Reorganization Shakes Microsoft Management

Passes Symbian; iPhone at No. 3

(NEWSER) - Google’s Android is now the world’s most popular smartphone platform, having edged past Nokia’s Symbian in the fourth quarter of 2010. Vendors shipped 33.3 million Android-based phones that quarter, beating Symbian’s 31 million, a report out today finds. That’s good news for Android phone vendors LG and Acer, who saw sales volume boosts of 4,127% and 709% from Q4 of 2009—and for Samsung and HTC, who together shipped nearly 45% of all Android phones in the period, reports CNET . More»

Google's operating system barely edges out Apple's

(NEWSER) - Is Apple losing its grip on smartphone buyers? Google's Android is already the most widely-used operating system , and a new survey shows it may also be the most wanted. In a poll of US cell phone consumers this year, Nielsen found that 31% planned to buy a new smartphone and wanted an Android phone. The iPhone was a close second at 30%, the Los Angeles Times reports, followed by the BlackBerry at 11%. More»

(NEWSER) - Microsoft and Verizon are in talks to launch a smartphone on the carrier’s network early next year, the Wall Street Journal reports. The phone would likely run on a souped-up version of Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system, and have access to Windows Marketplace, its version of Apple’s App Store. A third party will likely manufacture the device with Microsoft input, as with Google’s G1 Android phone. More»

Sony Ericsson joins; only Nokia holds out

(NEWSER) - Sony Ericsson will join most of the world’s other top cell phone makers in offering a smartphone based on the Windows Mobile operating system, leaving only industry leader Nokia without a Windows Mobile version. The first of the company’s new phones, called the “Xperia X1,” will be on sale by the end of the year, reports Reuters. More»

She's a giant 'bandwidth guzzler': Paul Farhi

(NEWSER) - Siri is knowledgeable, convenient, even funny—but she has a dark side. "Siri’s dirty little secret is that she’s a bandwidth guzzler, the digital equivalent of a 10-miles-per-gallon Hummer H1," writes Paul Farhi in the Washington Post . Indeed, the iPhone 4S, which brought us Siri, uses twice the data of the regular iPhone 4, and almost three times that of the 3G, a study found, saying the Siri-equipped 4S "appears to unleash data consumption behaviors that have no precedent.” More»