U.S.

We heard in October that Google had plans to further reduce Motorola’s workforce after cutting around 20 percent, or roughly 4,000 jobs, in August. The Wall Street Journal reported today on an email from Google that confirmed the company is beginning to cut around 1,200 employees (a little over 10 percent of its current total headcount):

Motorola MSI -0.74% staffers were informed by the company via email this week that “while we’re very optimistic about the new products in our pipeline, we still face challenges.” The company email added that “our costs are too high, we’re operating in markets where we’re not competitive and we’re losing money.”

As for where the cuts might take place, we previously reported that Motorola, which was unprofitable for 14 of its last 16 quarters, planned to reduce its operations in Asia and India, but today’s report said the layoffs would hit workers in the United States, China, and India. Google also warned that further restructuring might be necessary and significant costs could be involved.

In a recent piece from The Wall Street Journal highlighting Google executives’ fear that Samsung is gaining too much dominance, Android chief Andy Rubin said the purchase of Motorola was “a kind of insurance policy against a manufacturer such as Samsung gaining too much power over Android.”

Google’s Transparency Report shows increase in government requests

Jordan Kahn Nov 13 2012 - 9:01 am PT

Google is out today with its latest Transparency Report where the company officially reports the number of requests it receives from government organizations to remove or hand over data. Today’s update to the report includes data for government requests from January 2012 to June 2012 and shows requests for access to user data have steadily increased.

For the United States, Google received 7,969 requests during the time period, of which 16,281 user accounts were specified. Google also explained that it sometimes received “falsified court orders asking us to remove content.”

This is the sixth time we’ve released this data, and one trend has become clear: Government surveillance is on the rise. As you can see from the graph below, government demands for user data have increased steadily since we first launched the Transparency Report. In the first half of 2012, there were 20,938 inquiries from government entities around the world. Those requests were for information about 34,614 accounts.

The report showed that requests around the world for the removal of content also continued to increase:
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Amazon making moves to displace iPads in schools

Jordan Kahn Oct 17 2012 - 11:37 am PT

We know Apple has had a lot of success pushing iPads in education, and during Apple’s Q3 conference call, CEO Tim Cook said the company would continue to be “very aggressive”. Apple’s iPad 2 sales in the K-12 market doubled y-o-y in Q3 thanks to a price drop to $399. In Q2, Apple said it sold about a million iPad units to the United States education market. With Apple’s upcoming iPad mini announcement possibly bringing an even lower price point for iPads in education, Amazon is announcing its plans today to get Kindle tablets into schools.

Reuters reported today that Amazon is launching a service, called “Whispercast”, aimed at allowing schools to easily deploy and manage multiple kindle devices:

Sony launches Xperia NXT lineup in U.S., available unlocked from $300

Jordan Kahn Jul 16 2012 - 7:27 am PT

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paA9Meblx4E&feature=player_embedded]

Sony announced this morning that it is bringing its Xperia NXT Series to the United States with all three devices, including the Xperia S, Xperia P, and Xperia U, now available unlocked through Sony stores across the country and sony.com/NXT, Newegg.com, and various other online retailers. While we do not get LTE with any of these devices like AT&T’s Xperia Ion, they are compatible with both AT&T and T-Mobile’s networks. The lineup of devices originally unveiled at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February.

The flagship model of the series is the $560 Xperia S with a 4.3-inch 1,280-by-720 display, 12 megapixel main cam, 1GB of RAM, a 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Dual Core processor, and it is available in black and white.

As for the Xperia P: $480 will get you a 4 inch, 960-by-540 display, 8 megapixel camera, 1GB of RAM, and a 1GHz dual core processor. The Xperia P is available in the silver, red, and black models that can be seen in the videos above and below. Xperia U is $300 (black or white), and it provides decent specs for the price point with a 3.5-inch 854-by-480 display, 5-megapixel camera, 512MB of RAM, and a 1Ghz dual core processor.

The entire NXT lineup comes with Android 2.3, but it is already upgradable to Ice Cream Sandwich. The two high-end models, Xperia S and P, also have built-in NFC, HDMI with BRAVIA Sync, as well as Sony’s Mobile BRAVIA Engine display technology.

Sony’s full press release and intro videos for the NXT lineup are below:

Samsung remains top OEM in March, as Android and iOS capture 80 percent of US market

Jordan Kahn May 1 2012 - 9:56 am PT

Following IDC’s report this morning that highlighted Apple’s continued growth among mobile phone marketshare worldwide, while coming second to Samsung in global smartphone marketshare, research firm comScore just released its numbers for United States mobile subscribers for the three-month period ending March 2012.

According to comScore, Apple posted impressive growth during the quarter with 30.7-percent marketshare among smartphone platforms in the U.S (up from 29.6-percent). Increasing from 47.3-percent in December 2011 to 51 percent in March 2012, Android was able to grab the top position for platforms during the quarter. Growth for Android and iOS continues to come at the expense of RIM. The company grabbed just 12.3-percent of the platform market in March, which is down from 16 percent in December 2011. Microsoft also lost marketshare with 3.9-percent, which is down from 4.7-percent…

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Game Over: Latest Nielsen survey says over 90 percent of US Smartphones purchased in last 3 months are iOS or Android

Jordan Kahn Mar 29 2012 - 8:37 am PT

With iOS gaining roughly 30 percent United States marketshare as of Q4 2011 at the expense of RIM, Nokia and Microsoft, new numbers from Nielsen’s latest study show just how much of a duopoly the U.S. market has become. While noting about 50 percent of mobile subscribers in the U.S. are now smartphone owners, Nielsen gave a breakdown of how the two leading platforms continue to dominate as of February 2012:

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Samsung and AT&T to announce US Galaxy Note at CES 2012

Jordan Kahn Jan 6 2012 - 10:46 am PT

Reports flew yesterday that Samsung’s 5.3-inch Galaxy Note would make its United States debut sometime in early 2012. The rumors came from accessory maker Anymode who sent out the CES Media Alert below confirming the device would be “available in the United States in early 2012 through AT&T.” While Anymode later retracted its statement, we have heard separately that Samsung and AT&T will officially announce the U.S. Galaxy Note at CES 2012 set to kick off Jan. 10.

Anymode provided the following retraction since issuing the media alert (via Engadget):

Anymode Introduces First Accessories for Samsung Galaxy Note” contained inaccurate information pertaining to AT&T and the release of the Samsung Galaxy Note. The information was not provided by Anymode, AT&T or Samsung , nor did Anymode, AT&T or Samsung approve it. The issuing party apologizes for the publishing of the inaccurate information and any inconvenience it may have caused.

Samsung recently announced it shipped over 1 million Galaxy Notes worldwide since the device first launched abroad in November. 9to5Google will be bringing you live updates from the floor at CES 2012 Jan. 10 to Jan. 13 in Las Vegas.

Spotify now available to everyone in the United States, no invitation required

9to5 Staff Sep 23 2011 - 2:04 pm PT

Spotify, a popular music streaming service from Sweden, arrived in the United States mid-July on an invite-only basis. Today, Spotify goes live for everyone nationwide, no invitation required. Users can now sign up for an account at Spotify.com and use a mobile app for Android or iPhone to stream music over wireless and cellular networks to their phones, tag songs for offline viewing, favorite tracks, share them with friends and more. What’s best, you needn’t sign up for a paid Spotify account. Thanks to a new partnership with Facebook that Mark Zuckerberg announced at the yesterday’s developer conference (more in the clip below), anyone signing up with their Facebook account gets six months of unlimited listening. What happens when the six-month free period expires?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjAr5nGzjV8]

Nielsen: Android men are for Maps, women are for Facebook

9to5 Staff Sep 13 2011 - 7:52 am PT

In jargon talk, marketeers frequently argue that Android is from Mars and iPhone is from Venus when explaining the different demographics and appeal of the two platforms. Be that as it may, it would be interesting to figure out what apps are people particularly liking on their Android devices. That’s what research firm Nielsen set out to discover in their latest survey that analyzes app trends among U.S. consumers. Based on data obtained from on-device meters on thousands of Android smartphones, Nielsen found out that Google’s own programs dominate the list of most-used Android apps nation-wide.

In addition to Facebook (#2) and Android Market (as expected, it ranked first), the top 10 list based on overall active reach includes Google Map, Gmail, Google Search, YouTube, Adv. Task Killer Free, Angry Birds, QuickOffice Pro and Pandora Radio. Amazon’s storefront app to their own Appstore for Android ranked twelfth.

Gender break down reveals that the Facebook app is more popular with the ladies, reaching 81 percent versus 69 percent for male users. Google+, on the other hand, is more popular with male Android users (15.8 percent active reach) than women (7.2 percent). Google Maps has the highest reach among male Android users, 77.1 percent, second only to Android Market. Twitter, Words With Friends and Kindle apps are more popular with female Android users in the United States.

And while we’re at it, what do you reckon the most profitable apps on Android are? Games? Entertainment? Adult apps? No. It’s weather programs, per research2guidance’s free “Android Market Insights” research note.