Market research firm IDC determined that the smartphone market this year will increase from 2009 by 55.4%. To better illustrate, that’s a shipment of 269.6 million units in 2010 versus 173.5 million in 2009. They attribute much of this forecast growth to models such as the BlackBerry Torch, the HTC EVO 4G, and the Apple iPhone 4.

They go on to speculate about the competing OS market shares by estimating their percentages in 2014. It’s no surprise that Android climbs by 51.2% over the next few years. Some of their other forecasts, however, might come as a bit of shock. One of these is that Apple’s iOS decreases by 25.8%. Perhaps we are just too in love with the iPhone to imagine it losing ground. Perhaps its loss of market share over the following years is due to other OS’s like Android gaining better brand recognition.

Tell us what you think…
source: Business Wire via Unwired View

The latest version of webOS, that was released by Sprint for its Palm phones, seems to have unlocked some gaming capabilities on the Palm Pixi munchkin. Since webOS 1.4.5 brings OpenGL support to the handset, it is now able to run 3D games for mobile. Need for Speed: Undercover was installed on it to test the 3D prowess of the Palm Pixi, and it behaved quite well, with playable framerate, but slow loading times. If you are a Pixi user and have gaming pedigree, that is certainly great news.

While some are just receiving their mobile gaming capabilities, others are running Rage at 60fps. That is precisely what John Carmack from id Software (hint: DooM 1, 2 and 3; Quake 1, 2, 3 and 4) demoed with an iPhone 4 in his hands at QuakeCon 2010. Carmack was using id’s Tech 5 graphics engine, and, scaled for the iPhone, the “megatexture” experience of Rage looked amazingly smooth. He even went as far as to say that the demo is able to “kill anything done on the Xbox or PlayStation 2… “. Certainly an impressive feat, if we forget that the whole action is shown on a 3.5” screen, a big part of which is to be occupied by your thumbs.
source: Engadget and Gizmodo

Ever wondered what smartphone users are searching for from their handsets? Chitika Research has got you covered with a study revealing the top five search queries from each mobile OS. The sample was based on more than a million impressions across its advertising network in the past week. If we leave out common searches like  “Father’s Day 2010”, “NBA Finals 2010”, “Oil spill” and “50 Cent Skinny”, some interesting differences emerge.

First off, Palm users seem to want back in vogue, as 2 of their top 5 searches are “HTC EVO” or “Sprint iPhone”. That’s not to say Palm users want them apples by all means, it rather looks like they just want out. On the other hand, Apple owners already have the mojo, but they still love to remind themselves they are part of the clan – iPhone and iPad users have often searched for “iPhone 4G” or “WWDC 2010”. And just as every self-respecting community, Apple users want to stay in touch with its main events.

The study finishes by listing the Android and BlackBerry top 5 searhes. By the looks of it, BlackBerry users stray from the everyday grind with the “funny sayings” search. Now, is that the most fun you can have with a BlackBerry, or what? It’s sad that the number 5 search from Android handsets is “Unemployment extension”, but that’s why they went with a free OS, after all, smart move.
source: Chitika Research