Motorola developing Android phones with stock software, ‘just right’ size

The Verge

PC Mag spoke with Jim Wicks, Motorola’s chief of design, who said that these new phones are the result of collaboration and influence from Google, as opposed to the other devices that Motorola has released in the time since Google acquired the company. “It will be the unadulterated version of Android, and I feel really good about our embracing Android and being the best Android experience,” said Wicks when speaking about the new devices, adding “there’s a sweet spot for consumers that we’re currently exceeding in the market. There are some people that like a big display, but there’s also a lot of people that want something that’s just about right. I think ‘just right’ is important, and we’re designing so we don’t disappoint those people.”

This is the right move, both for Motorola and Google. Motorola will have an edge by having a pure Android experience, and Google has a platform which they control and which will cary their services unaltered. With the moves being made by Samsung, which is the only one making money on the Android side, they have to do this.

Also, I find it curious that they talk about the size of the phone and not wanting to make a gigantophone. Isn’t Apple doomed because their phone is too small?

Blackberry smokes iPhone and Android…on the “I would never buy that” list.

All Things D

Of the consumers Raymond James surveyed, 20 percent said they would never buy an iPhone, 31 percent said they’d never buy an Android phone, and 71 percent said they’d never purchase a BlackBerry.

Hey, at least they’re number one. Right?

Apple, Samsung control 106 percent of industry’s profits

CNet:

Controlling all of the mobile market’s profits doesn’t appear to be enough for Apple and Samsung anymore. Now they’re actually generating more than 100 percent of the industry’s earnings — 106 percent, to be precise — according to a report from Canaccord Genuity.

That may seem impossible, but it’s largely because rivals — like Research In Motion, Nokia, and Motorola — posted operating losses during the September quarter, the firm said.

Well, it might seem impossible because of math and common sense, but who knows?

Apple, Samsung control 106 percent of industry’s profits

Wikipedia Redesigns Mobile Site For Improved Readability

Make Use Of:

Compared to the previous layout, the new fonts are indeed much easier to read, and the increased line spacing and smaller number of words per line make the text more scannable.

Wikipedia Redesigns Mobile Site For Improved Readability

New way to search Google on mobile, handwriting.

Cool feature. Via 9to5 Google.

Mozilla’s HTML5 Phone Project, Now Christened Firefox OS, Signs Sprint and Other Carriers

All Things D:

Firefox OS is to be an open mobile platform where every app and function is based on HTML5, with none of the so-called “native apps” specific to a particular operating system.

This, is an OPEN mobile OS. Unlike some green robots out there.

Mozilla.

Mozilla’s HTML5 Phone Project, Now Christened Firefox OS, Signs Sprint and Other Carriers

Apple sells 8% of Mobile Phones worldwide

AppleInsider:

Research firm Gartner on Wednesday announced its latest mobile device data for the first quarter of calendar 2012. It found that Apple’s 33.1 million iPhones sold accounted for 7.9 percent of the total mobile phone market.

This is with few models and a yearly update cycle, contrary to the rest of the industry which has a bunch of models and come out with a new phone almost monthly. Also, I remember Steve Jobs saying that the goal with iPhone was to get 1% of the mobile market.

At AT&T, iPhone accounted for 78% of activations in the last quarter.

AT&T:

Smartphone sales of 5.5 million, exceeding the previous first-quarter record, with about 30 percent of all postpaid smartphone subscribers on 4G-capable devices.

Giga Om:

The operator sold 5.5 million smartphones of which 4.3 million were iPhone activations. Of the iPhone activations, AT&T says a whopping 21 percent were net-new additions.

For those keeping the score, 4.3 out of 5.5 is roughly 78%. Android is definitely WINNING.

Time to de-Flash your site?

Computerworld:

He believes the growing use of mobile devices that don’t like Flash will encourage many developers “to pull away” from gratuitous overuse of Flash elements in general. The most important thing is to think in terms of which development tools will provide the best customer experience, not what best fits your comfort zone as a developer, experts agree.

Yes please, de-Flash. Not even Adobe is going to support Flash on Android anymore, and everyone is moving to mobile, primarily or not.

Blackberry 7 is named best OS for the enterprise.

The Enquirer:

According to a study by Trend Micro that compared four mobile operating systems, Blackberry 7 is the OS that best meets the demands of enterprise owners. RIM’s home-grown software got the highest score of 2.89 on a number of factors including built-in security, application security, authentication, device wipe, device firewall and virtualization, ahead of IOS 5 at 1.7, Windows Phone 7.5 at 1.61 and Android 2.3 at 1.37.

And still, people don’t buy them and businesses and agencies are dropping them like flies. There is also the added benefit that no one wants to steal one, so they’re also safe to carry around.