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24 hours and we saw 12 Android smartphones on sixUScarriers

Posted on February 12, 2012 08:21 PM

Summary: Google Android is taking off like wildfire and at CTIA we saw a rather startling number of new devices announced from all four major carriers and a couple regional carriers. Most of these devices are low to mid-level devices that should appeal to the masses.

Editors of Apple iPhone sites like TiPB must be heaving a great sigh of relief knowing that they only have to cover one major smartphone release per year after seeing that Android site editors just heard about a whopping 12 new Android smartphones coming from five carriers in the last 24 hours. If you look at all the other recent and currently shipping products, not to mention some coming soon, Android site editors like my buddy Phil are having to work like mad to stay on top of everything. I felt overwhelmed just seeing the news of all these Android devices coming through my email and Twitter feed so I turned to Android Central, who are on site at CTIA, to read all about the new devices and even see some hands-on video with devices.

AT&T

Three new Motorola handsets are coming to AT&T, the Motorola Bravo, Flipside, and Flipout. These three are entry to mid-level Android devices, which seems to be the standard for AT&T in almost all cases, except for the Samsung Captivate.

The Bravo has a 3.7 inch display and will be available for $129.99. The Flipside has a slide-out full QWERTY keyboard and 3.1 inch display with a price of $99.99. The Flipout has a funky flip out QWERTY keyboard and small 2.8 inch display with a price of just $79.99.

Cellular South

You know a platform is getting popular when the smaller regional carriers start picking it up and now we see Cellular South getting ready to offer their own Samsung Galaxy S variant, the Samsung Showcase. There is no pricing or available date, other than before the holidays, but it does have the 1 GHz Hummingbird CPU, 4 inch Super AMOLED display, 5 megapixel camera, and Android 2.1 operating system.

Sprint

Sprint also announced three new devices, the Samsung Transform, Sanyo Zio, and LG Optimus S. The Sanyo Zio has a full 3.5 inch touchscreen and mid-level specs with a price of $99. The Samsung Transform looks similar to the Sprint Samsung Epic, with lower specs and the same kind of slide-out QWERTY keyboard at a price of $149. The LG Optimus S is a fairly traditional looking device with a 3.2 inch touchscreen with Android 2.2 and a price of just $49.99. Again, these three are low to mid-level Android device for Sprint.

T-Mobile

T-Mobile USA only announced one device in the last 24 hours, but this follows their current rollout of the T-Mobile G2 and future myTouch device. The LG Optimus T looks to be similar to the Sprint version (note the T for T-Mobile versus the S for Sprint) with very few details released. It will have a couple of colors, be loaded with Android 2.2, and a 3.2 megapixel camera, but we do not have a price or solid release date.

US Cellular

I previously took a look at the excellent A8000 GPS on U.S. Cellular and was very impressed with the device and their service offering. In another great move for this regional carrier, they are rolling out the Samsung Mesmerize, which is another of the Samsung Galaxy S devices. The Mesmerize will launch on 27 October for $199.

 

Verizon

It must be the law of threes at B1000 as Verizon Wireless also announced three new Android devices, all from Motorola. The Motorola Droid Pro, that we previously mentioned, the Motorla Defy, and the Motorola Citrus were revealed at CTIA.

The Motorola Droid Pro is a sweet looking front facing QWERTY keyboard Android device with good specifications and an appealing form factor. The Motorola Defy is a semi-ruggedized Android smartphone with a 3.1 inch touchscreen and Gorilla glass on a water and dust resistant shell. The Motorola Citrus is an entry-level Android device powered by Android 2.1.

No assigned carrier

Motorola also announced the Motorola Spice device with no news of a UScarrier. It may be headed to Braziland actually has a cool form factor, T710 Phone slider like a Palm Pre Plus, that many here would probably appreciate.

It is pretty amazing to see all of these devices announced on all the carriers at one event and shows you how flexible Android can be in covering the entire spectrum of smartphone buyers.

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The HD7 fits fine in my pocket and even though it is larger than the MT4G I do not find the size to be much of an issue. The HD7 is a bit slick though and the evaluation unit slipped from my hands a couple of times (this has rarely happened to me over years of using these smartphones) and is now scratched on top next to the power button. It still performs flawlessly though so that shows it is a bit durable too.

 

 

Comparison of Xoom and iPad2

Posted on February 09, 2012 01:22 AM

Tablets are the hottest products now all over the world. In the electronics market, there are tablet s of famous brands, like Moto and Samsung, and also there are some China Brands tablets like Lenovo and some other brands. Since there are so many kinds of tablets, let me pick up 2 of them and compare, hoping to help you when you buy tablets. Here comes the Motorola Xoom and iPad2.

Why I pick them two? As we know, iPad has always been the leader and No.1 of tablets, while Motorola, the best cell phone I love for its Razr series and also a long history electronic manufacture. Also, I do not deny that many kinds of tablets are very good and perform quite well.

Also there are many kinds of tablets from China Wholesaler of low prices. Here, simply I just pick Xoom and iPad2 for comparison and hope to give you some suggestions. Ok, back to topic, let us see how they perform.

Firstly, let us see the OS of each tablet. Operation system is a very important feature of tablet; a good OS can make your experience on the tablet better. Now the Xoom is the first on to carry Honeycomb 3.0 which is an upgradeable version of Ice Cream Sandwich OS—the OS of Google. Now iPad carries the OS of iOS 4.3, an old OS version of Apple. New OS must bring the better experience for the customers, while iOS 4.3 could not support the multi-tasks quite well. However, iOS 5 does it well and better. Most of the tablets apart from iPad use the android system of Google, tablets of China Wholesale included too. But, products of Motorola can enjoy the latest version of Google OS for was purchased by Google some mouths ago which makes Motorola more competitive.

At the same time, Xoom has a browser that is quite like Chrome, and is much better than that of iPad2. Chrome is now most popular browser on computers and laptops. A Chrome-like browser will definitely bring you the familiar feeling. As for the processors, iPad has dual-core A5 processor and Xoom has the Tegra processor, both of them perform quite well, according to the users of both tablet.

As for the screens and cameras, they are about the same. According to what is said above, they are different mainly for the OS. Xoom has a new and upgradeable operation system, it has also updated some software to make users feel better and handle comfortably. It seems more and more tablets are going to surpass Apple products, no matter in the phone market or tablet market which may be welcomed by the consumers. 

How to Buy Cheap Tablet android

Posted on February 07, 2012 04:25 AM


Since we know android tablet and iPad are now the most popular electronic products and have attracted people’s attention. They are light, tiny and portable which are quite suitable for those who are on moving a lot. Although smaller than laptops, they can still perform well on many tasks. Including gaming and some stuff on work. Surely, some table computers are quite expensive, like the iPad, and some tablets of other brands. The good news is that some manufactures still provide cheap ones for the consumers. Here are suggestions for people who can not afford to buy expensive ones and still want to buy them.

If you can not spend much money on tablets, you should expect less on the features, expandability and speed of the processor. However, cheap tablet can also accomplish the basic tasks; it may be hard for them to run 3D games. But if you want to receive and send emails and surf on the internet, it can be OK. So next is how you can buy cheap tablets and what you should consider about when buying them.

We know that hard ware makes up of a single electronic product, if the hard wares are expensive; the price of tablet also grows. A tablet is mainly made up by screen, processor and ram. So if you want to spend less money, firstly, you can consider a smaller screen. The most expensive tablets usually have a size of 10 inches, while now there are many tablets of 7 inch screens. For a tablet, I do not think a smaller size is something bad, instead, I think the smaller size makes the tablet more portable.

Secondly, take e-reader into consideration. Before, most of e-readers are of black and white, while now some of them are with color screens. The color e-readers can also run some appps, like games emails and browsers. Although their hard drives are not as wonderful as the expensive tablets. But they can save you a lot of money instead.

In fact, there is a quite excellent cheap tablet, the Kindle Fire. This tablet android is quite excellent in performance and costs only 199$. For a starter in tablet, I have to say, it may be your first choice. It can satisfy all your requirements of a tablet. Of course, there are also tablets that cost less than 100$ of the unfamiliar brands. If you want to buy these ones, be careful before you buy, some of them are difficult to use and do not have a good performance. So choose wisely before you make the decision and wish you could finally buy a perfect one.

 

 

Nokia and Microsoft fingered over comments on adverse Lumia review

Posted on December 21, 2011 10:07 PM

A Nokia employee and, apparently, another from Microsoft have been caught posting anonymous comments boosting their product on a review of the new Nokia Lumia 800 phone using Microsoft's new Windows Phone software.

The review, posted on the Moneylife.in site in India, was not based on a hands-on review of the product but only its technical specifications, in which it was compared principally to Samsung's Galaxy S Plus handset.

The reviewer, Yogesh Sapkale, concluded - perhaps brutally, since he hadn't laid a finger on the phone - that " Although Nokia sees its Lumia 800 to be a competitor to Apple iPhone [sic], it is nowhere near the niche product. In fact compared with iPhone, the Lumia 800 can be termed as 'noPhone'."

A number of commenters on the article were unimpressed - including one who called himself Harish. "What an crap review!! It is one of the best phone available, iphone is so dumb compared to this.... Guess some one is paying you lumpsum, congrats..", he wrote.

Another commenter calling himself Aditya Agrawal wrote: "dude, gone are the times when actual consumers just use to care about the technical specifications of mobiles. today, people want devices which are beautiful, fast and easy-to-use. for most of the consumers, it does not matter if the phone has 512mb or 1gb ram. If the 512mb performs better in real-life, that the one customers are going to prefer. just a small advice, go to a store and use windows phone 7.5 for 10 minutes, the last thing you will care is whether the phone has a single or a dual core."

Agrawal posted from the IP address of 207.46.55.31 - which apparently belongs to Microsoft. (That IP address seems to have been used to make a number of unwelcome edits to Wikipedia; many have been reverted.)

A number of other commencers were - to say the least - nonplussed at Sapkale's decision to "review" the phone based only on its specifications (although it's worth noting that some western gadget sites aren't above writing "first look" and "review" pieces which do exactly the same, but without the disclaimer).

Sapkale, who revealed the data about the users' IP addresses in a follow up post, justified his unusual approach to reviewing it on the basis that he was doing a feature comparison for price-sensitive consumers. "India is a very price sensitive market when it comes to spending hard earned money," he wrote. "This is the mistake many manufacturers, especially from the western countries, has made in India. Obviously they are still paying the price for this overlook. Most Indians prefer to save money and then spend it rather than taking credit for a smart phone that may cost them a month's salary. It is the same reason why iPhone 4S, which is available at Rs42,000" - equivalent to £534, only slightly more than the UK price - "is still unable to see better sales in India."

Nobody has come out of the episode looking good. Sapkale was accused of breaking his own site's privacy policy by posting the IP and email addresses of the commanders, while the commenting duo's failure to declare any interest looked, at best, like astroturfing.

Buy online and avoid Christmas rush

Posted on December 14, 2011 12:52 AM

It is now the end of 2011, 2012 is coming soon with the horrible prediction of Maya, the doom year. However, most people do not believe it, me including. So we just keep what our life is like, that is all.

We are now in the hot season of purchasing, most people can not wait rushing into the supermarket and mall to buy the things they have focused for a couple of days. So just think about the scene, when the door is still closed, huge quantities of people waiting outside the glass door, and people in the front stick their faces on the door, twisted, horrible, isn’t it? And once the door is open, a huge flow of crowds of people flow into the market, if some people cannot stand still or have the skidding feet, they will suffer, I’m definitely sure. Once you arrived safely at the shelf for the goods you want to buy, and finally found that they are sold out. And at this time, what do you think. After all the suffers, you reach the destination and find nothing you can buy. What a tragedy! Disappointment is laughing at you. And you will curse the supermarket.

However, you do not have to do all of this, for online stores are now popular and hot. What you have to do is only to sit in front of your computer and see around the online store. If you find some things you like or love, just click the mouse for it. That is so easy. There are also a lot of options for you on the net, as many as the goods in the supermarket or mall. You will definitely save a lot of energy competing with the other buys for the goods or better position to buy something, and avoid some danger in the crowd.

At the end of year, you may want to buy something for your Christmas and New Year, want Christmas tree? They got it, some gadgets to hang on the tree, the same, they got it. Turkey? They got it too! And you want to buy some clothes for the New Year? Online store provides you with a lot of clothes than you can imagine. You can find everything you want on the online store, clothes for man, for woman, children and so on. Shoes, hats, belts all of these you want are easy to get by clicking the mouse. Of course, before a online shopping for clothes, you have to make it clear that you can choose the right size. Or you want to have a family meeting, and want to buy some Cosplay Costumes for family show. And you like to play a role of super man, you kids play as little superman, spider man is OK too. Or you want to play as the Santa Clause, they can also ship the clothes to you.

As I know, the goods in China Store are cheap and the store provides free shipping, you do not have to pay for the shipping fee, they get goods from China Supplier with the wholesale price.

So this Christmas, change a new way to purchase online and avoid the Christmas rush. At this time of year, many online stores provide you discounts and even cheaper than in the stores. At the same time, they also provide free shipping service which even reduces the cost for your purchasing. So what are you waiting for now? Just go for it you will definitely like it.

One Million Mobile Apps, and Counting at a Fast Pace

Posted on December 12, 2011 10:24 PM
Somewhere at a computer last Wednesday, a developer pushed a button and the one millionth mobile app went to market.   Apps shrink the programs that were once available only on a desktop computer to make them usable on smartphones and mobile devices — stock trades, restaurant reviews, Facebook, streaming radio, photographs, news articles, videos and, of course, Angry Birds.   The pace of new app development dwarfs the release of other kinds of media. “Every week about 100 movies get released worldwide, along with about 250 books,” said Anindya Datta, the founder and chairman of Mobilewalla, which helps users navigate the mobile app market. “That compares to the release of around 15,000 apps per week.”   According to Mobilewalla, in a fairly quiet 14 days before the release of app No. 1,000,000, an average of 543 apps were released each day for Android-based devices, and an average of 745 apps hit the market daily for the iPhone, iPad and iTouch. The total for the two weeks across the Apple, Android, BlackBerry and Windows platforms was 20,738.   A product was counted each time it was designed for a different device in the climb to a million apps. So when Urbanspoon was released for iPhone, BlackBerry, iPad and Android, it was counted four times because each platform demands different code from the developers.   By any measure, the rise in apps is striking. In October 2008 the known app universe was 8,000 Apple titles. Mobilewalla was formed that year to provide a Web site for users to search for mobile apps, and to categorize and rank them.   Mobilewalla began analyzing Android and Windows apps in 2009, and added BlackBerry a year later. The 100,000-app milestone was passed in December 2009. In little more than a year, the total passed 500,000 and exceeded 750,000 six months after that. Five months later: one million.   For Dr. Datta, the surge in apps and the ability of almost anyone to bring an app to market is a chicken-and-egg story. Developers who have created fewer than 10 apps make up 80 percent of the producers, he said. “Anyone with a good idea can outsource the code, and they own a new app.” In January, Mobilewalla will begin tracking ranking, downloads and revenue for individual apps   Brad Hunstable, a co-founder and the chief executive of Ustream, an app that allows users to broadcast live video to the Internet using a smartphone, or watch video anywhere, explained how the world has changed. Building an app for a phone five years ago meant going through the carrier, and contending with hardware and quality assurance issues, he said. “Now anyone can build for a platform,” he said.   Adding to prime conditions for app development is what Mr. Hunstable called the “convergence of the app ecosystem,” a world with more powerful devices, higher quality networks and high-resolution cameras. “It’s an exciting time to be a developer for mobile,” said Thomas Chung, a vice president and general manager of the Playforge, a developer based in San Mateo, Calif. The Playforge released Zombie Farm, a role-playing game, in February 2010 for Apple, and an Android version in October 2011. On Friday, it was the top game in its category on Mobilewalla.com. Lower barriers to entry have prompted an explosion of content in the last few years, he said. “The market has become more consumer-facing, too,” he said. “A lot of people can download applications now, and it’s just a big win all around.

The fall of Nokia and the rise of IOS and android OS

Posted on December 06, 2011 08:11 PM

  In 1898, Nokia was set up in Finland, in the 1990s, it became the world largest cell phone producer. For a long time, it has been the giant of cell phone industry, Motorola, Samsung are always pacing after it.

  But now, things have changed, it is no longer the giant of the cell phone industry, as we know, it has quit from the stock market which may be beneficial for them and is a better choice for the fall. We have to admit that android OS and IOS is quite powerful and aggressive that a giant of cell phone for 100 years has fallen in less than 3 years. Now the cell phone industry is the divided by iphone and the android smart phones.

  From the online shop, we can figure something out, search from taobao.com of the cell phone selling, you will find that android cell phones sell best on the online B2C website, before, many bulk Wholesale supplier sell China copy phones on the website with large quantities, but now, with the smart phones becoming popular, the China copy phones no longer rank first of the online shop.

  For the sake of android OS, Motorola and Samsung have grown the sales of the Moto phones and Samsung phones have increased a lot in the last years. Many of them are sold on the website like taobao.com and amazon.com.

  The suppliers have various ways of getting the phones although they are not the official suppliers of the cell phone company. Many of them get the cell phones of EU version or US version or HK version and root the cell phones with the China mainland system, and then sell them at very cheap price which may be lower for 1000 RMB than the price of a cell phone in the official authorization shops. And also there are many cell phones locked with a mobile supplier like AT&T, Verizon and T-mobile. And the suppliers can root these phones to make them becomeUnlocked Phones by which way Chinese buyers can use these phones in mainland China. So you have to admit that the Chinese are indeed great for doing things like this. They can think out many methods and ways to earn money from some security loopholes.

  With the android phone becoming hot on the market, many China Electronics Wholesale are setting foot in this market, hoping to make some money, as the android OS is a open source system, so everyone can use it.

  As I know, a lot of android smart phones are made in Guangdong of China brands, the producers sell them on the B2C website, taobao.com and some have their own website mainly toward the western customers the prices of which are quite lower and cheaper than the famous brands cell phones, as the Motorola, Samsung and HTC.

  At the same time, many IT workers work on the android apps and IOS apps to make money, many of them gain success, the angry birds is a positive example. It has been downloaded a several billion times on IOS and android OS. Also there are many other examples, here I will not list any more.

  We here feel sorry for the giant’s fall but at the same feel happy for the rise of new technology and innovation of the IOS and android OS.

Galaxy Nexus Vs IPhone 4S: Specs, Speed And Camera Comparison

Posted on December 06, 2011 08:00 PM

At the current, Apple’s iPhone 4S is claimed the best device in the smartphone market, providing users everything they’re looking for in a handset. However, iPhone 4S is now being competed by Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus, the first smartphone to run the latest version of Google’s most advanced version of Android, 4.0 or “Ice Cream Sandwich”. Therefore, many smartphone buyers are now wondering if it’s worth for them to purchase an iPhone 4S or wait for the Galaxy Nexus to hit store shelves to make their final decision. Let’s see how the Galaxy Nexus is going to be compared to the popular Apple iPhone 4S in specs, speed and camera and so on.

    iPhone 4S features iOS 5 operating system, which is known as the best version of the mobile platform ever launched. Meanwhile, the Galaxy Nexus is running Android 4.0, which is named the best choice for Android customers. iPhone 4S is equipped with the 3.5-inch Retina Display, which gives higher quality than any other screen. On the other hand, although the Galaxy Nexus will not able to deliver the same quality, it has a larger display of 4.65-inch. Samsung Galaxy Nexus only offers a single storage option of 32GB, while the iPhone 4S appears with a much larger storage of between 16GB and 64GB so that it can please user needs. In addition, the Apple’s smartphone comes with an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, allowing customers to take better pictures; but the Galaxy Nexus owns just a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera.     Apple’s iPhone 4S is powered with WiFi and 3G, while the Galaxy Nexus supports WiFi, 3G and 4G. Therefore, the Samsung’s device might be a good choice for people who are looking for faster speeds.     Reading e-books on smartphone is becoming increasingly necessary to users. For this purpose, iBooks application is installed on the iPhone 4S and Google Books is also supported on the Galaxy Nexus. iPhone 4S performs well with the 800MHz Dual-Core Processor. Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus also performs well as it features a dual-core processor of 1.2GHz.

Chinese seems to fancy the luxury brands

Posted on December 02, 2011 09:20 PM
  We have heard from the news and internet that China is a potential huge market for luxury consumption. From the data, we know that China is becoming the second largest luxury consumption country. However, China is still a developing country the income per capita locates at the low level of the world. So what makes this happen and why?   As we know, there are no China Brands defined as luxury brands. So when the Chinese get richer, they want to buy something expensive to show their wealth. All this new wealth has driven produced a new middle class, and one that is to show off from the rice paddies. And what is the best way to do this, with a Louis Vuitton bag, Omega watches. The result is an extraordinary boom in the big luxury brands in China. The Chinese spent 4 to 5 billion dollars on luxury goods in tourist hotspots such as Hong Kong and Italy last year (like the Japanese, they tend to equate holidays with shopping) and another 1 or 2 billion dollars at home.   Until now all the money has been running out from China’s biggest cities, such as Shanghai and Beijing, but the real growth area for luxury goods in China is in the smaller cities like Chongqing, Wuhan. China has almost 100 cities with a population of more than a million people and as the spoils of economic growth spread, so will the demand for high-end purchasing. Goldman Sachs estimates that within the next five years the number of Chinese people would be likely to spend on such non-essentials will rise from the quite much. “Citigroup expects that annual sales of luxury goods in China will grow very much over the next five years,” says Elaine Moore in the FT. Goldman Sachs is just as bullish: it expects the Chinese to be buying nearly 30% of the world’s luxury goods within ten years.  Also, there are some fake luxury brands in China imitating the real luxury brands in the markets and in people’s hands. The producers say they themselves are the China Wholesaler to sell the European luxury brands with a China Wholesale way, that means do not sell them at the shops while just delivery them to the customers.  This is good news for the big brands. The more reasonable consumers in the likes of Shanghai have (again in the same way as the Japanese) started to shift towards buying lesser-known brands with an eye to exclusivity. That means that they need second-tier consumers – who are more likely to be interested in getting their hands on the brands that leave casual observers in no doubt about their financial status – to keep sales rising. It’s textbook status anxiety, says Shaun Rein in Forbes. “Luxury goods allow consumers to project an image of success.” All this means that the big global luxury brands that have proved popular in China’s large cities – Louis Vuitton, Fendi and M?et & Chandon – should enjoy copy-cat demand from this second round of Chinese consumers. “Even if economic growth slackens, the shopping spree will continue because so many Western goods are ‘must-have’ status symbols in Asia,” says Tom a professor at the Chicago university.               S    What’s more, having adopted the one-child policy in the 1970s, China has a bulging class of young, aspiring spenders. “Over the next few decades, wealthy, spoilt ‘little emperors’ will begin to make up the country’s largest population group,” says Elaine Moore. Having not experienced Mao’s Cultural Revolution, these consumers are unlikely to be bothered by the same anxieties as their grandparents or parents about stability and the weakness of the country’s social safety net. As a result, they should drive wave after wave of demand for luxury goods over the next decade. Surveys show that 92% of Japanese women own a Louis Vuitton handbag. There is every sign that the Chinese are in the middle of being gripped by a similar madness. We have a look at some of the companies likely to benefit from this binge below.

Android and iPhone: It's a two-horse race

Posted on December 02, 2011 09:09 PM
  It's official — there are only two mobile operating systems that matter right now. Even as underdog competitors march onto the field trumpeting enthusiastic comeback strategies, the big money is on Apple's iOS and Google's Android, the Mac and PC of the 21st century.   No matter how much enthusiasm HP and Microsoft can drum up, their product lines are years behind the competition, and they currently sit on extremely minuscule market shares. Microsoft might get a big push from Nokia, but their joint products won't even come to market until 2012. Meanwhile RIM, former big cheese, is seeing its BlackBerry fortune fall fast. Though the PlayBook tablet may be the company's first buzz-worthy gadget in years, it comes with a strange requirement: To get full functionality out of it, you have to already use a BlackBerry. Preach to the choir much, RIM? By contrast, Apple and Google are hustling to reach new customers. The Android camp wants to get into the iPad business that, with over 14 million in sales in just 8 months, Apple proved to be viable. In the phone business, Apple is fighting to gain back its lead from Google. Not only is Apple finally supplying iPhones to a second U.S. carrier — doubling its potential American customer base to roughly 190 million — but it's rumored to be devising a cheaper iPhone that addresses Android's best asset: its relative cheapness. The main reason why these two will stay on top is half a million mobile apps, and counting.    Just look at the following chart, from a recent survey by Appcelerator, makers of cross-platform app development tools, who asked roughly 2,000 Web developers what platforms they wanted to create mobile apps for. Even with increased interest in the PlayBook and HP WebOS platforms, Android and iOS enjoy a massive lead, guaranteeing a continued flood of great apps for those two platforms — and a weaker stream for the rest.   So now that we've narrowed the race down to just the two biggest and fastest ponies, it's important to know what their differences are. Android may have come to maturity looking and behaving like iPhone, while being cheaper and available on more carriers, but under the hood it's quite different, in ways that will matter to you. They're differences that affect a phone's network performance, security, battery life, flexibility, available content and upgrade eligibility. Natural selection vs. intelligent design   Android is an open platform. This means that anyone who wants to build a phone with the OS on it can, and they don't have to pay for the privilege. All of the software is open and available to hardware makers and software developers alike.  Google does what it can to ensure quality. In certain circumstances, Google partners with the hardware maker to create a phone or tablet, and any Android device that doesn't meet Google's specifications is denied the right to provide users access to the all-important Android App Market. Nevertheless, there is a Darwinian struggle happening in the Android camp.   Take HTC, for example. As Scott Schwarzhoff, VP of marketing at Appcelerator, told me, the company known for its Android initiative addressed a key early concern: The user interface was ugly. By introducing the "Sense UI," a fluid desktop with separate panes and interactive widgets, the company spurred innovation among other Android hardware partners. "We now get into natural selection," said Schwarzhoff. For early adopters, this competitive struggle clearly works. Android phones were the first to run on a 4G extra-high-speed network — first Sprint's, and now T-Mobile, AT&T and soon Verizon, all likely to hit market before any 4G iPhone appears. They were also the first to have 1GHz processors and front-facing cameras, HDMI jacks and memory card slots.
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