Strong sales of phones running Google Android throughout 2010 have managed to push the mobile platform past Apple's iPhone in total active subscribers for the first time, according to comScore.
Microsoft kicked off the Consumer Electronics Show Wednesday evening with a relatively subdued keynote that highlighted an upcoming update to Windows Phone 7 and demoed Windows on ARM's system-on-a-chip architecture.
Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 platform now has more than 5,000 applications written for it, well behind the 300,000 for Apple's iOS, but matching the total number of programs for Palm's webOS in just over two months.
Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 will compete for presence on handsets in a smartphone market "race to the bottom," one that could leave Apple's iPhone as the "last man standing," one prominent Wall Street analyst believes.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak recently revealed that he has a white iPhone 4 that he modified himself using parts ordered online, while Apple has posted job listings for more engineers familiar with CDMA. Meanwhile, Microsoft moved up its pay date for Windows Phone 7 developers to January and added reporting tools for developers to keep track of app download statistics.
Microsoft VP Joe Belfiore declined to talk numbers Tuesday during his onstage interview at the D: Dive Into Mobile conference, but he did admit that the Windows Phone 7 platform might take as long as 2 years to catch up to Apple's iPhone and Google's Android.
Using language reminiscent of Apple's stance on the iPhone 4 antenna problem, Taiwanese handset maker HTC issued a statement Thursday defending its Windows Phone 7 HD7 smartphone from criticisms that it suffers from weakened signal strength when gripped.
Monday's U.S. launch of Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 was mixed, with some stores selling out and others selling just a handful of units. Apple has released another Mac OS X 10.6.5 beta, and Adobe's CTO defended Flash battery performance, claiming that the test was flawed and that Apple is inciting "negative campaigning" against Flash.
Two of America's largest banks are actively testing Apple's iPhone as a replacement of their existing RIM BlackBerry devices for corporate email.
While Apple's success with its mobile iOS platform is credited with invoking the proliferation of HTML5 video at the expense of Adobe's Flash, it's also causing a major shift in strategy for Microsoft's Silverlight.
Just three days after the last build, Apple has released another beta for Mac OS X 10.6.5, and Microsoft has released a beta of its Windows Phone 7 Connector syncing application for Mac. Finally, Chinese workers who claim to have worked on Apple products have been hospitalized due to poisoning from chemical vapors.
AT&T will be the only U.S. wireless carrier to offer smartphones with every major operating system this holiday season, as the company attempts to diversify its portfolio beyond the iPhone, which is rumored to arrive on rival carrier Verizon's network in early 2011.
Early reviews of Microsoft's re-entry into the smartphone operating system market have been impressed with some of Microsoft's user interface decisions, but see the company as having a long way to go to catch up to Apple's iPhone.
Ray Ozzie, the Microsoft executive who replaced Bill Gates as Chief Software Architect, has stepped down from his role, as the company fights to regain lost market share in the mobile space.
Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer insinuated this week that his company's ailing brand holds value for users, more so than rival brands, while at the same time conceding that he's seeing a lot more of Apple's iPads deployed in the real world than he'd like to.
Microsoft on Monday announced its initial arsenal of handsets built around the new Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system, in what many believe is the company's last-ditch attempt to regain traction in the mobile handset arena that's fallen into the hands of rivals like Apple and Google.
Microsoft has sent out invitations to a Worldwide Launch Event for Windows Phone 7 on October 11 in New York City. The launch will feature an exclusive lineup of T-Mobile devices.
Microsoft documents filed with the SEC reveal that CEO Steve Ballmer received only half of the maximum bonus available to him because of the company's struggles in the mobile market.
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AppleInsider Staff
Sam Oliver
Neil Hughes
Josh Ong
Daniel Eran Dilger
Slash Lane
Aidan Malley
