Verizon to Debut Droid Incredible April 29

To the extent that Verizon Wireless is looking for a device that takes the "Droid" one step further,  it probably has one in the coming HTC "Droid Incredible," with many of the features of Google's "Nexus One" phone.

Verizon and HTC say the new device will cost $199.99 after a a $100 mail-in rebate on April 29 with a new two-year contract.

DROID Incredible by HTC is the first Verizon Wireless phone that takes advantage of Qualcomm’s 1GHz superfast Snapdragon processor, and it’s the first available phone from Verizon Wireless to include an 8 megapixel camera.

Shortly after the phone becomes available, customers will be able to enjoy two of the latest exclusive apps from Verizon Wireless, NFL Mobile and Skype mobile.

The new Droid features Android 2.1, a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor; unified
Flickr, Facebook and Twitter updates; an 8-megapixel camera with dual LED flash, a 3.7-inch WVGA (480x800) AMOLED capacitive touch display and an optical joystick for smooth navigation.

The device features a proximity sensor, light sensor and digital compass; integrated GPS and Wi-Fi
(802.11 b/g) as well as a 3.5 mm headset jack.

The Incredible will be available for pre-order online at www.verizonwireless.com beginning on April 19 and it will be in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores on April 29.

Incredible customers will need to subscribe to a Verizon Wireless "Nationwide Talk" and an "Email and Web for Smartphone" plan. Nationwide Talk plans begin at $39.99 monthly access. Email and Web for Smartphone plans start at $29.99 for unlimited monthly access.

HTC is the same company that makes Google's Nexus One.

Google Beats First Quarter Estimates

Google's first-quarter profit rose 37 percent, exceeding analyst estimates on both the earnings and revenue lines, suggesting that at least at Google, online advertising has picked up in the first quarter of 2010.

“Google performed very well in the first quarter, with 23 percent year-over-year revenue growth driven by strength across all major verticals and geographies,” said Patrick Pichette, Google CFO.

Google reported revenues of $6.77 billion for the quarter ended March 31, 2010, an increase of 23 percent compared to the first quarter of 2009.

Google-owned sites generated revenues of $4.44 billion, or 66 percent of total revenues in the first quarter of 2010. This represents a 20 percent increase over first quarter 2009 revenues of $3.69 billion.

Google’s partner sites generated revenues, through AdSense programs, of $2.04 billion, or 30 percent of total revenues, in the first quarter of 2010. This represents a 24 percent increase from first quarter 2009 network revenues of $1.64 billion.

Revenues from outside of the United States totaled $3.58 billion, representing 53 percent of total revenues in the first quarter of 2010, compared to 53 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009 and 52 percent in the first quarter of 2009.

Revenues from the United Kingdom totaled $842 million, representing 13 percent of revenues in the first quarter of 2010, compared to 13 percent in the first quarter of 2009.

Ning Lays off 40% of Staff, to Refocus on Paid Users

In a significant shift, Ning has laid off more than 40 percent of its staff (shrinking from 167 people to 98 people) and announced it no longer provide access to free social networks, concentrating instead on "for fee" customers. After 30 days as Ning's new CEO, Jason Rosenthal says "my main conclusion is that we need to double down on our premium services business."

"Our Premium Ning Networks drive 75 percent of our monthly U.S. traffic," and those customers will pay for many more services and features," says Rosenthal.

"Existing free networks will have the opportunity to either convert to paying for premium services, or transition off of Ning," he says.

The announcements by the Palo Alto social networking company came about a month after co-founder Gina Bianchini was replaced as CEO role after five years in that job.

Ning was founded in 2004 by CEO Bianchini and Netscape Communications Corp. founder Marc Andreessen. It has raised more than $100 million from Lightspeed Ventures, LinkedIn Corp. founder Reid Hoffman, Legg Mason and Allen & Co.

The company offers a platform aimed at offering customizable tools that lets users create their own social networks.

The company makes money by selling Google-brokered ads on social sites and by selling premium services, including the ability to eliminate Google ads, which can be replaced with ads sold by users.

The move could provide a boost to other providers, including firms such as Zerista, which specialize in social networks that feature 250 members or fewer, especially networks that benefit from mobile access and sharing. Zerista also offers paid support for larger social networks that could include 100,000 members, though.

GMail Gets Drag and Drop

Those of you who use Microsoft Outlook or Exchange won't be excited, but those of us who do use GMail with Chrome or Firefox browsers now can "drag and drop" file attachments into email messages.

It's just a small enhancement, but an enhancement that will shave a few seconds, and  few mouse clicks, off the attachment process.

It's also an example of how application "disruption" typically happens these days. Attackers generally start out "low" on the functionality scale, offering an alternative that generally does not have all the functionality of the market-leading application.

The attacking applications tends to be derided as "okay for consumer use" or "just a toy" in other cases, but that isn't the point. Over time, features get richer and the differences between the attacking application and the market leading application begin to narrow. At some point the attacking app starts to compete head to head with the leading app in one or more customer verticals.

And that is what this smallish new feature is, another small step towards feature parity.

75% of Twitter Users Use 3rd Party Services

Twitter says it has 105.8 million registered users, is adding 300,000 new users every day and sees activity by 180 million users every month.

About 75 percent of its visitors don’t go to Twitter.com, but to services built by third-party developers. That is significant because traffic counts based solely on the Twitter.com site vastly undercount actual Twitter activity.

That shows the power of third-party developers! 

Mobile Advertising, Commerce to Explode with Strong Smartphone Growth

Research and Markets forecasts that U.S. mobile Internet users will rise to 158 million in 2015, while smartphone owners will rise to 194 million in the same year. That is fairly significant growth, given the current estimate of about 46 million U.S. smartphones in use, suggesting more than a tripling and nearly a quadrupling of the user base in the next five years.

As a result, the firm believes revenues from mobile advertising will grow about 37 percent at a compound annual growth rate, while mobile commerce grows at 65 percent compound rate between now and 2015.

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.