Research firm IDC–a sister company of my former employer, PCWorld–has released its latest estimates of the current and future marketshare of major smartphone operating systems. The headline news: It’s predicting that Android will continue to boom and that Microsoft’s Windows Phone, currently on the ropes, will bounce back to second place by 2015.
Here are IDC’s numbers for 2011 and 2015 (I swiped them from Don Reisinger’s post at Cnet):
Drund is the website equivalent of a two-way radio wristwatch. It’s cool in theory, but with everything else that’s available, you’ll have a hard time finding a use for it.
I’ve been playing around with Drund in a closed beta for the last couple of months. Starting today, Drund will allow up to 10,000 new users to sign up without an invitation.
Drund is a website that looks kind of like Microsoft Windows. There’s a desktop with icons for favorite apps and a start button on the bottom of the screen with even more apps and operating system functions, such as a file browser and settings. But unlike Windows, Drund stores nothing locally. Instead of a photos folder, there’s Flickr. Instead of Microsoft Office, there’s a suite of online productivity apps from Zoho. For entertainment, there’s an app that pulls in video from Hulu, Netflix and Amazon.
In a way, it all sounds kind of like Chrome OS, Google’s forthcoming attempt at a web-based operating system, but Drund is different because everything is self contained in a single browser window. The apps are specially-created representations of other web services, made to run in an operating system within an operating system. You could even run Drund within Chrome OS, as you could within a browser on any PC.
The question is, why would you?
Apple has released (through the Mac App Store) a beta version of OS X 10.7 Lion to paid members of its Mac developer program–tangible evidence that the upgrade is on schedule for summer release. The OS upgrade focuses on features inspired by the iPad, such as a full-screen mode, more use of gestures, a Launchpad that looks like the iPad’s home screen, and Mission Control, which melds together the existing Exposé, Spaces, and Dashboard features. It also lets apps incorporate auto-save modes, has a new version of the Mail app, adds a no-configuration-required file-sharing feature called AirDrop, and more.
When will Microsoft release a beta of Windows 8, or whatever it ends up calling the next version of its operating system? ZDNet’s Mary-Jo Foley has a timeline that makes September look plausible, with room for a more selective Community Technology Preview version to arrive before that. That timetable would make a mid-2012 release of the final version possible–less than three years after Windows 7’s debut.
We still don’t know that much about Windows 8, other than that it’ll apparently be designed with tablets and all-in-one computers in mind as well as more traditional PCs, and will run on mobile processors from ARM and other companies as well as x86 chips. Oh, and Steve Ballmer says it’s a risky bet.
Those of us who think that WebOS is one of the best mobile operating systems in the business are looking forward to the WebOS event HP is holding on Wednesday, the first big bash it’s thrown since it acquired Palm last year. The company has pre-announced that it’ll announce something related to WebOS tablets, and there could be more news. (I’m still waiting for a handset that looks a bit like an iPhone but runs WebOS.)
The event is happening at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, and kicks off at 10am PT; I’ll be there and am looking forward to liveblogging the proceedings at technologizer.com/webos. Come hang out with me, won’t you?
[Here’s another story from our friends at PCWorld.]
Yesterday I got my first hands-on time with the Motorla Xoom tablet, running Android 3.0. And the one-two punch proved a compelling experience. It’s a very different experience than what one gets on today’s Android 2.2 tablets (led by Samsung Galaxy Tab), or on Apple’s iPad.
When the Motorola Xoom was first introduced last month at the CES show in Las Vegas, we only got glimpses of what it could do. Emphasis on the word glimpses: The demos were videos, run by demonstrators who wouldn’t allow hands-on with the device. Today, however, was a completely different experience. After Google’s special event at its headquarters to formally introduce Android 3.0, nearly a dozen developers showed off their apps on the Motorola Xoom, and Google staffers showed off how Honeycomb functions, on the Xoom device.
[This article is republished courtesy of our pals at PCWorld.]
The great tease is over: Today, here at its headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., Google showed off Android 3.0, a tablet-friendly operating system also known as Honeycomb. The new tablet OS emphasizes a slick interface, beefed up graphics for games, and support for in-app purchases.
Along with the new operating system, Google also announced an Android Market Website that allows Android phone and tablet users to browse, purchase, and download apps directly to their devices — no wires or USB syncing to a PC needed. The Web-based Android Market is live now.
The live Android 3.0 demos were performed on the upcoming Motorola Xoom tablet. Google showed off other enhancements to the OS, such as a Contact Shortcuts feature that allows you to create quick links to contacts for video chatting or sending e-mail. Google also offered live demonstrations of its video chat feature, new camera interface, visually immersive games, and multitasking capabilities.
Quick reminder: I’ll be at the Googleplex this morning with live coverage of the Android 3.0 “Honeycomb” press event, which should provide the most extensive preview to date of Google’s first tablet-friendly operating system. Join me at Technlogizer.com/honeycomb, won’t you? The event starts at 10am PT.
Microsoft announced its quarterly earnings yesterday, and among the news tidbits was the fact that it’s sold 300 million Windows 7 licenses since the operating system launched in October 2009. That seems to be ahead of a 2009 prediction by IDC that forecast that the company would sell 177 millions copies of Windows 7 by the end of 2010. (It’s possible that Microsoft and IDC’s definitions of an instance of Windows sold vary.)
Google has rolled out a preview version of Android 3.0 “Honeycomb”–the first tablet-friendly version. Looks intriguing. Here’s hoping some of the improvements–including the elimination of the dreaded hardware buttons–make their way back to Android smartphones.
