Rumors were getting pretty ridiculous leading up to this year’s Google I/O conference. Among the products and software that have been rumored to be announced at Google I/O this year are Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie, Google’s new Babble messaging service, the Nexus 7.7 tablet, the Nexus 5 smartphone, the Motorola “X Phone,” an upgraded Nexus 4 in lieu of the Nexus 5 and X Phone, new Google Glass details and more. While some of the aforementioned rumors have since changed, it turns out we really are in store for an action-packed show at this year’s I/O conference. Google on Tuesday evening posted the session schedule for I/O and among the sessions listed is the company’s customary opening keynote — only this year, it’s three hours long. The Google I/O 2013 keynote kicks off at 9:00 a.m. EDT on May 15th, so be ready for tons of announcements to be stuffed into the three hours that follow.
Google unlawfully used technology from Oracle, Microsoft and others when creating its Android and Chrome operating systems, leaving its vendor partners exposed. Rather than engaging in expensive and often drawn out lawsuits, a majority of Android vendors have signed licensing agreements with patent holders. Microsoft has already signed licensing agreements with more than 20 Android manufacturers, including big-name players such as HTC, Samsung and LG. The company claims that 80% of Android smartphones sold in the U.S. and most devices sold throughout the world are now covered under its various agreements. More →
Perhaps the most fascinating trend in App Annie’s new March statistics is the transformation of the Google Play Android app store into a messaging app distributor. No fewer than three out of four biggest revenue generators in the non-game app chart are now messaging apps; LINE at No.1, WhatsApp at No.3 and KakaoTalk at No.4. The iPhone’s non-game revenue chart is a bit lighter on messaging app but still features LINE at No.1 and WhatsApp at No.8. More →
In the wake of grim PC sales, HP may be preparing to release a high-end Android tablet in the coming months. A listing on the AnTuTu benchmark network, per TabTech, revealed a new tablet known as the HP SlateBook 10 X2. The slate is equipped with a 10.1-inch display, a new quad-core Tegra 4 processor clocked at 1.8GHz and Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. HP recently entered the Android tablet market with the mid-range Slate 7 that’s selling for only $169.99. The affordable tablet is equipped with a 7-inch 1024 x 600 pixel resolution display, a 1.6GHz dual-core processor, 8GB of internal storage, 1GB of RAM, Beats Audio, a microSD card and a 3-megapixel rear camera.
Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 platform has slowly increased its market share since being released last October. The latest numbers from Kantar Worldpanel found that the operating system accounted for 5.6% of sales in the United States in the first quarter of 2013, up 1.9 percentage points from the same period in 2012. Android smartphones continue to dominate the market, increasing 1.4 percentage points and accounting for 49.3% of all smartphone sales, compared to the iPhone’s market share, which fell from 44.6% in Q1 2012 to 43.7% last quarter. More →
Facebook unveiled Facebook Home, an application that replaces your Android phone’s homescreen with Facebook photos and status updates, earlier this month for select Android smartphones. Google chairman Eric Schmidt previously called the software “fantastic” and said it was a creative tweaking of the operating system that fits in well with Google’s conception of Android as an open source platform. He isn’t the only Google executive who finds Facebook Home intriguing, however: Android design chief Matias Durate told ABC News that Facebook’s homescreen replacement “shows an incredible amount of polish and attention to design detail,” which is impressive especially because it “didn’t come from a hardware manufacturer.” More →
An image published on a Chinese website over the weekend supposedly reveals Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Note III phablet. According to MyDrivers, the next-generation Note smartphone will be equipped with a 5.99-inch full HD 1080p display, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, a microSD slot and Android 4.2.2. The report also claims that the handset will feature an eight-core Exynos 5410 Octa processor with the Cortex A15 cores clocked at 2.0GHz and the Cortex A7 core at 1.7GHz, considerably higher than the international Galaxy S4′s clock speeds of 1.6GHz and 1.2GHz, respectively. Earlier rumors have suggested that the device may include a flexible and shatter-proof display and better build quality compared to Samsung’s previous plastic smartphones. The Galaxy Note III is expected to debut at the IFA Trade Show in September. The alleged image follows below. More →
Google on Friday changed one of its Play Store policies to prevent apps from being updated outside of its marketplace. The company states that “an app downloaded from Google Play may not modify, replace or update its own APK binary code using any method other than Google Play’s update mechanism.” The change comes shortly after Facebook tweaked its Android application to allow users to update it without using the normal Google Play update system. It could be a coincidence, however it would appear that Google is worried that other developers might have followed suit and would therefore become less dependent on its Play Store.
Sony is reportedly preparing to launch a new flagship Xperia smartphone in the near future. According to the Xperia Blog, the Xperia ZR will be equipped with a 4.6-inch display, either a 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro or a Snapdragon 600 chipset and a 13-megapixel rear camera. The handset will also reportedly include 2GB RAM, 8GB of internal storage, a microSD slot and a 2,300 mAh battery, and will be capable of sitting in more than 5 feet of water for up to 30 minutes without being damaged. Unlike similar high-end devices, however, Sony’s new smartphone won’t include a full HD display and will instead reportedly feature a 720p panel.
While Google’s Android operating system has a lead over iOS in overall market share, it faces a hard barrier that blocks its ability to expand its lead much further: The loyalty of iOS users. AllThingsD points us to a new survey from the Yankee Group showing that 91% of iPhone users plan to buy an iPhone for the next smartphone while just 76% of Android users plan to stick with Android. Granted, this means that the majority of Android users are loyal to their platform but not to the same extent as Apple fans are loyal to the iPhone. Going forward, the Yankee Group thinks that the iPhone will expand its share of the mobile market and overtake Android, although it doesn’t think Android’s current market share will significantly deteriorate. Rather, most of the gains for iOS will come at the expense of non-smartphone operating systems that are slowly phased out over the next few years.
Google hasn’t had much luck so far with selling many Chromebooks but the company is hoping to have better luck selling super-cheap notebooks based on its popular Android operating system. Intel chief product officer Dadi Perlmutter tells CNET that Intel is supplying Atom processors for a line of Android touchscreen notebooks that will be aggressively priced in the $200 range. Perlmutter said that we’re unlikely to see Windows-based notebooks priced in this range, however, since their retail cost “depends on how Microsoft prices Windows 8” while Android is free for OEMs to use. The Intel executive didn’t provide any release timeframe or specifications for the future Android notebooks.
Vine co-founder Dom Hofmann has confirmed to The Verge that the popular video sharing application is coming to Android. Twitter released Vine for the iPhone in January and since then it has become one of the most downloaded applications in Apple’s App Store. Vine allows users to create short video clips with a maximum length of six seconds that can be shared with friends across different social networks. Android users have been asking when, if ever, Vine would be released for their devices and while Hofmann didn’t give a specific date, he said Vine will be coming “soon” to Android devices.
