Android and iPhone Remain top dogs in the US smartphone market

In essence of Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, Google and Apple continue to sprint ahead in the US Smartphone market leaving RIM and Windows in their dust.

New statistics from comScore showed that a mammoth 82.2 million people owned a Smartphone in the US as of July 2011, representing a 10% increase from April 2011. Google is the market leader with 41.8% of the market share, an increase in 5.4% since April. Apple follows Google with 27% of the market share, an increase in 1% since April.

In contrast, RIM, Microsoft and Nokia have continued to lose ground on their rivals. RIM’s BlackBerry market share dropped from 25.7% to 21.7% in three months and Microsoft also experience a drop in their Smartphone market share from 6.7% to 5.7%. Nokia’s Symbian Operating System evaporated from 2.3% to 1.9%.

What does the future hold?

Here is a quick roundup of the latest Smartphone news and what lies ahead in the coming months for the major players in the market.

Google

In the past month Google purchased Motorola for $12.5 billion, showing the company’s ambition to take its investment in the mobile market to the next level.

Google’s acquisition of Motorola is significant in more ways than one. Owning a handset manufacturer opens the way for Google to follow Apple’s profitable lead in controlling the software, hardware and content on its devices. It also gives Google access to a range of technology patents which it can use to defend against action by its industrial rivals.

Google’s Android operating system is a relatively new player in the mobile space. It has left Google behind in the patent game and left the company open to legal action from Apple, Microsoft, Oracle and other companies. In particular, the company has been locked in a legal battle with Microsoft since October 2010. In contrast, Motorola holds 17,000 issued patents worldwide and has another 7,500 patents in progress. The acquisition has not left Google immune to company patents, but it does have a better patent defence than Google on its own.

Apple

Apple will be looking to strengthen their position in the Smartphone market with the imminent release of the iPhone 5 on the horizon. It is predicted that the device will be available within the next couple of months with exciting new features, including Android’s drop down menu style notification. Although Steve Jobs has resigned as CEO of Apple, everyone is getting excited about the launch of the iPhone 5, so watch this space for the latest news!

RIM

Earlier this month, Research in motion (RIM), the maker of the BlackBerry Smartphone launched three new phones worldwide in order to try and win back share from Google’s Android and Apple’s iPhone. All phones will run RIM’s new BlackBerry 7 operating system, the next generation from the existing BB6 operating system. RIM has been gradually losing its market share over the past two years to Google’s Android OS and Apple’s iPhone, especially in the US, once its largest market. But the company has been gaining shares in other continents, most notably Europe, China and parts of Africa.

RIM’s custom base is split roughly 50-50 between business and personal customers, where the general Smartphone market is split 30-70. Essentially, the consumer market is larger, which has created problems for RIM in expanding its customer base, as the iPhone and Android phone having proved more popular with the first wave of consumer Smartphones.

The three new Smartphone devices are: BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930: Features QWERTY keyboards. BlackBerry Torch 9810: Features touch display and slide-out keyboard. Blackberry Torch 9850 and 9860: Features a 3.7in all-touch display.

The new BlackBerry 7 operating system is claimed to be 40% faster than the BlackBerry 6 Operating system and up to 100% faster than the BlackBerry 5 Operating System. The displays also feature “Liquid Graphics” technology with a high pixel density of more than 250dpi. Some business may hold off from committing to the new devices as RIM is expected to bring its products into line with the release of Smartphones using their QNX operating system next year

Windows and Nokia

Shares in Nokia and RIM jumped in the wake of the Google-Motorola announcement. The reason behind this is that beleaguered mobile giants are seen as ripe acquisition targets for companies like Microsoft. Nokia has tied its future fortunes to Microsoft’s Window Phone ship, so there is the definite potential for Microsoft to complete the takeover of Nokia sometime in the near future!

The Smartphone market is unpredictable, making it difficult to forecast what will happen in the mobile market over the next few years. Market research firm IDC predicts that the Windows Phone will overtake iOS by 2015; however we find this very unlikely. At present, Google and Apple remain top dogs in the Smartphone market and it looks set to continue that way for the immediate future.

Steve Jobs steps down as CEO of Apple

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has resigned from his position as Chief Executive for the company and his right-hand man Tim Cook will be taking over.

Mr Jobs has suffered from poor health for some time, having recently undergone a liver transplant for pancreatic cancer in 2009. He said that he was no longer able to fulfil his CEO commitments and will now become chairman of the firm.

In a short letter to the Apple board, Mr Jobs wrote:

"I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's chief executive, I would be the first to let you know.

"Unfortunately, that day has come. I hereby resign as chief executive of Apple.

"I believe Apple's brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

"I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you."

Tributes have been flooding in for Steve Jobs from social networking sites and around the globe. Trip Hawkins, who spent his early years working on multimedia at Apple and is now CEO of Digital Chocolate said:

“Steve is the most remarkable person I have ever known. I consider him the greatest CEO in history because he rescued Apple and Pixar at the same time, and both were major turnarounds. Most CEOs never achieve a successful turnaround or even a pivot, and they are very hard to do in large corporations. Steve defined our generation and if the history books only mention one person from this period it will be him.”

Mr Jobs is viewed by many to be the person that masterminded Apple’s journey to become one the world’s biggest companies. Mr Jobs co-founded Apple in the 1970’s with Steve Wozniak. Apple’s first Macintosh was released in 1984 and their follow up models became hugely popular throughout the 1980’s. In 1987, Mr Jobs left the company after a fall out with the colleagues and later joined Pixar Animations, playing a pivotal role in turning around their fortunes.

In 1997, Mr Jobs returned to begin Apple’s transformation into an eventual market leader by launching the colourful iMac Computer. Then in 2002, the iPod was released and revolutionised the personal music-player market. It was this product that laid down the foundations for the company’s success over the past decade.

Apple went onto release the iPhone, which similarly inspired change in the Smartphone market. Although the iPad came under initial criticism upon its release, it too went on to become hugely popular. Apple’s design and innovation engineered their success to become one of the world’s most sought after brands.

The company recently became the most valuable firm in the US after its market capitalisation overtook that of oil company Exxon Mobil. Nevertheless, Steve Jobs's resignation as Apple CEO has wiped billions of dollars off its stock market value in a short time period, as traders worry over the company's long-term future without its visionary leader.

Trends on Twitter

Lab42 conducted a survey asking 500 Twitter users how they use the service, who they follow and why. Findings were broken down into a captivating infographic, which has some great insights.

70% of Twitter users access the site on a daily basis with 37% accessing Twitter multiple times a day. Out of the 70% that use the site on a daily basis, 42% tweet more than once a day, nearly double of those 23% who tweet on a daily basis. This portrays the addictive nature of Twitter to tweet on a regular basis and how the majority of users are lured in for the long haul.

Interestingly, only 16% of Twitter users accessed Twitter from their mobile application. I expected that most users would access the site using the web, however I thought that there would be a hell of a lot more users who would take advantage of using the mobile app whilst on the go.

Many Twitter users follow brands with 31% of them at least following 1-5 and unsurprisingly the majority (66%) follow them to try and get discounts. Brands are going out of their way like never before to take advantage of the opportunities presented by social media and entice customers. Offering discounts and the chance to participate in contests via social media, increases traffic to their main sites and in effect their profits. Last year, Sony offered 1,600 Twitter followers the chance to build a customised Sony Vaio laptop and get a 10% discount for the product. Considering that the social media campaign was fairly covert, it worked wonders for Sony as they reported an increase in Sony Vaio sales from Twitter in that period of $1.5 million.

Taking into account that pop star Lady Gaga has more followers than the American president Barrack Obama, perhaps shows that the majority of Twitter users are of a younger generation. This can be backed up with the stats that 27% follow SnOOki, a star from the hit MTV US reality TV series Jersey Shore.