Android Developers Platform Versions page provides data about the relative number of active devices running a given version of the Android platform. This can help you understand the landscape of device distribution and decide how to prioritize the development of your application features for the devices currently in the hands of users.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
$100 Kindle Fires and why Android IS the tablet market
http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/9/2693369/100-kindle-fires-and-why-android-is-the-tablet-market
I’m not saying that iPads, Win8 slates or even WebOS tablets will go away. I AM saying that within 2 years Android will have 80% of the tablet market just because of PRICE.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Spreadtrum offers Android platforms for $100 smartphones
http://www.edn.com/article/520469-Spreadtrum_offers_Android_platforms_for_100_smartphones.php
Spreadtrum Communications Inc has announced that it has Android platforms that should enable customers to make $100 retail TD-SCDMA and EDGE/Wi-Fi smartphones with 1-GHz clock performance. The TD-SCDMA platform is based on the SC8810 chip and the EDGE/Wi-Fi platform is based on the SC6820 chip, Spreadtrum (Shanghai, China) said.
These chips are both a step up from the 600-MHz clocked SC8805G for TD-SCDMA and the SC6810 for EDGE/WiFi intended for $40 handsets.
The SC8810 and SC6820 are both based on the Cortex-A5 processor core and include a Mali GPU with 3D/2D graphics acceleration.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Android as we know it will die in the next two years and what it means for you
http://an.ton.io/blog/articles/2012/01/09/android-as-we-know-it-will-die-in-the-next-two-years-and-what-it-means-for-you
I used to think that, as with Linux and web services in the early part of last decade, Android was going to be the mortar for the Internet of post PC devices— an essential ingredient to put stuff together.
What all of the talk of Android momentum and inevitability obscures though is that the dream of a common Android that developers can write/deploy apps to and users can become familiar with is burning. More specifically, three events in 2011 burned it and we’re now holding on to a charred corpse that is quite different
1. Google buying Motorola and alienating all of the tier one handset makers
2. Microsoft extracting licensing fees from these same handset makers in the form of IP indemnification
3. Amazon shipping a wildly successful, yet unidentifiable, version of an old Android build over the holiday… and making it a wild success.
The result of this elephant dance? Well it depends on who you are:
Web heads: All of the HTML5 folks should be ecstatic as it means that despite the laggy performance of mobile Webkit based “applications,” we are going to see a resurgence
Users: Let’s not forget of course that as users you’ll have to deal with the aforementioned jankiness of HTML5 applications for a few revs. Trust me though, short-term pain, long-term benefit.
Entrepreneurs: build an iOS app and a mobile web app and then go hunting for dollars/help to develop for the splinters of Android, opting to build yourself only the most generic bits of app code that you will for sure be able to reuse.
Why do I hate Android
http://parislemon.com/post/15604811641/why-i-hate-android
That is to say, I don’t hate the concept of Android — in fact, at one point, I loved it. What I hate is what Android has become. And more specifically, what Google has done with Android.
Even before Android’s launch, Google clearly had big dreams for the mobile space. “Your mobile phone should be free,” Eric Schmidt told Reuters in late 2006.
So that, ladies and gentleman, is why I hate Android. It has nothing to do with the actual product (which continues to improve every year and is quite good now). It has to do with a promise that was broken and swept under the rug.
Tomi Engdahl says:
TI scores another OMAP design win
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4234143/TI-scores-another-OMAP-design-win?Ecosystem=communications-design
Texas Instruments Inc. has scored another major Android smartphone design win, with Chinese phone manufacturer Huawei announcing Monday (Jan. 9) that its Ascend P1 S device would run on a dual-core TI OMAP 4460 Cortext-A9 CPU.
TI is Google’s official partner for Google’s Ice Cream Sandwich, meaning the Ascend will come with Android 4.0 straight out of the box.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Where were all the Google TVs at CES?
http://gigaom.com/video/google-tv-ces/
Just a week ago, the blogosphere was abuzz with the news that Google had officially locked down partners for a whole new generation of devices with its operating system for connected TVs.
In a blog post last Thursday, Google talked up new partnerships with device manufacturers LG and Samsung, as well as an extension of its announced deals with Sony and Vizio. It also reported new partnerships with chip providers Marvell and MediaTek,
But the reality of what was actually shown at CES doesn’t match the spin.
Sony is shipping Google TV in one connected Blu-ray player and a streaming media box (decided to take the operating system off its connected TVs for the foreseeable future)
LG announced two connected TV models with Google TV installed
Vizio announced a streaming player and Blu-ray player with Google TV installed. It also detailed the coming availability of 47″, 55″ and 65″ 3DTVs that will use the latest Google TV operating system.
Samsung didn’t mention the partnership at all in its press conference.
So what can we learn about the state of Google TV in 2012? Despite all the bullish headlines, it’s been largely relegated to experimental, low-volume devices like streaming video players
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fragmentation Is Not The End of Android
http://ceklog.kindel.com/2012/01/14/fragmentation-is-not-the-end-of-android/
The fragmentation of Android is very real and very problematic for end users, developers, mobile operators, device manufacturers, and Google. However fragmentation does not mean Android is going to “die” or “fail” as some seem to think.
Google has already lost control of Android and has zero chance of regaining control. This post explains why I’m so confident about this.
Android is not Google and Google is not Android.
The 5 Axes of Mobile Platform Fragmentation
User Interface
Device
Operating System
Marketplace
Service
Tomi Engdahl says:
Steve Wozniak: Android will be the dominant smartphone platform
By Thomas Ricker posted Nov 18th 2010 6:04AM
http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/18/steve-wozniak-android-will-be-the-dominant-smartphone-platform/
Steve Wozniak: Android Is A Failure Just Like How The Apple III, LISA And Macintosh Were
By Edward Marquez | December 5th, 2011
http://www.redmondpie.com/steve-wozniak-android-is-a-failure-just-like-how-the-apple-iii-lisa-and-macintosh-were/
Steve Wozniak: Android Is Better Than the iPhone in Some Ways [VIDEO]
http://mashable.com/2012/01/16/woz-android/
One of the co-founders of Apple has some love for Android, it turns out. “My primary phone is the iPhone,” Steve Wozniak says. “I love the beauty of it. But I wish it did all the things my Android does, I really do.”
Check out the video above to learn more.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Developer Is Building An App Store For Banned Android Apps
http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/20/developer-is-building-an-app-store-for-banned-android-apps/
An Android developer by the name of Koushik Dutta is building an alternative Android app store which will house the apps that have been banned from Google’s official Android Market. These will include the custom ROMs (customized versions of the Android OS), classic gaming emulators pulled due to copyright complaints, unofficial tethering apps removed at the behest of mobile operators, Visual Voicemail apps, one-click rooting apps, and more.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Inspiration Works intros Android tablet for toddlers
http://www.reghardware.com/2012/01/24/inspiration_works_launches_the_kurio_toddler_friendly_android_tablet/
The Kurio is an Android-based slate, spruced up with a kid-friendly UI and behind-the-scenes parental controls.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ice Cream Sandwich on Android tablets: A visual tour
http://blogs.computerworld.com/19620/ice_cream_sandwich_android_tablet
Tomi Engdahl says:
Say Goodbye to the Menu Button
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2012/01/say-goodbye-to-menu-button.html
Before Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), all Android-powered devices included a dedicated Menu button. As a developer, you could use the Menu button to display whatever options were relevant to the user
Honeycomb removed the reliance on physical buttons, and introduced the ActionBar class as the standard solution to make actions from the user options immediately visible and quick to invoke. In order to provide the most intuitive and consistent user experience in your apps, you should migrate your designs away from using the Menu button and toward using the action bar.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google launches official Android Developers page on Google+
http://9to5google.com/2012/01/30/google-launches-official-android-developers-page-on-google/
In order to spread its message and keep developers in the loop, the fabulous Android development team launched an official Android Developers page on Google+.
https://plus.google.com/108967384991768947849/posts
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google now scanning Android apps for malware
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-57370650-245/google-now-scanning-android-apps-for-malware/
Google has added an automated scanning process that is designed to keep malicious apps out of the Android Market, the company announced today.
The new service, code-named “Bouncer,” scans apps for known malware, spyware, and Trojans, and looks for suspicious behaviors and compares them against previously analyzed apps, Hiroshi Lockheimer, vice president of engineering on the Android team, said in an interview with CNET this morning.
“The system takes an app that’s been uploaded and runs it in the cloud and monitors what the app is doing in a virtual environment, if you will,” Lockheimer said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Android and Security
http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2012/02/android-and-security.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Do iOS Apps Crash More Than Android Apps? A Data Dive
http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/02/02/does-ios-crash-more-than-android-a-data-dive/
Ever wonder why certain mobile apps you use crash so much?
One of the reasons for app crashes is the proliferation of mobile operating systems on iOS and Android. As Apple and Google have released more new operating systems, each with multiple updates, app developers face more operating systems to test apps on.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Pulls Support For CDMA Devices
http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/12/02/05/0422238/google-pulls-support-for-cdma-devices
As of today, all of the documentation, source code, and firmware images pertaining to CDMA Android devices (including the Verizon Galaxy Nexus) have been removed. A statement from Google explains that the proprietary software required to make these devices fully functional got in the way of Android’s open source nature, so CDMA devices are no longer supported as developer hardware.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Avast! Mobile Security
http://www.reghardware.com/2012/02/07/app_of_the_week_android_avast/
The security or lack thereof of the Android platform – real or imagined – is a common topic of conversation at the moment so it seems like a good time to take a look for a comprehensive security app. My preferred choice is Avast!.
Avast! for Android is free and carries no advertising, making it perfect for anyone who is just a little worried about mobile security but thinks that it could be a case of a lot of smoke but very little fire.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Introducing Chrome for Android
2/07/2012 09:40:00 AM
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/introducing-chrome-for-android.html
Today, we’re introducing Chrome for Android Beta, which brings many of the things you’ve come to love about Chrome to your Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich phone or tablet.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Adobe confirms: no Flash for Chrome on Android
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2012/02/adobe-confirms-no-flash-for-chrome-on-android.ars
Google issued a beta release of Chrome for Android earlier today. The browser provides support for modern Web standards and includes a number of compelling features that aren’t available in the Android’s default browser. One noteworthy Chrome desktop feature that isn’t included in the mobile port, however, is the integrated Flash runtime.
Adobe has issued a statement confirming that Chrome for Android does not support Flash content. The company also indicated that it does not plan to work with Google to add Flash support to the new mobile browser. Adobe will, however, continue supporting Flash in the current default Android browser.
Tomi Engdahl says:
HP CEO: Google-Motorola deal could close-source Android
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/print/9224291/HP_CEO_Google_Motorola_deal_could_close_source_Android
HP CEO Meg Whitman said a closed-source Android and iOS could create a big opportunity for webOS in the long run
“The industry needs another OS,” Whitman said, contending that Android might not remain open source.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google may launch Android 5.0 in 2Q12, say Taiwan makers
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20120215PD209.html
Viewing that the adoption of Android 4.0 has fallen short of original expectations and Microsoft will launch Windows 8 in the third quarter of 2012, Google is likely to launch Android 5.0 (Jelly Bean) in the second quarter and appeal for adopting Android 5.0 and Windows 8 in the same tablet PC, according to Taiwan-based supply chain makers.
Brand vendors can either choose to adopt only Android 5.0 or add Android 5.0 to Windows 8 devices with the ability to switch between the two OSes without the need to shut down the computer.
Tomi Engdahl says:
http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2012/02/google-patent-clearly-eying-the-desktop-market-for-android.html
A recent patent filing by Google surprisingly indicates that they’re seriously eying the desktop and notebook markets for Android. Interestingly, the patent seems to focus on similar capabilities now found in Apple’s Multi-Touch Trackpad and Magic Trackpad. In many ways that’s understandable considering that Google is working on the Android for x86 project along with a serious list of other Intel-Android related projects.
Games Review says:
Intriguing read. I can see why my brother reccomended it.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google: 450,000 Android Apps now available to 300 million devices
http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/27/google-450-000-android-apps-now-available-to-300-million-device/
Android Marketplace has reached its latest milestone: there are now 450,000 apps available for the platform. Other pertinent stats are that over a billion apps are downloaded every month and that 850,000 Android devices are activated each day — meaning that there’s more than 300 million of them worldwide.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Android Measuring Stick
http://pxldot.com/post/18281312362/android-measuring-stick
Android fragmentation is a topic that swells up now and again, but most discussions lack evidence and are typically laced with vitriol and “fanboy” accusations.
Luckily, a fair amount of data on this topic is available and even more can be reasonably estimated.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google exec hints of Android 5.0 release this fall
Pattern of earlier releases suggest fall, but Lockheimer says Google wants to be ‘flexible’ on timing
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/print/9224652/Google_exec_hints_of_Android_5.0_release_this_fall_
Google isn’t offering much information about the forthcoming Android 5.0, even though there are rumors saying that the new version of the operating system will be available on a smartphone by early summer.
“After Android 4 comes 5, and we haven’t announced the timing yet, which we’re still sorting out,” Lockheimer said. “There’s a lot of engineering work behind it still, and there’s also just the question of how to time it.”
Lockheimer added: “In general, the Android release cadence is one major release a year with some maintenance releases that are substantial still.” That statement would suggest a fall 2012 time frame for the release of Android 5.0, given that Android 4.0 was released last November, he acknowledged.
Google is still enjoying the success of Android 4.0, a version that was well received by developers and users.
Lockheimer listed several improvements in Ice Cream Sandwich that have been popular with users, including data-usage and battery-usage meters and widgets on the home screen.
While ICS was center stage at Google’s booth, many users have expressed frustration that the operating system’s new features are not yet available on devices running older Android versions. Lockheimer acknowledged that there is frustration over receiving ICS upgrades in a timely manner, which was why the Android Upgrade Alliance was announced at last year’s Google I/O conference. The premise of the group was that phone manufacturers and wireless carriers would provide timely upgrades of devices during their first 18 months on the market.
“The alliance is definitely making a difference,” Lockheimer said. “We’re making the upgrade process better and are passionate about it…. There’s a lot of progress being made toward making upgrades smoother.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Android Design V2: Now with stencils
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2012/02/android-design-v2-now-with-stencils.html
When we initially released Android Design, by far the number one request we received was for us to release stencils as well. The fine folks on the Android User Experience team are pleased today to release some official Android Design stencils for your mockup-creating pleasure.
With these stencils you can now drag and drop your way to beautifully designed Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) applications, with grace and ease.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NSA Publishes Blueprint For Top Secret Android Phone
http://it.slashdot.org/story/12/03/01/2246232/nsa-publishes-blueprint-for-top-secret-android-phone
NSA builds Android phone for top secret calls
http://www.scmagazine.com.au/News/292189,nsa-builds-android-phone-for-top-secret-calls.aspx
The National Security Agency (NSA) has developed an ultra-secure Android phone built using off-the-shelf kit that allows US Government staff to discuss top secret materials.
The phones were designed and built by the NSA’s 40 year-old Information Assurance Directorate, which is responsible for providing secure communications to the US Government, including the Department of Defence.
“The plan was to buy commercial components, layer them together and get a secure solution,” Salter said. “It uses solely commercial infrastructure to protect classified data.”
Salter said a lack of interoperability between SSL VPN options forced designers to use IPSEC.
“We needed a voice app that did DTLS (Datagram Transport Layer Security), Suite B and SRTP (Secure Real-time Transport Protocol) and we couldn’t buy it,” Salter said. “But the industry was thinking more about session description … so we went with that.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google releases Android interface design stencils
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2156585/google-releases-android-interface-design-stencils
Google has released Android 4.0 design stencils to help developers create mock-up user interfaces in double quick time.
Google’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich brought a host of new features but the most noticeable was a change in the user interface with new icons, buttons and interface controls. Now Google has offered designers the chance to download stencils so that they can create interface mock-ups using Adobe Fireworks, Adobe Photoshop and Omni Omnigraffle.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Goodbye Android Market, Hello Google Play
http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/06/goodbye-android-market-hello-google-play/
Google’s Android Market has undergone some tremendous changes over the last year or so. What started as just a standalone app store has quickly grown to encompass e-books, music, videos, and now Google feels like the “Android Market” moniker is getting to be too restrictive, too constraining for what they’re really trying to deliver to their users.
That’s why Google is officially putting the Android Market name to rest. Starting today, all of Google’s digital media services have been rebranded to fly under a brand new banner: Google Play.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Our Future with Android
http://mikamobile.blogspot.com/2012/03/our-future-with-android.html
From a purely economic perspective, I can no longer legitimize spending time on Android apps, and the new features of the market do nothing to change this. While this news may be disappointing, I hope people can accept that we’ve done everything we can reasonably do to bring our apps to as many potential players as possible, despite the obstacles.
Android apps aren’t making money. A few people took offense to the bluntness of this statement, so I’ll clarify in more delicate terms. There’s a big difference between generating revenue, and “making money” – It’s not that they haven’t generated income, but that income is offset by the additional support costs the platform has demanded. Where did your dollar go? We spent about 20% of our total man-hours last year dealing with Android in one way or another – porting, platform specific bug fixes, customer service, etc. I would have preferred spending that time on more content for you, but instead I was thanklessly modifying shaders and texture formats to work on different GPUs, or pushing out patches to support new devices without crashing, or walking someone through how to fix an installation that wouldn’t go through. We spent thousands on various test hardware. These are the unsung necessities of offering our apps on Android. Meanwhile, Android sales amounted to around 5% of our revenue for the year, and continues to shrink. Needless to say, this ratio is unsustainable.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Android Apps Break the 50MB Barrier
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2012/03/android-apps-break-50mb-barrier.html
Android applications have historically been limited to a maximum size of 50MB. This works for most apps, and smaller is usually better — every megabyte you add makes it harder for your users to download and get started. However, some types of apps, like high-quality 3D interactive games, require more local resources.
So today, we’re expanding the Android app size limit to 4GB.
The size of your APK file will still be limited to 50MB to ensure secure on-device storage, but you can now attach expansion files to your APK.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Android Platform manager steps down after failing to fix app sales
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/12/03/11/android_platform_manager_steps_down_after_failing_to_fix_app_sales.html
Eric Chu has stepped down as manager of Google’s troubled software market for Android, and is being replaced by Jamie Rosenberg from Google Music as the company aligns all of its digital content under the Google Play umbrella.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Just like a real computer: Android gets Android IDE
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/03/13/android_sdk/
Android tablet (which is what AIDE is really aimed at) has more then enough processing power to compile Java applications*. And if Android is going to provide a viable alternative to traditional operating systems, then it’s ironic to demand every developer own a desktop system too.
Android developers can now hack code on the move with the beta release of AIDE, the Android developer kit which runs on an Android device to create Android applications.
AIDE is at beta version 7, but already allows the editing and compiling of apps, as well as automatic error checking (and fixing) and LogCat visibility. The free application is even compatible with projects started on Eclipse
AIDE application
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aide.ui
Tomi Engdahl says:
Group rolls open source Android benchmark
http://www.edn.com/article/521193-Group_rolls_open_source_Android_benchmark.php?cid=EDNToday_20120314
A new open source benchmark aims to give engineers and end users a way to measure the performance of Android-based systems. The EEMBC (Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium) released its AndEBench metric as an app on Google Play and the Amazon Appstore for Android.
AndEBench scores integer performance of a basket of tasks both on the native Android environment and on its Dalvik Java virtual machine. The jobs include a mix of state machine routines, cyclic redundancy checks and matrix multiply operations, but no floating point tasks.
The benchmark can be set to test a system with a single or a multiple core processor. The app provides binary code for testing ARM, MIPS or Intel Atom x86 cores.
A variety of other Android benchmarks are already in use, but none use open source code so programmers can see exactly what they are doing, said Levy.
“There’s a variety of them, and there are probably some that are decent, but you can’t really tell,”
Tomi says:
Meet the Transparent Aston Martin Android Phone!
http://smilepanic.com/meet-the-transparent-aston-martin-android-phone
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fragmentation bomb wounds Android in developer war
Devs losing interest in the li’l green guy
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/03/20/android_interest_slipping/
A new study conducted by IDC and mobile-developer platform and services company Appcelerator has determined that as Google’s open source Android operating system becomes more and more fragmented, fewer and fewer developers are putting it on their “must-code-for” list.
“We’ve seen a steady erosion of interest in Android” among developers, Appcelerator’s principal mobile strategist Mike King told The Reg
About a year ago, King told us, the number of developers who said they were “very interested” in developing for Android for smartphones was just 3 percentage points behind iOS for iPhone and 2 points behind iOS for iPad. Interest in Android tablets was around 75 per cent, while iPad interest was at 88 per cent.
That has changed. Developers’ interest in Android is slip-slidin’ away, King said. “Interest in Android smartphone is sub-80 per cent – in the 78 per cent range, and interest in Android tablets is in the 67 range.”
King is not talking merely about private developers – it’s the whole ball of wax: independent developers, contract developers, small business developers, and enterprise developers.
And he says thinks he knows the reason for the drop-off in Android interest. “We believe it’s really because of the fragmentation that Android’s experiencing,” he told us, “both at the platform and OS level, but also at the monetization-model level.”
“Most iOS users are on the most recent version of the operating system, and [there is] a very set number of devices and device classes.”
Android? Not so much. It’s a jungle of fragmentation and variation out there in Androidland. “That fragmentation is really starting to ding Android,”
“Android outsells iOS devices – there’s no question there.” But that’s not the whole story. “So why wouldn’t developers be more interested in developing for it?, he asked. “Well, because it’s not ‘I’m developing for Android’, it’s ‘I’m developing for different versions’.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Without ads, Android apps could be more than twice as power-efficient
http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/19/2884902/android-apps-battery-efficiency-study
A team of researchers from Purdue University and Microsoft has discovered that up to 75 percent of app-related battery drain in Android can be caused by ad-serving processes.
Android ads don’t have to consume so much energy — they’re just poorly coded at the moment, the study suggested. The team plans to release the EProf tool for free under an open-source license soon.
Tomi Engdahl says:
More than half of Google Play apps could pose security risks
Use of ad libraries creates back door into handsets
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2161964/half-google-play-apps-pose-security-risks
In a recent study of 100,000 apps in the Google Play market, researchers from North Carolina State University (NCSU) found that more than half contained so-called ad libraries. And 297 of the apps included “aggressive” ad libraries that were enabled to download and run code from remote servers, which the boffins warn raises “significant privacy and security concerns”.
“Running code downloaded from the internet is problematic because the code could be anything,”
“For example, it could potentially launch a root exploit attack to take control of your phone – as demonstrated in a recently discovered piece of Android malware called RootSmart.”
He explained that the in-app ad libraries, which are provided by Google, Apple or other third-parties, retrieve advertisements from remote servers and run the ads on a user’s smartphone periodically. Every time an ad runs, the app developer receives a payment. However, the research team warns that the practice opens up potentially serious security holes because the ad libraries receive the same permissions that the user granted to the app itself when it was installed.
The NCSU boffins found that 48,139 of the apps – one in 2.1 – had ad libraries that tracked a user’s location via GPS, presumably to allow an ad library to better target ads to the user.
“These ad libraries pose security risks because they offer a way for third parties – including hackers – to bypass existing Android security efforts. Specifically, the app itself may be harmless, so it won’t trigger any security concerns. But the app’s ad library may download harmful or invasive code after installation.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Survey: Android programmers shifting toward Web apps
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-57400136-2/survey-android-programmers-shifting-toward-web-apps/
Difficulties coding for Google’s mobile OS are pushing programmers toward Web apps instead, an Appcelerator survey finds. But Google+ has lots of traction.
Apparently Web applications–those built with technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript that run using a browser engine–answer at least some of Google’s fragmentation challenges. Web apps rose slightly to 67 percent, passing Android tablets in the last quarter.
“That’s the response to fragmentation,” King said.
Appcelerator asked if HTML5 was going to be a component of people’s apps in 2012, and 79 percent it was. But only 6 percent plan to make all-out Web app that runs in a browser; a much larger 72 percent plan a hybrid approach that wraps native interface elements around an app that relies on a browser engine behind the scenes.
“A hybrid has some native code on device, but content will be delivered via HTML,” King said. “Google Maps is a good example.”
Google might be disappointed to hear of Android’s waning fortunes, but it’s also got a major Web app push, especially for personal computers running its Chrome browser and Chromebooks running its Chrome OS.
Right now Android uses an unbranded Google browser, but Google has introduced a version of Chrome for Android that eventually will serve as the back-end engine for hybrid apps.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Google Play problem: paying for ‘Angry Birds’ with battery life instead of money
http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/23/2896253/google-play-android-mobile-ads-angry-birds
Earlier this week, a report came out showing that some apps on Android use more than twice the power they actually need because they’re running ads. Angry Birds in particular was called out, with 70 percent of its power draw dedicated to uploading information and downloading ads. That stark fact may be part of the reason why Angry Birds Space, which was released yesterday, has both a free and a $.99 “premium” version in Google Play.
Although it might not be entirely fair to single out Angry Birds for battery life issues, the app is a common example simply because of how popular it has become. At the center of the Android app ecosystem is a fundamental problem that hasn’t yet been solved: paid apps get better battery life but simply don’t make much money in Google Play, while free-with-ads apps appear to be much more profitable but provide a much worse experience to the end user.
If Angry Birds is the cipher through which to understand this problem, the result doesn’t look good for Google’s store or for Android as a platform. Google Play simply isn’t making much money for developers who offer paid apps on Android. Rovio’s “Mighty Eagle,” Peter Vesterbacka, says that until now “it just hasn’t made sense” to offer a paid version of Angry Birds on Google Play:
The top developers offering paid downloads on Android, the numbers are single-digit millions at best. We are in the hundreds of millions on Android, so just it hasn’t made sense.
That’s why, until now, Rovio only offered the ad-based version on Android Market, though the company did offer a for-pay version on Amazon’s Android app store.
Nokia Siemens points out that there’s not an easy solution if you need to include ads:
Advertising delivery for Angry Birds is done by Google (Rovio cannot influence this), so any reduction of mobile ad-associated signaling will have to be done by Google, not Rovio.
Angry Birds has since switched to using Flurry for ads, but as the more recent study shows, it presents similar battery life problems
Vesterbacka is cautiously optimistic, at best, that Google Play will be able to create real revenue for paid apps.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Is It A Condom Or An Android Phone?
http://www.businessinsider.com/is-it-a-condom-or-an-android-phone-2012-3?op=1
We came across this genius table that compares actual Android phone names to actual condom brand names.
The results are hilarious.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ARM-Android to outship Windows-Anything by 2016
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/03/28/idc_pc_tablet_smartphone_smackdown/
Windows might be on the rise in the world of embedded systems, but if IDC’s prognostications are right, then Windows is about to get its kernel handed to it with the rise of Android on what the market researcher dubs “smart connected devices.”
By IDC’s reckoning, makers of PCs, tablets, and smartphones shipped some 916 million units of machinery in 2012, raking in an astounding $489bn in moolah.
El Reg suspects that more and more of us on planet Earth have all three types of devices. (I know that I do, and in fact, I have a workstation for the office, a netbook for the road, an iPad for amusement and browsing, and a Droid for a phone, a map, and browsing when I am really bored.)
Add all these devices up, and IDC reckons that the pile of shiny new gear shipped out to consumers and businesses will be 1.1 billion units tall in 2012 and will be 1.84 billion units tall by 2016 – twice the current ship rate and nearly three times the rate set in 2010.
Those ARM-Android machines will be the largest class of machines shipping in 2016, at least by number. Tablets and smartphones running Apple’s iOS will more than double from just under 134 million devices in 2011 (14.6 per cent of the machines sold) to 318 million machines (17.3 per cent of the pile) by 2016.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google’s Android has generated just $550m since 2008, figures suggest
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/mar/29/google-earns-more-iphone-android
Android generated less than $550m in revenues for Google between 2008 and the end of 2011, if figures provided by the search giant as part of a settlement offer with Oracle ahead of an expected patent and copyright infringement trial are an accurate guide.
With roughly 200m Android devices having been activated to the end of 2011, including an estimated 90m during the past two years, it suggests that Google derives slightly more than $10 per Android handset per year.
That compares to Google’s $38bn total revenues in 2011, almost entirely derived from advertising on PCs, of which there are 1.25bn installed worldwide, according to Microsoft. That suggests an average revenue for Google of about $30 per PC per year, though not all will be capable of accessing the internet or will use Google, so the actual figure will be higher.
Google has never released figures for revenues it derives from the use of Android handsets, where it makes the software available to handset makers for free and generates revenues from adverts and app sales. The company declined to comment on the Guardian’s calculations, which it was shown ahead of publication.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google’s So Freaked Out About The iPad And Lousy Android Sales That It’s Opening An Online Tablet Store
http://www.businessinsider.com/googles-so-freaked-out-about-the-ipad-and-lousy-android-sales-that-its-opening-an-online-tablet-store-2012-3?op=1
When Google first announced plans to buy Motorola last year, most pundits agreed that Google had no intention of actually owning Motorola, that it was just buying Motorola for the patents.
We, on the other hand, argued that Larry Page might be buying Motorola because he actually wanted to get into the gadget business–on account of the fact that Apple was producing much better smartphones and tablets than Google.
Why is Google opening an Android tablet store?
Because sales of Android tablets have been horrible.
In the smartphone market, Google was able to partner with carriers to push Android-based smartphones. These distribution channels were effective, and Android quickly amassed the leading global market share (although in the U.S., Apple has been clawing back share and closing the gap).
On a positive note, Google making its own gadgets could begin to cure the Android fragmentation problem.
The tablet distribution market, however, is completely different: Google and its hardware partners have to rely on retailers to sell the tablets. And if those retailers also sell Apple products, they have had to agree to give Apple products much more visibility and promotion. So Android tablets have largely been ignored by consumers.
The one Android tablet that has been successful is Amazon’s Kindle Fire, but that tablet is “Android” in name only–Amazon has significantly modified and customized the platform to serve its own goals.
Google Heightens Rivalry With iPad
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052702303404704577312043639469540-lMyQjAxMTAyMDIwOTEyNDkyWj.html
Google Inc., undaunted by a short-lived attempt to market and sell smartphones on its own, is now trying the approach with tablet computers in a quest to capture market share from Apple Inc.’s iPad.
The move is an effort to turn around sluggish sales of tablet computers powered by Google’s Android software.
Like the Nexus One, some future Android tablets are expected to be co-branded with Google’s name, said people familiar with the matter. The company is expected to sell devices from a variety of manufacturers. Google won’t make the devices and its existing partners such as Samsung Electronics Co. and AsusTeK Computer Inc. will be responsible for the hardware, these people said.
One co-branded tablet that may be sold in the online store is due to be released later this year by Taiwan-based Asus, said one of these people.
Tomi Engdahl says:
McAfee talks angry robots and rotten apples at Design West
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4370104/McAfee-talks-angry-robots-and-rotten-apples-at-Design-West?cid=EDNToday_20120329
Speaking at a Design West panel entitled “Angry Robots and Rotten Apples,” McAfee engineer Ryan Permeh said the threats affecting mobile devices are “real and serious” and are moving beyond the simple malware seen in the space thus far.
“Smartphones have become extensions to our lives, both in work and play. They are our constant companions and keepers of our secrets,”
In terms of relative security, iOS was by far the more secure platform, said Permeh, admitting that “Apple is blowing Android out of the water,” and that Google needed a much better bouncer to reduce “evil apps” and other threat vectors.
“Historically, Android has been beaten up more than Apple, because it’s open and that unfortunately makes it more susceptible to malware,”
“Intel is very serious about becoming a major Android player, and as such, both Intel and McAfee are having to take a fresh new look at how to deal with Malware,” he concluded.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google begins Android 4.0.4 Rollout
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5711/google-begins-android-404-rollout
Just today, Google announced that it was rolling out Android 4.0.4 to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) for download, with build IMM76D. The note at that point by JBQ was that the timeline for ROM push for the final build was unknown.
Tomi Engdahl says:
$35 Android ICS tablet confirmed for India
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2166776/usd35-android-ics-tablet-confirmed-india
BRITISH OUTFIT Datawind has announced that it will upgrade its latest $35 tablet to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich following its release in India later this month.
Speaking to ComputerWorld, Datawind CEO Suneet Singh Tuli said that an upgraded version of the Aakash named the Aakash 2 will start shipping in two to three weeks. Tuli added that although the $35 tablet will ship running Android 2.3 Gingerbread, it will be upgraded to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich within “six to eight weeks”.
That’s not all the new Aakash 2 tablet, which is also known as the Ubislate 7+, improves on the original.
Tuli even hinted that the Aakash 2′s single-core processor might be upgraded to a dual-core chip later this year too
A dual-core Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich tablet for $35?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Android spanking iOS in world’s BIGGEST mobile market
Google OS wins up to 70 per cent of China’s mobile market
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04/11/china_android_market_leader/
Android is absolutely creaming iOS in the world’s biggest mobile phone market, according to new stats from Beijing-based Analysys International, which estimate the Google platform now accounts for nearly 70 per cent of Chinese smartphones.
Android began 2011 in second place with 33.6 per cent, behind Symbain with 42.5 per cent, but overtook the Nokia OS in the second quarter and hasn’t looked back, ending the year with a share of 68.4 per cent.
Android is loaded onto a huge range of handsets now and is likely to make even deeper inroads as domestic manufacturers like ZTE and Xiaomi roll out Android devices aimed at the budget end of the smartphone market.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Android is lagging behind for years to come iPad
118 900 000. So many flat-screen computers sold this year, if the research institute Gartner recent estimate is true.
Apple’s market share for table computers is 61.4 per cent, meaning almost 73 million iPad.
Android share this year, flat-screen computer sales is 31.9 percent. Android-board computers are sold nearly 38 million units.
Although the tablets suitable for Windows 8 has not even come on the market, Gartner estimates that nearly 5 million Windows-board computers will be sold. That would mean about four per cent market share.
According to Gartner, flat design PC sales does not change much over the coming years. The iPad will remain a favorite, but Android is catching up the neck up.
Next year estimates: nearly one hundred million iPads, 62 million Android devices
In 2016 the corresponding figures are 169.7 million IPad, 137.7 Android tablets and 43.7 million Windows flat-screen computers.
Source:
http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/android+laahaa+ipadin+perassa+viela+vuosia/a798558?s=r&wtm=tietoviikko/-11042012&