Android app downloads hit 3bn

 

The total number of apps downloaded from the Android Market has passed three billion, as Google’s OS continues its challenge for the number one spot in the smartphone market.

The platform reached the landmark some 20 months after opening its doors, amid a 50 per cent year on year rise in downloads during the fourth quarter of 2010.

Google, which revealed the figure in its quarterly earnings call, also disclosed that 350,000 Android phones are being activated daily.

That’s pretty impressive given that this time last year just 60,000 handsets powered by the OS were being activated.

However, before you go assuming the smartphone war is as good as won, think on this: Apple’s App Store passed ten billion downloads some time ago.

What’s more, given the burgeoning market for iPad apps and the relative lack of titles optimised for Android tablets, you’d fancy Apple’s platform to stay at the top of the tree for a while yet.

Tablet broadband: iPad 2 rival Dell Streak 7 launches in the UK

Apple's recent dominance of the tablet broadband market could come under threat after one of its main rivals launched a second-generation device.

The multi-touchscreen Dell Streak 7 - which runs Google's Android 2.2 operating system - has gone on sale in the UK, with prices starting from £229.

Dell will hope the launch of the Streak 7 enables it to compete with Apple's iPad 2, which has been racking up millions of orders worldwide since launching last month.

The manufacturer has struggled to cope with the amount of orders placed, with initial demand for the iPad 2 exceeding supply in many regions.

As an alternative, consumers can now get their hands on a Wi-Fi-enabled Dell Streak 7, allowing them to access the internet at wireless broadband hotspots across the UK.

However, the Wi-Fi + 3G model remains in development, meaning customers will have to wait if they wish to purchase a tablet with mobile broadband capability.

Nokia and HTC: two companies heading in different directions

April 12th 2011 was not the first time HTC and Nokia have held events on the same day. During last September’s Nokia World, HTC gazumped the Finnish mobile-maker by holding a London bash to showcase its Desire HD and Desire Z smartphones.

Nokia was left touting the ace E7, but was then in the midst of still claiming that Symbian could do the business. And yet eight months on, and after Nokia CEO Stephen Elop’s decision to switch Nokia’s smartphone focus to Windows Phone 7, the same thing has happened again. HTC has made Nokia look outdated and outmoded with a new handset and some seriously smart new software.

This week’s Nokia event in London was centred on Symbian - an OS that has been completely undermined, but still needs to do the numbers as Nokia pushes back the release of its first Windows Phone 7 (WP7) handset into 2012. The phones shown off are no doubt slick. The X7 and E6 are both great-looking smartphones, the latter a business-focused blower to die for, the former a touchscreen cell that would have had plenty of people cooing back in 2009.

The main focus, though, was the announcement of Symbian Anna. An over-the-air update that brings a portrait touchscreen QWERTY keyboard, updated Ovi Maps, new icons and much-needed browser performance improvements. This is heading to the E7, N8, C7 and C6-01. Great news, but as ever with Nokia, the release date is nicely vague. “Over the coming months,” hardly sounds promising, especially from a company that’s become renowned for its lengthy delays. Symbian Anna is already loaded up on the X7 and E6, but there’s no official word on just when they’ll hit retailers. Three is said to be unleashing the X7 in June.

Meanwhile HTC held its own London gathering to showcase the much-leaked Sensation its new dual-core smartie with gorgeous 4.3-inch qHD screen, 4GB of memory and the latest version of HTC’s Sense skin on top of Android 2.3. There’s an 8MP camera too, as well as HTC’s new Watch TV streaming service.

And what’s more, the Taiwanese tech titan has said the phone will be on shelves by mid-May, even giving Vodafone a short exclusive. It also took time to confirm that its tablet, the HTC Flyer, will be available on May 9th.

The contrast is pretty obvious. Nokia is still having to push on with Symbian. Its update is welcome for loyal customers, but it’s hard to get excited by phones using an OS that will soon be relegated by WP7. Nokia might insist it’s still relevant, but Symbian still can’t hold a candle to Android and iOS. Meanwhile, HTC goes from strength to strength. It delivers devices to market swiftly, its kit always looks and feels amazing and its customisation of Android is undoubtedly the best going.

Nokia needs to get on with its WP7 project swiftly now, ensuring that its new handsets and the Symbian Anna update don’t take month after month to get out into the wild. Fail to do so and it’ll lose even more initiative to rivals such as HTC.

Sense 3.0 ruled out for HTC Desire range - updated!

The new version of HTC’s Sense custom skin for Android gadgets will not be coming to the handset maker’s current-gen devices, it has been confirmed.

Unveiled this week at the launch of the Sensation, the revamped UI adds a new home screen with a natty 3D view, the rather smart Watch movies and TV download app and the option to enable key functions on the lock screen.

A pretty package all round? Very much so. So it’s especially vexing for owners of the Desire range that they won’t get to sample it, after HTC apparently confirmed via its Twitter feed that Sense 3.0 is reserved for the Sensation, Evo 3D and the Flyer tablet.

In response to an entreaty from a Desire HD owner as to the company’s plans, HTC Tweeted: “Due to hardware requirements, only our newest devices (Flyer, Evo 3D, Sensation) will be able to support [Sense 3.0]”.

So that seems unequivocal, does it not? Hmm, yes and no. Just because HTC is ruling out Sense 3.0 landing wholesale on Desire phones, that doesn't mean that some elements of skin won't make the trip. Keep your fingers crossed...

**Update: The finger-crossing seems to have worked. HTC has since confirmed that it is "working to incorporate...some aspects [of Sense 3.0] on its existing range of phones. Here's the Tweet in full.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Play priced on 3

3 has finally confirmed contract prices for the Sony Ericsson (SE) Xperia Play, after the handset’s official launch was delayed by supply problems.

Would-be owners can grab themselves some Android Gingerbread gaming goodness from £35 per month over a two-year contract on 3’s One Plan. That deal features a £99 upfront charge to cover the cost of the handset, though.

Alternatively, there’s a £40 per month option, also over 24-months. Choose this and the initial outlay fee you’ll have to find for your Play drops to £49.

The Play had originally been due to go on sale on April 1st. However, like a lot of gadgets set to land this year, its arrival has been delayed by component problems stemming from the Japanese earthquake disaster.

This has led to the arrival of the Xperia Neo being postponed until July at the earliest. Meanwhile, back in March, SE forewarned customers that the Xperia Arc is likely to be in short supply for the foreseeable future.

Nokia E6 hands-on: First look

Introduction

The E6 is Nokia’s latest business offer and it has just landed in our office. It’s the company’s first smartphone running the new Symbian Anna OS out of the box. The E6 is a touch phone with a QWERTY keyboard and it even has a higher pixel density than the iPhone’s Retina display.

It was a while since we’ve seen a high-end Nokia messenger. We are not trying to dismiss the previous E-series achievements, they’ve just became too conventional. Lucky for us the E6 brings a few interesting innovations to freshen up the lineup. It was about time!

The E6 is Nokia’s first handset with VGA resolution and also Nokia’s first QWERTY bar with a touchscreen. Its pixel density is even higher than the Apple’s Retina display. The E6 doesn’t stop here though – it packs the same camera module as most of its Symabian^3 siblings – an 8 megapixel fixed-focus sensor capable of HD video recording. Add the new Symbian^3 update – Anna – and we might have a potent business or messaging phone if not else.

Nokia E6 at a glance:
 General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 850/900/1700/1900/2100 MHz, HSDPA 10.2 Mbps, HSUPA 2 Mbps
Form factor: Touchscreen bar
Dimensions: 115.5 x 59 x 10.5 mm, 87 cc; 133 g
Display: 2.46-inch 16M-color VGA TFT LCD capacitive touchscreen
Memory: 8GB storage memory, 1GB ROM, hot-swappable microSD card slot (up to 32GB)
OS: Symbian Anna OS
CPU: ARM 1176 680 MHz processor, Broadcom BCM2727 GPU; 256 MB RAM
Camera: 8 megapixel fixed-focus camera with dual-LED flash, geo-tagging; 720p video recording@25fps
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth v3.0 with A2DP, microUSB port with USB on-the-go, 3.5mm audio jack, GPS receiver with A-GPS, HDMI port
Misc: Accelerometer, Stereo FM radio with RDS, Flash support in the web browser, proximity sensor, Battery: 1500 mAh Li-Ion battery

 As you can see the E6’s hardware is not top of the line, but we can assure you it’s perfectly fine for what it’s meant – replacing the Nokia E71 and E72 business messengers. The new Symbian Anna has lots of optimizations and seems to work seamless inside the E6. Surely, the E6 won’t attract everyone, but it has enough features to prove worthy.

Nokia X7-00: Specification

Status Coming soon. Exp. release 2011, Q2
Size Dimensions 119.7 x 62.8 x 11.9 mm, 85 cc
Weight 146 g
Display Type AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size 360 x 640 pixels, 4.0 inches
- Gorilla glass display
- Proximity sensor for auto turn-off
- Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate
Memory Internal 256 MB RAM, 1 GB ROM
Card slot microSD, up to 32GB, 8GB included
Data GPRS Class 33
WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth Yes, v3.0 with A2DP
Infrared port No
USB Yes, microUSB v2.0, USB On-the-go support
Camera Primary 8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, fixed focus, dual-LED flash
Features Geo-tagging, face detection
Video Yes, 720p@25fps
Secondary No
Features OS Symbian Anna OS
CPU 680 MHz ARM 11 processor, Broadcom BCM2727 GPU
Messaging SMS, MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
Browser WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML, RSS feeds
Radio Stereo FM radio with RDS
Games Yes + downloadable
Colors Dark steel, Silver steel
GPS Yes, with A-GPS support
Java Yes, MIDP 2.1
- Digital compass
- Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
- MP3/WMA/WAV/eAAC+ player
- DivX/XviD/MP4/H.264/H.263/WMV player
- Quickoffice document viewer (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF)
- Adobe Reader
- Flash Lite 4.0
- Voice memo/dial/command
- Predictive text input
Battery Standard battery, Li-Ion 1300 mAh (BL-5K)
Stand-by Up to 450 h (2G) / Up to 450 h (3G)
Talk time Up to 6 h 30 min (2G) / Up to 4 h 30 min (3G)
Music play Up to 50 h