Over 2 years ago Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and Nokia (NYSE: NOK) announced that Silverlight will be making its way to S40, S60 (Symbian), and Maemo (now MeeGo). They finally came through on March 11th, delivering the bits for Symbian, but then it was quickly pulled according to Mary-Jo Foley from All About Microsoft.

Why was it removed?

It’s a public relations opportunity that both companies don’t want to miss. Some senior executive from Microsoft is going to get on stage at MIX, say Nokia is innovative and a fantastic partner, then invite a senior executive from Nokia to come on stage, who will then say Microsoft is a leader in content delivery, then an announcement will be made, written up by a bunch of sweaty, smelly, slightly hungover bloggers, journalists, and analysts who flew all the way to Las Vegas to cover the event.

In other words, we can’t wait!

MIX, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)’s conference for developers with designer blood running through their veins, is going to kick off in a few hours at the Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino. Will and our new rockstar writer Marin will be there, but will the allure of all those gambling machines, street hookers and cheap drugs keep their coverage from flowing? The world will soon find out, but for those of you who want to be the first to know, if you’re the type of person who lives to break news, then you’ll want to go here: live.visitmix.com

You have to install Silverlight, which I know sounds like a pain in the ass, but it shouldn’t be that much of a hassle, and after that you’ll be able to watch these Windows Phone Series 7 related talks:

Title: The Windows Phone Developer Story
Who: Windows Phone 7 Series Developer Mini-Panel
Time: 11:30AM
Ask questions about: Developing on the Windows Phone 7 Series, End-to-End App Development

Title: Designing the Windows Phone 7 Series
Who: Albert Shum
Time: 12:30PM
Ask questions about: Designing the Windows Phone 7 Series, Designing for Mobile Experiences, The right and left brain of Design

Title: Developing Games with XNA on Windows Phone 7 Series
Who: Michael Klucher and Shawn Hargreaves
Time: 1:00PM
Ask questions about: XNA, Game Development for Windows Phone

Title: Welcome to Windows Phone 7 Series
Who: Joe Belfiore
Time: 3:00PM
Ask questions about: Hardware, UI, Marketplace, Apps, Ecosystem

Title: UI Design with Expression Blend for the Windows Phone 7 Series
Who: Christian Schormann
Time: 4:00PM
Ask questions about: Expression Blend, Mobile UI Design

That should give you quite a lot of content to digest, enjoy!

[Via: Channel 9]
[Image via: ZD|Net]

Comscore released their Mobile OS market share for October to January. Windows Mobile was the biggest loser, and Android seemed to pick up  almost everything  it lost. RIM and Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) also both saw gains.

RIM is still the leader in the OS space, holding 43% of the total market in the U.S. The iPhone gained 0.3%, giving them 25.1% of the market. It may not be too much of a gain, but the iPhone is still growing, and with the next generation device coming around 3 months or so (as history has shown), Apple may soon see much more growth.

Palm (NSDQ: PALM)– Oh, poor Palm saw a decrease in market share from 7.8% to 5.7%, a 2.1 % loss. Palm’s really got it’s work cut out for them if they ever want to see some growth this year. At the Game Developer Conference (GDC), Palm announced the introduction to 3d gaming on WebOS, which definitely can perk up a couple of ears, but will it be enough? With increased competition coming from the various Android phones being released, Windows Phone 7, and  of course, Apple’s refresh of their phone, Palm should have gotten the first WebOS phones right. That, unfortunately has not been the case to any degree.

Where Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) saw the loss of 4.3%, Android happily lapped up what they left behind with an increase of 4.3%. There is little doubt what device is still fueling Android’s fire, the Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Droid. Where the Nexus One would probably be the king of the crop – and someways it is – limiting the adoption of the device by making it only available online looks like it is hindering it more than anything. Hopefully the Nexus Two will bring more attention to Google (NSDQ: GOOG)’s online store, but I wouldn’t expect to make the strides in market share that the Motorola Droid has accomplished.

2010 is definitely the year of Mobile, and possibly the year of Android. Although that was supposed to be last year, wasn’t it?  It looks like the winners in the mobile space this year will be Apple, and Android, and hopefully Windows Phone 7 impresses. Lets hope this competition doesn’t slow down, lawsuits aside.

[Via: EngadgetMobile]

Motorola has been fighting hard to reestablish itself as the giant mobile phone maker it once was. The new wave of Android phones – like the Motorola Droid and Devour – prove that Moto’s well on its way back to prominence, but the company’s fight is a long way from over. As such, co-CEOs Greg Brown and Sanjay Jha have voluntarily agreed to take a 25% pay cut for 2010. The move will have the Motorola (NYSE: MOT) co-chiefs continuing salary reductions made in 2009.

Motorola’s proxy statement, filed with the SEC yesterday, confirms that the two execs are giving up a 25% chunk of their annual salary of their own free will. They’ll be making $900,000 instead of the $1.2 million base salary from 2008. Even with the pay cuts, though, Jha isn’t hurting for money. In 2008, Jha was declared the top-paid exec in the US, thanks to the $104.4 million he took home in (mostly) performance-based stocks and options.

With solid plans to divide Motorola up into two separate publicly traded entities, and compelling new smartphones powered by Google (NSDQ: GOOG)’s Android mobile operating system, Motorola is poised to make their long-awaited comeback in the mobile space. Sometime in early 2011, Sanjay Jha will take his seat at the head of the Mobile Devices and Home Businesses division, while Greg Brown takes the reigns of the Motorola Enterprise unit.

Motorola has proven that they still have what it takes to be a formidable player in the smartphone space, but the long-term success of the handset maker will be largely dependent on their ability to continue to capture mindshare in the US and around the world. The Motorola Droid is a good first step, but it’s not going to be enough to carry Moto through the next year. Nexus Two, anyone?

[Via: paidContent]

FunMobility is America’s largest mobile content community, used by 27 different companies, and on 550 handsets. With almost 76,700,000 customers, when the team announces something, people listen. Enter FunTweet, a Twitter client that adds images to one’s tweet based on keywords found within the tweet.

Twitter is Twitter. It needs little work, but what it does, it does right. It wouldn’t be so crazy-popular if it wasn’t doing something right, right?. But that doesn’t mean that someone may wish for a little more from their tweet than just plain text. This is where FunTweet may catch on, and possibly catch on quick. It’ll catch someone’s eye a lot easier than any other regular tweet, and as it seems, it’s pretty effortless. Just tweet, and FunTweet does the rest for you.

FunTweet is similar to FunMail, and application for Android and iPhone. It allows a user to send a message to someone, giving them a choice of graphics send along with the text. FunMail for Android takes uses Google (NSDQ: GOOG)’s voice recognition software, so one can send a picture to a voice message as well.

FunMobility is hoping that companies will eventually adopt their service so they will be used at conferences, and business meetings where streaming messages could be possibly displayed at.

My only concern that the real Twitter site may like that idea as well, and may implement similarly. Even though FunMobility is first to implement it, Twitter could easily add that in as an ‘experiment’ (Google Labs for Twitter?), and it would catch on a lot faster because it’s coming from Twitter themselves. Great artists steal, (right, Jobs?) and Twitter could very well build upon the initial concept of FunTweet, and make it better. Or, they may do nothing, as people are using their service, and that may be all that matters to them.

I see the functionality in this, but this would be a pass.

[Via: VentureBeat ]

Right from the floor of GDC, EA Mobile announced that 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa will be released for the iPhone and iPod Touch on April 27!

Those attending the event (unfortunately I wasn’t there) had a chance to play the game, though I’m guessing it was not the build EA was demoing. PocketGamer was there but due to some NDA (I guess), they cannot share what they know at this stage.

We do expect this to be the best FIFA game released to date. In other words, graphics should be slightly improved and possibly even the gameplay. Of course, you’ll be able to play with any of the teams participating at this year’s World Cup. EA is known to license all the players, ensuring “authentic” look and feel.

Price was not unveiled, but we know that FIFA 10 is selling for $9.95 and I would expect this release to follow the trend. As soon as we get first screenshots, we’ll definitely share them. Stay tuned, k?

[Via: PocketGamer.co.uk]

SPB Software is bringing its popular puzzle title SPB Quads to Symbian S60 touch-enabled smartphones. The game, which is already available for the iPhone and Windows Mobile platforms, sees you putting together “all your pattern-finding skills to succeed.” The goal is to reveal and mark rectangles’ corners of the same colors in a field filled with color bricks, in a move that “destroys” them and earns you some points.

The description above may sound kinda dull, but the game is actually quite addictive boasting two game modes (a time-limited mode and an endless so called “strategic” mode), cool graphics (for a puzzler), 6 different types of bonuses and online high scores.

SPB Quads for Symbian works with all S60 5th Edition devices and it costs $9.95. A free 15-day trial version is also available. You can grab it either from SPB Software’s website or from Nokia (NYSE: NOK)’s Ovi Store (in case you have Nokia’s S60 touch smartphone, and you most likely do).

As a comparison, Windows Mobile version also costs $9.95, while SPB Quads for iPhone sells for only 99 cents. Go figure.

Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM) wants a piece of the ever growing Indian mobile market. But it don’t want to participate in the upcoming 3G spectrum auction — rather it wants to skip that step and bid for BWA radio spectrum that could be used for WiMAX and LTE services.

BWA auctions are set to begin two weeks after bidding for 3G spectrum ends.

According to the Hindu Business Line newspaper, the American company has already approached a number of local operators, exploring the possibility of forming a consortium for the bidding. One, sadly unnamed, operator confirmed that a high-level team from Qualcomm is in Mumbai to work out a strategy.

Unsurprisingly, Qualcomm declined to comment on the news report.

We’re not sure what Qualcomm’s plans are but we do know they recently sold their Australia’s radio spectrum, which they’ve never put to use. However, it’s important to note that Australia and India are two very different markets — the former is super developed and even over-served, whereas the latter is still emerging and growing like crazy.

We’ll certainly keep watching for any interesting news coming out from India and keep you guys and gals in the loop. Stay tuned…

[Via: CellularNews]

As part of its Open Collaborative Research program, IBM is working together with the National Institute of Design (NID) of India and Japan’s Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST) to explore an open, common user interface platform for mobile devices that will make them easier to use for disadvantaged populations around the world.

Here’s what’s the problem:

There are more than 4 billion mobile phone users in the world, but not everyone can use the Internet in the same way. It’s not just the problem of multiple devices (some are powerful than others), it’s also that some people are illiterate, blind, deaf or elderly. The aim of the research is to help everyone access the web and other Internet services from their mobile phone.

Initially, the research will focus on Japan’s elderly population, where the aging rate is growing at a rapid pace — the Land of the rising Sun has the most elderly population in the world, in case you didn’t know. On the other hand, India’s NID will help identifying the communication needs and preferences of the non- and semi-literate population, to “not only help them connect but to engage with information through mobile devices.”

The great thing about this cooperation is that the software developed by IBM Research and the universities will be made available as open source, and other materials developed will be made publicly available so that governments and businesses around the world to take advantage of the technology and eventually make the world a better place. We love the idea and the noble goal it tries to reach!

GuidePoint Systems, the company that is known as a GPS-based telematic service provider to vehicle owners and fleet managers, has released a free Android app, allowing users to gain access to a variety of location-based services including stolen vehicle recovery, driving directions, emergency help and other assistance.

The application, which is already available for the iPhone, relies on the built-in GPS receiver to deliver phone’s exact location to Guidepoint. Once activated, users can set up an online account with Guidepoint and access services with just a few touches.

In a nutshell, if you and/or your company are using GuidePoint and you happen to own an Android-powered smartphone, you’ll want to grab GuidePoint’s application. God forbid you ever need it, but it’s good to have it available at your fingertips, just in case something happens.

Interested? Search for “guidepoint” in the Android Market and take it from there. It’s free and it can only benefit you — that’s again in case you do rely on their solution.