RIM, iPhone & Android market share up

Gartner has released a comprehensive report on the list of smartphone platforms sale of mobile phones worldwide. In its reports, gartner has enlisted the iPhone at number three, right behind Nokia's Symbian OS and the RIM software used in Blackberry devices. More importantly, the report reveals that Apple's unit share has more than doubled in the last year, from 11.4 million units in 2008 to more than 24 million in 2009.

Gartner claims iPhone sales made up 14 percent of the smartphone market last year to WinMo's 9 percent, but that still puts Apple behind the other two leaders in the market: BlackBerry manufacturer RIM in third place with 20 percent, Finnish firm Nokia still ahead with a mighty 47 percent.

It's an influential stat when you consider that iPhone is just one handset confronting to the leagues that run WinMo software, but Apple still has some way to go if it wants to reach the zenith.
Android is also on the list, and while it's not quite competing with iPhone yet, that brand experienced even greater growth, from less than a million phones in 2008 up to almost 7 million in 2009. And perhaps the most interesting takeaway is that while Symbian encountered a nearly 10% drop in market share, both its and RIM's totals actually climbed up. While cellphone sales at large have dropped, smartphone sales have jumped across the board. It clearly shows that more people are doing more things with their cell phones than just the usual calling.

According to Gartner's principal research analyst Roberta Cozza, "Android's fourth-quarter growth should continue, but some suppliers had "expressed growing concern about Google's intentions in the mobile market." If this led them to transform their product strategies, "this might slow-down Android's growth in 2010."

Motorola to Launch Android App Store, SHOP4APPS

Mobile phone maker Motorola has just made its first steps into the Android area of the market, yet it seems that the company has big plans for the segment in the near future. Following the launch of its Motorola CLIQ and Motorola DROID handsets, the handset vendor is now reported to plan the launch of its own Android app store, one that will be called SHOP4APPS, it seems.

The said software solutions portal has been discovered a few days ago by the guys over at Android and Me, which also posted some shots with it, pretty handy we might add, especially since Motorola has taken down the website already, and no one can access it at the moment. However, there are some details that were uncovered along with the app store, such as the fact that it is web based and that users will be able to access it easily directly from their Android handsets.





Some of the features the said SHOP4APPS store from Motorola is expected to come around with include:

- Apps Store catalog is accessible via your mobile browser, a mobile client, or Motorola Media Link (MML).

- MotoAppstore free Mobile Client. This client allows you to download and install your purchases applications.

- MyLocker section – check your download history (name of the application, date of the purchase, version).

- The ability to purchase apps from the desktop site, place them in your MyLocker, and then download it using your handset.

- Automatic notification alerts when a new version of an app is available.
- The ability to re-download and transfer your apps to a new phone.

Source:http://news.softpedia.com/news/Motorola-to-Launch-Android-App-Store-SHOP4APPS-129642.shtml