I was just looking over a post from Will the other day, in which he reported the clear dominance of the iPhone when it comes to mobile browsing/web traffic. You can’t deny that at all, the numbers are clear-cut… In fact, from last months’ AdMob report, the iPhone accounts for 51% of all US smartphone web traffic. Dominant.
However, one thing I wanted to touch on here is the rise of Android. Will did touch on this in his post, but I feel it’s worthy of note yet again Check out the chart below. Look at Android. 6.15%. No biggie, right? I beg to differ. Look who they’re hanging out with there. They’re less than a percentage point down on Windows Mobile, they’re tied with Symbian, and Java ME is surely in their sites. With the release of new Android-powered devices this year, I would not be surprised to see these numbers change quite a bit, and have Android up in the 2nd or 3rd spot by years’ end.
One more quick thing before I go… Check out Palm (NSDQ: PALM). At a measly 2.37%, watch that number. Once the Pre hits the shelves, we may see that number grow as well. I wouldn’t expect a HUGE jump, but still, expect it to move in a positive direction.
When it comes to using the mobile web, you’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone that denies the iPhone’s multi-touch web browsing experience as anything less than top-notch. The mobile world scurried to bring their own touchscreen competitors to market when the iPhone blew up the scene with its inaugural launch in 2007, but no other handset has since been able to come close to the iPhone’s Safari web browser in terms of user experience. And, the latest data on mobile web usage suggests that the iPhone has a commanding lead on its closest compeitors. Net Applications estimates that the iPhone (both the iPhone and iPhone 3G) accounts for a whopping 66.61% of all mobile web traffic!
Percentage of mobile web data by mobile phone platform (February 2009)
The news of the iPhone’s amazing mobile web market share comes on the heels of an AdMob report that had the iPhone OS being responsible for 51% of all US smartphone web traffic.
The iPhone OS, based on the Mac OS, still only accounts for less than 0.5% of the mobile operating systems that surf the mobile web. But, that hasn’t stopped the iconic touchscreen handset from pulling down over 9 times the mobile web data of its closest smartphone competition, Windows Mobile. With just 6.91% of web traffic being routed to Windows Mobile smartphones, it’s clear that Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) is quickly dominating the mobile browsing space.
Notably, the Android OS has earned itself a tied-position with the Symbian platform, both accounting for 6.15% of mobile web traffic. Despite Nokia (NYSE: NOK)’s domination of the global mobile phone market with its Symbian-powered handsets, the Finns apparently failed to provide its users with the kind of desirable web surfing experience that has made the iPhone OS, nay the Android OS, so popular in such short time. The biggest take away here is that Android OS managed to secure the same mobile web usage volume that took Symbian years to secure.
Consider this. As the web becomes more tightly integrated into our daily lives (how many of you would go through withdrawal without access to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, or IntoMobile for just a day?), the need for a truly usable and fast mobile web browser becomes every more important. Is it any wonder that the iPhone drives over 66% of all mobile web data?
On the one hand, we have the Palm Pre with its Web OS. We’ve covered the Web OS in depth over the past few months, but the jury is still out as to whether the Web OS has what it takes to match the iPhone OS on usability and “intuitivity.” But, the Palm Pre does have a slide-out QWERTY keyboard that is almost big enough to use comfortably for extended tapping sessions. It also rocks a 3.1-inch capacitance touchscreen with multi-touch controls, 3-megapixel camera, 8GB of storage, an industry-leading CPU based on the new OMAP3 architecture, GPS, WiFi, and a 3G data connection.
On the other hand, we have the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) iPhone 3G and its iPhone OS. Until now, the iPhone OS has been considered unrivaled in the “intuitivity” department. Will the Palm Pre’s Web OS fell the mighty iPhone OS? Surely, the iPhone 3G’s 3.5-inch display trumps the Palm Pre’s 3.1 incher. But, both have multi-touch support and both use capacitance technology. The iPhone 3G also sports GPS, WiFi, 3G data connection, and a top-of-the-line CPU. But, with a 16GB variant likely to give way to a 32GB version in the near future, the iPhone 3G will have the upper hand when it comes to on-board storage.
So, which will you choose? Will iPhone 3G loyalists make the jump to the Palm camp? Duke it out in the poll!
[Update]
And the votes keep speaking for themselves. Remember folks, your vote counts, too!
NormSoft released Pocket Tunes 5.0 for Windows Mobile and Palm (NSDQ: PALM) OS smartphones. This latest update to the popular mobile audio player packs tons of new features, among which we highlight:
Podcast support – over the air downloads
Scrobbling with Last.fm
Synchronizing with iTunes
Support for Internet radio using Windows Media Audio (WMA)
In a nutshell – it’s worth updating for every “serious Pocket Tunes fan.” The official website is a way to go to grab the latest version…
Talk about getting a lot of “OS” bang for your buck!
With the hype building around Palm (NSDQ: PALM)’s business-saving Palm Pre and its finger-friendly, uber-intuitive Web OS, it was only a matter of time before some enterprising mobile developer cranked out a Web OS-themed skin for the Palm OS. Today, we see the TealOS bringing the Web OS’s versatile UI to Palm devices running the Palm OS 5.0. PreThinking has posted video that shows the Palm Centro running the TealOS skin on top of its Palm OS. Impressive stuff, indeed!
The TealOS offers the same look and feel of the Web OS, although it lacks the multi-tasking support that makes the Web OS so darn cool – no multi-tasking also means the application cards in TealOS aren’t live, they merely show a particular application’s last-action before being minimized. Still, if the slide-up wave launcher and application “cards” tickle your fancy, the TealOS might be right down your alley.
That’s it, Palm (NSDQ: PALM) CEO Ed Colligan has just sounded the death-knell for the Palm OS.
Hold on to those old Palm OS-powered Palm Treo and Centro smartphones, they’ll be worth more in a few years as a collector’s item! Of course, we’re just kidding, but wouldn’t it be nice if the mobile world worked like the automotive world? Rather than ditching old, obsolete hardware on Craigslist, we’d love to see old handsets becoming antiques.
Back on topic, Ed Colligan, in speaking to investors about the Palm Pre and the Web OS, mentioned that the Palm OS is now official end-of-lifed. Colligan said that there will no longer be annew y Palm smartphones powered by the ancient Palm OS, and that Palm would concentrate their efforts on the Web OS and Windows Mobile. To be clear, Palm will still support Palm OS for at least the near-term future, but Palm will be taking Palm OS out of the product development cycle – essentially leaving Palm OS to die a slow death (some will say it’s been dying a slow death for years).
In the end, Palm’s move away from the Palm OS and towards embracing Windows Mobile and Web OS will likely prove a good move. The too-old Palm OS platform has been dragging down Palm’s image as a pioneering smartphone manufacturer. Shedding Palm OS might be the biggest factor, next to the Palm Pre and Web OS, that helps return Palm to its once mighty position at the top of the smartphone market.
StyleTap Platform for Symbian OS is out, allowing over 30,000 existing Palm (NSDQ: PALM) OS apps to run on Symbian smartphones from Nokia (NYSE: NOK), Samsung and Sony-Ericsson.
A major new feature included in the Symbian version is a display scaling enhancement that allows applications to run in hi-res mode (320×320 pixels), with the resulting screen graphically scaled to the actual display size. As a result, Palm OS/Garnet apps look great on Symbian devices.
The preview edition is a public extension of the beta testing process undertaken for StyleTap Platform for Symbian OS over the last year. Interested users and developers can download a free 14-day trial of the preview edition from StyleTap’s website, and/or can purchase StyleTap Platform for Symbian OS at the preview price of $49.95. Kinda expensive for something that wears the “preview” badge, don’t you think?
As a sidenote, StyleTap Platform is also available for Windows Mobile, and we’ve also seen it running on the iPhone, although it’s still not officially released.
Verizon may consider the Palm Treo 755p a dead product, but Sprint (NYSE: S) is still support the device. As a matter of fact, Palm (NSDQ: PALM) has recently released a new firmware update for the Sprint Treo 755p. Actually, it’s not that recently — firmware update dates from 10/28/08 — but since neither Palm nor Sprint ever issued a release about it, we’re talking about it now.
Here’s what Palm says about the update:
This software patch is for a phone reset issue that occurs under certain specific and rare conditions. Download this patch only if you are experiencing reset issues with your phone on a regular basis.
Once your 755p is updated, firmware will reach version 1.08 and the device should be more stable than before. Or at least, we hope so.
Here’s a link to the Palm’s website where you can get all the details how to make your Treo 755p up to date.
The new Web OS represents Palm (NSDQ: PALM)’s bid to retake the huge chunk of the smartphone market that it has lost to the likes of Nokia (NYSE: NOK), RIM (BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM)), and the iPhone over the years. Together with the newly announced Palm Pre smartphone, the Web OS offers a slick, gesture-based UI that’s at once intuitive and incredibly powerful.
The all-new Web OS, built on a Linux kernel, is designed to work intuitively with a capacitance touchscreen and invites the web-developer community to make native applications using web-languages like HTML and CSS. The Palm Web OS’s application framework – the Mojo Application Framework – is based on HTML5, CSS, and Javascript standards that web developers are likely already using.
Palm’s apparent aim with the Mojo Application Framework is to leverage the familiarity of web-development tools to create a diverse range of Web OS applications. Mojo allows developers to make use of devices services like mail, contacts, calendars, and finger gestures to create powerful applications using a familiar web-language. We’re looking to Palm to do big things in 2009!
Find out more about the Palm Mojo Application Framework here.
Palm has made it clear that the US will be the inaugural launch-market for the Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre and its accompanying Web OS. The CDMA-based Palm Pre will be launching as a Sprint (NYSE: S)-exclusive in the first half of 2009 (1H 2009), and should have a huge impact on our home-turf smartphone market. And, with both GSM and CDMA variants in the works, Palm’s CEO Ed Colligan has essentially confirmed that the Palm Pre will be hitting Canadian carriers in the near future.
It’s unclear which carrier will be getting the go ahead to carry the Palm Pre, but we’re guessing that there’s a lot of back-and-forths going on between Palm and Canadian carriers right about now. Who will win the Palm Pre contract? It’s impossible to say, but Canadian big-dog Rogers (NYSE: RCI) might be a good bet. We may even see the Palm Pre launching in both CDMA and GSM-guise in Canada.
“I can’t tell you that exactly. We do have a UMTS version and a CDMA version but either one of those could come to Canada depending on the carrier. Of course we’re talking to [Canadian] carriers. We certainly want to bring the product to Canada,” says Colligan.
US pricing is rumored to be around $400 on-contract, so it wouldn’t surprise us to see similar pricing structures for our Northern neighbors. Of course, we’d love to see a more heavily subsidized price-point.
Check out the chart below. Look at Android. 6.15%. No biggie, right? I beg to differ. Look who they’re hanging out with there. They’re less than a percentage point down on Windows Mobile, they’re tied with Symbian, and Java ME is surely in their sites. With the release of new Android-powered devices this year, I would not be surprised to see these numbers change quite a bit, and have Android up in the 2nd or 3rd spot by years’ end.
Talk about getting a lot of “OS” bang for your buck!
That’s it, Palm (
StyleTap Platform for Symbian OS is 
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