AndroLib’s latest count shows that there are now 200,000 apps in the Android Market. Like watching an infant grow up and learn how to walk and talk and head into puberty, the Market has undergone some changes recently, as we reported. The Market has grown a bit faster than predicted. An article from a year ago called for 150,000 apps in the Android Market by year end 2010. The amazing thing is not that the estimate was topped by 50,000 applications, but that at this time last year there were only 16,000 apps in the Android Market.

That stunning growth gives hope to users of Windows Phone 7 models. The Windows Marketplace celebrated a milestone of its own and now has 5,000 apps available. Unlike the apps available for Android a small minority of 28% are free for the Windows Marketplace and 22% are games. AndroLib’s breakdown shows that the free downloads in the Android Market control 63.3% of the pie, and only 14.8% are games.

So what is in store for these two markets for the next 12 months? With the better game playing capabilities of future Android handsets, more games should make their way into the Market. Many Android apps are supported by ads, which explains the large percentage of free apps. But as other payment options become the norm for the store, the future could see more paid apps for Android. As for Windows, the amazing parabolic growth of the Android Market will be a goal to aim for, but it will all come down to handset sales and whether or not phones using Microsoft’s new mobile OS can ring up sales at the same rate as those handsets using Google’s open source OS.

source: AndroLib, WP7applist via Engadget

The Android Market (L) has had parabolic growth while Windows Marketplace (R) shows slower but steady growth

We’ve all heard the arguments about Android fragmentation. While iOS is limited to the iPhone, Android comes in all different flavors on a wide range of devices. So are developers hampered by the more complicated platform? Peter Vesterbacka, co-developer of Angry Birds, thinks not.

In an interview with Tech n’ Marketing, Vesterbacka addressed the contentious issue of Android fragmentation. He concluded that although the ecosystem is more difficult for developers, it’s not a deal-breaker of a problem. Angry Birds may have found fame with iOS, but Vesterbacka shows no bias.

Addressing Steve Jobs‘ comments on fragmentation, Vesterbacka said that “Fragmentation on the device side is not a huge problem, but Steve is absolutely right when he says that there are more challenges for developers when working with Android. But that’s fine, developers will figure out how to work any given ecosystem and as long as it doesn’t cause physical pain, it’s ok;-)”

He went on to explain that fragmentation is more of an issue for mobile devices as a whole, rather than just Android. With MeeGo, webOS, Windows Phone 7, BlackBerry, Android, and iOS, developers are forced to consider all possible operating system requirements. We’d prefer to think of fragmentation as ‘OS diversity’.

While it might seem unfair that a certain app is unavailable for one OS or another, we have to remember that OS diversity is to our advantage. Beyond the power of choice, OS diversity increases competition, making for faster improvements and updates for the end user. If everyone had an iPhone, what would motivate Apple to improve iOS?

source: Tech n’ Marketing via IntoMobile

Verizon is continuing the buzz today by announcing that they will provide a “sneak speak” of their 4G LTE devices at CES during a webcast and Twitter updates on January 6 at 4pm Eastern. It will feature Dan Mead (president and chief executive officer of Verizon Wireless), Tony Melone (executive vice president and chief technology officer of Verizon), and Marni Walden (vice president and chief marketing officer of Verizon Wireless). Unfortunately, they aren’t disclosing which devices they will be talking about yet, but we can hope for some info about the HTC Thunderbolt, with its 4.3″ display and front-facing camera for video chats, and the Motorola Etna (Olympus), that is expect to come with Android 2.3 out of the box.

We’ll be at CES next week, so be sure to check back for further updates!

Source: Verizon Wireless

Reports of a December 26th upgrade gave hope to users of the Samsung Epic 4G that the model would be upgraded to Android 2.2 before the ball drops in Times Square. Now, a leaked internal message to Sprint insiders makes clear that there is no specific date for the upgrade which basically means that no Samsung Galaxy S device in the U.S. was upgraded to Froyo in 2010.

No Froyo means, of course, no Adobe Flash Player 10.1 and with Android 2.3 already powering the Nexus S, it could leave the popular Galaxy S devices lagging behind the most up-to-date Android models by not one, but by two builds. The carrier did not give a reason for the delay in upgrading the Epic 4G but said it hope to have Froyo on the device “sometime in the near future”.

While the Samsung Galaxy S line has proven to be a very successful one for the manufacturer, it will be hard for phone buyers to justify buying a handset that is using an OS that has been replaced-not once, but twice.

source: ubergizmo via AndroidandMe

Sprint’s internal memo makes it clear that the Samsung Epic 4G will not be getting Android 2.2 soon

The HTC Thunderbolt has been teased by the Taiwan-based manufacturer over the last couple of days. And now we have an absolutely clear picture of what this handset will look like when it is launched by Verizon as its first 4G phone.

HTC has thrown almost everything into this beast. A 4.3 inch display greets you when you pick it up as does a front facing camera. Around back is an 8MP shooter, a kickstand and there is talk that Dolby Mobile SRS virtual surround sound will enrich your listening pleasure. The only thing missing is a dual-core processor, which may not be too much of a deal breaker when this model is launched in February. Of course, Big Red will be showing off its early LTE lineup at CES and we should know then whether or not the lack of a dual-core chip set will send this Thunderbolt back behind a cloud.

Want to know what other handsets Big Red has under its sleeve? Check out our Upcoming Verizon Phones page!

source: DroidLife

The HTC Thunderbolt will be the first 4G handset for Verizon

The roadmap for data devices on T-Mobile’s network is rumored to contain no less than 24 of them coming in 2011. Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 is, of course, a prime suspect, rumored to sport dual-core chipset and better screen.

Given that the dual-core LG Optimus 2X smartphone might be heading to Big Magenta, next in line should be the 8.9″  LG Optimus Pad, which the company claims to be “better than the iPad… and surpisingly productive“. To cite some more LG cheer: “While the existing tablet PCs focus on e-book, movie, music and the Internet functions, LG’s new tablet PC is jumping into the market with more diverse contents based on powerful functions.” What will those be remains a mystery, at least until CES next week.

The 7″ Dell Streak 7 has been all but confirmed by spotting it with a T-Mobile logo on the back, and we are certain some of those upcoming tablets will sport HSPA+ connectivity to take advantage of T-Mobile’s 4G network, which is supposed to hit theoretical 42Mbps by the end of 2011. Other than tablets, the 24 count should be reached with an assorted variety of MiFi hotspots, USB modems, netbooks, laptops and the like.

source: TmoNews

Ubitus is a company that provides cloud-based services for mobile devices, with its own client-side apps and all. The company demonstrated over Christmas mobile gaming over Japan’s just-released NTT DoCoMo LTE network.

The idea is that all the heavy rendering and calculations for the game are done server-side, and then streamed as video to your mobile device, be it a smartphone, or a tablet. On the device’s side, you have dedicated controls, which send signals in real time to the ubiLive servers, thus smoothly controlling action that would otherwise require a desktop gaming rig. This essentially turns your Android, Symbian, or iOS device into a game controller, which happens to be able to run and display even the heaviest 3D titles.

This type of cloud gaming services exist, but Ubitus is deliberately targeting mobile devices. With the advent of LTE and other “4G” technologies, the carriers’ networks now have enough bandwidth to support such a server-based exchange in real time, so the company thinks there is a lot of potential for glory.

We’d love to be able to start a Black Ops session at whim on our Verizon LTE phones and tablets, and stream it to the nearest big screen, although we can’t help but think about the downsides. With touchscreen controls, the old school gamers that play with a keyboard and a mouse, will most probably decimate us in no time. It all depends how the game controls are implemented on Ubitus’s client side, i.e., our phones and tablets.

source: Ubitus via IntoMobile

Asus already announced it is going head-on into the tablet game, and has now released a few teaser shots of the upcoming Eee Pads to inform us what’s in store come the CES show next week. We don’t know the exact hardware specs on these bad boys, but we are fairly certain cellular connectivity will be an option.

Two of those are said to be running Android 2.2, powered by Tegra 2, and one should be sporting Windows 7. One of the Android tablets might be 7″, and the other two are said to be 10″. We’ve heard about a Windows-based tablet from ASUS with Oak Trail chipset to be 12″, so another possibility is the 10-incher is its smaller version.

The Windows slate could also be the Asus EP101 Eee Pad we already wrote about, with 3G, HDMI-out, and Windows Embedded Compact 7 (see a video of this slate in action after the source link), although it didn’t seem to have a keyboard at the time, while here we have a full physical QWERTY on at least one of the slates.

The full physical keyboard, which is revealed with some intricate mechanism, makes either the Eee Pad convertible, or it is a slide-out version, since there are two halves visible in the last shot. Another possibility, and this is the most likely one, is that the tablet docks together with the keyboard via a separate accessory, as is the case with the 12-incher, mentioned above.

The 10″ Asus Eee Pad with Windows Embedded Compact 7 was said to cost between $399 and $499, and be 0.48″ (12.2 mm) thick by an Asus representative back in the summer, with about 5 hours of battery life. The cool part is that it is powered by Tegra 2, an ARM-based chipset, so we might see some dual-booting as well.

It is not entirely clear from the shots which one is which, but Asus could have hit the nail on the head with Windows tablets, if the keyboard is designed right. Use it as a tablet for watching videos or surfing, and convert it into a netbook/laptop when you need to type or navigate extensively the interface. Of course, since it is Windows Embedded Compact 7, you won’t be able to run Windows 7 programs, but you will be getting Internet Explorer with full multitouch support and Adobe Flash 10.1, plus it seems full-scale USB support too, as on one of the shots we clearly see an USB 3.0 port.

The tablets seem pretty slim, and the glassy surface looks sexy. Hopefully these won’t be lost in the deluge of information spilling from CES next week. Maybe that’s why Asus is setting up a separate page for its CES 2011 venture, which goes live tomorrow, so we should know pretty soon.

via SlashGear

A popular Korean newspaper has a piece of news in its business section, where Samsung says that the successor of its high-end Galaxy S handset will be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The MWC starts February 14th, so we are sure there will be a love affair between media leaks and the new handset worthy for Valentine’s Day beforehand.

The newspaper says that the phone will be dual-core, and will feature updated gyroscope, as well as NFC connectivity chip for contactless payments. Of course, there is only one culprit right now that can take full advantage of these features, Android 2.3 Gingerbread, and this is precisely what the next version of the Samsung Galaxy S will be running.

If we combine all the rumors and renders about a Galaxy S sequel, it should be pretty thin, and feature a 4.3″ next generation Super AMOLED display, 8MP camera that does full HD video recording, and 1GB/4GB RAM/ROM. This is of course, speculative, but quite plausible if the dual-core Orion chipset pans out. So what’s up with all these Tegra 2 chipsets Samsung ordered recently, are they only going to tablets? The idea that we might see a next-gen Samsung Galaxy S with Tegra 2 inside somehow doesn’t click with us, so we cross fingers it will be Orion.

source: TheChosunilbo via Samsung Hub

Android 2.3 Gingerbread, it turns out, actually has some optimizations up its sleeve that help dual-core processing. We were wondering what happened with that, considering the barrage of dual-core handsets about to hit the market from LG, Motorola and Samsung. Gingerbread swaps the YAFFS file system, currently used in most Android devices, for Ext4, the current Linux kernel file system. Well, with a name like “Yet Another Flash File System” (YAFFS), the current version was destined to go.

YAFFS is single-threaded, which would have been a bottleneck when trying to record those full HD video clips, and save them to the flash memory, whereas Ext4 doesn’t have this limitation. Thus the new file system is more suited for usage with the multicore ARM-based chipsets that will be creeping into handsets and tablets next year. According to one Googler that has been pulled in to help with Ext4 for Android, as long as developers are mindful about how Ext4 does buffering and sync, there is no need to worry about data loss.

Ext4 will actually improve the handling of data loss, if developers make sure their application data is getting to persistent storage on time. Linux writes to so many files at once, that not all of them get written to permanent memory, and there is a risk for data loss. For example, when you drop your Android phone and the battery escapes, there is a chance those files that were not written in permanent memory, will evaporate.

There are newer Linux file systems out there, like Oracle’s Btrfs, but Google went with the current generation Ext4 as more mature, not to mention that’s what El Goog started using in its servers this year. It makes us all warm and fuzzy inside that Android got Google’s server file system, and suddenly the little green robot can claim much more geek-cred with us.

source: Thunk.org via Arstechnica