The G2 is T-mobile’s follow up to the first commercial Android device, the G1. In the two years since the release of the G1, cellphones have changes radically, and the differences between the G1 and G2 are a great example of the advancements. The G2 takes advantage of T-mobile’s HSPA+ network, which allows for download speeds in excess of 20Mbps (faster than most home internet connections), and has a “stock” version of Android. A “stock” version of Android allows the Android operating system to be upgraded faster, which I have found to be a major benefit of the Nexus One that I’ve been using. I consistently get Android operating system updates 2-3 months before anyone else. The bottom line, if you’re looking for a clean Android experience and can’t get your hand on a Nexus One, the G2 is the next best thing.

Nokia also began shipping its N8 smartphone last week. While still the leader in both overall and smartphone shipments, Nokia has become all but forgotten due to all the iPhone and Android hype. It’s quite an unfortunate situation as Nokia still makes great hardware, and the N8 is no exception. However, since Nokia does not have a strong relationship with any of the major US carriers, no one has launched a major marketing initiative around the device. Unless Nokia really steps up both their marketing effort and carrier relationship status in the US, I would suspect that Nokia will continue to fade away into a niche player in the US market, which is a shame based on the quality of their hardware. If you’re seriously interested in picking up the device, your best bet is going to be to shell out the cash and buy the N8 directly from Nokia.

While I am not a huge tablet fan, BlackBerry maker RIM announced their tablet called the PlayBook last week. My first reaction was that RIM is making a huge mistake, until RIM co-CEO Mike Lazardis spoke about it. RIM is positioning the PlayBook as a companion to their smartphones targeted directly at business users. I think BlackBerry may be onto something. Businesses may be hesitant to buy employees iPads due to the level of distraction from games and apps that are available. With the PlayBook, enterprises will be given more control and the majority of applications will be business oriented. I suspect that businesses will be more receptive to buying their employees PlayBooks, which could overflow into consumer sales, much like their BlackBerry smartphone platform. In essence, I like the strategy, now it is up to RIM to execute.

In other handset news, another interesting device released last week was the R2-D2 themed Droid 2 from Motorola. Themed cellphones is an untapped market in my opinion. People are always looking for a way to stand out from the crowd, and themed cellphones are a great way to achieve it. I’m very curious to see how well these R2-D2 themed units sell. If they sell as well as I think they should, I suspect that you will see a lot more themed cellphones making their way into the market.

Finally, if you are interested in what the future holds for mobile phones, then take a look at this Mozilla video for a concept phone called “Seabird – A Community-driven Concept Phone.” Mozilla does not have any intention to build the phone, but it is clearly a sign of what is possible and what could be coming to mobile phones in the near future. I particularly like the idea of the included Bluetooth headset/mouse as well as the projectors that allow you to turn any surface into an interactive screen. I suspect that you will see phones within the next 2 or3 years with this type of technology, and I can’t wait!

In other handset news, Nokia and BlackBerry maker RIM, two manufacturers that are falling out of favor with investors, made major announcements last week. At their self-hosted Nokia World Show, Nokia touted that they are still the industry leader with 260,000 smartphone activations a day (compared to Android’s 200,000 and iOS’ 80,000). Unfortunately, perception is reality, and while Nokia still has the lead, they are suffering from a perception problem that John Biggs at MobileCrunch so eloquently describes. Along those same lines, RIM announced earnings last week. While the results blew past analyst expectations and a bright future was painted by management, the reality remains that Android continues to rapidly close the gap on RIM’s dominance in North America according to the latest ComScore stats. Both RIM and Nokia had better not be content to rest on their laurels because as they say in the mutual fund world – “past performance is not an indication of future performance.” I’m not surprised that Nokia and RIM are doing well when you look at past and current stats. When you look at trends, though, both Nokia and RIM should be concerned, and I mean very concerned.

As usual, I wanted to wrap up this week on a fun note. Motorola is launching a Star Wars themed R2-D2 Droid handset later this year on Verizon. While the hardware and wallpapers for the device look cool, they are not nearly as cool as this prototype Star Trek Communicator themed Nokia device. It’s quite a shame that only 14 were made back in 2008. I’m not even a Star Trek fan, and I found this concept prototype just too cool. Definitely worth spending the 9 minutes to watch the video.

Both companies really should be more concerned about potential new competitors. One such company is Huawei, the largest telecom equipment manufacturer in China. Huawei is releasing smartphones into the US market and is working on some very interesting concept phones (see video below from Andoid and Me). I have experienced working with Huawei firsthand in a previous career, and they are very aggressive when entering a market and determined to win, at any cost. With Huawei entering the market, all the current major players – Nokia, Apple, HTC, Samsung and Motorola – need to pay close attention to Huawei’s next move. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them get very aggressive here in the US and Europe with their smartphone offerings, particularly on price. Make note of the name . Huawei’s first smartphones should show up on T-mobile later this year.

Finally, for those who like green initiatives, one innovative person came up with a new way to charge a cell phone – by hamster! I’ve seen phones that use solar to charge, or movement, but this is the first time I’ve seen a phone charged by hamster. Who knows if it’s real or not, but it sure makes for an entertaining video.

The prevailing opinion is that Verizon will help Apple sell a lot more iPhones. While I am sure that there would be an opening weekend feeding frenzy for the devices, I don’t see Apple as the big winner – Android will be.

Why?

1. The iPhone is a shiny object
Apple is exactly what Verizon wants to lure more people into its stores. Once there, they will see lots of great phones, Android phones: the Droid Incredible, the Droid X, the Fascinate, and the Droid 2. All of these devices can hold their own with the iPhone. Plus most of these phones will be cheaper than the iPhone. I’m willing to bet a lot of casual buyers will get drawn into a Verizon store because of the iPhone but leave with an Android device.

2. Verizon’s bait-and-switch strategy
Verizon will heavily market the iPhone to draw people into their stores, but once there, people will see signs pushing Android, and lots of them. Verizon has clearly aligned itself with Google. Verizon and Google’s joint net neutrality proposal and rumors of a Google Chrome tablet exclusive for Verizon should indicate who Verizon’s real partner is.

3. Just another face in the crowd
At an AT&T store, the best device was an iPhone, hands down. Not the case in the Verizon store. Instead of being the top dog, the iPhone will be just another smartphone. In fact, people will notice greater diversity with Android handsets with regards to form factor and screen size as well as features like a slide out keyboard. Android offers a lot more versatility over the one-size-fits-all iPhone approach.

4. There’s no reason to wait
If someone really wanted the iPhone, they should already have it from AT&T. Sure AT&T service on the iPhone is poor, but people who want the iPhone  have already moved past that and just sucked it up – they’ve had four years to switch carriers. The only place there could be some pent-up demand is on corporate Verizon accounts where it was cost prohibitive for people to switch.

5. New customers, but only for Verizon
The majority of people who want the iPhone on Verizon want to switch from AT&T. A recent study showed that 1 in 3 AT&T iPhone users want to switch. I believe this is the same group who are feeding the rumors as well. They must think that if they wish it hard enough, Verizon will pick up the iPhone and give them freedom from AT&T. In fact, if the Verizon iPhone winner is Android, the loser is AT&T.

The bottom line – it’s inevitable that the iPhone, or an Apple equivalent, will make it to Verizon. It would be silly for Apple not to let it happen. If I was Google, I wouldn’t be concerned. In fact, I’d relish it. It will only fuel Android’s rapid growth.

Following up on last week’s statistics, two more interesting reports were released last week. The first I’d like to highlight is from Chetan Sharma, a consultant in the mobile industry. He reports on mobile statistics quarterly, and his latest report indicated that mobile phone penetration is the US is nearing 100%. The number needs to be taken with a grain of salt as a lot of people these days are carrying two phones (me included), so the real number is likely lower – probably around 75-80%. Still yet, even at 80%, it’s clear that the mobile market in the US is nearing saturation and that brands and companies who do not have a mobile marketing strategy are missing out on a great opportunity to connect with consumers.

The other interesting report was released by the Gartner Group. The first statistic to highlight from the report is that mobile device sales grew 13.8% last quarter, so the market is definitely healthy and growing. A more telling statistic was that Android surpassed the iPhone in units sold worldwide last quarter, and outsold RIM in the US. As I pointed out in last week’s wrap-up, Android just keeps on rolling. Units sold is a clear trend of future overall marketshare, so I would expect to see Android make more gains in overall handset marketshare in the coming quarters.

Speaking of Android, two new Android handsets of note were released last week – the Motorola Droid 2 on Verizon and the Dell Streak on AT&T. The Droid 2 is a refresh of the original Droid while the Streak is an interesting “hybrid” device. I say “hybrid” because it sports a 5″ screen which makes it much larger than what people consider a phone but smaller than the new tablet form factor established by the iPad. It seems like an awkward tweener size, so I’m expecting it to be a device people will use a companion to a simple flip phone rather than their primary device. Either way, the diversity of Android devices in terms of screen sizes, features and form factors is exactly why Android is dominating the market. As opposed to the one size fits all Apple approach and the flavor of the month QWERTY keyboard BlackBerry approach, Android devices are available in all sorts of shapes and sizes at all types of price ranges. It’s easy to find an Android device that has the features you want to fit your budget.

Finally for this week is a fun survey that was released by dating site OK Cupid. The survey talks about how to make yourself look more attractive in digital photos (seems like it would be important for online dating). So what does this have to do with mobile? Well, about halfway down the page is a claim that iPhone users have more sex than Android and BlackBerry owners. So here’s the question, are the results of the survey accurate, or do iPhone users just tend to stretch the truth more than their smartphone counterparts?

The releases of these new smartphones have not been without troubles. Even the iPhone 4.0 has had its share of issues, primarily with reception. The issue got so bad that it forced Apple to hold a press conference with Steve Jobs responding to the criticism. In Apple style, they did a great job of spinning the problem and declaring the iPhone reception as good (or as bad, depending on your viewpoint) as every other smartphone. I thought the point of paying the “Apple tax” was to be a cut above everyone else, not as good as the competition. Either way, the iPhone 4.0 is still the class of the field these days, and it certainly helped Apple post great earnings for last quarter. Whether you love Apple or hate them, one thing is certain – they are posting impressive results!

In addition to the iPhone 4.0, the Droid X from Motorola that launched on Verizon has also run into its share of issues. Screen problems are plaguing the device, although both Motorola and Verizon have been quick to step in and remedy the issue. The increasing problems with smartphone introductions leads me to believe that manufacturers are rushing devices out the door prematurely to save/gain marketshare at the expense of quality. Manufacturers need to start doing a better job of quality control in order to preserve consumers’ trust in purchasing new devices.

Finally, one large player that has been absent from all of the mobile discussion has been Microsoft. Once a leader in the smartphone market, they have become a laggard. They are trying to stem their losses with a new OS called Windows Phone 7 (WP7). Microsoft is working to push out the OS by the end of the year, and it appears on schedule as they released hardware last week to Microsoft employees and select press members for review. Initial reviews have been mixed, and I get the feeling that the first release of WP7 will be half-baked with rapid improvements planned, similar to Apple’s original iPhone release strategy in 2007. Unfortunately for Microsoft, the market has shifted dramatically since 2007. iOS and Android are mature enough that I’d be surprised if users are willing to adopt an immature smartphone platform. While Microsoft has lots of resources to place behind WP7, I predict that they will compete with HP/Palm for third place in the smartphone market behind leaders Apple (iOS) and Google (Android).

If you’ve picked up one these, or a different, handset this summer, leave a comment – I’d like to hear how your experience has been. I’d be particularly interested in hearing from anyone who picked up a Samsung Vibrant on T-mobile. It’s the most underrated phone on the market in my opinion, and variants of the device will be available on AT&T, Sprint and Verizon by this fall.

To understand Palm’s fate and why it ended up where it did, one need only look at Motorola to see what Palm should have done. Motorola fell into the same trap as Palm by resting on the success of its RAZR line of phones. Just as Palm was the king of the smartphone market in 2005, Motorola was at the top of the cellphone market with the RAZR. Motorola found itself in the same position as Palm in early 2009. It needed to redefine itself to recapture market momentum.

How did Motorola recapture glory with the Droid, while Palm could not do the same with the Pre?

1. Partner selection
Motorola forged a partnership with the #1 carrier in the US – Verizon. Verizon was in dire need of a device to compete with AT&T and the iPhone. It had the desire and poured all the necessary resources into a $100M+ ad campaing supporting the Droid.

By contrast, Palm chose an exclusive relationship with Sprint, the #3 carrier in the US that was losing subscribers to both Verizon and AT&T at a rapid rate. Sprint was anxious to stem its subscriber losses and figured the Pre could do the trick. Unfortunately, Sprint did not have the resources to launch a significant ad campaign in support of the Pre, so Palm was left on its own to promote the device.

The result: Motorola’s launch was a huge success which continues today, while the Pre launch was a dud and never recovered.

2. Messaging
The Droid ads were edgy and defining. Verizon made no bones about going directly after the iPhone with its ads and positioning the Droid as a device that could not only hold its own against the iPhone, but in many cases surpass it. In effect, the Droid ads turned the device into a must have for Verizon users.

Palm’s advertising strategy for the Palm was confusing, to say the least. There did not appear to be any strategy or clarity of messaging, and, worse yet, the commercials were even painful to watch in most cases. An example from each ad campaign shows just how different the two approaches were.

3. Focus
Perhaps Palm’s biggest downfall was focusing on both the hardware and the software for the Pre. Many technology pundits argue to this day that WebOS is the best smartphone operating system on the market, but by owning both the software and hardware, Palm spread itself too thin. Perhaps it was John Rubinstein’s Apple roots that led him to believe that he could follow the Apple model, but Palm did not have the resources to continue to innovate on the hardware and software, while at the same time courting developers and building an ecosystem around webOS.

Motorola, on the other hand, focused exclusively on the hardware and leveraged the developing ecosystem around the Android OS. The leverage for Motorola was that it did not have to worry about developing and nurturing the Android ecosystem, Google did it for them. By freeing up resources, Motorola was able to focus solely on the hardware and has been able to continue innovating on the hardware beyond the Droid, while Palm has seemingly been at a standstill since the launch of the Pre.

In retrospect, Palm recognizes that it made fatal mistakes in how it handled the Pre launch - Jon Rubinstein admitted as much in an interview with Fortune a few weeks before the HP acquisition. Unfortunately, as my high school class motto stated, “Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.”

I, for one, am sad to see Palm go. Nothing will be able to replace my fond memories of my first handheld PC, the Palm V. Rest in peace, Palm.

After thinking about it, I realized she was right. Here are the latest commercial that Apple is using to promote the iPhone and that Verizon is using to promote the Droid.

The phone part of an iPhone or “smartphone” has become just another feature of the device. In fact, people now use these devices as phones less than 50% of the time, and that percentage will only continue to decline. It would be like us calling our computers smartcalculators (or in Apple’s terms, iCalculators). Sure the computer is a math processor, but it was given its own name to show what it could become.

We need a more generic name to show that these new cellphones we carry around are really not phones anymore. I’m beginning to think “slate” is a better term to more generically describe this class of device, unless someone out there has a better idea.

You know, the marketing geniuses at Apple may have been onto something when they were considering the name iSlate for the iPad. Who’s with me?

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Last week’s mobile news was a little sparse but that was expected following the flurry of activity around the Mobile World Conference. One of the more interesting stories was about mobile at the Olympics. Yahoo said they saw huge spikes in mobile searches related to every aspect of the Olympics. This doesn’t surprise me. The mobile web is fast becoming an integral part of our daily lives and with quick accessibility to info and news anytime, anywhere. What did surprise me are some of the key stats for searches on Yahoo last week:

• Searches “ice skating rinks” were up 607%
• Searches for “red Olympic mittens” were up 182% (um, there were searches for this before the Olympics?)
• Searches for Lindsey Vonn were up 1,446%
• Searches for “Shaun White snowboarding” were up 1,921%

Yahoo also built a specific mobilesite for the games sharing info, announcements, and results. This is truly the future of sporting events as the mobile web allows attendees to enhance their in-venue experience and for non-attendees to follow along. Well done Yahoo!

The other big story this week that caught my attention was Gartner’s latest worldwide smartphone sales and marketshare numbers. Overall, smartphone shipments were up 24% from the year before. The iPhone doubled its smartphone marketshare to 14% taking most of their growth away from Symbian (which is used by Nokia and I’ve discussed their slide in previous posts). BlackBerry ended up with 20% marketshare which represents a growth of 3%. So, for all of you who keep telling me that the iPhone is stealing marketshare from BlackBerry, it’s just not true. The iPhone is gaining ground but at Nokia’s expense, not BlackBerry.

As always, here are the latest handset rumors, announcements and reviews I found this week:

• HTC Supersonic (or Incredible) spotted on video?
• Motorola Backflip for AT&T unboxing and hands-on
• Motorola Cliq XT with T-Mobile branding caught in the wild
• Snapdragon powered LG LU9400 Arena Max touchscreen phone lands on LG Telecom as Maxx
• Review: Motorola Devour
• LG hopes to launch their first Windows Phone 7 handset around September or November
• Nokia E72 smartphone review – all business
• HTC Incredible sneaks into Verizon’s inventory system
• Windows Phone 7 devices will come in three flavors
• HTC Desire headed for AT&T, Sprint picks up Legend (as Hero2)?
• Checking out Acer’s low-cost beTouch e110 Android smartphone
• Acer Liquid e comes to North America by way of Rogers Wireless
• LG GD510 Pop touchscreen feature phone surpasses one million sales, new colors coming soon
• Nexus One for Verizon takes one big step closer to reality, clears the FCC

To finish off this week’s update, here are a few other articles I want to share with you:

• RIM’s free BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express is available now
• Survey: 26% of Americans Get News via Phone
• T-Mobile USA reports Q4 2009 subscriber growth, but lower earnings
• Sprint to launch 4G network in at least 8 major markets this year
• Mobile phone subscriptions expected to exceed 5 billion in 2010, global mobile prices falling
• Microsoft updates Marketplace – smartphone apps can now install to memory cards
• MWC Attendance Reaches 49,000
• Opera Software Posts 87% Slump in Q4 Profits

See or hear anything else interesting in mobile.  Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Last week was a big week in mobile with the Mobile World Conference (MWC) going on in Barcelona. If you follow us on twitter or facebook, you would have seen several posts on the announcements during MWC. The biggest stories during the week centered on Microsoft and Google. Microsoft released their highly anticipated finally presentable Windows Phone 7 and received great reviews from the critics (yes, I’m serious) … but we won’t see it until at least Q4 2010 which in today’s mobile environment is an eternity. Just imagine what Google will add to Android by then, especially considering they told the mobile world last week that Google advocates “mobile first”.  Google seems to be saying all the right things these days and the numbers prove it with over 60,000 Android-based phones shipping per day. Can Microsoft capitalize on Windows Phone 7 or is their finally-respectable mobile product just too late? Only time will tell. Either way, MWC got me even more excited about mobile in 2010.

I’m sure you noticed but one major mobile company made no news at MWC – and that was Apple. Why not? Simple, it’s because they are just too arrogant to attend. Apple wants the world to respect them as a mobile leader yet they don’t have enough respect for the industry to attend the biggest mobile conference of the year.  Ironically, Steve Jobs won the “Mobile Industry Personality of the Year” at MWC… I don’t think he’ll be getting that award again.  Although Apple was not at MWC, they still made the headlines last week. Apple decided to use their magic veto stick and remove apps from the app store that “suggested” explicit material (not contained, but “suggested”). OK, now that Apple’s removed all those “dirty” apps, the iPhone is free of smut, right? Hmm… ever heard of Safari and the web??? I used to respect Apple and their core corporate values, but with their over-the-top egos and authoritative control, I now see them for who they are – money vultures in angel’s clothing.

Along with all the MWC excitement, we saw lots of handset news last week. Below is the list I compiled, so enjoy and start planning your next purchase:

• Hands-on with HTC’s Smart for O2, based on BREW MP but sporting the Sense UI
• Live – the Pulse mini Android 2.1 smartphone for T-Mobile UK
• First look at Samsung’s bada-powered S8500 Wave
• Hands-on with the Acer’s Android powered Liquid e smartphone
• LG’s Android powered LU2300 smartphone to ship with augmented reality app
• The OT-980 is Alcatel’s first Android device and the first Alcatel handset to offer advanced smartphone features.
• AT&T launches Mobile-TV equipped LG KM900 Arena touchscreen phone
• AT&T to carry Android powered Motorola BACKFLIP with MOTOBLUR
• Acer outs beTouch E400 Android 2.1 powered touchscreen smartphone
• A look at HTC’s stunning Legend Android smartphone, carved from a block of metal
• Mobile World Congress Best Of Show: HTC Desire
• HTC reveals updated Sense user interface for Android smartphones
• T-Mobile gives an HTC HD2 reminder, now with more fun!
• Android 2.1 coming to Samsung Moment and HTC Hero in Q2, says Sprint
• LG GW990 to be among first MeeGo phones
• Motorola Quench hands-on with video
• Acer announces neoTouch P300 Windows Mobile 6.5.3 smartphone
• Acer shows off neoTouch P400 Windows Mobile 6.5.3 smartphone
• Acer Ferrari smartphone coming this March to handle your mid-life crisis
• Huawei makes the U8100, U8110, U8800 and U8300 with Android official
• Microsoft Turtle and Pure deets are revealed

As most of you know, I always end by sharing other stories or articles I enjoyed during the week, so enjoy:

• Shout for Android offers one-tap texting
• Can Any Smartphone Survive The Patent Gantlet?
• ITC Opens Second Apple Investigation In Three Weeks
• Motorola DROID running Flash 10.1 demo
• Firefox Mobile for Android launching “late this year”
• The New WebKit BlackBerry Browser: Yes, It’s Actually Good
• RIM to give away server software
• Verizon Wireless and Skype launch Skype Mobile for BlackBerry and Android devices
• Adobe bringing AIR to smartphones–Android first
• Mobile companies band together and rise against Apple

See or hear anything else interesting in mobile.  Let us know by leaving a comment below.