Last month BlackBerry (formerly known as RIM) announced that it will release a multi-platform version of BlackBerry Messenger, adding support for iOS and Android. BBM has been hugely successful messaging service with over 10 billion messages sent per day with 60 million monthly active users.

BBM on iPhone will compete with Apple’s own iMessage and other popular instant messaging services like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. The release date for BBM for iPhone hasn’t been announced yet and it’s availability is likely scheduled for later this summer.

BBM set the standard for mobile instant messaging with fast and reliable service and an added layer of engagement with delivered and read statuses. You’ve shared with us your stories about how BBM has kept you connected when it mattered most to you. Upon release of the multi-platform BBM service, you can broaden that real-time connection to friends and colleagues on other supported mobile platforms.

Yesterday, Salshgear was first to spot a tweet from T-Mobile’s twitter account that announced “Great news – BlackBerry Messenger will be available to download on iOS and Android from June 27th!”. That tweet was later deleted and when BlackBerry PR was contacted by Mashable they confirmed that the release date was incorrect.

While there have been reports that BBM will be available to iOS and Android on June 27, this is not accurate,

A multi-platform BBM client on iOS and Android will fuel the growth for the instant chat messaging service. The first version of BBM on iPhone will include the following features:

– The immediacy of BBM chats
– Multi-person chats
– Voice note sharing
– BlackBerry Groups, where BBM users are able to set up groups of up to 30 people and share calendar, photos, files and more

Since, Apple allows messaging services other than iMessage to be available on the App Store, the approval process shouldn’t be an issue for BlackBerry.

Earlier this month, Facebook introduced their new ‘Home’ feature earlier this month. Facebook Home is an interface layer on top of the existing Android operating software developed by Google. On Monday, a report from Bloomberg suggested that the social networking giant is now in talks with Apple to bring Facebook Home to iPhone. The new software would allow iOS users to interact with their Facebook profiles directly through the mobile OS, essentially having access to Facebook on most of iOS.

Facebook Home allows users to display photos on the lock screen and chat experience through something called Chat Heads which is currently developed directly over the Android software. Apple did include Facebook into Mountain Lion and iOS 6, allowing its users to share images and status updates directly from both Notification Center and the action button in Photos and Safari.

With Facebook Home, sharing and interacting with Facebook would become the focal point of Apple’s iOS. It may also compromise privacy for iOS users, which has been an issue in the past. According to Facebook’s product director, Adam Mosseri, talks of bringing the overlay are in the works but no plans have been finalized. He also notes that Facebook may retool Home to operate on iOS, likely because Apple generally controls what companies can include on their mobile OS.

{Via MacRumors}

According to a report from Reuters, Walmart is expanding its ‘Scan & Go’ Self-checkout system to over 200 of its retail stores. The system, which is similar to Apple’s own EasyPay system is modeled around iOS devices and allows customers of Walmart stores to pay for their shopping items at a checkout station while exiting the store.

For now, “Scan & Go” only works on Apple Inc devices. An Android version should be out soon, Walmart said.

With more than half of its shoppers using smartphones, Walmart is trying to make shopping more convenient for shoppers who embrace mobile technology. More than half of the customers who have tried the “Scan & Go” feature have used it more than once, [Walmart senior vice president Gibu] Thomas said.

The system is currently in a testing phase in only 70 of Walmart’s retail locations, but will be in over 200 stores. Walmart already has the system running in stores in a number of areas, including Georgia, Arkansas, Vancouver, Washington and California. With this expansion, Walmart plans to move west to the following areas:

Walmart is bringing “Scan & Go” into a dozen more markets: Denver, Colorado; Phoenix, Arizona; Omaha, Nebraska; Dallas and Austin, Texas; Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Oklahoma; Wyoming; Bozeman, Montana; Seattle, Washington; San Jose, California; and Portland, Oregon.

This likely means that the new self-checkout system has proved to be efficient and user-friendly in the company’s pilot testing locations. Walmart is one of the world’s largest corporations that operates discount department stores and warehouse stores, and with widespread adoption of Apple’s iOS devices, this new system could prove to be successful in a number of Walmart’s stores. As a result, Walmart could save money on employees, especially during off-peak hours of shopping when stores are mostly empty. The ‘Scan & Go’ feature is available through Walmart’s free iOS app {Direct Link}, much like Apple’s EasyPay app.

{Via MacRumors}

Earlier this week, Google introduced a new design to its mobile gmail web app, bringing over features from its Gmail iOS app. Google had previously done this with its Maps application for iOS, which is now a very popular alternative to Apple’s own Maps. Now, it appears that Google is planning an even bigger service for iOS users called ‘Google Now’.

Google Now is currently an Android only feature and provides its users with a range of information including flight notifications, weather, traffic, reservations, packages, birthdays, transit information, stocks, movie times and more all in one spot.

On Wednesday, Engadget posted a video of what they claimed to be a Google Now promotional video for iOS, that was likely posted to YouTube by mistake. The video was quickly removed, but an Engadget reader downloaded and made a copy of the video beforehand.

The video has since been pulled from YouTube and appears to feature the same voice actress as the original Now announcement (which you’ll also find after the break for comparison). Supposedly, Now will be accessible in an upcoming iOS app update simply by swiping up from the main screen. Of course, there’s always the chance that is an impressive fake or even a canceled project that’s only being leaked now. We’ve reached out to Google for comment, but even if the search giant remains silent, we’re confident the truth will be known soon enough.

The promotional video shows a cartoon smartphone that looks very similar to an iPhone running iOS, and also shows off a number of the application’s features, including traffic directions, game scores, and flight information. At the beginning of the video, the voice actress clearly states, “introducing Google Now for iOS. The right information, at just the right time.”

{Via MacRumors}

Facebook recently unveiled a new version of its News Feed, with an emphasis on larger photos, reduced clutter and a synchronized experience across devices. This means that the design of the news feed would appear the same whether the user was browsing through it on an smartphone, tablet, or a desktop. Apple’s iOS devices will receive the update first, which Facebook noted would be released in the “coming weeks”.

Normally, with major updates to Facebook’s timeline and news feed, the company slowly rolls out features by region. Android users will be getting the new News Feed soon after iOS users. The new news feed will now be separated into four different categories, listed below, and helps to streamline and organize the current mess of links, images, music, and status updates.

All Friends — a feed that shows everything friends are sharing
Photos — a feed with nothing but photos from friends and liked pages
Music — a feed with posts about the music a user listens to
Following — a feed with the latest news from the pages a user likes and the people they follow

Although many Facebook features are normally protested during their release, this appears to be a feature that is intended for a user experience rather than for Facebook’s ad purposes. Facebook is offering users the chance to sign up for a pre-release look at the updated News Feed. The sign up for the waiting list is available at facebook.com/about/newsfeed.

{Via AppleInsider}

The mobile research firm revealed that 320,000 smartphone and tablet users in six countries participated in the poll. In the U.S Motorola Atrix HD came in at first followed by Motorola Droid Razr, HTC Rezound 4G, Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and then iPhone 5.

Sarah Quinn, marketing manager for OnDevice Research commented on the report and said, “although Apple created one of the most revolutionary devices of the past decade, other manufactures have caught up, with some Android powered devices now commanding higher levels of user satisfaction,”.

In the UK Apple comparatively did better where HTC One X came first, iPhone 5 second followed by Samsung Galaxy Note 2, Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini and Samsung Galaxy S3.

Perhaps the most interesting result of the poll was that among the rankings for overall mobile device satisfaction Apple came in first followed by Google, Motorola, HTC, Nokia, Sony Ericsson and then Samsung. The survey reached out to mobile users in the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany, Japan, and Indonesia and was conducted via the mobile Web.

The report does give an interesting perspective of users satisfaction however, it’s unclear how a device can rank low while the company selling the device rank higher in overall satisfaction.

{via CNET}

Late last year, in November, rumors suggested that Microsoft was working on Office for the iPad and the Mac App Store but no solid details surfaced during that time. On Wednesday, The Verge reported that a Microsoft product manager released comments to Czech site IHNED.cz [Google translation] that Microsoft is in fact working to bring Office to iPhone and iPad in March 2013. In its report, the publication noted a press release from the Microsoft’s Czech Republic team that confirms that Office for iOS will be arriving soon.

In addition to Windows, Office will be also available on other operating systems, Windows Phone, Windows RT, Mac OS, Android, iOS and Symbian,” says Microsoft, while separately noting that there will also be a new version of Office Web Apps too. […]

The press release also mentions that Office 2013 will be made available to businesses in December, with a consumer launch scheduled for the end of February 2013. “Office 365 services and other Office products for mobile (phones and tablets) will be released from March 2013,” says Microsoft.

Soon after the announcement, numerous people began to refute the claim, including Microsoft head of PR Frank X. Shaw who mentioned that the Czech statement was not credible.

The information shared by our Czech Republic subsidiary is not accurate. We have nothing further to share.

With all of the rumors popping up on the web since late last year, it is very likely that Office for iOS will be arriving in the March/April timeframe and Shaw is refuting the claims in order to contain the rumors about the arrival of the suite of software to the iOS platform.

{Via MacRumors}

Amazon introduced the Kindle Fire late last year, as a response to Apple’s dominance of the tablet computer market. On Thursday, the Seattle, Washington based company moved to introduce the new Kindle Fire HD LTE for the same $499 the iPad sells for.

A 32GB Kindle Fire HD LTE is available for the same price of a 16GB WiFi only iPad. However, the company took it one step further and tacked on a $50/year data plan, far less than Apple’s data plans for the WiFi+LTE iPads. All of Apple’s cellular iPads all carry a $130 premium charge for the 3G and 4G LTE technology built inside.

This may give the iPad some competition, particularly with Amazon’s wise choice to introduce the new device before the holiday season. Amazon also introduced an 8.9 inch WiFi only Kindle Fire HD for $299, a 7-inch Kindle Fire HD for $199 and dropped the price of the current Kindle Fire to $159. Each Kindle Fire HD LTE comes with a data cap of 250MB of data for $50/year, 20GB of cloud storage and a $10 credit to the Amazon app store.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos made it a point to compare the Kindle Fire HD price points as well as the data plans to Apple’s iPad, noting that the average iPad owner with a data plan would pay over $959 in their first year of ownership. Amazon’s Kindle FIre HD LTE has the potential to make a rift in the tablet market, and is scheduled to arrive right before Thanksgiving and Christmas, on November 20.

{Via AppleInsider}

Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) and Apple Inc. (AAPL) have been competing in the ereader and tablet market for over a year now, since the iPad was introduced. On Friday, a report from Bloomberg mentioned that Amazon is now looking to introduce its own smartphone to take on the iPhone and some of the leading Android devices in the market.

A smartphone would give Amazon a wider range of low-priced hardware devices that bolster its strategy of making money from digital books, songs and movies. It would help Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos — who made a foray into tablets with the Kindle Fire — carve out a slice of the market for advanced wireless handsets.

Amazon has one of the most popular ereaders out on the market, the Kindle and is also leading the industry with some of its other products, including its cloud services and tablet computer, the Kindle Fire. The report mentions that Amazon is set to acquire a portfolio of patents that would allow the company to take steps in competing directly with some of the top competitors.

The rumored smartphone would likely borrow certain aspects of the Kindle Fire, including features such as purchasing books, magazines, and newspapers from Amazon’s store as well as using Amazon’s Cloud Drive as external storage. Amazon currently operates services that control a considerable portion of the digital content available online. By introducing a smartphone alongside its tablet and pairing with its online content, Amazon could very well present the iPhone with a serious competitor in the smartphone market.

{Via MacRumors}

Earlier in the week, Google announced an event to unveil plans to release the “Next Dimension” of Google Maps, ahead of Apple’s announcement of iOS 6. On Wednesday, during the event, Google unveiled 3D Maps, a technology that looks very similar to Apple’s recently acquired C3 Technologies. The 3D renderings for Google Earth were all shown off on Apple’s iPad, and with the new technology expected to be released on iOS and Android.

Google uses the new 3D maps by extracting data from aerial models taken from airplanes, and then forming a 3D image from all of the data. Ground images are shot from 45 degrees at four angles and are later pieced together to form an entire 3D image. The event mainly focused on the 3D maps, where attendees were shown numerous demonstrations on how the technology worked.

Google mentioned that the new features, which is being added into Google Maps and Google Earth, will be coming to iOS and Android, “in the coming weeks”.

{via AppleInsider}

I must admit, when a friend and I decided to take up app coding as a hobby to see if we could make a game, I thought mobile app coding was the same across the board. Guess what? It is not the same. Surprise I know, don’t get me wrong I didn’t think it was identical but I did think it would be more cross-platform than it is. Specifically, we’ll look at the differences of aesthetics between iOS and Android in this article.

In a nutshell, it’s easier to make good looking apps in iOS than in Android. Hipmunk UI/UX designer and iOS developer Danilo Campos explains: “The very simple short answer is it’s easier to make a good-looking, attractive iOS app compared to making an Android app.”

It’s no surprise that when you look at an Apple product vs. a Google product that the Apple product is going to most likely be more polished and sleek, also more expensive. This should give you a hint as to which one cares more about these qualities when it comes to software as well. Now that I sit down and think about it, it makes perfect sense, I just hadn’t thought about it.

Though many things that Apple product users such as myself see as issues with Android many Android users see as benefits. This might be true but some of these are the very reason for the apps not appearing as polished. One thing is for sure, it is is not for lack of talent in the Android development scene.

Let’s look at the reasoning before I am strung up by the Android users:

• Fragmentation: iOS devs have fewer resolutions and hardware profiles to worry about. The Android market is saturated with devices with different resolutions and hardware specs.

“Android devices come in different shapes and sizes, different screen resolutions, different device speeds – and that’s actually a huge hurdle,” Karma app co-founder Lee Linden told Wired.

• Images: Hipmunk generates its Android assets in three resolutions: 1x for older devices, 2x for high-resolution devices and 1.5x for other devices. Campos states that this is a must to avoid artifacting in some apps. The issue with this is that you’re spending more times on things like images and not on ground-breaking and cutting edge technology development. Even if you are, that’s added time and expense that iOS devs don’t have to worrry about.

• Tools & Documentation: Surprisingly, tools and documentation is less robust when it comes to Android. I say surprising as Android is more open than iOS. Part of that is that Apple has had a 20 year head start in developer support. That’s when you have to ask yourself, how old is Android really? That’s how long Google has been at developer support and it doesn’t come without some growing pains.

Campos states, “It feels like you’ve got more documentation, both officially sanctioned and thirdparty, so that makes things smoother.” He adds, “One of the hangups [with Android] is so much of the stuff doesn’t feel fully documented.” “Ryan, our Android guy, has to go digging around in the source code to figure out some XML formatting piece that isn’t made clear. That’s been painful for him.”

Overall, Google is learning from their developers and fixing many of the issues. Adding developer support pages to Google+ and also adding a much more robust Android training regiment. With these improvements, some issues still persist. The fragmentation remains as a major issue as less than 3 percent of Android devices currently run Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0). I’ll continue to monitor the progress as my company utilizes Google Apps for Business and I am a fan of all things Google, except Android. Sorry Android fans, it just hasn’t lured me away from iOS… yet.

{via Gizmodo}

Apple purchased San-Francisco start-up, Chomp, in February in order to utilize its App Search service for their own App Store. However, Chomp retained its app search service for Android users, until late last week. Apple likely decided to pull support for Android in order to minimize the usage of the website and focus it on iOS applications. Chomp also has the possibility of being integrated into iTunes, so that the service can access the data directly from the application, as opposed to users going to the Chomp website.

Apple has surpassed 25 billion app downloads from the App Store, making it one of the most successful applications stores out there. Chomp would allow Apple to organize all of its applications, and let users find them more easily and efficiently. Searching for apps in the iTunes App Store can be quite the task, with limitations on sections of apps, and type of apps.

Chomp was purchased by Apple for $50 million, a substantial amount of money, when considering that Chomp would be integrated into Apple’s ecosystem and would become one of the many features in its operations.

As of right now, Apple has not released any plans as to what they intend to do with Chomp, but the Cupertino company has made it clear that they are no longer supporting Android.

{Image Credit – TUAW}

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has been leading the market for quite some time with web based services, including search, email and documents. On Tuesday, Google Inc. released a more streamlined cloud experience for its users, the long-awaited Google Drive. The service provides users with 5GB of free storage, which is also integrated with Google Docs and many of Google’s other online services.

This initial 5GB offering is similar to Apple’s iCloud which also gives users a free 5GB of storage. Following the initial 5GB, users can then upgrade to a higher tier of storage, and for GOOG, that means up to as much as 16TB of storage which is far more than the amount of storage on any computer hard drive.

Today, we’re introducing Google Drive—a place where you can create, share, collaborate, and keep all of your stuff. Whether you’re working with a friend on a joint research project, planning a wedding with your fiancé or tracking a budget with roommates, you can do it in Drive. You can upload and access all of your files, including videos, photos, Google Docs, PDFs and beyond.

The storage can be accessed directly through Google Docs, or through clients on PC, Mac, Android and very soon, iOS devices. Google promised that the iOS app would be available “very soon”, with it being very likely that the search giant is still waiting for approval from Apple. Google Drive operates very differently than other cloud solutions, including a feature that allows users to open up as many as 30 different file types directly in the browser.

This allows users of the service to open up and view files such as images and documents, regardless of its format. Google Drive has the potential to be one of the next reliable cloud solutions available online. With its availability on numerous platforms, including iOS, it brings into question, whether this service will compete with iCloud.

{via MacRumors}

According to the latest Nielsen report, Android and iPhone make up majority of the U.S smartphone market. Both Android phones and iPhone did not exist or were not popular about 5 years ago, and were introduced into a Nokia and Blackberry dominated market. Since then Google and Apple have become fierce competitors and the data proves that they are in fact, at the top of the smartphone market. According to the report, Android’s increase in market share was a whopping 53% from January to October, up from a solid 42%. Apple’s iOS, although trailing behind Android also experienced an increase, from 21% to 29%.

With Android and Apple leading the pack, Blackberry’s RIM has been seeing a steady decline in shares, holding on to only 11.6 percent of the smartphone market, which is substantially less than both Android and Apple. Other smartphone companies, such as Motorola once held over 36% of the smartphone market but have since dropped to below 1%, as of March 2009. This is due in large part to Apple’s massive success with the iPhone’s adoption, selling more of the device each quarter and the widespread adoption of Android OS in a number of smartphones, including Motorola’s Droid line.

Nielsen’s report also mentioned new smartphone purchases, where 48 percent of users surveyed in February said they purchased an Android phone and 43% said they purchased an iPhone. These are staggering numbers, especially since both of these companies have not faltered with their takeover of the U.S smartphone market and have increased their annual revenue with each passing year.

On Thursday of last week Rovio released its most recent installment in it’s mega hit game, Angry Birds. The game has been an instant hit, netting 10 million downloads over by Monday of this week. Insane numbers, even by Angry Birds standards. Angry Birds Space takes the fun out of the atmosphere utilizing new physics.

Angry Birds Space was release for Apple iOS, Android devices, PC and Mac. Specific details on the number of downloads were not released. I found it interesting that there was not a free version on iOS when released, iOS being one of Angry Birds’ most prominent platforms for the game.

Peter Farago, vice president of marketing at the mobile analytics firm Flurry said “The closest success story I can think of is OMGPOP’s Draw Something, which racked up 20 million total downloads in five weeks.” So 5 weeks compared to 4 days is the closest comparison. Whether you like the game or not you have to admit that is pretty amazing.

Overall, this installment of Angry Birds changes things by altering a world class physics machine. There is something to be said for the depth of Angry Birds. I admit, its a simple pick up and play game but how many clones have you seen that haven’t gotten it right? Certainly didn’t do 10 million downloads over a weekend. I’ll continue to play my Angry Birds and agree to disagree with the haters. Download it and try it out, $0.99 isn’t bad and 10 million downloads can’t be wrong.

Earlier today a German court ordered two patent rulings which involved Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Samsung. In Mannheim Regional Court Judge Andreas Voss tossed the third lawsuit in a row in which Samsung claimed that AAPL infringed on 3G/UTMS patent.

Samsung has already announced that it will appeal the dismissal of its case. In addition to the ruling in Apple’s favor the German court, according to Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents, tossed one of two suits filed by Apple against Samsung over slide-to-unlock.

Apple has seen some success in its legal battle against Android as the Cupertino, Calif. based company won preliminary injunctions against Samsung, however most of them were subsequently lifted.

Samsung still hasn’t been able to enforce any intellectual property right anywhere on this planet against Apple

Mueller on his blog explains that today’s decision does not reduce chances of Apple’s success in other slide-to-unlock lawsuits.

[T]he whole issue here that made Apple lose, for the time being, the slide-to-unlock patent case against Samsung is just the interpretation of certain key terms (“predefined”, “displayed”, “path”). The slide-to-unlock utility model has a large number of claims, and some of those are much broader and don’t have the related limitations.

This week turned out to be great for Apple as the company scored significant victories in German courts. In one of the lawsuits the court ordered that Motorola Mobility cannot enforce standard-essential patent injunction against Apple during its appeal. This suggests that Apple has strong chances in succeeding. We recently reported that in another lawsuit against Motorola, Apple won German injunction over its Photo Gallery patent which enables Apple to enforce the ruling and ask for any infringing product to be destroyed.

Apple Inc. (AAPL) earlier today won an injunction against Motorola in Germany over the photo gallery patent. The judgement was pronounced on Thursday at the Munich I Regional Court by Judge Dr. Peter Guntz.

AAPL and Motorola have been involved in a number of lawsuits and this recent victory over yet another patent allows Apple to enforce the ruling which could force Motorola to destroy any infringing products. Motorola could very well continue to sell its smartphones and tablet by seeding a software update to resolve the infringing feature.

It’s interesting to note that Apple has won this injunction against all accused products which include two smartphones and the Xoom tablet. If Motorola decides to issue a software update to avoid infringing on Apple’s patent then it could possibly impact the user experience who are used to certain behavior when they scroll lists or manage / browse photo galleries.

Florian Mueller, an intellectual property activist-turned-analyst, on his blog FOSS Patents reports that:

The glass is clearly more than half-full for Apple in this case (and even more so when considering that Apple also won the drastic remedies of destruction and recall).

Apple continues to be aggressive in its approach to fight against the Android platform which the Cupertino, Calif. based company claims to infringe on its many patents. In Steve Jobs’ biography it was revealed that Jobs considered Android a “stolen product” and that he would “spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong.”

Today’s ruling is the second injunction Apple has won against MMI in Germany so far. Those are the first two Apple v. Motorola casees that came to judgment in Germany.

In August last year Google announced that it would acquire Motorola for $12.5 billion and the move was largely seen as an attempt to acquire a stronger patent portfolio. However, with Apple winning injunction in recent lawsuits it remains to be seen if Google’s decision of acquiring Motorola would play out well when the deal finally comes through.

It is worth noting that due a Motorola patent ruling which is under appeal forced Apple to discontinue the “push” feature in iCloud and MobileMe email service within Germany. Users can still receive and send emails however, they would have to manually “fetch” the emails. Apple is appealing the decision and believes “this patent is invalid”.

Google is developing a new wireless home entertainment system, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal which could compete with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). The report, published on Thursday suggests that the new platform would be marketed under Google’s brand and will be based off their Android operating system, which also runs mobile phones, and parts of Chrome OS. The hardware for the entertainment system is expected to manufactured by Google Inc., something that is new to the company, as they usually include a third party in that process.

For example, Google branded and sold the Nexus smartphone, but it was manufactured by HTC. This allows Google to stay focused on the OS as opposed to hardware solutions. This is the first time that Google would handle both hardware and software, putting them directly in competition with AAPL.

Google’s Android unit has led a multi-year effort to develop the new entertainment device, which may possibly stream other digital media besides music and is expected to be unveiled later this year, people familiar with the matter said.

The new device, along with Google’s pending purchase of device maker Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., shows how serious the Internet giant is about wanting to control both the software and hardware process, a formula used by rival Apple Inc.

The system is expected to allow users to download music and stream it to Google-branded wireless speakers and other devices, putting it in a competitive market with other devices such as the Sonos home entertainment system, and even Apple’s own AirPort Express, AirPlay, and Apple TV, while not a full entertainment system in itself, it would include many of the features.

WSJ did not report as to when Google is planning to announce, let alone release the system, however, it is very likely that users will see it sometime this year. Streaming is becoming an increasingly competitive market, and Google, being pros in online services, will not give up an opportunity to dominate.

{via MacRumors}

The latest suit was mentioned in Apple’s complaint against Samsung and later discovered by FOSS Patents. Apple filed a complaint with the same court over the design of the Motorola XOOM. However, it’s worth noting that the filing doesn’t state whether it includes a request for preliminary injunction.

There isn’t a clear statutory limit, but German lawyers usually discourage such motions unless they are filed within one month of finding out about an infringement. It’s possible to get permanent injunctions even against older products, but for preliminary ones there must be a particular sense of urgency. It’s possible that Apple has also been aware of the Xoom for too long to file for a preliminary injunction at this stage.

Apple is potentially making it difficult for Android smartphone manufactures to sell their devices as patent infringement, if proven, could result in high licensing fees.

It will be interesting to see how all of this plays out between Apple and Motorola.

Apple surpassed Nokia’s Symbian OS in order to claim the 2nd spot, directly behind Android. In the second quarter of 2011, Apple held the number one spot for world’s largest individual smartphone manufacturer, because of Android’s fragmented manufacturing process and the availability of its OS on multiple hardware.

The problem for Nokia is that demand for its Symbian-based smart phones has dissipated very rapidly, particularly in operator-led markets, such as Western Europe, where it’s been strong in the past. It badly needs the first of its Windows Phone devices to launch as soon as possible to arrest a decline and, hopefully, silence its critics.

Nokia is trailing behind both Samsung and Apple with only 16.7 million units last quarter. Google’s Android, Apple, and Samsung are now the leaders of the smartphone operating system and are setting their foot down.

Apple is shipping iPhones much more rapidly and increasing iOS usage around the world. Apple has now penetrated every major market and is experiencing major success with it’s host of iOS devices.

Apple has the ability to lead ahead of Android if it continues to experience this growth and adoption of iOS in it’s suite of mobile products. With the rumored iPhone 5 expected to be introduced this fall Apple could leap ahead in the third quarter.

{via AppleInsider}

According to market research firm Strategy Analytics, Apple Inc. (AAPL) overtook Nokia in global smartphone market share during the second quarter.

Apple has now become worlds largest smartphone manufacturer as Nokia slipped to number three and Samsung coming close at second position. The global smartphone market saw 110 million units being shipped which represented 76% growth. 

Apple shipped 20.3 million units and controlled 18.5% of the smartphone market whereas Samsung came very close with 19.2 million units in the same quarter. Nokia witnessed major drop as its market share fell from 38.1% to 15.2%.

Expansion in China and other Asian countries helped Apple’s growth in global smartphone market and analysts view the company’s ability to quickly expand in Asian markets as an important factor to retain the momentum.

As Nokia’s Ovi Store failed to gain traction and the fact that the company announced that newer handsets would support Windows platform caused the Finnish giant to lose major market share. 

Samsung on the other hand has shown very positive results as Android platform continues to grow. However, it’s worth noting that even though Apple ships just one new model every year the company has been reporting superb results year over year.

Apple is expected to announce iPhone 5 in September which could help the company post stellar results yet again in Q3 and Q4. With iOS 5 and iCloud iPhones would not need a computer to set up which will help in much higher sales especially in Asian countries.

Richard “Chip” Lutton Jr., the current Chief Patent lawyer has been confirmed to be leaving the company according to a few anonymous sources, who released their information to Reuters.

Lutton’s voicemail was still set up at Apple on Monday, but he will be leaving Apple soon, perhaps in the next month, said the source familiar with the situation

It’s unclear why Lutton is leaving the company. Apple reportedly did not comment on the situation. Lutton was an integral part of Apple’s patents and has been heading high profile cases such as the Samsung Patent infringement case in the recent weeks.

Lutton mentioned that Apple is “one of the most secretive companies in the world” and that its announcements are “major events in the technology industry,” drawing a distinction between Samsung’s products and Apple’s. Lutton or Apple have yet to comment.

{via AppleInsider}

The report anticipates that Amazon is going to introduce and begin shipping the device well before the holiday season in order to infiltrate the market. Amazon is expected to ship about 700,000-800,000 units per month with a goal of selling four million units before the end of the year.

The timing of launch is to meet the peak sales period prior to Thanksgiving in the US and the year-end holidays in the US and Europe, the sources pointed out.

Amazon adopts processors developed by Texas Instruments, with Taiwan-based Wintek to supply touch panels, ILI Technology to supply LCD driver ICs and Quanta Computer responsible for assembly, the sources indicated.

The report heavily emphasizes Amazon’s integrated streaming movie services and it’s recently introduced Cloud Player which will possibly make an appearance in the tablet as well. Many companies, including HP are attempting to lead the market with their tablets and their own cloud service offerings. HP is expected to introduce it’s TouchPad tablet and possibly a Cloud service similar to Apple which will allow syncing across devices.

Amazon is among those looking to knock down the iPad as the leading tablet device in the market. It is unclear when Amazon is looking to introduce it’s tablet, however, August / September time frame is very likely.

If Amazon introduced a tablet, would you buy? Do you currently use Amazon’s Cloud Player? Do you think this could pose a threat to the iPad?

{via MacRumors}

While AAPL brand value jumped 84% to $154billion, prior number one Google saw its own value drop 2% to $111 billion, writes iPhoneInCanada.

Peter Walshe, director of Willward Brown who are the people behind the BrandZ study says Apple’s philosophy of offering premium products at reasonable prices has taken the company to the summit.

Apple is breaking the rules in terms of its pricing model…It’s doing what luxury brands do, where the higher price the brand is, the more it seems to underpin and reinforce the desire…Obviously, it has to be allied to great products and a great experience, and Apple has nurtured that.

It’s perhaps no great surprise that Apple is doing so well in this particular study, with the Cupertino outfit reporting record profits quarter after quarter and with iPad and iPhone sales off the charts. Apple has over $65 billion in cash alone, just waiting to buy the right company for another breakthrough product.

Or they might just buy Luxembourg.

Google’s Android is increasingly becoming popular as most handset manufacturers are adopting the Android platform. We recently reported that Google’s Android Market is expected to surpass the number of apps available in Apple’s App Store to become the largest store for mobile apps. But, does more apps mean more revenue?

According to a new report by IHS Screen Digest, the paid app market will double by 2014 and Apple is expected to retain 60 percent of the paid apps market. In terms of revenue Google’s Android Market is witnessing strong growth as revenue for 2011 is predicted to cross $425 million but is still far behind Apple whose revenue is projected to cross $2.91 billion.

RIM turned out to be the biggest loser as the BlackBerry platform for apps hasn’t attracted many new developers.

The app market (including Apple, Google, Nokia, RIM) is predicted to grow 77.7 percent in 2011 making it cross the $3 billion mark and is expected to show tremendous growth by 2014 and crossing $8.3 billion in revenue.

Google’s Android continue to grow in the number of apps however Apple’s strong presence and well defined ecosystem will help the Cupertino based company maintain the lead when it comes to revenue share.