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To: Paul Chiu who wrote (3311)	3/6/2009 8:50:51 PM
From: FJB	Respond to of 3618

Android Could Overtake iPhone by 2012 March 6, 2009, 2:28PM EST New research predicts that sales of handsets running Google's Android could outstrip Apple iPhones in three years, but Symbian is still in the lead businessweek.com The iPhone's lead over smartphone upstart Android is set to be short-lived, according to new research. Android smartphone sales will outstrip iPhone sales by 2012, a report by industry watchers Informa Telecoms & Media has predicted. Last month, O2's parent Telefónica Europe revealed sales of the iPhone topped one million in the UK. While T-mobile UK – the exclusive carrier of the first Android device, the G1 – wouldn't put a figure on how many of the devices have been sold, it did say the handset now accounts for 20 per cent of its contract sales. Web behemoth Google (GOOG) released the first beta SDK for its Android open OS platform in August last year, with the first handset – the G1 smartphone – launching the following month. A second handset, the Magic, is expected to arrive next month. Apple's (AAPL) iPhone has a slightly longer heritage – with the first device arriving in the US in June 2007. However the 3G iPhone has only had a few months' headstart on its Google rival, hitting shops in July last year. Both Android and OS X are eating into the market share of the number one selling smartphone OS-maker, Symbian. Last year just under half of smartphones sold were based on Symbian – a drop of 16 percentage points on the year before when it had 65 per cent market share. BlackBerry OS, Linux and Windows Mobile are also gaining popularity and eating some of Symbian's lunch, according to Informa. However the analyst believes Symbian's switch to open source will help the Symbian Foundation maintain its leadership over Android, Linux and Microsoft over the next few years. In 2008 almost 162 million smartphones were sold, according to Informa, surpassing laptop sales for the first time. The analyst forecasts smartphone penetration will reach 13.5 per cent of new handsets sold this year but is set to treble by 2013 – to well over a third (38 per cent) of mobile devices. The research by Informa Telecoms & Media also suggests smartphone sales will continue to be immune to the global economic downturn, maintaining "robust growth" of 35.3 per cent, year-on-year. However total handset sales will not be so resilient and are set to fall 10.1 per cent, year-on-year.

To: Paul Chiu who wrote (3311)	3/6/2009 8:52:39 PM
From: FJB	Respond to of 3618

Ballmer: We're ready for the Google operating system March 6, 2009 - 3:25 P.M. blogs.computerworld.com My blogging compatriot Steven J. Vaughn-Nichols notes that Google CEO Eric Schmidt has been hinting that Google may release a Google netbook based on its mobile operating system, Android. That's old news to Microsoft: In late February, Steve Ballmer told Wall Street analysts that he fully expects Android-based netbooks. Back in January, I wrote that I expect netbooks to be released with an operating system based on Google's Android. In fact, some people believe that such netbooks already exist, in use by Google employees, because Net Applications reported that a third of Google employees appeared to be running an operating system whose identity is hidden from traffic monitors. People assumed it was Android, running on netbooks. In late February, Steve Ballmer spoke to Wall Street analysts, giving an overview of Microsoft's challenges and plans. Here's what he told them about Google and netbooks: >>I assume we're going to see Android-based, Linux-based laptops, in addition to phones. We'll see Google more as a competitor in the >>desktop operating system business than we ever have before. The seams between what's a phone operating system and a PC >>operating system will change, and so we have ramped the investment in the client operating system. You can get the entire presentation here. Ballmer wasn't specific about how Microsoft planned to combat Android-based netbooks. But you can be sure he's got something in mind. Most likely, it's Windows 7, which has been designed to run on netbooks, including taking advantage of touch capabilities. He hints at that when he says "we have ramped the investment in the client operating system." Will that be enough? For now, it's hard to say. But I do know this: It's all good news for consumers. If Microsoft and Google are slugging it out in the netbook arena, expect to see lower prices and more features.

To: Paul Chiu who wrote (3311)	3/6/2009 9:03:25 PM
From: FJB	Respond to of 3618

T-Mobile moving from WM to Android worldwide? unwiredview.com One of T-Mobile’s most popular families of handsets – in Europe, at least – is the MDA series, which is comprised of devices running on Windows Mobile. So we can easily say that T-Mo and Windows Mobile had and still have a pretty good time together. But this may change soon, and WinMo could be dissed by T-Mobile in favor of Google’s Android platform. According to ms mobiles, Reinhard Clemens, board member at Deutsche Telekom (the company that owns T-Mobile), declared: “Android will be a Windows of future”. Even more, he said about Microsoft’s mobile platform that it’s not power-efficient and it “devours too much energy”. Also, Mr. Clemens praised Android for allowing mobile operators to stay relatively independent from hardware makers. Sure, this does not mean T-Mobile will stop selling WM devices, but it’s clear that the international carrier does want to have more Android handsets rather than more Windows Mobile ones. T-Mobile G1 is already a successful smartphone (both in the US and in Europe), and, most probably, the G2 will attract even more customers. Of course, Microsoft has yet to release Windows Mobile 6.5 and Windows Mobile 7, the latter which could finally bring multi-touch to WM handsets. However, Android will also evolve, together with Apple’s mobile platform and with Nokia’s Symbian, so Microsoft surely has to work hard in order to keep its market share and its current partners – T-Mobile included.