/04/29/att-issues-update-for-motorola-atrix-4g-hsupa-restrictor-plate-removed/.

The potential for a docking system of this sort will appeal to some portion of those users who need a keyboard interface when traveling or otherwise away from a desk.

Motorola promises more Atrix-like laptop docks for future phones -- Engadget

Apple Sues Samsung Over Tablets, Smart Phones

Apple is suing Samsung, alleging the Galaxy line of phones and tablets infringe on a number of the company’s patents and trademarks.

The suit, filed on Friday in U.S. District Court in Northern California, alleges patent and trademark infringement, as well as unfair competition. Apple is seeking injunctions, actual damages and punitive damages, as well as a finding that the alleged infringement was willful

The smartphone industry is filled with patent actions, including an ongoing battle between Apple and Nokia, suits between Microsoft and Motorola, as well as a suit by Oracle against Google. See this, for example.

Apple Sues Samsung, Saying Galaxy Phones and Tablets Too Close To iPad and iPhone Design | Ina Fried | Mobilized | AllThingsD

Motorola Xoom Tablet Super Bowl Ad

The Motorola Xoom ad obviously is a take on the famous 1984 Apple ad, aired at a time when Apple, struggling against Microsoft, wanted to emphasize its "be different" ethos.

Here's the Apple ad, for comparison. Oddly enough, it now is Apple that is the tablet "incumbent", Apple that is taking some heat for curation of the end user experience. Android devices such as Xoom that are more "open."

HTC Tops Other Android Handset Suppliers for Upgrades to Latest Version

HTC seems to be the most-prolific handset manufacturer in terms of introducing Android operating system upgrades, according to a study conducted by Computerworld. HTC upgraded 50 percent of its Android phones to to Froyo, the latest Android version, within 2010. Its average upgrade time is 56 days.

Motorola comes in second for number of upgrades, with 15.4 percent of its Android phones having tasted Froyo before the end of 2010. While that number sounds low, especially compared to HTC, note that Motorola had four handsets that weren't released until November 2010, which means those devices had far less time on the market before the year's end.

Android upgrades: Which manufacturers can you trust? - Computerworld

New Motorola Zoom Tablet

Motorola Zoom tablet, powered by Android.

Signs of Trouble in the Mobile Handset Business?

Trouble might be brewing in the mobile handset business, if one looks at profits in the industry. Apple is the outstanding winner, and Research in Motion isn't immediately troubled, either.

But Apple's growth seems to have come at the expense of other providers, and doesn't seem to have grown the market.

Industry profits dipped to a bit under $4 billion at the trough of the recession, and have recovered to nearly $6 billion in the holiday quarter last year. But the aggregate data hides a stunning shift of market share.

Motorola and Sony Ericsson had been losing money and only recently have reached breakeven status. LG turned negative in the second quarter of 2010.

Samsung has been consistently profitable and has gained market share.

But Apple and RIM now ern about 65 percent of all profits in the business.

asymco

Apple iPhone Demand Seen Exploding

ChangeWave's latest smart phone survey of 4,028 consumers shows an "explosive transformation" occurring in consumer demand, suggesting some major new mobile handset winners and losers for second half 2010.

Changewave says its latest survey shows the strongest interest in smartphones ever recorded in a Changewave survey. But there's a significant change within that demand pattern: Apple and HTC devices are getting strong demand at the expense of Motorola and Research in Motion.

The future buying plans suggest coming huge moves upward for Apple and HTC, with a whopping 52 percent of respondents who plan to buy a smart phone in the next 90 days saying they'll get an Apple iPhone.

It also appears that Android demand has shifted to HTC and away from Motorola.

Explosive Changes in Consumer Demand Shake Up Smart Phone Industry

Apple Makes More Profit Than All the Rest of the Handset Industry

Since getting into the mobile handset business with its iPhone, Apple has blown away the whole rest of the handset industry in earnings (before interest and taxes), according to a new  analysis by Goldman Sachs analysts.

The other angle is that the rest of the suppliers have lost earnings momentum  precisely as Apple has grown.

At the moment, Apple likely accounts for about 58 percent of the mobile handset industry's annual earnings.

That's shocking, and a measure of Apple's new stature.

Droid X Released by Verizon and Motorola

Verizon Wireless and Motorola have launched the Droid X, featuring a 1GHz processor; 4.3-inch screen, 3G Mobile HotSpot capabilities, dual-flash, 8-megapixel camera, HD camcorder and access to Android Market, which now has more than 65,000 applications.

DROID X by Motorola will be available at www.verizonwireless.com and in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores beginning July 15 for $199.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement.

Motorola Media Center - Press Releases - July 2010: DROID X By Motorola Lands On The Nation's Largest & Most Reliable 3G Network

Smartphones Have Outsize Impact on Mobility Business

Despite the fact that smartphones have only about 19 percent share of the U.S. handset market, they have outsize importance simply because smartphone use is growing so fast, implies growth of mobile broadband revenue and is key to the hopes new suppliers have for cracking the handset market.

Browsers were used by 29.4 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers (up 2.4 percentage points), while subscribers who used downloaded applications made up 27.5 percent (up 1.8 percentage points).

Some 18 percent used social networking sites or blogs, up 2.9 percentage points to 18 percent of mobile subscribers. About 13 percent report they listened to music on a mobile device. About 22 percent say they played games on their mobiles., up about half a percentage point.

Some 234 million Americans age 13 and older were mobile subscribers, while 45.4 million people owned smartphones in an average month during the December to February period, up 21 percent from the three months ending November 2009.

In an average month during the December through February 2010 time period, 64 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device, up 1.9 percentage points from November 2009 levels, says comScore.

Those differences also are reflected in market share of feature and smartphones. In the broader feature phone market, Motorola has 22 percent share, LG 22 percent, Samsung 21 percent, Nokia nine percent and Research in Motion eight percent.

In the smartphone market RIM has 42 percent share, Apple 25 percent, Microsoft 15 percent, Google nine percent and Palm five percent. Google grew the most over the quarter ending in February, gaining five share points. Apple's share was flat and Microsoft lost five points.

Motorola Backflip Offers New Navigation Interface

Motorola's New "Backflip" offers a new way of navigating Web pages. The Backflip allows you to navigate its screen by touching a panel behind it, thus keeping fingers off of the screen. The Backflip, which runs on AT&T's 3G network, costs $100 after a $100 mail-in rebate and a two-year agreement.

Its name comes from its design: The Backflip's screen seems to flip backward when the QWERTY keyboard flips down for use. In the device's "closed" position, the keyboard flips back up and is automatically turned off.

AT&T Will Use Yahoo as Default Search Engine on Motorola's Android-Based Backflip

AT&T apparently will launch the Motorola Backflip, its first Android device, pre-loaded with Yahoo, not Google, as the default search engine. The move is one more example of the growing complexity of value chains in the communications business, where access provider, handset manufacturer and application providers have distinct interests.

In a less-direct sense, the moves also are evidence that the days of the old Internet have changed. These days, there are lots of business deals and arrangements that shape user access to experiences on the Internet and World Wide Web, and which demonstrate that there are numerous "gatekeeper" roles now being played by a variety of participants.

Other Google apps, such as Gmail, Google Maps, Google Talk, Android Market and YouTube, remain.

It’s unclear if T-Mobile will ever have to do the same. It’s been about two years since T-Mobile USA launched its first Google phone, and it has yet to replace Google’s search on Android devces with Yahoo, despite having a similar exclusive partnership with Yahoo.

Last year, Microsoft got exclusive right to manage mobile search and advertising on Verizon’s handsets.

While Bing has been installed on several phones, including BlackBerry devices, Verizon’s Motorola Droid and HTC Droid Eris, come pre-loaded with Google’s search as the default.

Default settings still are seen as valuable because many users do not customize their application profiles on smartphones.

New York Times story

Apple and RIM Are Winners in Handset Market, Profit-Wise

The Apple iPhone might not be the only reason the mobile handset market has changed over the past several years, but it is a major influence, according to a new analysis by analysts at Deutsche Bank.

In 2006, before the iPhone was available, Nokia had nearly half--47 percent--of industry profits. By the end of 2010, it will have 25 percent.

In 2006, Sony Ericsson had 11 percent share. By the end of 2010 it will have a negative one percent operating profit.

Motorola had 18 percent share in 2006 and will have declined to about a negative one percent by the end of 2010.

By the end of 2010 Apple will have an estimated 37 percent share, while Research in Motion, which had four percent share in 2006, will have grown to 16 percent.

Most of the other suppliers will have remained about where they were in 2006, except for Lucky Goldstar, which will have grown from one percent to six percent.

Keep in mind, these figures reflect profits, not handset share.

U.S. is Key Android Market at the Moment

Worldwide mobile advertising requests from Android devices increased 97 percent from October to December 2009 and the big change since October is that Motorola devices have shown the greatest growth, undoubtedly because of Verizon's Droid launch late in the year.

AdMob says that in October, 98 percent of requests came from HTC devices.  In December, just 56 percent of requests were from HTC devices, 39 percent from Motorola devices, and five percent from Samsung units.

Increased device diversity: In December, seven devices generated more than three percent of requests each: the Motorola Droid, HTC Dream, HTC Magic, HTC Hero, Motorola CLIQ, HTC Droid Eris, and the Samsung Moment.

This is up from only three devices in October (HTC Dream, HTC Magic, and HTC Hero).

 The Motorola Droid is already the leading Android handset in the AdMob network and generated 30 percent of requests in December.

The U.S. market also, at least for the moment, the most-important global Android market. About 90 percent of Android traffic was generated in the United States in December, up from 84 percent  in October. The United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Canada were the other countries with some significant traffic.

AT&T to Add an Android?

Earlier in 2009, Motorola indicated that it plans to release as many as 20 handsets in 2010 running Google's Android platform.

It appears AT&T will be launching at least one Android device in 2010, said by some observers to be called the "Backflip" or "Enzo,"

The device is rumored to run "MOTO BLUR," software that syncs Facebook, MySpace and Twitter updates with no log-ins and no apps to open.

Perhaps you would expect this, but at least some rumors suggest the AT&T Android device will not come preloaded with any Google apps except for Maps. Some people won't like that, but the point is that users can buy Androids that do feature Google apps, either on other Android devices sold by AT&T, or Android devices sold by other carriers. And there will be the Nexus One as well.

The whole idea of "open" neworks and devices is that diversity will happen. Some people might not like AT&T "dictating" what software load is on the device when purchased. Others might simply say that it is an option. If any user doesn't like it, don't buy it. That's the whole idea of the benefits openness brings. Users get choice.

The "Opus One" is said to be Motorola's first iDEN-based Android phone. That means it will work on Sprint Nextel's iDEN network and offer features such as walkie-talkie calling. According to the Boy Genius, it will run Android 1.5 with iDEN service enhancement.

Smartphone Niches Emerging

Data from ChangeWave about smartphone preferences might suggest both the existence of clear smartphone segments as well as an evolution of those segments.

By definition, all smartphones handle voice and text. Beyond that, there seem to be distinct user niches.

One might characterize the Palm user as someone whose unique application is the "organizer."

One might characterize the BlackBerry user as oriented to email, and the iPhone owner as oriented to Web-delivered applications.

Looked at this way, the Changewave data might suggest that the value proposition for the email-focused remains steady, but that the value of "organizer" functions is receding, while mobile Web is growing. We also have seen the introduction recently of devices organized around social networking and navigation, so the number of smartphone niches addressed by particular devices seems to be growing.

The Palm Pre and Motorola Cliq are among new devices pitched at the social networking niche. Garmin's nuvifone is perhaps the best example of a navigation-focused smartphone. So the obvious big question is how the growing raft of Android-based smartphones will contribute to the proliferation of devices with a lead application mode.

How demand for the Droid will shape up is hard to say at the moment. Some fragmentary data suggests that Droid users access the Web even more than iPhone users do. But its turn-by-turn navigation features might also emerge as a key drawing point.

Motorola Seeks to Sell Set-Top Unit

Motorola is looking for buyers for the part of its business that makes cable television set-top boxes, and is seeking about $4.5 billion, the Wall Street Journal reports.

For anybody who has been in the cable TV industry any length of time, the potential sale brings back memories of a company headquarters in Hatboro, Penn. and known as "Jerrold." Few companies have roots in the U.S. cable industry as deep as Jerrold did, in its later incarnation as General Instrument representing one of the two big names in the old cable TV business, in addition to Scientific Atlanta, whose assets now are part of Cisco.

The big attraction for any buyer is the chance to become a major player in the cable TV infrastructure business overnight.

Logical potential buyers would include the ranks of any number of major electronics companies who want major exposure to the U.S. cable TV industry.

It makes you realize just how long it has been since you were in the cable business.

Palm Pre, iPhone, MyTouch, Droid Compared

Here's one way of comparing some of the latest smartphones, put together by BillShrink.com. One thought comes to mind, when looking at "unsubsidized" cost of these devices.

(Click image for larger view.)

Some users do not apparently like contracts, even if those contracts provide lower handset prices. They should be able to buy their handsets "unlocked" if they choose.

But lots of users, contemplating smartphone prices almost the same as notebooks and PCs, might well prefer the contracts, to get lower handset prices, just as most people say they "hate" commercials but will put up with a certain amount of commercials if it means "free" content access.

In a world that is "one size fits none" rather than "one size fits all," it seems to run counter to consumer preferences to ban any lawful commercial offer. Let people make their own decisions.

On the other hand, if you want to see a dramatic deceleration in smartphone adoption, with all the application innovation that is coming along with those devices, watch what happens if contracts that subsidize handset costs are outlawed.

Verizon to Debut Motorola Droid Nov. 6, 2009

Verizon Wireless will take the wraps off its new "Droid" device, built by Motorola, on Nov. 6, 2009. The new device will feature a 3.7-inch high-resolution screen featuring more than 400,000 pixels total, more than twice that of the "leading competitor," Verizon says.

The Android operating system supports running of multiple applications at once, and allows toggling between as many as six simultaneous applications. Google searches can be conducted using voice input and results are location dependent. Content on the phone, such as apps and contacts plus the Web can be searched using the search box.

"Push" Gmail is supported, as is "push" Microsoft Exchange email. "Google Maps Navigation" provides turn-by-turn voice guidance as a free feature of Google Maps.

Droid will be available in the United States exclusively at Verizon Wireless Communications Stores and online for $199.99 with a new two-year customer agreement after a $100 mail-in rebate.

Customers will receive the rebate in the form of a debit card; upon receipt, customers may use the card as cash anywhere debit cards are accepted.

Customers will need to subscribe to a nationwide voice plan and an email and Web for plan. Nationwide voice plans begin at $39.99 for monthly access for 450 minutes and an "Email and Web for Smartphone" plan costs $29.99 for monthly access.