Google’s first foray into tablets is part of a double-headed attack on Amazon - to reclaim Android for the Android vanilla experience. Everyone is well aware now of how fragmented the Android landscape is - not just in terms of different version releases, but with every device manufacturer producing their own skinned-up derivation of Android - from HTC Sense, to Samsung’s TouchWiz to Amazon’s Silk Browser. Here Google is aiming to show that the standard Google Android experience really is the best. This is backed up by the relaunch of the various Google Android stores under the singular ’Google play’ brand, to compete with iTunes in some ways, but really to take the initiative away from Amazon’s Appstore.

The Google Nexus 7 equals the current Kindle Fire in price - for the base 8GB model, and serves up faster processor and better screen for a far superior experience to that of the Kindle Fire. For a little more money (£199 vs £159 and dollar equivalents) you get the 16GB of Google’s top ranked Nexus 7 model.

The Nexus 7 is built by Asus - who are responsible for purportedly the best Android tablet experience currently - by way of the Transformer series. I don’t really see this troubling Apple too much in terms of a head-to-head comparison with the higher specced iPads, but it should really worry everyone involved in the more budget end of the market. In stark contrast to Microsoft - who’s Surface Tablet launch was all hyperbole and bluster - with no pricing, launch date or even proper tech specs. Go to the Google play site though, and you will see that the Nexus 7 ships in 2-3 weeks (£159 for 8GB model and £199 for 16GB model). Admittedly this is only a 7" tablet, and it lacks typical Android staples in terms of plug-in memory or replaceable battery. There’s nothing new or innovative here - the form itself is about as standard as you can get, but if you were going to buy a tablet for £159-199 - this is probably where you should be spending your money; by comparison the cheapest iPad model is the 16GB iPad 2 at £329.

Google has a few more tricks up its sleeve with clever Cloud syncing and Google+ integration - which should enable some smart social media sharing and automatic backups, photo archiving etc. Google play + Google Nexus 7

The latest market research by Strategy Analytics reveals that Samsung is currently in the lead for Smartphone unit sales for the 3rd Quarter of this year. Many analysts correctly reason that the masses were waiting for the launch of the iPhone 5, which turned out to be the iPhone 4S. Selling more than 4 million units in its first weekend, it is likely that Apple will be top again by the end of the year, but that should not diminish Samsung’s achievement with its all-conquering Galaxy range.

In many commentators opininons, the Galaxy SII is still the current best smartphone out there, its Super Amoled Plus screen being superior to the more recent Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy Note, and it is blessed with a better camera (8.0MP) as well as superior features in some areas. The Galaxy range comes in a huge variety and is available on pretty much every network, at a relatively reasonable price. It’s not long before the Galaxy SIII is launched, which should put Samsung significantly in front of its competitors - specs-wise.

Global Smartphone Shipments Q3 2011

Current Global Total Mobile Phone Handsets Market Share

Apple of course is doing very well, but it’s not single-handedly bossing the phone world as many of its fans ardently believe. All these lawsuits and counter-suits show that Apple is nervous about Android, and particularly about Samsung - who is also one of its major suppliers! Every one was trailing Apple in terms of smartphone innovation, but the tide does seem to be turning somewhat - as Apple innovation is slowing, and Android and Windows innovation is conversely accelerating, and in some cases leap-frogging Apple.

The hardware and platform sides though are really just 1/2 the equation, with the

With all the column inches these days being devoted to the 3-way tussle between iOS, Android and Windows platforms, and each seeing a new platform flagship phone launch in October, RIM obviously thought they would need to maintain current mindshare by launching a flagship model of their own.

This BlackBerry flagship is a Porsche Design P’9981 - based on the 9900 Bold model - but made with premium materials, and having its own unique skinned interface. It comes up very slightly larger than the 9900, but then again it does have a hand-wrapped leather back and entire forged steel chassis. It will mostly be sold via Porsche Design outlets - for circa $2,000, and is classified as a restricted, rather than limited edition. As a piece of industrial design,it is obviously head and shoulders above the other BlackBerry phones, this is very much a deluxe model with a premium price.

I guess it’s very much aimed at the bankers and suits brigade which still largely supports this kind of phone. It should compete well with the Vertu and Tag Heuer phones of this world, but its price point very much excludes it from the rank and file.

In this internet age - where other phone manufacturers are increasingly enlarging their screen real estate, is there still place for a 2.8" 640 x 480 display? My thinking is that screen real estate really is essential these days, and for those who really need a physical keyboard, some kind of keyboard slider arrangement is preferable to a diminutive screen.

Vertu is very much focusing on its full touchscreen ’Constellation’ variant, so it’s interesting to see that RIM commissioned Porsche Design to rejig its more old-fashioned keuboard format.

Specs-wise, with 1.2GHz processor, 768MB RAM, Onboard Memory of up to 32GB of onboard storage, 5MP camera - it really stacks up quite well. It’s obviously quite a striking phone which is a plus, but then again, it has an odd form factor compared to the most useful current batch of phones. Apps-wise, RIM’s work in gaining compatibility with Android apps should put it in a fairly decent position.

It’s a shame the other phones in the BlackBerry portfolio aren’t as good looking as this one. Its price puts it out of the reach of most, and I don’t see it becoming a big seller like the iPhone 4S, Samsung Galaxy Nexus or Nokia Lumia 800.

We had a whole spate of

In the wake of the slightly disappointing iPhone 4S and equally disappointing Galaxy Nexus launches, we now have the supposed saviour of both Nokia and the Windows Mobile Platform to contend with.

Much has been written about the fabuolous usability of the Metro Tiles which are the cornerstones of the Windows experience, versus the app icons of Android and iOS. For those that first come to Windows Mobile, the interface initially seems highly intuitive and seemingly the wave of the future. However, as you live with it, you discover, much like any interface - that it has its various weaknesse as well as strengths. In fact, this latest incarnation of Windows Mobile (as a platform, not Mango!) has been out for a while now, and it has failed to get any real traction with consumers.

Both iOS and Android are significantly ahead of the Windows Platform - in terms of maturity, apps, ability and consumer uptake. The Windows Mobile Platform has just a tiny percentage of the market - so was Nokia right in choosing Windows over Android?

Before we answer that question, we cannot fail to be impressed by the flawless elegance of Nokia’s new design. In my opinion, in pure hardware design terms, this is unequivocally the prettiest smartphone currently on the market. Whichever way you turn it, the minimal detailing is quite stunning. I would have gone one further and omitted the chrome panel around the camera - but then again, I really like minimalistic design. The liquid-like curved screen and concealed ports just add to the quality feel of the single piece polycarbonate shell (available in Magenta and Cyan as pictured, as well as regulation black!). So as far as we are concerned, design-wise it is amazing, and it features a separate and specific camera button - to match its superb 8MP Carl Zeiss lensed camera.

Now for the obvious downsides - only 16GB of onboard memory (with no memory card slot), and no front-facing camera (which is now a must for helping teenage girls apply their makeup!); also no 4G and no NFC. The limited memory and camera are totally a Windows restriction, as Nokia’s identical Meego-running N9 handles upto 64GB of memory, and features a front-facing camera!

What actually lets the Nokia Lumia 800 phone down therefore really is Windows - through its lack of apps, lack of memory support, and lack of forward-facing camera support. When you put this

Apple fails to meet the weight / wait of expectation by way of an overdose of déjà vu! After a summer of lacklustre Hollywood blockbuster sequels, we get a lacklustre sequel from Apple.

I followed the whole of the tedious iPhone Keynote event via the always excellent Engadget Liveblog. Huge chunks of the presentation seemed to be entirely lifted from the previous mid-year WWDC. About 20 minutes into the hyperbolic statistics, I had a feeling that I was going to be disappointed.

Don’t get me wrong! I’m a huge iPhone fan, and had been looking forward enormously to upgrading my now aging 3GS to a shiny metallic iPhone 5. My current phone contract ran out at the start of this year, and I waited expectantly for a June upgrade - that was then delayed to the Autumn, and the level of expectation increased enormously with the additional wait.

I had assumed that the Apple engineers had been busy on a larger form factor screen and enormously improved chassis. It now turns out that it was the software engineers who were busying themselves away with innovating a special feature that they hoped would otherwise overcome the disappointing lack of hardware innovation - the Siri Voice-activated assistant - which is still a Beta version!

I have always believed the iPhone 4 design to be inherently flawed, both in terms of its relatively fragile glass sandwich surround, and the problematic antenna, which even in its recent Verizon phone version, still did not seem to have entirely solved the well-documented connectivity issues. The new antenna looks not much different to the Verizon one.

Whilst HTC, Samsung and the like are continually innovating with slick new hardware features, larger, brighter screens and Electronic Wallet / NFC and 4G capabilities, I was hoping to see Apple leapfrog the competition yet again. In truth though, this phone is really just on par with its current contemporary peers - with all the other hardware companies on the point of launching even newer and more impressive models, Apple really did need to push the boat out a little further!

Here follows my brief Hits & Misses overview:

Hits

• Faster A5 Chip - better graphics handling
• 8GB Camera
• 64GB Storage Memory
• Siri - Voice-controlled assistant (Still in Beta)

Misses

• No 4" Screen
• No 4G
• No NFC
• No real chassis improvements - same but different antenna, same fragile glass

This whole year has been the year of litigation - with the still ongoing Lodsys debacle (inn-app purchasing), the insane suits and countersuits by all the leading technology companies - Apple, Google, Samsung, HTC etc., and the most recent episode of PacketVideo vs Spotify - in the former making a claim for a patent infringement on a ’Device for the Distribution of Music in Digital Form’ or in short form, attacking anyone who streams or distributes music in a digital format (in particular cloud-based distribution) - which is just about everyone. How so many generic patents are being granted is not entirely a complete mystery, as there is whole industry of lawyers and judges and court officials which benefits enormously from these vagaries - and who loses out? That will be you and me - the members of the humble public, who have been ripped off for years by the financial services industries, and will now be targeted more by the legal industries - directly and indirectly as in these cases.

Have you wondered why 90% of Hollywood’s recent output is in the form of sequels? Significantly - because they don’t wish to have to fight some sort of licencing or copyright claim - as would undoubtedly be the case for brand new popular content. It’s just more bankable and less troublesome to re-hash the same already-copyrighted material over and over again.

Every other slightly original song that gets to the top of the charts ends up having a number of copyright claims against it - part of the melody or lyrics or sounds or whatever were supposedly ’borrowed’ from another track (released 10 years ago with no success) - when the fact is that probably most popular melodies could be traced back to some older folk song of some description - which existed for several centuries already somewhere around the world. 2011 has been the year of the musical re-hash - with chart toppers sampling all manner of existing content - even nursery rhymes and the banana boat song - to by-pass potential litiginous actions.

It is Government, fuzzy laws and opportunistic lawyers that are killing it for everyone. The notion that a generic idea or relatively abstract concept can be patented - without any kind of pertinent scientific application, schema or invention - is just plainly wrong. Individuals should not be able to patent and claim royalties on a generic

With Google’s announcement of Google Plus, it finally looks like Google is getting its Social Network on the right path. In the recent announcement about the now beta-testing site, Google introduced 5 new weapons to fire across Facebook’s bow; these are as follows:

Circles - a really neat ’groups’ app where you simply drop selected contacts into a specified category circle - based on family, friends and other interest groups. Then when you want to share media etc. with this same group, you simply drag and drop it onto the same circle. A seemingly very usable and elegant solution

Hangouts - this is really just group video chat, with seemingly very clever software which centres on the active / noisiest participant involved. The demo looks very slick - you can simply drop in and out of hangouts - like trawling interesting gatherings at a party

Huddle - this is group texting - you can start a ’Huddle’ with one of your Circle groups, and simply blast spam the whole lot of them! - and vice versa of course

Instant Upload - an area where Google has distinct advantages over Facebook - piggy-backing off its own Android Platform and devices - allows you to set up some kind of loosely defined folder in the cloud - which your snaps get automatically uploaded to immediately as you take a picture

Sparks - the least interesting of the new introductions is simply a kind of interest topic filter - which pulls in pictures, videos and articles on said topic - you can then share said ’Spark’ with your various social Circle groups

It’s not yet clear how all these elements will be seamlessly knitted together, and how the overall profile and wall experience which Facebook is so strong on will be met / challenged.

As I said above, Google’s real weapons here are the Android Smartphones, Chrome Browser, Chromium OS and various other bits of soon-to-be seamlessly-interconnected hardware. With more and more people using Smart Phones and Tablets, anyone who sets up automated syncs for content upload and sharing is onto a winner. Google also has an advantage with its already massive GMail audience.

It will be very interesting now to see how Facebook, Microsoft, Apple and Amazon react. This is definitely a step changer, and much will depend on how slick and ’convenient’ the whole experience is. If Google comes close to

I’ve not had my iPad for too long now, but it is most evident that the best applications to use are the ones that have the most dynamic navigation - the same is true in reverse, in that a poor navigation can greatly impair one’s enjoyment of that application. Whilst trying out a friend’s Samsung Galaxy SII, I really liked the ability to swipe/pull down a menu from the top of the screen. The new Nokia N9 also has a great feature where by swiping the whole screen from edge to edge, you park whatever application you were using in background; said application can then later be quickly retrieved from the multi-tasking panel.

On the home screens of the iPad, one is really limited simply to a left or right swipe motion. It would be so much better if you could swipe up and down also for extended navigation, and carrying my idea forwards, use diagonal swipes in addition for specific functions - send to email, retrieve from the cloud / Drop Box, send to bin etc.

Not only do you have 2 directions on every point of the compass (forward and reverse) - i.e. 2 x 8, but moreover - in taking a leaf from Nokia, you could apply a duration / length dynamic to this also, so that a short swipe in a particular direction means one thing, whilst a longer swipe in the same direction means something else - for instance short diagonal swipe to top right corner means send to background, long swipe means shut down application. For longer swipe functions you might also need a little pop-up ’do you really want to do this?’ prompt. Another short swipe to bottom left corner could mean send to Home Page / Desktop; while a longer swipe in the same direction would send to bin etc.

Of course you can still have the 2 and 3 fingered gestures too, but my navigation would provide amazing versatility with no less than 32 different functional parameters, in the simplest way possible. You could even add more parameters by combining simultaneous 2 fingered swipes - in the same or opposite directions. Huge scope for simple and easy to learn navigation. Of course programming it may be another thing entirely, but I believe this is eminently plausible and achievable within the next couple of years.

Now we just need to wait for Google and Apple to catch up with my way of thinking!

The key idea behind the very first Google Chromium Operating System was essentially a thin-client based Web Browser model. That is to say that the Google Operating System would simply be an enhanced browser type platform which would have a ridiculously fast start-up time and would ’fetch’ all its content off the Internet and the Cloud - i.e. no local files at all.

There were significant operational advantages in running such a slim operating system architecture, including greatly improved security, stability and of course speed. As expected though, Google have realised that running absolutely everything off the web does not make for the perfect user experience. Announced at the recent I/O conference were a number of enhancements to enable ’offline’ browsing of a range of materials; the following features were introduced:

• File Manager for file browsing
• Offline Support for - Google Docs, Google Calendar and Gmail
• Support for USB storage devices
• 4-in-1 memory card slot

At the same I/O Conference, Google announced the launch of 2 new Chromebook laptops, a 12.1" Samsung version with Wi-Fi and 3G options (1280x800 resolution) - as pictured in the above montage, the Wi-Fi version will retail at $429, while the 3G will fetch $499. Acer’s Chromebook is just marginally more compact with a 11’6" screen (1366 x 768 resolution) and this retails at a more competitive $349.

Google Chrome is my own browser of choice, and I can see the appeal of a purely Chrome ’desktop’ environment. This solution is obviously pitched at the ’Netbook’ crowd, which means that it is in indirect competition with tablets as well. For casual web browsing, I believe gesture-based sweep and touch navigation a la tablet is the ideal format. If you need to do more business or studies oriented work, then a laptop still has the edge.

I sincerely hope there is a market for Chrome OS / Chromebooks; it will be interesting to follow this platform’s evolution and see just who picks up on it, and from whom market share gets taken. Interesting thing is that ASUS alone seems to be still pinning aspirations and expectations around the Windows netbook format, most of the other hardware manufacturers are looking at tablets or other alternatives in super-slimline casual computing. The major ace that Chromebooks still have up their sleeve is

As a marketing man, I am always slightly uncomfortable when watching Steve Jobs present, the experience is a little akin to being in the presence of an overly committed evangelical street preacher or snake oil salesman for that matter.

Steve will always try to dazzle you with ’statistics’ and ’facts’ which are always presented as being concrete and absolute, but are usually marketing distortions of the truth. I contend that he was largely wheeled out on this occasion to cover up what was actually a relatively lackclustre update of revolutionary yet flawed product. Before the fanboys get on my case, I think everyone agrees that the lack of cameras on the first device was a major oversight - anyway, I digress.

Steve callously abused one of his main suppliers - Samsung by using a mis-quoted reference in his presentation, one which had already been corrected in all the major tech press, several weeks ago; that sentence (About the Samsung Galaxy Tab ) was:

"As you heard, our sell-in was quite agressive ... around two million. In terms of sell-out, we believe it was quite small" - Samsung VP Lee Young-hee (small was a mis-translation, Young-hee said ’smooth’ not ’small’!)

Of course Samsung has several million dollars riding on a supply deal with Apple, so they’re unlikely to complain, but it’s one hell of a way to treat a supply partner. Steve then proclaimed that the iPad 2 would be the first dual-core processor tablet to ship ’in volume’ - which is a likely prediction, but not an accurate statement at the point of delivery, as Motorola’s Xoom is already out on sale to the mass-market, albeit without Apple’s extensive retail base.

In the presentation, a disproportionate amount of time was spent on 4 elements - ’Photo Booth’, ’iMovie’ and ’GarageBand’ - all apps; as well as the new ’Smart Cover ’ - which is a partial rip-off of InCase’s ’Convertible Magazine Jacket’ - year of the copycat you say Steve ?

One thing Apple certainly has not copied is topline hardware specs, for sure the iPad 2 is slimmer, still has a 10 hour batter life, and has a faster dual-core processor and 2-way cameras. However, it only (supposedly) has 512MB of RAM, where current devices are shipping with 1 GB, the screen resolution is also static, but we will see that i... More

Since the App Store was officially launched on July 10th 2008, it has had a profound impact on Internet and Mobile Phone Usage. It is arguable as to whether the iPhone was truly the first smartphone, but its combination of messaging, telephony, email access, web browsing - plus its myriad of useful utilities and applications, really blazed the trail for all others to follow. Where Apple and Google now lead, Microsoft , Nokia and the other former leaders of the mobile phone sector are desperately scrabbling to catch up.

Wired Magazine went as far as to proclaim ’The Internet is Dead!’ based on the now increasing dominance of smartphone and tablet devices - which rely increasingly on custom applications to deliver their content and services. What Wired failed to mention, is that most of the service applications still rely on Internet Hubs to provide them with their content. Two of the most used - Facebook and Twitter push everything through their respective websites. Twitter is an interesting service, as increasingly users of its services typically totally bypass Twitter when posting to it or receiving updates from it. This is in part what led to Wired’s headline, as well as recent efforts by Twitter to introduce its own Dashboard style interface on its own website.

The smartphone really is about a series of convergences and consolidations - it’s not that long since I left the house with 4 items in my pocket - phone, iPod , wallet and keys. My iPhone now serves the 2 first functions, and as you may have read on other blogs on this site, I am pretty sure that before long, smartphones will contain electronic wallets, and control keyless access to domiciles and other buildings. My brother Markus’s preferred reading device is his iPhone - he though that the iPad might supplant his affections in this area, but that has not been the case. Recent announcements from Samsung concerning its Galaxy Tab and its use in Home Automation, lead me to believe that such applications - alongside home security, personal ID - even passports and contactless payment systems - these will all find their way onto smartphones within the next year or two.

The App Store has grown to 253,934 applications in a little over 2 years, and has seen 6,500,000,000+ downloads of said applications. Latest category breakdown are as follows:

  ... More