Apple’s iPad commands 1% of all web traffic after just one year
Recent statistics from analytics firm Net Applications’ NetMarketShare report show the iPad has continued to grow worldwide since its launch in early 2010. The tablet recently broke the 1 percent mark in worldwide browsing and accounts for 2 percent of browsing in the U.S.
The report showed the iPad to have “53 times the usage share of its nearest competitor,” the Android-based Samsung Galaxy Tab throughout May. Apple’s tablet also dwarfed the third-placed Motorola Xoom tablet’s share of global web browsing with a share 76 times greater. In addition when compared to the Research in Motion’s Blackberry PlayBook, the iPad has roughly 306 times the usage.
In the U.S. mobile browser market, the iPad takes a solid 25.5 percent, only trailing Android (31.6 percent) and the iPhone (35.2 percent). However, when iPhone and iPad data are combined, they take over 60.7 percent of U.S. mobile browsing, a figure almost double that of Android. Blackberry came in at 6.9 percent, while Symbian, Windows Mobile and webOS are left far behind, accounting for less than 0.5 percent.
Updated MacBook Pro; latest Motorola must-haves
When you first lay eyes on the Motorola ATRIX 4G smart phone with optional Lapdock, you have to wonder if this is where we’re headed — a world where one device provides all things digital. I tend to think it is.
The ATRIX 4G, after all, is pretty futuristic. For starters, the unit is powered by an NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core 1GHz processor, teamed with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal flash storage. You can also insert an SD card up to 32GB.
The unit provides access to files, photos, emails and Internet content with negligible boot time. The display supports HD video, rich 24-bit color, and crystal-clear graphics, which makes the device well-suited for playing action-filled games or watching HD video.
Five docking stations are available. Plug the ATRIX 4G handset into the rear of the aforementioned Lapdock (“Laptop Dock”), and you get a 11.6” display, two USB ports, and full-sized keyboard. The combination provides up to six hours of combined battery life and weighs only 2.4lbs. Motorola claims the unit is as thin as a MacBook Air.
Motorola Xoom Super Bowl XLV ad: ‘Empower the People’
The Android 3.0 (Noneycomb) sporting Motorola Xoom is set to take on the iPad, and even the iPad 2, and it finally saw its first real ad (as opposed to teasers) at Super Bowl XLV. We already knew Motorola was planning the ad, and had seen a snippet of the video, which is called “Empower the People.”
The ad starts in a subway, with endless lines of indentical, white hoodie wearing peons, who are also all wearing white earbuds, and who all seem resigned to the same identical fate. However, as we saw in the teaser, there is one seemingly normal-looking guy, carrying a tablet. No, it’s not an iPad, it’s a Motorola Xoom, and he’s reading “1984″ on it, to boot.
The young man uses the Xoom to find a florist, and as he and the others all crowd into their respective, identical, glass-encased cubicles, he eyes a comely young woman in another cube. She, however, is one of the hoodie-wearing drones.
However, the enterprising young man creates a (Flash?) video on the Xoom, places it on her desk, where she can watch it. It’s two animated characters, with one giving the other a bouquet. She starts to take off her earbuds, and fade to …
Motorola Trots Out New Smartphones and Tablet Packing Android
Motorola has used CES to launch new gear for a very long time and this year is no different. Motorola has pulled the wraps off three new gadgets today with three new smartphones and a new tablet for geeks to enjoy.
The new tablet is the Motorola Xoom and it will be headed to Verizon Wireless. It has a 10.1-inch screen, a dual-core processor, and a 3G network connection. It runs the Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system specifically for tablet machines. Verizon points out that the device can be upgraded to support 4G LTE connectivity as well. The device plays Flash content, supports 1080p resolution video, and has a front facing 2MP camera with a rear-facing 5MP camera.
Motorola buys into mobile media syncing with Zecter
Motorola Mobility seems to be snapping up startups in advance of its planned spin-off from parent company Motorola early next year. Today, it announced that it’s acquiring Zecter, which develops applications for storing your media online and streaming it to other devices.
The deal was first reported last night by TechCrunch, which said Motorola was “close to acquiring” Mountain View, Calif.-based Zecter. Today, Zecter published a blog post claiming the two companies share a vision to “create a seamless way for people to share content across multiple devices,” and that Zecter can better achieve that goas using “Motorola’s brand and distribution.”
Zecter said the Motorola acquisition won’t prevent the company from offering app on non-Motorola platforms. It will continue development on ZumoDrive, which is a file storage and syncing service, for iOS (that’s iPhone and iPad), Android, and webOS devices. ZumoCast, a service for streaming media from your computer to other devices, will temporarily stop accepting new users.
Google Engineer Demos Prototype Motorola Android Tablet
Google’s chief Android engineer on Monday showed a glimpse of a forthcoming tablet from Motorola, a potential competitor to Apple’s iPad with a more powerful processor.
A prototype of the Motorola tablet — which comes with a “dual-core Nvidia 3D processor” and the tablet-friendly Honeycomb version of Android — was demonstrated by Google’s Andy Rubin at the D: Dive Into Mobile conference.
The Motorola device is running an early version of Honeycomb, which will be out next year and has been developed to work better on tablets, according to Rubin. Developers will be able to build applications that can take advantage of the tablets’ larger screens but at the same time work on smartphones.
Google is also doing work on the user interface. For example, the Motorola prototype tablet doesn’t have any hardware buttons. Instead, it uses virtual buttons on the screen that reposition when a user rotates the tablet in any direction. That’s different from the iPad, which has a hardware home button that is fixed.
Man claims Motorola Droid 2 exploded in his ear
December 3, 2010 5:00 PM PST
Man claims Motorola Droid 2 exploded in his ear
by Chris Matyszczyk Font sizePrintE-mailShare1 comment .Share 00diggsdiggYou have, perhaps, occasionally had your ear bitten off over the phone. However, fewer are the people who have experienced their phone actually exploding into their ear, causing bleeding and a strange sensation of surprise.
However, such is the claim being made by one Aron Embry of Cedar Hills, Texas, who told Fox4 in Dallas Fort-Worth that his two-day-old Motorola Droid 2 blew up on him without reason as he was getting into his car.
His description to Fox4 offers an atmosphere redolent of David Cronenberg: “I heard a pop. I didn’t feel any pain initially. I pulled the phone down. I felt something dripping. I realized that it was probably was blood.”
Embry reports that the horror deepened when he went back into his house. “As I got into the bathroom and once I got to the mirror and saw it, it was only then I kinda looked at my phone and noticed the screen had appeared to burst outward,” he said.
ITC to investigate Apple’s patent case against Motorola
The U.S. International Trade Commission formally announced Tuesday that it is launching an investigation into Motorola smartphones in response to Apple’s allegations that Motorola violated several multi-touch related patents.
Bloomberg was first to report the news of an official ITC investigation, which was posted to the ITC website Tuesday.
Motorola and Apple are currently embroiled in a set of lawsuits, each alleging that the other company has violated a number of smartphone patents. Motorola sued first in early October, claiming that Apple is in violation of 18 Motorola patents and had “refused” to license Motorola’s technology.
In anticipation of a countersuit, Motorola then sought to invalidate 11 of Apple’s patents related to the iPhone as a preemptive strike against the Cupertino, Calif., company. On Oct. 29, Apple fired back with a countersuit accusing Motorola of violating six multi-touch patents.
If the ITC rules in favor of Apple, it could block the importation and sale of Motorola smartphones in the U.S. According to the report, the new case is listed as “In the Matter of Mobile Devices and Related Software, 337-750, U.S. International Trade Commission (Washington).”
Microsoft Sues Motorola Over Wi-Fi, Video Patents
Microsoft sued Motorola on Tuesday, arguing that its royalty rates for both wireless networking and video technologies exceed agreed-upon limits.
The suit, filed in the a Seattle federal court, accuses Motorola of breaching a so-called RAND agreement for patents covering the H.264 video codec and various extensions of the 802.11 Wi-Fi technology. Both are used in the Microsoft Xbox video-game console, among other products, Microsoft said.
Motorola did not issues a statement in response to Microsoft’s suit.
According to Microsoft, Motorola agreed to contribute patents to a “patent pool” that collects the patents from various companies around a given technology. In this case, Microsoft said, Motorola agreed to allow other companies to license the 802.11 and H.264 patents under so-called “reasonable and non-discriminatory” (RAND) terms.
Android leader Motorola still well behind Apple’s iPhone
Motorola reported a phenomenal 600 percent leap in earnings this quarter, but is still behind Apple in mobile units sold and is far behind in smartphone sales, leaving Apple the top US phone vendor by units for the second quarter in a row.
Motorola has greatly increased is profits due to a its push with Verizon Wireless in selling the Android-based Droid, also marketed as the Motorola Milestone. The latest model, Droid X, is currently the model being held up against iPhone 4.
Motorola’s quarterly sales of 8.3 million phones is still behind Apple’s 8.4 million units in the second calendar quarter of 2010, which ended in June. However, only 2.7 million of Motorola’s sales were smartphones, meaning Apple sold more than three times as many smartphones as the leading Android maker.