The latest smartphone subscriber numbers are out, and the last three months have been kind to Google. Android’s still a relatively small player, but its usage base more than doubled since October. The iPhone, meanwhile, keeps on treading water.

RIM remains the leader in the smartphone space, with nearly half the market using BlackBerries. Apple’s 25.1% share is undeniably impressive, but only growing .3 percentage points (relative to the market) means this summer’s impending iPhone 4 release can’t come soon enough for Cupertino. Either that or a whole mess of patent lawsuit wins.

The losers, predictably: Palm, whose business model is collapsing before our eyes, and Microsoft, whose sitting duck WinMo 6.5 OS is in the process of being totally scrapped.

[ComScore via TechCrunch]

It’s not pretty, but according to BBLeaks this is the Storm 3, also known as “Slider.” Supposedly there’s some video coming, so maybe we’ll get a better idea of what might be RIM’s newest offering soon. [BBLeaks via BGR]

This isn’t confirmed, but with RIM rumored to be exploring sliding-QWERTY devices for a pretty long time, one of our BlackBerry connects dropped some info on us and we wanted it to share it. Here’s what we know:

• It’s a portrait-oriented slider. While most people assume a device with slideout keyboard would end up being something like HTC’s devices, we’ve been told this particular handset is more like the Palm Pre in terms of layout.
• The phone will run BlackBerry OS 6.0
• The rumored device will 100% support Wi-Fi 802.11n
• The resolution unfortunately has not improved, it is still 360×480.
• No word on if this will have a touch screen, but we’d assume so, and our source alluded to this possibly being what the rumored BlackBerry Magnum/Dakota evolved into. Not saying there won’t be a Bold-like device with touchscreen, optical trackpad, and physical keyboard, but this might be released first.
• If it does have a touch screen, this could in fact be the mythical BlackBerry Storm slider – picture a Storm 9520 with a slide up Bold-esque keyboard.
• The phone will not be a Verizon exclusive – it’s supposed to be a GSM/HSPA device.

That’s all we’ve got for now, folks. What are you thinking? Does this remotely interest you, or could you care less about the hardware at this point and just hope that RIM can make some pretty big strides as far as their OS is concerned?

The Palm Pre unveiling stands in my memory as one of the most refreshing moments in modern history. Palm had done it—they had created a great phone Nokia would kill for. But today, that’s just not enough.

As Palm teeters on the brink of either ruin or acquisition, let’s count all the things they did right:

• They abandoned an entrenched but aging platform for something new an innovative, and they didn’t half-ass it: Palm OS was dead, WebOS was here.

• WebOS was actually good. If you discounted the lack of apps at launch, it was arguably more capable than anything else on the market.

• The Pre was totally buyable. It’s one of the few smartphone’s I’d consider buying, and would also recommend to the rest of my family. Good hardware, too.

• They got huge buzz, and they earned it.

Sure, their app ecosystem was slow to develop, and their TV ads were underwhelming at their best, and creepy at their worst. But that’s not what really matters, right? Palm accomplished something with the Pre, and we could all see that.

This was the line from Jason’s Pre review that he caught the most flak for, but seriously, fuck that, it was completely right:

I’m bored of the iPhone. The core functionality and design have remained the same for the last two years, and since 3.0 is just more of the same, and-barring some kind of June surprise-that’s another year of the same old icons and swiping and pinching. It’s time for something different.

The Pre’s spell was such that it made everything else feel old. Palm made something different—and it was something we would have paid obscene amounts of money for just a year prior. More than anything, Palm succeeded wildly at reinventing its products, its company and its image, by its own standards and by ours.

The problem is, it’s not 2006 anymore. Those standards don’t apply.

There was a time when it was enough for a company like Palm to release a fantastic phone, and for years, that’s exactly what they focused on. But today, to fight in the smartphone wars is to fight against multi-platform giants. And the rules of engagement have changed: It’s not longer phone vs. phone, or mobile OS vs mobile OS. Today there are apps, and even if a phone maker nails that ecosystem, they have to integrate it into the company’s other stuff: desktops, tablets, the livingroom, the workplace, and soon the car, bathroom and all the music, movies, tv and reading any given human wants to do on all their stuff.

The era of the standalone smartphone company is over. To say it plainly: To make the best phone, it’s not enough to simply make the best phone.

And that is a sad thing.

The iPhone 3G may be the most popular phone in the US, but Gartner’s annual phone sales tally still puts Symbian as being the most-used smartphone OS worldwide. Snapping at its heels, BlackBerry’s OS has less than half the sales.

And the iPhone? They may have 14.4 per cent market share worldwide (a nice rise from 2008’s 8.2 per cent share), but they’re still a far way off from Symbian’s 46.9 per cent. Android’s done very nicely for itself, rising from 0.5 per cent market share in 2008 to 3.9 per cent in 2009. Windows Mobile unsurprisingly fell from 11.8 to 8.7 per cent in the last 12 months.

Symbian sales may’ve dropped 5.5 per cent between 2008 and 2009, but Nokia’s doing a bit better, with only a 2.2 per cent fall. They’re still top of the list for worldwide sales, though (on paper) need to be watching out for Samsung and LG, who increased their sales by 3.2 per cent and 1.7 per cent each.

The full scorecards of stats are included here for your perusing, but it’s worth noting that next year’s Gartner report is bound to show some major shaking-up. Windows Mobile should be on the rise with the launch of Windows Phone 7, and Motorola, buoyed by Droid sales and whatever else they have in store for us this year, should hopefully be seeing an increase in market share, not a decrease like they’ve seen in the last year. [Gartner via Hexus]

Ultra-trendy fashion designer Henry Holland held his London Fashion Week show on Saturday, where the BlackBerry-using front row sitters could buy the clothes straight from the catwalk using the House of Holland app.

It’s the first time a fashion designer’s allowed their clothes to be purchased from an app during a show—in the UK that is, but in Japan they’ve been doing this kind of thing for a while on their cellphones—with the slogan t-shirts painted with internet acronyms like FFS, CTFO and HML. Don’t ask me to explain what they mean, otherwise I’ll tell you to KMT.

Here’s me attempting to blend some knowledge of fashion with slightly more knowledge of tech: maybe “next season” Henry Holland will be offering an augmented reality app where the camera will recognize each “piece” and let you purchase them on the spot with your credit card, using the inevitable Square BlackBerry peripheral?

The app is a free download, and available now, where you can still buy the (overpriced) t-shirts for £55 / $85. [House of Holland BlackBerry App]

It was threatened, and thus now available. Hit up the BlackBerry App World to download the free Kindle app now—but only if you live in the US. And are happy paying up to a tenner to read a book on a 2.44″ screen. [THINQ]

First, Nokia successfully got the ITC to investigate Apple over patent infringement claims. Now the regulatory body has taken Kodak’s complaint seriously enough investigate RIM and Apple. Again. The stakes? A possible ban on US iPhone and BlackBerry imports.

In announcing that they’d investigate the complaint, the ITC made it clear that they weren’t taking sides… yet. But before you dismiss Kodak out of hand for being rabble-rousers, it’s worth noting that they’ve won similar judgments recently against both Samsung and Sun Microsystems.

Will we actually see the iPhone and BlackBerry banned from US stores? Highly doubtful. This will end the way these things always end: vast amounts of money changing hands. But with two simultaneous ITC investigations and countless lawsuits, the regulatory heat’s been turned up at Cupertino. And a loss in either the Nokia or Kodak case could hit Apple’s reputation even harder than its checkbook. [USITC via CNET]

#blackberry OS 5.0 has been released for sprint 9630 users!!
#tips

seanpat12

Windows Phone Series 7 is here, and it’s like nothing we’ve seen from Microsoft—or anyone else—before. But how does it measure up? And where does every other smartphone OS stand?

If you want to skip the gallery format, click here.

iPhone OS 3.x

The third major release of the iPhone’s software, and the second since the platform got its App Store, iPhone OS 3.x has succeeded on the strength of simplicity, intuitiveness and a tremendous selection of applications. It serves as the basis for the OS that will ship with the new Apple iPad.

Available: June 2009
Open Source/Free: No
Multiple Handset Manufacturers: No
Multitasking: No
Multitouch Interface: Yes
Browser/Engine: Safari/WebKit
Video Recording: Yes
Upgrades: Sync/Patcher
Syncing Software: Yes
App Store Size: 100k+
App Sideloading: No
Jailbreaking/rooting: Yes
Flash Support: No

Android 2.x

In just over a year, Google’s Linux-based Android OS has gone from a rough-edged software experiment to a smartphone powerhouse, running atop some of the most powerful hardware available. Version 2.1 is the software platform for Google’s own first phone, the Nexus One. Android phones vary in both hardware configurations and software versions, but are generally increasing in popularity.

Available: October ‘09
Open Source/Free: Yes/Yes
Multiple Handset Manufacturers: Yes
Multitasking: Yes
Multitouch Interface: Yes
Browser/Engine: Chrome/WebKit
Video Recording: Yes
Upgrades: Over the Air
Syncing Software: No
App Store Size: 20k+
App Sideloading: Yes
Jailbreaking/rooting: Yes
Flash Support: Within six months

Palm webOS 1.x

Palm’s webOS represented a complete reboot for the company, whose aging Palm OS found itself outpaced by more modern, finger-friendly offerings from Apple and Google. At the core of the OS is a novel multitasking system, with which users can cycles through apps, or “cards.” Another webOS selling point is the deep integration of social networking directly into the OS, and an emphasis on messaging.

Available: June ‘09
Open Source/Free: No/No
Multiple Handset Manufacturers: No
Multitasking: Yes
Multitouch Interface: Yes
Browser/Engine: webOS/WebKit
Video Recording: Coming soon
Upgrades: Over the Air
Syncing Software: No
App Store Size: 1400+
App Sideloading: No
Jailbreaking/rooting: Yes
Flash Support: Within six months

BlackBerry OS 5

RIM is known for issuing frequent updates for its mobile OSes, but they are minimal, and at heart, BlackBerry OS 5 is deeply similar to its early, decade-old predecessors. BlackBerry OS is inclined towards messaging—its inboxes feature prominently—with web browsing and apps as secondary focuses. RIM’s recent success with the consumer (as opposed to enterprise) market shows they’ve taken pains to improve the usability and aesthetics of the OS, though its corporate roots still show through.

Available: November ‘09
Open Source/Free: No/No
Multiple Handset Manufacturers: No
Multitasking: Yes
Multitouch Interface: No
Browser/Engine: BlackBerry/Proprietary (WebKit forthcoming)
Video Recording: Yes
Upgrades: Sync/patcher/over the air
Syncing Software: Yes
App Store Size: 3k+
App Sideloading: Yes
Jailbreaking/rooting: No
Flash Support: Within six months

Windows Mobile 6.5.x

Windows Mobile 6.5 is the last predecessor to Windows Phone 7 Series, and it will coexist with WP7 for the foreseeable future, as a bridge for corporate customers. Its basic design and codebase harks back to the early 2000s, and while it featured multitasking, copy and paste and a significant number of 3rd party apps well before the iPhone or Android did, WinMo failed to keep up with its competitors. Even with version 6.5, which added new, finger-friendly interface elements and an app marketplace, success was not to be. Despite its successor’s seemingly related name, this is the end of the road for the WinMo OS.

Available: October ‘09
Open Source/Free: No/Licensed
Multiple Handset Manufacturers: Yes
Multitasking: Yes
Multitouch Interface: No
Browser/Engine: Internet Explorer/Trident
Video Recording: Yes
Upgrades: Sync/Patcher
Syncing Software: Yes
App Store Size: Under 500 1000+, depending on handset
App Sideloading: Yes
Jailbreaking/rooting: No
Flash Support: Yes

Windows Phone 7 Series

Windows Phone 7 Series is a total revamping of Microsoft’s mobile strategy, drawing more on design philosophy of the Zune HD than of Windows Mobile. The interface is designed primarily for touch input, and eschews icon grids and menus for a series of paneled hubs. The unreleased OS features deep integration with Xbox and Zune services, as well as a completely new app store.

Available: Holiday ‘10
Open Source/Free: No/No
Multiple Handset Manufacturers: Yes
Multitasking: No, probably! (With possible exceptions.)
Multitouch Interface: Yes
Browser/Engine: Internet Explorer/Trident
Video Recording: Yes
Upgrades: TBD
Syncing Software: Media
App Store Size: TBD
App Sideloading: TBD (Unlikely)
Jailbreaking/rooting: TBD
Flash Support: TBD (Probable)