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While Google hasn’t confirmed these numbers, an estimate of total downloads and app numbers maintained by Androlib has ticked over to 100,000 apps and games available, and a full billion downloaded. iPhone comparisons? If we must. Apple’s billionth app download occurred 287 days after the App Store’s debut. It took Android… well, let’s just say significantly longer. But Android is also seeing accelerating growth. I’m guessing 2 billion isn’t too far off, at this rate.
Update: Google just contradicted Androlib’s app numbers in their earnings call. There are only 70,000. Ah well. Now I’m wondering about that billion figure, too.
[via InformationWeek and Engadget]
Check out the rest: MobileCrunch
Analysts pelted Google executives with concerns about mobile advertising effectiveness and revenue generation on the company’s quarterly earnings call today. Google’s growth in cost-per-click was only 2 percent during the quarter, compared to 4 percent a year ago. Google admitted that mobile may be dragging down its average CPC, but said that mobile clicks are growing more quickly than any other area.
As for how Google’s investment in its Android mobile platform will reap rewards, Google CFO Patrick Pichette said, “Android in terms of cost is not material to the company.” He noted that recent Android launches like the Droid X were undertaken completely by partners like Motorola and Verizon. “It’s a formidable return in that what you have is the entire market exploding.”
Meanwhile, even though Google proudly notes that there are now 70,000 Android apps, SVP product management Jonathan Rosenberg reminded analysts that by far the most popular application on phones is the browser, and that mobile search is up an order of magnitude. Pichette said Android is both an “offensive” and “defensive” effort for Google, and that it gives the platform away for free to help grow the market.
Rosenberg pointed to a couple factors that will help mobile value grow, noting that new ad formats like click-to-call are very promising. He said that the logistics of authenticating and consummating transactions on mobile need to be improved. The overall mobile system should “move very aggressively to acquire more of those commercial transactions,” Rosenberg said. For more on that topic, see our recent GigaOM Pro piece on mobile payments (sub req’d). Rosenberg also noted that due to the small screen size on mobile “a display ad really gets in your face” — and Google just acquired AdMob to get more deeply into that space.
It’s unclear how much of an elephant in the room Apple’s iAd is, since it went unmentioned. But one thing’s for sure, mobile is no longer a wee emerging aspect of Google’s business, and analysts and the markets are going to hold the company accountable for its growth.
Check out the rest: GigaOM
Take this as you will now (the HP/Palm merger is already complete, and none of these companies are ever going to fess up to losing a bidding war) but Business Insider is claiming to have an inside scoop on how the bidding war for Palm went down — and which companies lost out in the end.
The big list? Google, Lenovo, RIM, and — wait for it — Apple.
You see, when Palm filed their merger documentation with the SEC, they mentioned that 16 potential bidders had reached out, with 4 finalists coming up to the plate after the inital contact. Alas, none of these four were ever named; “Company A” through “Company D” supplanted any instances where the actual company names were mentioned, leaving the whole thing in an air of mystery.
According to Business Insider’s Dan Frommer, it all breaks down as follows (note: while their sources would name names, they wouldn’t tie the names to the specific “Company X” labels — so these should be considered educated guesses):
So, why would Apple want Palm? They wouldn’t. They’d have wanted Palm’s patent portfolio. Hundreds upon hundreds of items deep, Palm’s portfolio stretches across all reaches of the mobile world, essentially protecting them from any lawsuits. Even if some company owned a patent they felt Palm was infringing, chances were that Palm could turn things around with a handful of patents of their own that the other company was infringing upon. It’s referred to within Palm as a Porcupine strategy; patents are quills, and no one wants to rub the company with the most quills the wrong way.
At the very least, this is all an interesting insight into what could have happened. Whereas HP plans to build webOS into their future tablets, printers, and whatever other gadgets they can squeeze it into, Apple almost certainly would have killed off webOS immediately. Sure, certain elements of webOS (like, say, the notification system) most likely would have found their way into iOS — but webOS, as we know it today, would be dead.
Check out the rest: MobileCrunch
In a somewhat surprising move, the New York Times has thrown its weight behind calls for a government inquiry into Google and its search algorithm, by raising the prospect of a government investigation into and/or regulation of the company in an editorial published in the newspaper on Thursday. While the paper’s editors stop short of calling on the government to take specific action against the web giant, they state that “a case is building for some sort of oversight of the gatekeeper of the Internet.” The editorial comes as Google is facing increasing pressure from regulators in both the United States and Europe.
The NYT piece is short on evidence and long on rhetoric, however. The editorial says that Google is responsible for nearly two-thirds of Internet searches worldwide and adds — in a strangely folksy tone — that analysts “reckon that most Web sites rely on the search engine for half of their traffic.” The editorial goes on to talk about how Google engineers can break the business of a website with a single tweak of the company’s “supersecret algorithm,” by pushing the site down in its search rankings. This is even more important now, the editorial states, because Google has branched out into other services, where it has acquired “pecuniary incentives to favor its own over rivals.”
Although it doesn’t mention any specific cases, the NYT argument is almost certainly based (at least in part) on the claims of a little-known Google competitor called Foundem, which runs a comparison-shopping site and has complained — in a New York Times opinion piece, among other places — that its business has been adversely affected by Google’s alleged rigging of its algorithm. Gary Reback, the Silicon Valley lawyer who helped bring a federal antitrust case against Microsoft in the 1990s, has reportedly been making the rounds in Washington, D.C., introducing the founders of the company to various sources within the government. Foundem is also one of the three complainants who have raised antitrust issues regarding Google with the European Commission.
The New York Times editorial focuses specifically on the company’s “supersecret algorithm,” and the suggestion that it is stacking the deck in its own favor, something other prominent critics such as telecom consultant Scott Cleland have also raised. Even some relatively neutral technology observers have raised questions about the need for more transparency about its search algorithm. Chris Dixon, co-founder of Hunch.com and a seed investor in a number of startups, commented on the NYT editorial on Twitter by saying: “I don’t buy the ‘security thru obscurity’ argument. I don’t want govt regulation but think goog needs to open up algo more.”
Google’s vice-president of search product, Marissa Mayer, responded to some of the criticisms levelled against the company in an op-ed piece published in the Financial Times yesterday (subscription required), in which she says that search is complex, and that enforcing some arbitrary standard of “neutral” search results would make innovation impossible. Meanwhile, search expert Danny Sullivan said that there have never been any serious allegations of anti-competitive behavior lodged against Google, nor any sign that the search company rigs its algorithm. Sullivan also sarcastically suggested in his blog post that the New York Times should be investigated for its “supersecret” editorial policy.
Could Google be rigging its search results? Perhaps — but as Sullivan mentions in his blog post, if there were significant signs that Google was favoring its own properties, wouldn’t large competitors such as Microsoft or Amazon or Yahoo have raised this issue before now, rather than a tiny handful of little-known European competitors? Maybe there is a case for government oversight of Google, but the New York Times has failed to make that case, and so have most of the others who have tried to do so to date.
Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d): With Caffeine, Google Reveals the Challenges of Real-Time
Post and thumbnail photos courtesy of Flickr user Kevin Dooley
Check out the rest: GigaOM
Jason Hoffman at Structure 2009
Joyent, the hosting company turned private cloud provider, has purchased Layerboom, a Vancouver-based startup, for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition helps Joyent create an easier on-ramp to the cloud for customers of its appliances and software. Layerboom, a Bootup Labs incubated company, makes software and an appliance that enables a company to manage virtual machines running the Windows and Linux operating systems, and Joyent CTO Jason Hoffmann says the acquisition will help customers who still need to manage legacy hardware make the transition to Joyent’s ideal of running a platform as a service.
Joyent, which began as a hosting company in 2003, is betting that enterprises don’t want to manage their own servers — even if they are virtual — and would rather build applications on top of language-specific or database-specific platforms. It offers an appliance that companies can use to create private internal clouds, but in 2009 it also bought a company called Reasonably Smart to allow its customers to internally offer the equivalent of a Google App Engine-like platform as a service for customers, on top of Joyent’s appliance or the customer’s own hardware. The Layerboom deal sits beneath those two layers and will help customers more at the virtual machine level, because as Hoffman said, “You may always need to have a few Windows boxes running around.”
Hoffmann says the deal came about because as Layerboom was raising its Series B round of funding, investors inevitably came to Joyent for its input. Hoffman decided to take a look, and Joyent ended up buying the company. Hoffman says Joyent has purchased four startups (including Reasonably Smart) at a similar stage because it saw a chance to extend its vision. This vision is a compelling one as enterprises eye the cloud and need ways to maintain or transition from their legacy infrastructure.
Related GigaOM Pro Research (sub req’d): Defining Internal Cloud Options: From Appistry to VMware
Check out the rest: GigaOM
With new Google Android handsets hitting the scene on what feels like a weekly basis, it’s difficult for phone makers and carriers to differentiate between the various devices. Motorola has tried to stand out with hardware nuances like the odd-folding BackFlip and with software such as Motoblur. Both approaches gave it the “good college try,” but fell far short of the sales enjoyed by the first Android 2.0 phone, the Motorola Droid. For the first time however, Motorola has exceeded the original Droid with its successor, the Motorola Droid X, available on the Verizon Wireless network.
As the current owner of a Google Nexus One, I feared that Droid X and its 4.3-inch display would be too large for my small hands. I’m glad that Motorola proved me wrong — even with my small 5’5″ frame, the Droid X turns out to be quite comfortable to use and carry. The main reason is the width of the device. Even though this is a large phone in comparison to most competitors, it’s relatively narrow — perhaps 2 millimeters wider than my wife’s iPhone 3GS and is mostly thinner than my Nexus One as shown in the image gallery below. Yet the 854×480 resolution on the larger screen makes it joy to surf the web, watch videos or read e-books, even when outside in full sunlight.
| Motorola Droid X Highlights and Specs |
|---|
| 4.3″ touchscreen with 854×480 (WVGA) resolution |
| 1 GHz CPU plus dedicated graphics processor |
| 720p HD video recording, 8 megapixel camera, 2 LED flash |
| 512 MB of RAM, 8 GB internal memory, 16 GB microsSD card |
| 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, BT 2.1, GPS, CDMA, EVDO Rev. A |
| 2.6″ x 5.0″ x 0.4″, weight of 5.4 ounces |
Running Android 2.1, Droid X has plenty of horsepower to take advantage of the large LCD screen. Like similar high-end Android phones currently available, Motorola chose a 1 GHz processor, but opted for a Texas Instruments chip over one from Qualcomm — a brand commonly used in HTC handsets like my Nexus One or the Sprint EVO 4G. (Related: our EVO vs Droid X head-to-head battle) A PowerVR SGX530 graphics chip does the heavy video lifting — between that and the CPU, Droid X is peppy overall and excels when handling video. For the benchmark geeks out there, I recommend this excellent AndroidCentral video comparing Droid X with the EVO and Nexus One — the video frame-rate tests are of particular note, showing how smooth and fluid video can be on Droid X.
Speaking of video, Droid X can capture plenty of it at a high quality. The phone has 8 GB of internal memory and includes a 16 GB removable microSD card. The 8 megapixel camera sensor is supported by two LED flash bulbs and can take still images or 720p high-def movies. The camera application is simple to use — as is the dedicated camera button on the side of Droid X — and offers more photography options than most average consumers could use, ranging from scene modes to an outstanding panoramic mode that stitches six images together for a super-wide view.
Motorola made it easy to get such images and videos to the big screen by adding a mini-HDMI jack to connect Droid X to an HDTV. Unfortunately, Droid X doesn’t include such a cable with the phone, so that’s an additional expense for those who want it. And that HDMI output is only useful for certain activities — you can’t pipe content from the included Blockbuster application or YouTube from handset to HDTV, for example. Motorola does include both a DLNA and Media Share application for media transfer and control, however.
The Blockbuster movie rental software is one of only a few pre-loaded applications. Unlike many other phones, Verizon didn’t load up the device with carrier-specific applications, which is a plus. And the software that is included or was created by Motorola is another benefit. Droid X accepts voice input natively with Android, but also works with a Nuance-powered voice control applications. The FM Radio software pulls in signals by using a connected headset and Skype Mobile — currently a Verizon exclusive — is pre-installed. And even though you won’t notice it upon first glance, Motoblur is there, but in a far more subtle manner.
Instead of the “in your face” social networking updates present on other Motoblur devices, Motorola opted to tame the experience with custom widgets that can be installed or ignored. Unless you configure them, the phone won’t use them. While this is a positive step, I ended up turning off the Motorola widgets after a day or two because third-party apps often provide more functionality or more information on a single display, and are often more customizable in terms of alerts. Motorola’s social widget for Twitter, for example, shows one tweet at a time — to see more, you tap it and then swipe along tweet by tweet.
One piece of software that impresses is the 3G Mobile Hotspot function. The service costs $20 per month for 2 GB of data, but turns the Droid X into a portable hotspot, able to share the 3G connection with five Wi-Fi devices. The software supports WEP, WPA and WPA2 encryption for security and works fantastic. I’ve used it to surf the web on my iPad Wi-Fiand saw average speeds around 1.5 Mbps — plenty fast enough for browsing on a mobile device.
Of course, a mobile device is only as good as its input system and here’s where the combination of a large display and good software really shine. I’ve found it difficult to go back to my Nexus One from the Droid X because I can type so much faster on the bigger screen. The little bit of extra display makes a huge difference. And for those that struggle with an on-screen QWERTY keyboard, the Droid X includes Swype. This software allows you to trace words on the virtual keyboard — you only lift a finger between words. Swype says you can approach speeds of 50 wpm and although I can’t quite hit that mark, the software does make text entry very easy. Overall, navigation is better on the big screen too, helped by the physical buttons under the display — I like these better than the touch sensitive ones on my Nexus One.
At the end of the day, Droid X can’t just be a pocketable computer that plays media, takes pictures and surfs the web. After all, it’s a phone too, so voice quality and battery life are important. Droid X is a stellar phone, thanks in part to three different microphones that help reduce or even eliminate background noise. The speakerphone on the backside of Droid X is more than adequate too — when I put callers on the speakerphone, they were hard pressed to tell the difference. And battery life is quite good as well. The replaceable 1500 mAh battery should see all but the heaviest power-users through a full day. Keeping the display on or using the mobile hotspot often will drain the battery faster, of course. But Motorola has three customizable power-saving themes to help keep Droid X running.
Right now, I think the Droid X is the best Android handset available through Verizon Wireless, mainly because the display is larger and a higher resolution than the Droid Incredible (which is having supply issues). With Android, there’s always another hot new handset around the corner — like the Droid 2 or Samsung Galaxy S, for example — but if I was looking for an Android phone on Verizon, Droid X would be at the top of my list. Verizon says that Droid X will see an update to Android 2.2 by end of summer — bringing faster speeds and Adobe Flash support — which will make the device even more appealing.
Verizon is currently selling the Droid X for $299 with a new 2-year contract, but there is a $100 mail-in rebate bringing the net hardware cost down to $199. And although this won’t help current Droid owners, any Verizon customer with a contract expiring by the end of 2010 is eligible for this pricing. I answered initial Droid X questions last week, but will have the evaluation unit for a bit yet, so don’t hesitate to ask specific questions in the comments so I can try to address them.
Related research on GigaOM Pro (sub. req’d):
To Win In the Mobile Market, Focus On Consumers
Check out the rest: GigaOM
Google Buzz continues its recent mini revival, with news that superb Android Twitter app Seesmic now incorporates Google’s location-based social networking… thing. If you’re still refusing to even think about using Buzz, the 1.4 Seesmic update also includes inline previews of pics shared by your friends using image uploading tools, plus OAuth connectivity for your convenience. It’s an update worth getting. [Seesmic blog] More »
Check out the rest: Gizmodo
“Steve Ballmer has delivered a mea culpa to Microsoft’s partners for its slip-ups against Apple and Google on tablets and smart phones. Ballmer told Microsoft’s annual Worldwide Partner Conference that Windows Mobile missed a “whole generation of users” and promised Windows Phone 7 will set things right.”
Dear Microsoft,
I generally feel a lot of love for you as a company, but it’s sure frustrating watching you miss the boat again and again. Remember when you laughed at the iPhone? Yeah, exactly, no one is laughing now. The hype around the iPad had been building for years – didn’t someone in your organization (other than the Courier team) realize that this whole slate computing thing wasn’t going to just be empty hype?
Two years ago you should have been working on some form of operating system that’s optimized for touch computing. I know you don’t share this opinion Mr. Ballmer, but if you’ve ever used Windows 7 on a touch-based computer, you’ll know that it’s really not well-suited for touch…especially when you take away the high-power CPUs and GPUs needed to make the experience even remotely decent. And taking away those things is exactly what you need to do in order to get decent battery life. You need to think of hardware appropriate for phones, not laptops, when you talk about slate computers. You can’t rely on Moore’s Law to make Windows work well on a slate device – because Moore’s Law can’t fix the broken user interface paradigm that Windows 7 is based upon.
Mark my words: it’s a huge mistake for you to to use an operating system designed for a mouse and a keyboard on a device where touch is the primary method of input. The only hope you have in this space is to use Windows Phone 7 (or even the Zune OS) and design a new custom UI shell on top of it. There’s no other option for you that will allow you to bring slates to market to compete against Apple, Google, and HP (via Palm’s Web OS) in a reasonable time frame.
Sincerely,
Someone Trying to Help
Check out the rest: Windows Mobile News copy
As Google has infiltrated many of our online activities — mail, calendaring, search history, blogging and even YouTube viewing — it asks us to use a single Google Account. But finally, the company is testing the option to allow users to use multiple accounts within the same browser, per the (unofficial) Google Operating System.
In the past, active Google users have had to develop kludgy workarounds to use multiple accounts. Many people have multiple roles in life and online, for instance as a personal Gmail user, a contributor to a group blog on Blogger, a reader of job-related industry news on Google Reader, a sharer of personal updates on Google Buzz, and a team coordinator on Google Calendar. (Other people, of course, are secret agents.) But Google didn’t acknowledge more than one identity.
Long ago, I got into the habit of keeping a Gmail account open for personal use in Firefox and for work use in Safari (though, now that we use Google Apps at GigaOM, that’s no longer necessary). Other people use things like Greasemonkey scripts or Chrome’s Incognito mode to shield their logins from being shared across that browser’s history.
The new multiple login screen doesn’t seem to be widely available — all we have is the screenshot posted on Google Operating System. It includes (for now) the Google products Gmail (but not in offline mode), Google Calendar, Google Reader, Google Docs, Google Sites and Google Code.
At SXSW this year, members of the Gmail and Buzz teams said that one big project they are working on is to allow more fluid use for users who have both personal and professional Google Accounts. This multiple sign-in feature seems to be the first step on that front. But what’s further needed is better integration between personal Google accounts and Google Apps accounts, especially as more companies move to the cloud. The idea that people will have one identity, both personal and professional, is naive.
Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):
Google Buzz’s True Home Is in the Enterprise
Check out the rest: GigaOM
