The last few weeks have seen a change in the smartphone landscape, thanks to Google’s acquisition of Motorola and HP’s decision to stop producing any more webOS flavored hardware. Is there an opportunity somewhere for HTC to get involved and perhaps acquire webOS or another OS to call its own? The quick and simple answer is a resounding “No”, according to the CEO of the Taiwan based firm, Peter Chou.

In an interview published in the Wall Street Journal, Chou says that HTC’s goal is to take advantage of his company’s partnerships with Google and Microsoft, and build hardware that differentiates itself from the competition. Chou told the Journal that, “It’s not the operating system, it’s the ecosystem, We think we can find a way to differentiate to add value, but at the same time leverage our partners, Google and Microsoft, since we have such a great relationship with them.”
So HTC is going to continue along the same Android-lined road that is has been traveling on. They are taking the risk that Google isn’t lying when it says that the Motorola purchase was only done as a patent play. After all, HTC and Motorola compete in the smartphone arena and when the company that supplies the OS for the vast majority of your phones acquires one of your competitors, it has to make you step back for a moment and wonder what will happen in the future. But Google has made it clear what their intentions are and it doesn’t involve limiting the number of Android handset manufacturers.

Of course, now that HP is probably looking for a way to jettison webOS, there is a viable OS available, probably for a good price. But Chou claims not to be interested in anything but turning out the hardware that has taken HTC from a fairly unknown contract manufacturer to being a household name.

source: WallStreetJournal via AndroidandMe

Digitimes reports that in order to boost sales and clear inventory due to weaker than expected demand, Android, webOS and QNX tablet makers are planning across-the-board price cuts by the end of September.

We don’t see it as much of a surprise that the tablet prices will be falling about six months after launch, and the process had even started with some manufacturers. HP recently made the $100 price cut for its HP TouchPad permanent, and now we are seeing the Toshiba Thrive appearing for $368 at Walmart, and the Acer Iconia Tab A500 $322 at Amazon.

The sources believe that prices will gradually slide to $350 on average by October, and go down to $300 in time for the holidays.

If quality Android slates, like the Asus Eee Pad Transformer, or the Acer Iconia Tab A500, which used to command pretty decent $399 price tags already, get slashed 25%, this will certainly increase the market share of Android’s tablet OS, which is still quite low compared to the iOS slates.

source: Amazon & Digitimes

Our digital news stands are about to get quite a bit better. Time Inc. has promised that by the end of this year, it will bring all 21 of its magazine titles to the “leading tablet platforms”. Although, by “leading platforms” apparently Time only means iOS, Android and WebOS. Sorry, BlackBerry and non-existent Windows tablet users.

The best part about this news is that Time has promised that the magazines will not simply be scans of the print versions, but will be apps designed specifically for each platform. Currently, only Sports Illustrated is being released on multiple platforms, while Time, People and InStyle are all iPad only. The other 17 titles on the way are: All You, Coastal Living, Cooking Light, Entertainment Weekly, Essence, Fortune, Golf, Health, Money, People en Espagnol, People Style Watch, Real Simple, Southern Living, Sports Illustrated for Kids, This Old House, and Time for Kids.

This should be impressive if Time can pull it off, because digital publishing is a completely different beast to that of print. It will be very interesting to see how this all works out, because the lure of tablet specific apps definitely sounds much better than just glorified PDFs.

source: Time Inc. via Mashable

AT&T has a pair of opposites available as the carrier launches today the Samsung Infuse 4G with a huge 4.5 inch display, and the HP Veer 4G which has a petite 2.6 inch screen. The price of each device is as different as the screen is on both models. The Veer 4G is $99.99 with a signed 2-year contract while the Infuse goes for $199.99 with a signed 2 year pact. For those of you who like to pay nothing for a brand new smartphone, Best Buy is offering the HP Veer 4G for the price of zero with a brand new contract.

The pair also has a diverse offering of operating systems. The Samsung Infuse 4G has Android 2.2 on board while the HP Veer 4G is the third webOS handset following the Pre and the Pixi. The version of the OS on the Veer is webOS 2.0.

So regardless if you have big or tiny hands, AT&T has a new smartphone for you that will fit your palm perfectly. And that is the, uh, long and short of it.

source: AT&T (Infuse 4G), (Veer 4G)

Gartner is a well-trusted tech oracle, but when it comes to predicting events in a 5-year timeframe, predictions become largely equivalent to palm-reading. Well, there might be one exception – tablets. Apple has basically created the tablet market with the original iPad and Gartner’s latest prognosis says that Cupertino is to remain the dominant company. But even Steve Jobs won’t be able to sustain the overwhelming popularity that the iPad is enjoying nowadays – the tablet’s share will slip to some 69% this year and continue falling to around 47% in 2015.

Google’s Android Honeycomb has the support of pretty much every other manufacturer out there, but this – in Gartner’s views – won’t prove enough for a quick start. Honeycomb tablets are to conquer the market gradually, starting from a 14% share in 2010, to reach nearly 20% this year and sprinting to the finish to close the gap with almost 39% in 2015.

The other major contender out there seems to be RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook. The 7-inch tablet holds ground with its business allure and QNX-based platform, but it will encounter one major obstacle on its way – apps. Nevertheless, Gartner forecasts bright future for the tablet which will supposedly occupy 5.6 of the market this year, only to reach the healthy 10% in 2015. But finally, HP’s TouchPad will face the most difficulties. Gartner’s predictions speak for a slow start for the tablet which will finish 2015 with a weak 3% presence.

Just last week, the analysts from Gartner presented us with their 5-year perspective on the cell phone market, but it was a whole different story with Android on top of the charts and Windows Phone picking up pace. Microsoft’s OS, somewhat surprisingly, is not even in the forecast here, which makes us think that we might see a whole new model to reflect the three-horse race that Redmond wants to stage. Whatever the future brings, one thing is certain – the market will be a very competitive one and this is always good for the end-user.

source: Gartner via mocoNews

In the very near future game creator Rovio will be releasing an update to the Angry Birds Seasons game with special levels designed for St. Patrick’s Day that includes the pigs wearing green Irish hats.

This edition of the game is called “Go Green, Get Lucky.” In the preview trailer posted at the bottom you will see that the levels more closely resemble that of the original Angry Birds than those found on other seasonal variations such as Valentine’s Day and Christmas. Guess you can only do so much with a St. Patrick’s Day theme.

The game should be available shortly considering St. Patrick’s Day is March 17. As always, the update will be free and will find its way to iOS, Android, WebOS and Symbian. Check out the trailer and tell us what you think in the comments below.

source: Slash Gear

Though many have jumped on the tablet bandwagon with devices like the successful Apple iPad, 99.7% of the world’s population still has not seen the need for a tablet and therefore have not purchased one to date.

The research was conducted by RBC Capital Market analyst Mike Abramsky who managed to create an 88-page report on his findings. He also focused on the market for TV subscriptions, newspaper circulation and more but we will just focus on the tablets for now.

The fact that only .3% of the world’s population has purchased a tablet can be attributed to the lack of selection, fairly new technology or the fact that there is no real need to own one. There is a flurry of tablets on the horizon, so these numbers could surely change by this time next year

Abramsky believes that these numbers will skyrocket within the next few years. In fact, he predicts that 185 million tablets will be sold in the year 2014. That is a huge difference from the numbers reported in 2010.

With Android getting ready to hit the tablet world by storm, BlackBerry and HP getting ready to make a plays their own and an already established successful tablet in the form of Apple’s iPad, what do you think of Abramsky’s prediction? Tell us what you think in the comments below.

source: Slash Gear

The battle of the heavyweights has officially been staged – the Apple iPad 2 is the successor to the original iPad, which dominated the tablet segment in the last year, but the new contenders appear with an equally mighty dual-core muscle and tailor-made Android Honeycomb not breaking a sweat under its power.

The iPad 2 comes with a lot of swagger – Cupertino is saying that with it the company aims to retain a nearly 80% market share in 2011. Honeycomb on the other side comes in a variety of tablets like the already released Motorola XOOM and the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. But it’s not the only one who wants a piece of the tablet pie as the webOS-based HP TouchPad is expected to make an appearance in the Summer months.

We shouldn’t omit the rest of the tablets out there, but it seems that most of them fall in a slightly different category by either having a smaller screen or not having the type of carrier support these heavyweight will get. That – of course – doesn’t make them less of a capable rival to the iPad, but for the time being let’s focus on the biggest ones and see who wins in the first round where we clash the specs!

A leaked photo shows a keyboard accessory said to be for a webOS tablet being put together by Palm. Codenamed the Palm Topaz, the device is expected to be free of any buttons on the face of the tablet and is designed to match up with the keyboard in the picture. Expectations are for a release in the first half of 2011. And if you notice some Windows buttons alongside those for webOS, there is no need to call “Shenanigans”-this keyboard apparently will be marketed as an accessory for Windows powered devices as well as for Palm’s tablet.

There is also some more news on potential new products from the webOS camp. A low-end version of the Palm Pre is allegedly being readied. With no physical QWERTY keyboard on the unit, this model is expected to be aimed at teens. Codenamed “Castle”, the handset is expected to be released by Verizon, Sprint and AT&T. No time frame for launch was disclosed.

source: EngadgetMobile

This keyboard is expected to be an accessory for the upcoming Palm tablet codenamed “Topaz”

The October smartphone OS numbers are in, and not everyone is pleased. The statistics from comScore measure the change in U.S. smartphone OS market share from July, 2010 to October, 2010. Google’s Android is the big winner, while RIM’s BlackBerry continues to falter.

Android has continued its ascent, going from 17% to 23.5%, which amounts to a 38% increase in only 3 months. Apple meanwhile has enjoyed a 3.3% rise from 23.8% to 24.6%. Even though iOS’ market share is still growing, we imagine Steve Jobs is upset about Android being so close behind.

BlackBerry has declined even further, from 39.3% to 35.8% (an 8.9% decrease). RIM will need some fresh ideas if they want to regain some market share. Their BlackBerry OS 6 only seems to be slowing the bleeding.

Palm’s webOS has declined from 4.9% to 3.9% (a 20% decrease). But we think that’s more due to marketing and availability, rather than interest. The debut of the Pre 2 and Palm’s other upcoming devices should give them a healthy bump in 2011.

Microsoft will be disappointed to see an 18% decline, from 11.8% to 9.7%. They’re waiting to see an increase from Windows Phone 7, but that will take more time. Place your bets, folks. It’s anyone’s game in 2011.

source: comScore via Engadget