symbian

Android and Apple continue to bite bigger hunks out of the U.S. smartphone market.

As of the three months ended July, Google's mobile OS held a 52.2 percent share of the market, a gain of 1.4 points from the prior three months, ComScore said today. In second place, Apple's iOS grabbed 33.4 percent of the market, up 2 points from the prior period.

That left the rest of the top five platforms still spinning down the drain.

RIM's BlackBerry OS took third place with a 9.5 percent share, down 2.1 points … Read more

Android is often considered king of the mobile world, but Apple's iOS actually accounts for the lion's share of the mobile Web traffic, at least according to the latest stats from Net Applications.

iOS continues to grow, capturing a global traffic tally of 65.3 percent in June, up from 52.4 percent a year ago. Though in second place, Android has also expanded and now holds a share of 19.7 percent as of last month, compared with 14.3 percent in June 2011.

Breaking down the results by device, the iPad was the leader in June … Read more

Nokia has a plan in its back pocket should a deal with Microsoft fall through, or the forthcoming Windows Phone 8 software update fail to generate interest, according to Nokia's board chairman.

Speaking on his debut television appearance, F-Secure's founder and former chief executive Risto Siilasmaa, who became Nokia's board chairman in May, defended the move to Microsoft's Windows Phone, which replaced the ailing Symbian operating system last year.

But he said Nokia has a "contingency plan" should the forthcoming Windows Phone 8 "fail to live up to expectations," according to a … Read more

commentary Raise your hand if you know what Symbian is. Now keep it raised if you ever expected to see another phone running Nokia's mostly defunct OS in the U.S.

It may be "popular demand" that's bringing the Nokia 808 PureView smartphone to the U.S. by way of Amazon, but it sure as shooting isn't because of its operating system.

What makes the 808 PureView shine -- the sole feature that puts it on the map -- is its 41-megapixel hulk of a camera, which uses a clever technique and some larger-than-usual parts … Read more

April means lots of new first-quarter market share numbers. And research firms are stepping over each other to show that Samsung is faring well vis-a-vis its nemesis Apple -- which isn't doing too badly itself.

ComScore said today that Samsung is the top handset supplier among the 30,000 mobile subscribers surveyed in the U.S., with a 26 percent share in the three-month period ending in March. (see chart below).

In that period, 234 million Americans age 13 and older used mobile devices, according to ComScore.

LG was No. 2 with 19.3 percent and Apple third with … Read more

Just when things couldn't get much worse for Nokia -- the mobile phone maker's credit rating is taking it on the chin.

Standard & Poor's today cut the rating for the Finnish mobile phone maker to junk, anticpating lower sales ahead.

Following a similar move by Fitch Ratings earlier this week, S&P cut Nokia's rating to BB+ from BBB-. BB+ is considered the highest speculative grade, "speculative" being another word for junk.

S&P said that the weaker rating reflects a lower estimate for sales from Nokia's Devices and Services … Read more

Most people switching to the Lumia 900 or HTC Titan II Windows Phone handsets are moving from the iPhone and Android, at least according to a poll by WPCentral.

Grabbing responses from more than 3,500 users at this point, WPCentral found almost 30 percent jumping ship from the iPhone and 27 percent from Android.

BlackBerry accounted for 10 percent, Nokia's Symbian almost 12 percent, and HP's WebOS a little more than 6 percent. That left almost 15 percent of Lumia 900 and Titan II adopters upgrading from feature phones.

The results aren't fully comprehensive since WPCentral … Read more

Google's Android has bitten off a 50 percent chunk of the U.S. smartphone market, according to the latest stats from ComScore.

Over the three months from December through February, Android carved out an average 50.1 percent share, a leap of 17 points from the same period in 2011 and 3.2 points from the prior three-month period.

In second place, Apple's iOS grabbed a 30.2 percent share, inching up 1.5 points from the previous three months. Combined, those numbers gave iOS and Android a collective share of more than 80 percent.

As a result, … Read more

Microsoft and Nokia are looking to create a new generation of developers for their mobile platforms by pouring money into education.

The two mobile partners will each contribute 9 million euros ($12 million) to fund a new program on mobile app development at Finland's Aalto University. The training, dubbed AppCampus, will focus on Windows Phone but will also cover Nokia's Symbian and Series 40 platforms.

Set to launch this May, AppCampus will be geared toward students and entrepreneurs from around the world looking for an education in mobile technology, design, and funding with an eye toward building their … Read more