“There are now over 700,000 Android devices activated every day,” Andy Rubin, Senior Vice President of Mobile at Google confirmed this week via Twitter.

700,000 maybe a big number, but not for Google.

700,000 actually shows that Android activations are slowing rather than growing based on previous information from Google. Way back in June, Rubin  tweeted that Google was activating 500,000 devices a day “and it’s growing at 4.4% w/w”.

That means Android has added 200,000 activations per day since June, which is equal to only a growth of around 1.4% a day. This is considerably lower than the 4.4% Google was aiming for. If Kindle Fire activations are included in this data, then that could mean worse for Google.

Source:   Pocket-lint

Google: Android Sales is Declining is a post from: Eee PC

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Far from unifying the smartphone and tablet PC markets, it looks like the introduction of Google Android 4.0 a.k.a. Ice Cream Sandwich may have made the gap between the two market spaces even wider. Android 4.0 brings many improvements over Honeycomb, its predecessor which can be found on many of today’s most popular smartphones and a handful of tablet PCs. Although you might think that PC vendors would love the idea of Google unifying all development efforts towards just one operating system, the reality is a lot more complicated than that.

At the official announcement Android 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich yesterday, the focus was mainly on Samsung’s new Galaxy Nexus, a device with a very large screen, to be sure, but is certainly not something that would be considered a tablet PC. What has gotten certain PC makers and some market watchers a bit worried is the fact that Google made no mention of tablets at all at yesterday’s official Ice Cream Sandwich announcement. Does this mean there will be a renewed focus on the smartphone space and tablet PC makers will be left out of from now on?

This is a major concern for tablet PC makers who are pinning their hopes on Android to compete with Apple’s iPad. With the imminent launch of the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime, Google is expected to give a lot more than just a few new UI enhancements and novel features for the market of Android tablets to really catch up to the competition.

Via Digitimes

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With Nokia’s defection and Intel’s relative silence regarding the subject, you might think that you’ve already seen the last of the MeeGo operating system. Well, perhaps, but Intel is keeping MeeGo alive in cooperation with Samsung in a new Linux-based open-source mobile OS initiative called the Tizen project. A post on the official Tizen web site says that it is a new platform intended for use in a number of different ways such as in smartphones, tablets, netbooks, smart TVs and even in-vehicle entertainment devices. Since it was announced only yesterday, Tizen is currently still picking up steam. So far, Intel and Samsung are onboard, and a report on DigiTimes says that it has already won support from the likes of SK Telecom, NTT DoCoMo, and Panasonic Mobile Communications.

At the same time, it is said that Asus and Acer are also coming on board, to add development to this new fledgeling OS. HTC is undecided. This new alliance of tech giants will have to go through a lot of hoops in order to surpass the success of current mainstream options like iOS and Android in the mobile space, but perhaps it will find better luck in other sectors of the consumer electronics market. For Asus, working on Tizen would probably be just like putting out a new netbook that runs MeeGo instead of Windows or Linux.

Via DigiTimes

Asus and Acer decide to join Tizen project, HTC still on the fence is a post from: Eee PC

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Avid Android tablet users will no doubt prefer using one of the staples of a good Web browsing experience when they are trying to enjoy the Internet on the go. That is, more people are probably relying on today’s most popular Web browser, Firefox, to spruce up their Web surfing experience no matter what time of day. Fortunately, Mozilla knows this all too well, and currently Firefox for tablets is being showered with UI enhancements of all sorts to make it much better than it already is.
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Read the rest of Firefox for tablets sneak peek shows design highlights, UI enhancements (247 words)

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Rumors have been going around the web that Google are to hold an event next week, Tuesday 7th December, where they will unveil their own branded netbook, running the Chrome OS. The event was at first just speculation but, has now been confirmed and Engadget will be attending the event. This hopefully means the rumors surrounding the release of the Chrome OS netbook will also turn out to be true. Little is known about the Google netbook at the moment.

It’s thought that the Chrome OS however, is still in beta, which is why details are so scarce. It’s also been said that only around 65,000 Google netbooks will be produced, presumably mostly available to developers, instead of being a mass market device. So for those looking to get hold of one of this netbooks, you may be disappointed but, hopefully we will find out more information on the Google Chrome OS netbook on Tuesday.

Google could launch own Chrome OS netbook next week is a post from: Eee PC

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If you’re one of the many people who have been looking forward to the release of Google’s open-source Chrome operating system since the day it was first announced, then you’ll be glad to know that Google’s VP of product management Sundar Pichai spoke at Computex 2010 in Taipei and said Chrome OS is on track to be released by the fall of 2010. It will debut in a notebook, and while it wasn’t specified what brand and model it would be, there’s hope that it might be an upcoming netbook from Acer, as earlier rumors have suggested. He didn’t mention any other details about the open-source OS, other than trying to explain how Google sees it differently from Android, as it is intended for use in the desktop PC environment while Android is for handheld devices.

Via DigiTimes

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A Google spokesperson did not issue an official Google statement about the report. But Verizon Chief Executive Officer Lowell McAdams told WSJ:

“We’re working on tablets together, for example. We’re looking at all the things Google has in its archives that we could put on a tablet to make it a great experience.”

Convinced or not? Do you think that this tablet can fairly compete with the iPad?

Verizon and Google to Come Up with a Tablet Device that will Compete Against iPad is a post from: Eee PC

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Despite the fact that Amazon was the first to launch a dedicated e-book reader and its device’s perfectly acceptable performance so far, one analyst has predicted that in the next five years, it will have to share the e-book market to competitors like Apple and Google.

Apple’s iPad may be all-purpose, but with its large screen and a dedicated e-book store behind it, it’s poised to become one of the Kindle’s biggest rivals. Meanwhile, Google already has its own e-book store, and although it doesn’t have any hardware to sell to potential buyers yet, it is reportedly working on a Chrome OS tablet with Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC.

With three of them (Amazon, Apple and Google) sharing the market, a prediction that each of them will have about 35% market share in the next five years isn’t that hard to believe. But in my opinion, five years is quite a long time (especially in the tech sector) and other companies like Asus, LG or Acer who are also reportedly working on their own e-book readers might advance and easily supplant any of the aforementioned three.

Via WSJ

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Looks like 2010 is shaping up to be not just the year of the tablet, but also of e-book readers. KW Kim, CEO of LG Middle East and Africa, has just revealed in an interview that they are currently working on their own brand of e-book readers and that these may be launched as early as April of this year. Meanwhile, the company is also in talks with telecom operator etisalat for the possibility of launching a new line of notebooks using “Google’s operating system.” It is not mentioned whether this operating system will be Android or Chrome OS.

These LG notebooks, if released in cooperation with etisalat, will be subsidized just like the Acer and HP notebooks currently on offer from the operator. With LG having its sights also set on further developing its smartphones, offering pre-built desktops, and beating everyone else to launching 3D TVs, I don’t expect them to do a lot of innovating with their upcoming netbooks and e-readers. If anything, other netbook and e-reader makers will simply have more competition. And that’s a good thing.

Via Emirates Business

LG set to launch own e-reader and Google OS netbooks as early as April is a post from: Eee PC

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Before I can even sit down and just revel at how open portable computing devices are nowadays, out comes this white little tablet computer with Google’s Android operating system and an empty cup of tea. Dubbed the Chinese iPad, this device features a 7-inch WVGA display, 600MHz ARM 9 processor, some buttons lined along the sides for input and a front-facing webcam — a luxury that even Apple’s famed iPad couldn’t afford. Speaking of which, it’s still not known how much this thing is going to sell for. But expect it to become available right around Chinese New Year.

Via GadgetMix

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