The mobile phone market is up big for the first quarter of 2010 after sales declines during 2009, according to the latest sales figures released by market research firm Gartner. Smartphones are also growing faster each quarter as they continue to replace feature phones for many users. No surprise that the iPhone and Android-based phones saw the biggest gains, as the two platforms were the only two in the top five to gain market share year-over-year.

Worldwide, mobile phone vendors sold 314.7 million phones—smart and otherwise—in the first quarter, a 16.9 percent increase from the first quarter of 2009. Nokia, Samsung, and LG continue to grab most of the market with little year-over-year change, while numerous other vendors battle for small parts of the remainder. However, the importance of smartphones can be seen in the overall mobile market. Big market share drops for Sony Ericsson and Motorola allowed BlackBerry maker RIM to move into fourth place globally, making RIM the first smartphone-only vendor to crack the top five.

Data source: Gartner

Apple has moved up to seventh place overall, more than doubling first quarter shipments from 2009 to grab 2.7 percent of the mobile phone market. “Growth came partly from new communication service providers in established markets, such as the UK, and stronger sales in new markets such as China and South Korea,” said Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner, in a statement. 

Global smartphone sales grew even more than last quarter, with 54.3 million units sold for a 48.7 percent year-over-year increase. Smartphones now represent 17.3 percent of all mobile phone sales, up from 13.6 percent in first of quarter last year.

Symbian still commands a large, though continually eroding, market share among smartphone platforms, shedding another 4.5 points of share. BlackBerry is holding strong at number two, losing about one point year-over year. With little innovation in its current incarnation, Windows Mobile also shed a few points as well. WebOS’s poor showing left it lumped in the “other” category with other niche platforms.

Data source: Gartner

The big winners are, as is becoming commonplace, iPhone OS and Android. iPhone OS market share improved considerably year-over-year, with its 112 percent unit growth enough to move it up to 15.4 percent among smartphones globally. However, a staggering 806 percent unit growth pushed Android well ahead of Windows Mobile into fourth place. Both iPhone OS and Android are poised to catch up to the BlackBerry platform in short order. Apple will have its work cut out for it to stay ahead of Android globally, even as the open source mobile platform has by some accounts surpassed iPhone OS-based smartphones domestically.

“To compete in such a crowded market, manufacturers need to tightly integrate hardware, user interface, and cloud and social networking services if their solutions are to appeal to users,” Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner, said in a statement. “Just adding a QWERTY keyboard will not make a device fit the communication habits of today’s various consumer segments.”

However, Cozza said, “mobile OS ecosystems are developing and will move beyond smartphones to continue to deliver consumer value and a rich user experience.” Apple strengthened its iPhone OS platform by using it to power its iPod touch and iPad mobile devices. Android runs a few similar devices, mostly e-book readers, but it has yet to make a big move into the tablet or PMP space. However, Android will also face competition with Chrome OS in the tablet market. HP announced that it will definitely expand the webOS platform into the tablet space after its acquisition of Palm, but the desktop PC market leader has its work cut out for it.

Source

 Google kicked off the first day of its I/O developer conference Wednesday by opening up Wave to the general public, providing a preview of a Chrome Web store, introducing Google Apps Engine for Business, and unveiling a few new APIs.

Executives also talked up the benefits of HTML5.

Wave, which Google debuted at last year’s I/O conference, is a collaboration tool that has been in invite-only public beta mode since September. Invites are now open to everyone at wave.google.com, and Google Apps administrators can now enable Wave for all users at no extra cost, said Lars Rasmussen, Google’s software engineering manager.

Rasmussen acknowledged that early adopters of Wave might have found that it was not ready for primetime, but said Wednesday that “now is the time to come back.” Google has “put a lot of work into basic usability things,” he said, like e-mail notifications, navigating to unread pieces of a Wave, as well as tutorials and templates for new users.

Sundar Pichai, Google’s vice president of product management, also provided a sneak peak at a Chrome Web Store, a Web-based app store.

When live, the Web Store will appear as a new tab within Chrome, Pichai said. The store will feature a gallery of apps, which can then be added to a customized tab. Pichai demoed an HTML5-based version of Twitter client TweetDeck that utilizes Google’s notification and geo-location APIs. He also showed off a Flash-based version of the popular mobile game Plants vs. Zombies for the Chrome Web Store.

“Apps in the Chrome Web Store can be built on standard Web technologies like Flash and we will support all of them in the Chrome Web Store,” Pichai said.

Google is expected to release a Google Chrome OS-based netbook later this year.

On that front, Google also announced WebM, an open Web media format project. As part of the effort, “we are fully open sourcing VP8, [a video codec], under a royalty-free license,” Pichai said. “Video is one of the most important forms of communication on the Web, [and] we think video should have a great, free, open alternative as well.”

WebM also includes Vorbis, an already open-source audio codec, and a container format based on a subset of the Matroska media container. Supporters include Mozilla, Opera, and Adobe, which appeared Wednesday to announce Adobe HTML5 for Dreamweaver. A developer preview can be found at www.webmproject.org.

The effort is part of Google’s August 2009 acquisition of On2 Technologies, a creator of high-quality video compression technology, Pichai said.

On the API front, Google also announced some updates to its APIs. The Google Maps API v3 is now enterprise-ready and part of the Google Maps API Premier, the company introduced new ways to optimize AdSense on your Web site, a new version of the Feed API, and a new Google Font API.

Google also launched Google App Engine for businesses.

Google designed its App Engine for Business for enterprise customers, building the service on top of a 99.9 percent uptime service-level agreement, centralized administration tools, and security. But the pricing is set at an SMB level: $8 per user, per application, per month – capped at $1,000 per application per month. It is still in preview, and will be available later this year.

Google also announced an agreement with VMware to connect its developer tools with the VMware SpringSource tool suite to quickly build Java applications.

Source

Microsoft on Tuesday warned users of a vulnerability in 64-bit versions of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 that could expose users to malware attacks.

Exploitation of the bug in the Canonical Display Driver would most likely only cause vulnerable machines to reboot, Microsoft spokesman Jerry Bryant said in a blog post. But it could also be abused to silently install malware, although attackers would first have to bypass memory randomization protections baked in to the operating systems to prevent code execution attacks, he added.

The vulnerability stems from the Canonical Display Driver’s failure to properly parse information copied from user mode to kernel mode. Malicious hackers could exploit it by tricking a victim into viewing a booby-trapped image file on a website or in email. The driver emulates the Windows XP display driver for interactions with earlier Windows graphics engines.

Bryant said a patch would be forthcoming, but didn’t say when. In the meantime, users can prevent attacks by disabling the Windows Aero Theme. To turn it off, choose Start > Control Panel and click on Appearance and Personalization. Then click on Change the Theme. Then select one of the Basic and High Contrast Themes.

Source

For information on IT Security>>>>Click

It’s been three years, an eternity for gadgets, since Apple Inc. unveiled the iPhone, and by now other phones do some things better. Yet Apple is selling more iPhones than ever.

What is it about the iPhone? Its success shows how Apple has triumphed at two crucial qualities: status and simplicity. And it’s a reminder that while intense Apple fans will obsess over the upgrades the iPhone is expected to get this summer, such details won’t matter as much to everyday buyers.

Other phones have higher-resolution cameras and can shoot high-definition video. The processor seems faster in new phones such as the Droid Incredible. A more energy-efficient touch-screen technology is eclipsing the one used in the iPhone screen. And competitors are matching features that once set the iPhone apart, including its slim shape and its store with thousands of applications and games.

“This thing is not state of the art,” says ABI Research analyst Michael Morgan.

But whether the iPhone has the best technology doesn’t seem to be the question most people ask.

Instead, many people crave the aura of cool that iPhones seem to convey.

“When you see people with them, I’m like, `Oh, OK, they get it,’” says Jason Sfetko, a designer at Complex magazine in New York. When he sees someone with a BlackBerry, “I might think, maybe they’re an accountant or something. They’re answering too many e-mails.”

The allure extends to China, where Apple started selling iPhones in October. “I’m quite amazed about what the iPhone has achieved,” says Deng Jinchun, a manager at Jing Lang, a large iPhone retailer in China’s Hunan province. With slight changes, “Apple has been selling the same phone for about three years and the sales are still increasing. I can’t imagine a Nokia phone or any other brand could achieve something similar.”

Others are more focused on the simplicity of using the iPhone.

Mark Britton, CEO of a company called Avvo that publishes ratings on lawyers by their clients, is on his iPhone so much that his wife jokes it’s his fourth child. He says it’s surprisingly easy to talk on the phone and look up something on the Internet at the same time.

The Web browser helped sell Sara Maternini, 35, who works in public relations in Milan, Italy, on the iPhone 2 1/2 years ago. She needs to always be online and says the iPhone was the only device that made Web surfing feel as it does on a computer.

Maternini says her next phone will be another iPhone.

This raises a common criticism from Apple’s dissenters: Once users build their lives around the iPhone system, they’re essentially locked into buying more Apple devices. Other phones can’t connect to iTunes, which manages iPhone owners’ music, video, photos and other files. Nor can other phones run the “apps” people download for everything from online banking to crossword puzzling.

For many iPhone users, though, familiarity breeds contentment.

Ingrid Ougland-Sellie, 41, a writer and part-time hospital employee, uses her iPhone to take photos of mystery vegetables she gets from a community-supported farm program. She e-mails pictures to the farmers to be identified, then looks up recipes on an iPhone app. She uses it for scheduling, finding addresses and swapping photos of her son with her husband, also an iPhone owner.

“I’m sure technology has come a long way,” Sellie says. “But I am kind of a creature of habit at this point. I know how to use this phone. I’m comfortable with it.”

Apple has sold more than 51 million iPhones since they hit the market in 2007, including 8.75 million in the most recent quarter. That was more than double the number it sold in the comparable quarter last year.

The surge also has helped Apple’s stock double over the past year, and investors are betting that the iPhone still has room to grow. The iPhone ranks third in the global smart phone market, with a 14 percent share. Nokia Corp. has 47 percent and Research in Motion Ltd., maker of the BlackBerry, has 20 percent. However, phones that use Google Inc.’s Android software are increasing sales faster. Android accounts for 4 percent of the market, up from less than 1 percent last year, according to Gartner Inc., a market-research company.

Carolina Milanesi, who lives in Britain and analyzes the mobile market for Gartner, has tried to switch away from the iPhone but gets hung up on something every time. She spent 20 minutes trying to set up e-mail on an Android phone, only to fail. The iPhone is so simple her 2 1/2-year-old daughter can operate her spelling and animal-noises apps herself.

The iPhone isn’t as flexible as some others, and Milanesi bristled at things Apple wouldn’t let her do, such as set custom tones for incoming text messages, a common tweak in Europe.

“But then you kind of get used to it, and you don’t miss it,” she says. “You kind of think that that’s for your own good.”

Source

With the explosion of new technology on the market recently and talk of new iPhones, Android operating system, Windows 7, G4 technology, and on and on, it’s all pretty confusing, isn’t it? It’s difficult for the experts to keep up with all the changes – much less the people and companies dependent on it who “just need it to work.” As we move into this next phase of technology evolution, it will become less about whether you choose a Mac or a PC or an iPhone, Droid, or Blackberry. What will become more important will be the applications and access to them regardless of your technology preference of choice.

Growth of online applications to replace the large capital investment, maintenance and labor to support an Information Technology (IT) infrastructure is becoming more accepted. Initial concerns a few years back about information security, system availability and reliability have been addressed. The same consumers who have become more comfortable with online banking, online shopping and social networking are the same people making IT decisions for companies. Online applications and cloud computing provide a way for companies to take small steps toward migrating from the traditional in-house data center model. Some cloud computing providers offer application hosting and fully-managed IT services for the users to provide a complete turn-key offering.

These online services generally mean that the client is free to choose their device and operating system because the service provider has to build the systems such that they are technology agnostic. Companies can make business choices based on what application is best suited to their needs rather than having to compromise due to a limitation of the technology. Web-based applications or use of applications like Citrix or Microsoft’s Virtual Desktop (formerly Microsoft Terminal Services) provide on-demand applications to any user, anywhere, on any device. Keeping up with hardware maintenance, operating system licensing, patch updates, security patches, etc., are no longer issues. These are included as part of the infrastructure provided with cloud computing.

You may be asking, “What about my disaster recovery and business continuity?” With nearly all of these offerings it’s like Prego’s motto, “It’s in there.” The data resides on secured systems that are usually mirrored for hot stand-by for on-line redundancy and then backed up in at least one other remote location in the event of a catastrophic event. These data centers are generally in secure facilities with multiple levels of redundancy for power, cooling systems and network access. The cost to build systems individually for a company are usually cost prohibitive. In addition, there is support personnel available to provide assistance 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year – including Christmas and New Year’s Day – for a fraction of what it would cost to hire a dedicated staff.

 Each company has to evaluate its own situation and decide for itself if this is the path it wants to go. More and more, they are choosing to “get out of IT” to focus on their core business. They also see the flexibility and engrained functionality of online services that can lead to better overall profitability and happier employees. Your choice of a solid IT provider who partners with your business for the long-term is the first and most critical decision in the process. Look for one that has been in the business a while, has a strong reputation in the industry, and has strong references with companies that are of similar size or business model so you know they understand how to best align with you.

Source

For info on Percento’s Managed IT Services….Click

Welcome to the family, HP! Not even a month after Palm finally found someone to buy out the company, the mobile platform suffered a significant technical glitch, blocking out thousands of users from its online app store.

Verizon subscribers on Palm Pixi and Palm Pre devices complained over the weekend about various error messages popping up when they tried to log into PreCentral, its version of the iPhone’s App Store or Android’s “Market.”

Palm was at least quick to respond to the issues. On Palm’s official forums, product manager Joe Hayashi wrote, “If you’ve experienced any issues downloading or updating apps from the Palm App Catalog recently, rest assured that Palm is actively working to remedy the situation. If you’ve purchased an app, the transaction has been properly recorded and as soon as this issue is resolved, you’ll be able to access all apps you’ve purchased.”

A fix was put into place without too much of a blackout, over the weekend of all times, but Palm did not detail what caused the outage.

It comes at a bad time as computer maker HP recently announced plans to buy Palm, which has been struggling financially for years. It also underlines the fact that many other companies had simply refused to buy Palm, which ironically used to be one of the most heralded brands in the mobile world.

Source

For information on development a Mobile App – Click Here!

Google “failed badly” by collecting samples of British households’ web surfing and email data without their knowledge, the company admitted on Monday.

Street View cars taking photographs for Google Maps gathered fragments of people’s network communications data in the UK as well as in other countries, a company spokeswoman confirmed to ZDNet UK.

The collection of data was acknowledged in a Friday blog post by Google’s head of engineering and research Alan Eustace. The admission followed a request by the German data protection authority (DPA) for an audit of Wi-Fi data gathered by Street View cars, which prompted Google to make its own examination of the data.

Google has “clearly failed badly here”, the company’s spokeswoman said, but added that it does “think hard about privacy, security and control in the design and launch of [its] products”.

In April, the German DPA revealed that Google’s Street View cars were harvesting data about people’s Wi-Fi networks as they drove around. Google said in a blog post at the time that there was nothing wrong with doing this, saying that the company “does not collect or store payload data”. On Friday, Eustace backtracked on this statement in his own post.

“It’s now clear that we have been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open (i.e. non-password-protected) Wi-Fi networks, even though we never used that data in any Google products,” Eustace wrote.

“However, we will typically have collected only fragments of payload data because: our cars are on the move; someone would need to be using the network as a car passed by; and our in-car Wi-Fi equipment automatically changes channels roughly five times a second. In addition, we did not collect information travelling over secure, password-protected Wi-Fi networks.”

According to Eustace’s explanation of the accidental data collection, a Google engineer wrote a piece of experimental code in 2006 that “sampled all categories of publicly broadcast Wi-Fi data”. When the company started using its Street View cars to harvest SSID information and MAC addresses from people’s homes, it included the engineer’s code in their software “although the project leaders did not want — and had no intention of using — payload data”.

Eustace said the cars had been grounded and the relevant data segregated as soon as Google became aware of the problem.

“We want to delete this data as soon as possible, and are currently reaching out to regulators in the relevant countries about how to quickly dispose of it,” he wrote.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said in a statement on Monday that, given Google’s assertion that the collected data is only fragmentary and has not been used for anything, “there does not seem to be any reason to keep the data concerned for evidential purposes”.

“Therefore, in line with the data protection requirement that personal data should be held for no longer than necessary, we have asked Google to ensure that these data are deleted as soon as reasonably possible,” the ICO said.

Source

The Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) is a governmental entity affiliated to Egypt’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. It is responsible for growing and developing Egypt’s position as a leading global outsourcing location by attracting foreign direct investment to the industry and maximizing the exports of IT services and applications.

Located in the heart of the modern business environment at Smart Village, the six hundred acre business park on the outskirts of Cairo, ITIDA is a self sustainable entity that drives the IT industry in Egypt and raises awareness among the Egyptian people of the benefits and use of ICT to advance socio-economic welfare of the whole community.

Source

In an Australian marketing campaign, Microsoft is urging those using Internet Explorer 6 to upgrade already.

“You wouldn’t drink nine-year-old milk, so why use a nine-year-old browser?” asks the Web site urging IE6 users to upgrade to something closer to the front of the fridge.

The shelf life of software and dairy products is not often considered to be in the same range, but leaving that aside, Microsoft does offer a good reason to upgrade: better security.

“When Internet Explorer 6 was launched in 2001, it offered cutting-edge security–for the time. Since then, the Internet has evolved, and the security features of Internet Explorer 6 have become outdated,” the site said, showing scary statistics about online fraud and enumerating various advantages in Microsoft’s preferred alternative, IE8.

IE6 is scorned by technophiles not just because of its security vulnerabilities but also for its nonstandard or nonexistent implementation of various Web standards. Web developers have plenty of pains supporting the diversity of browsers on the Internet, but IE6 is a particular problem given its continuing, though dwindling, widespread use.

According to research from Net Applications, IE6 accounts for about 17.6 percent of browser usage worldwide today, with No. 1 IE8 recently picking up steam as people upgrade.

One reason for IE6′s continuing use is that it’s built into Windows XP, which remains in widespread use. Windows 7–which, unlike in-between Vista, is showing signs of catching on–comes with IE8 built in. Convincing corporations to change operating systems can be harder though, especially those with in-house applications designed to run specifically with IE6.

IE’s future is looking brighter. Microsoft has lit a fire under its IE development team to come back with a strong IE9. One big selling point of the new browser, which is available only in a developer preview version for now, is support for Web standards.

IE9 is emerging in the midst of a highly competive browser market, with four primary competitors: Opera, a small, scrappy company with a long history of going up against Microsoft; Google, a relatively new contender but one with serious Web skills and a strong brand; Apple, with a major incentive to improve browsers as a replacement for Adobe Systems’ Flash; and Mozilla, whose Firefox browser is in second place after IE.

Source