Sony revealed the Playstation 4 at their event last week with cell phones and games as the centerpiece. Microsoft and Nintendo have been pushing the mobile aspect of gaming lately, Microsoft more than Nintendo. With Nintendo’s WiiU using their tablet controller to play your full games anywhere in the house, and the Xbox’s Microsoft Smartglass enabling you to control the system on your cell phone, the key word here is integration. Sony, of course, didn’t ignore this ongoing trend and are pushing their own version of integration, but does it go far enough and what does it really mean for a consumer?
May 18
If you haven’t been keeping up to date on the latest Blackberry Phone news, let me get you in on the secret: Blackberry has recently been teasing its Blackberry 6 operating system (which is set to premiere in the third quarter of this year) and it’s getting a lot of smart phone users excited.
Many believe the current Blackberry Operating System (OS) to be efficient but obsolete and “ugly.”
The sneak peek at the new Blackberry layout served not to educate the consumer, but to excite the nerd in all of us. While not much is known about the sleek new OS yet, one thing is abundantly clear: the Blackberry is jealous. The first quarter of 2010 has been very kind to the Blackberry; however, its OS design has caused many to choose the iPhone or Android phones instead.
But what do you think? Check out the new promo vid here (and try to ignore the Black Eyed Peas–they’re everywhere, aren’t they?)
Sources: Blackberry Blog
–Alex G.
May 11
The official results are in, and the first quarter sales figures for 2010 are significantly in favor of Google’s Android smart phone. The war has waged for quite some time between Apple’s iPhone–with apps that pale in comparison to the amount of hype backing it up–and Google’s Android which has dedicated its operating system to various phone models and carriers across the board.
The iPhone, as many of you know, is paired only with AT&T service–and while Apple pushes its weight around the market, it rests firmly in the corner where only AT&T users and Mac Geeks dwell.
AT&T is big–really big. But Verizon is much bigger. You know those “coverage maps” you see in all the ‘Verizon VS AT&T‘ commercials? Those attempt to illustrate a whopping 92.8% of Verizon’s customers enjoying a relatively limitless wireless coverage zone.
iPhone’s biggest claim to fame is the App Store, featuring obscene numbers of user and professionally created applications for just about everything you’d ever want to do–from grocery shopping, to making fart-noises on the bus. The Google Android is gaining speed, however. They’re up to a healthy 50,000 applications and counting–and I believe they’ve even hosted their own fart-noise apps, so…good news there!
Because of Verizon’s dominant network, they have become a huge sponsor of Google’s Android–providing them with lots of advertising and marketing funds.
The last–and probably most important–factor that pushes the Android ahead is the pricing. Where the average price for a smart phone in 2010 is around $599 (retail price), the top-tier iPhones can be as pricey as $999 (used iphones for less than $200 and cheap droid phones). Because Google has the freedom to pick and choose its carriers and hosts models in varying price ranges, they have the potential to dominate every market.
The Android’s sales have outfoxed the iPhone, but not by much. With the first quarter percentages for the Android being 28%, and the iPhone’s being 21%, it is still a close race…but it is still only a race for 2nd place.
It should be no surprise that Reasearch in Motion’s Blackberry is still king of the smart phones with a first quarter sales rate of 36 percent. Across the board, new and refurbished Blackberrys make a huge impact on smart phone sales. They are efficient, inexpensive, and part of the largest networks in the country.
So, for now, Blackberry watches as Google and Apple duke it out–but there’s a lot more time left in 2010–and something tells me that the iPad won’t be the last tech gadget people are talking about this year.
Sources: Yahoo! Finance | ARS Technica | Android Community | Boy Genius Report
–Alex
Oct 28
I am all for respectable charities, and I feel that if you are in a position to share some of your money, time, or knowledge, you should donate to where you feel you can make the most difference. That being said, I do not want charities to start texting me asking for money. Unfortunately, this seems to be a fast approaching reality/annoyance.
During the first timeout in the first quarter of the LSU-Auburn game at Tiger Stadium, United Way sent out over 2,558 text messages asking fans to donate five dollars by texting “LSU” to a certain number. The mass text brought in approximately $8,550 dollars from fans willing to donate to the non-profit organization. Apparently, the five dollars will be billed to their next cell phone bill.
I’m not sure where this kind of campaign falls, legally, but I’m sure if this one was a success, we’ll be receiving these kinds of pleas in the near future.
