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Android’s American market share soars, WinMo pays the price

Mobile manufacturer and platform market share stats for the US are in for the month of January thanks to comScore, and as usual, they tell a fascinating (and somewhat unpredictable) story of what’s actually going on at the cash registers. Motorola — which has long since fallen off its high horse on the global stage — still maintains a commanding presence in the American market by representing some 22.9 percent of all subscribers, though that’s down 1.2 percent from October 2009; that’s particularly interesting in light of the Droid’s success, and a possible sign that smartphones still aren’t on the cusp of dominating the phone market overall. Samsung recently touted the fact that it had held onto the States’ overall market share crown, though Sammy was undoubtedly referring to sales, not subscribers — in other words, there are still a ton of legacy RAZRs out there inflating Moto’s stats.

Turning our attention to smartphone platforms, BlackBerry OS, iPhone, and Android all saw gains, while Windows Mobile and Palm both saw significant downturns. You might use Palm’s loss of 2.1 percent of overall market share in a single quarter as a big nail in webOS’ coffin, but we’re inclined to believe this includes legacy devices — and considering the huge installed base of Palm OS-based handsets (Centros, for instance) that are coming off contract these days, it’s neither surprising nor alarming to see that kind of drop. Android’s gain, meanwhile, likely comes in large part from WinMo’s whopping four percent loss — it’s no secret that WinMo 6.x is well past its expiration date with customers leaving in droves (even before Windows Phone 7 Series announcement), and our informal observations lead us to believe that many of those folks are heading for Android. After all, it’s kind of convenient that Android gained 4.3 percent and WinMo lost about the same, isn’t it? BlackBerrys still dominate the American smartphone landscape, and the iPhone market looks like it might be mature for the time being — Apple added just 0.3 percent to its market share in the quarter, possibly a sign that folks are holding out for whatever Cupertino brings us come Summer. Is this a sign that Palm needs to step up its game yet again? Undoubtedly — but at the same time, we wouldn’t call the loss of those Palm OS subscribers a death knell just yet.

Android’s American market share soars, WinMo pays the price originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unreal Engine 3 up and running on webOS, and we’ve got video!

Palm just showed us the Unreal Engine 3 running on webOS, which apparently took a couple weeks to port over to the platform using that fancy new PDK. It runs at a pretty smooth clip, with just a tiny bit of artifacting in our enemy’s death animation. As an added bit of wow factor, Palm has it currently setup to demonstrate the game at 1 fps when in card view. Like most touchscreen shooters, this doesn’t really solve the problem of simulating dual analog sticks, but it’s still a fun and good looking engine for a mobile device. We’re still unaware of any games that have been built for the mobile engine, which has now been shown for iPhone, Tegra 2, and will be headed to the iPad as well, but we have to assume we’ll be seeing some before too long. Check out the webOS video after the break.

Continue reading Unreal Engine 3 up and running on webOS, and we’ve got video!

Unreal Engine 3 up and running on webOS, and we’ve got video! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unreal Engine 3 heading to webOS

Looks like folks with the iPhone won’t be able to gloat over Palm owners anymore since the Unreal Engine 3 will be making its way to the webOS platform as well. While details are pretty scarce at the moment, Palm just announced a deal with Epic Games at the Games Developer Conference in San Francisco. We can’t wait to see the processors found within Palm’s range of devices to be put to good use with quality games. What are some of the titles running on this Unreal Engine that you would like to see realized?

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GPS Travelogue records your travels

If you happen to be a frequent traveler, then the GPS Travelogue sounds right up your alley. After all, it is capable of tracking and recording virtually everywhere you go. All recorded data will then be uploaded to online mapping applications including Google Earth, and all locations are stored in real-time on its built-in 64MB internal memory. Of course, you can also set it to record your position at intervals of between one second and 59 minutes, depending on your preference. Enough to hold up to 260,000 waypoints including altitude, speed, time, and distance, the GPS Travelogue is tiny enough to fit into your palm without a problem. It plays nice with Windows 7, Vista and XP operating systems, retailing for $149.95. A two hour charge can last for up to 30 hours.

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Entelligence: Aiming high or another Mylo?

We heard a rumor last week that Sony was working on new handhelds to compete with devices like the iPad. It sounds like a great idea: a PSP with integrated telephony and e-book functionality could perhaps give everyone in the market a run for their money. But I’m a little skeptical — Sony’s Clié line once defined state-of-the-art PDA, but the company ceded the market to Palm long before the PDA was eventually reborn as the smartphone. If Sony’s seriously thinking about getting back to the handheld space, here’s some lessons it might learn from its efforts back in the PDA day.

1. Innovation is great but only when you really innovate. Sony led the market in innovation when it entered the PDA space. It offered the first Palm OS devices with removable storage, the first devices that could play back audio and video, and the first high-resolution color devices. All of these clearly drove the market forward. Then the innovations became less innovative and more “gadgetry.” There were 3D interfaces for the launcher that were confusing and awkward. Some devices had Bluetooth support but not others. Devices like the NZ-90 (pictured above) added so many features into the mix that it was big, bloated, and nearly useless.* In short, the innovations became less compelling and eventually stood in the way of. I’m worried that Sony’s meshing the type of functionality rumored to be its new device without any thought how it all has to work together.

Continue reading Entelligence: Aiming high or another Mylo?

Entelligence: Aiming high or another Mylo? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Palm’s webOS PDK beta adds Pixi native development, PDK’d apps will hit the Catalog mid year

We just sat down with Palm here at GDC and fished out a few more details on the PDK beta front. Firstly, and most interestingly, Palm has confirmed that the PDK now works on all of its handsets (instead of just the Pre and Pre Plus), which means Pixi buyers can stop hating themselves pretty soon. Apparently the level of performance degradation should be comparable iPhone 3G vs. 3GS, which doesn’t sound too horrible. This is functionality that wasn’t available even to Palm’s early PDK partners like EA and Gameloft, so we should be seeing versions of existing games make the jump to the Pixi when the time for PDK beta-developed apps to hit the Palm App Catalog. When will that time come, you ask? The “middle of the year,” or “a few months,” whichever sounds more promising to you. Palm’s not saying whether this new era for the App Catalog (anyone being able to release PDK apps, and those apps working on the Pre and the Pixi) will accompany a full-on webOS update, but it seems logical to us.

On a more technical front, we’re told the PDK supports the Linux standard SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer) to ease in porting and development (Unreal for Linux runs using SDL, for instance), and that developers could even build apps like an audio processor that rely on PDK components but don’t show up in the UI at all, or OpenGL-empowered things that aren’t necessarily games or in 3D. Also, existing developers have only been able to do “full screen” games that rely on PDK components alone, but the PDK beta lets you mix and match webOS UI with PDK elements. Currently there aren’t many PDK games that use the extra Palm hardware like the QWERTY keyboard and the gesture area, but we’re told that’s all exposed to the developer, along with any other element of webOS that Mojo SDK users have access to. One notable plugin hangup is the fact that Flash only works in the browser, and can’t be embedded into a regular webOS app, PDK or no — though we have to assume this is something that’s in the works.

Palm’s webOS PDK beta adds Pixi native development, PDK’d apps will hit the Catalog mid year originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung E6 eReader announced for US

Samsung is targeting a spring release date for their E6 eReader device which will be accompanied by a Barnes & Noble partnership, although it remains to be seen whether the E6 will be successful in its own right or not. The E6 will retail for $299 according to other sources online, and at that price point you will get a slider form factor that is reminiscent of some Palm PDA models, where it comes equipped with a 6” E-ink display at 600 x 800 resolution with 8-Gray scale for easy readability regardless of whether you are indoors or out. Supported formats include E-pub, PDF/a, TXT, BMP and JPG. The integrated front speakers lets you experience Samsung’s text-to-speech (TTS) technology, although don’t be blown away by it. You will also get Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity with Samsung’s unique EmoLink technology that enables users to share content between Samsung eReader devices. Just in case its 2GB of internal memory is not enough, there is always a microSD memory card slot that further augments taht amount to 16GB. [Press Release]

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Palm unleashes webOS PDK beta on the public

Continue reading Palm unleashes webOS PDK beta on the public

Palm unleashes webOS PDK beta on the public originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is The Palm Elan A New Device, Or Just A Pixi?

Is the “Elan” an upcoming device from Palm, or is it just another (code) name for the Palm Pixi? Screenshots of a site listing the Palm Elan have surfaced, and according to a user who claims to work for AT&T, the testing for the Elan should begin in about two weeks and will have a ‘soft keyboard’. That being said, some folks have dug up certain sites listing accessories for the Palm Elan, and based on those pictures, it sure looks like a Palm Pixi, so maybe it’s just a code name? The Palm Elan probably belongs in the rumor bin for now, but we’ll keep an eye on it, to see if anything more surfaces.

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Palm Elan to be the next webOS smartphone, heading to AT&T?

Here’s a little spicy rumor for you Palm fans on this tranquil Sunday: according to TopTongueBarry who claims to work for AT&T, his company has just finished certification tests with GSM flavors of the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus ahead of a possible April 26th launch — a date not far from what we’ve heard earlier. However, the bigger news from Barry is that the big A will soon be testing a third mysterious webOS device by the name of Palm Elan, which may greet us mere mortals on May 10th (but possibly in Europe first). Another forum member Shadow-360 also dug up some cached pages that claimed to have accessories for the non-existent device, as pictured above. Of course, this could be just a crude joke for a keyboard-less Palm device that many of us seem to desire — as reminded by the good folks at PreCentral, Elan is also the name of the company that sued Apple over multitouch patents last April. So, any thoughts on this leak? Are we all ready for a new webOS phone?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: Turns out the Elan may just be the Pixi. Or it could be your wildest dreams about to come true.

Palm Elan to be the next webOS smartphone, heading to AT&T? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 07 Mar 2010 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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4 Android-powered ZTE Phones Coming

ZTE looks like it’s going to place quite a bit of emphasis on Google’s Android platform, as the company is planning to release four phones that will be powered by Google’s mobile operating system. Hopefully these phones will be available outside of China, and we’re talking about the:

• ZTE Smooth (pictured above): Android 1.6 device that looks like a Palm Pre. Sports a 2.8-inch QVGA display, QWERTY keyboard, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, FM radio and 3G
• ZTE Blade: 3.5-inch display, WVGA touchscreen, Android 1.6, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, FM radio, GSM/UMTS
• ZTE Racer: Android 1.6, 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS, 2.8-inch QVGA touchscreen display
• ZTE Mercury: Looks like a HTC Hero, 3.2-inch HVGA display, GPS and EDGE connectivity

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How would you change Palm’s Pre Plus and Pixi Plus?

We aren’t trying to lump these two together or anything, but we figured we’d give those of you who opted for Palm’s second set of webOS handsets an opportunity to pool your thoughts in order to make the smartphone landscape an even better place to survey. We personally didn’t find too much new to laud on Verizon’s Palm-branded twofer compared to the original Pre and Pixi, and those of you who were hoping for all new hardware from the company at CES were undoubtedly let down. Still, there’s something to be said about a webOS product on America’s “largest 3G network,” and frankly, we’re interested in hearing how you’d change things. Would you have overhauled things more drastically? Expanded the screen size? Bumped the resolution? Enlarged the keys? Go on and tell Jon exactly what you think in comments below — who knows, the Pre Plus Plus might just carry your calling card.

How would you change Palm’s Pre Plus and Pixi Plus? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Mar 2010 01:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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