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.

Kicking things off, rumors about the iPhone becoming available outside of AT&T continue to grow, which given the results of a JD Power and Associates study highlighting AT&T’s poor network performance, can’t happen soon enough for many people. The chic rumor is that the iPhone is coming to Verizon given Apple’s orders for CDMA chipsets. While this is what most people want, another possibility raised last week is that Apple is creating a “world-phone” iPhone. In other words, one device that is compatible with mobile networks around the world. I think this a better possibility than a Verizon iPhone. A “world-phone” iPhone could also lead to the phone landing on T-mobile, which is another rumor that is gaining momentum. Of course, Apple’s lips are sealed, so I don’t suspect that we will know anything until the day after it happens, at best!

Speaking of AT&T, executives at the company have implied that the new BlackBerry Torch sales are not meeting expectations. Not a good sign for BlackBerry, who is continuing to struggle against the rising tide of Android devices. It is also rumored that many of BlackBerry’s best customers, like financial institutions, are starting to experiment with iPhone and Android devices. As I mentioned before, BlackBerry would be best served to keep their “bread-and-butter” enterprise customers happy and forget about competing in the consumer market.

In Android news, T-mobile announced the G2 device – the follow-on to the G1 who many consider “the original” Android device. The device looks great on paper, but the best part could be that it will run a stock Android build. In other words, no carrier crapware or special UI’s like Sense, TouchWiz or MotoBlur. If my NexusOne is any indication, this means that it will be one of the first devices to get new Android builds, which I’ve found to be one of the best, if not the best, feature of the NexusOne.

Another hot rumor last week is that Microsoft will launch Windows Phone 7 October 11 in a flashy New York City event. Microsoft has committed over $500MM to the launch of their latest mobile OS, so I would expect this event to be quite the party. Unfortunately, I don’t think that I’ll be on the invite list, but I’m willing to tag along as someone’s guest if you need company for the week….

Finally, Nokia is preparing to launch the Nokia N8, their latest attempt to head off the iPhone and Android juggernaut. In order to build buzz for the device, they released a rather racy, but not over the top, interactive video featuring a self-described “sizzling hot” model. Is Nokia worried that the N8 cannot stand on its own, or is this a genius move by Nokia to create buzz about the device? I’ve embedded the video below, and I’ll let you be the judge.

To start off, Microsoft announced the line up of Xbox Live games that would be available on their mobile Windows Phone 7 platform. I don’t play Xbox (Playstation is my platform of choice), so I couldn’t tell you if the game list is interesting or not. However, what I do find interesting is Microsoft’s mobile strategy. It appears that Microsoft is going to tie its mobile success to the Xbox platform. I wouldn’t call this a genius strategy as much as I would consider it a high risk bet. In my opinion, Microsoft has already lost this round of the mobile OS game to RIM for the enterprise, Apple for the high end, and Android for the general consumer. Since no one has gone after the hardcore gamer, Microsoft is filling an underserved niche to build a loyal following. On the other hand, it will take time and lots of resources, i.e. money, to grow the niche. Given Microsoft’s deep pockets, they are one of the few companies that can pull it off, and I like the fact that they are going after a niche in the market rather than trying to immediately compete head to head with Apple, Google and RIM, although I am sure they will end up there soon enough.

Behind the Microsoft announcement, rumors were leaked that Sony is working on an Android-based Playstation mobile phone. Adding phone capability is the next logical move for the PSP, and not because people want to use it as a phone. It is for the over the air download capability and the social gaming aspects that can occur using the mobile network as its backbone. Given Microsoft’s moves with its Xbox/Windows Phone 7 platform, Sony must do this, and quickly, to keep from losing customers and market share in the highly lucrative gaming console market. Of course, all of this could become a moot point if Google and Verizon get their way and regulate traffic on the mobile internet (OK – I’ll admit that last comment was a bit tongue-in-cheek, but I couldn’t resisit).

Finally, to wrap-up this week on a gaming note, Mashable pointed out 10 classic PC games that have been reborn on the iPhone. I was a bit surprised by how many of them I recognized, and played! It brought back memories of my college days and made me wonder how me and my college roommates ever graduated! Take a look and let me know which games you recognize and which was your favorite. Just for the record, mine would be Prince of Persia, although Doom runs a close second.

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?

One company that is seeing declines in market share is RIM with their BlackBerry platform. BlackBerry has been the dominant smartphone in the US for what seems like forever. However, unless you are addicted to email or are a business user, BlackBerry’s hardware and overall user experience lags behind the iPhone and Android. As BlackBerry users are coming off contract, it’s obvious they are switching platforms. BlackBerry attempted to stem their losses with last week’s launch of the BlackBerry Torch 9800. While it closed the gap on features, it still does not put it on the same level as the iPhone or Android. At this point, RIM needs to stay focused on its bread and butter, the enterprise. As I pointed out in an article last week, RIM cannot serve both enterprise users and consumers with the same platform. They have a dominant position in the enterprise that they need to protect. So while the consumer market is where all the media attention is, RIM needs to stay focused on who’s paying their bills.

In the end, I see Android winning the market share game by dominating the middle and low end of the smartphone market, Apple winning the high end of the market, which is the most profitable, and RIM winning the enterprise. Left on the outside looking in are Nokia, Microsoft and HP. I’m not so sure that any of these three can carve out a piece of the market as I don’t think the smartphone is big enough, at least today, to support more than three strong companies.

So do I plan to switch back to a BlackBerry?

No. Neither the device nor the OS offer compelling enough reasons.

Is this a bad thing? No it isn’t. RIM isn’t, and shouldn’t, be catering to my needs. I am not the big enterprise customer that needs the security and control functionality that RIM offers with its BlackBerry platform.

BlackBerry has foregone some of the features that make the iPhone and Android devices so popular among consumers, and they should. Many of these features create security issues and are not compatible with the goals of enterprise IT groups. Furthermore, RIM is not going to beat Android or Apple at the mass consumer market. They are wise to recognize this and focus on their strength - serving the enterprise.

The enterprise market is a large and profitable market. Sure, Apple and Android are trying to get a piece of it, but so long as RIM continues to provide the best security and control features, corporate IT groups will continue to embrace the platform, meaning that corporations will continue to buy BlackBerry devices for their employees. 

The media at large may claim that RIM is not adding features fast enough to win the consumer market, but they may be missing the big picture. It’s possible that RIM doesn’t want to win the consumer market and is not interested in going after consumers like me. RIM is adding new features, but in a way that doesn’t jeopardize the overall security and functionality of the BlackBerry platform.

On the other hand, if RIM does want to win the consumer market, they had better rethink their strategy. Creating a platform that serves both consumer and enterprise markets well is difficult, if not impossible. RIM needs to pick their path, and they should pick the path that they know best – the enterprise.

With the hot summer handset releases behind us, who is the worldwide leader in the market? According to Strategy Analytics, Nokia (remember them?) sold the greatest share of the 308M handsets sold in Q2. Nokia’s share was 36.1%, follwed by Samsung at 20.7%, and LG at 10%. RIM, the only dedicated smartphone maker in the top 5, came in fourth at 3.6%. So while smartphones grab all of the media attention, the low-end of the market accounts for all the volume. If the market is largest at the low end, then why are all the manufacturers chasing the smartphone market? Because that’s where all the profits are. For example, Apple is nowhere to be seen on the market share list, yet they are far and away the most profitable mobile phone company.

Speaking of market share, a report on mobile search was released by StatCounter last week. At the top of the heap was Google, with a whopping 98.29% share of the market. I’m not sure how accurate the numbers are, but even if they are off by 20%, that’s still a dominant share of the market. If that doesn’t convince you that you should have a mobile presence that Google can index, then you’re losing lots of business to your competitors who do have one - without even knowing about it! Both Yahoo! and Bing, the two other big mobile search providers, account for just 1.25% of the market. On the bright side, I guess Yahoo! and Bing’s share can only get bigger, because it certainly can’t get any smaller!

Finally, just to kick start everyone’s favorite rumor mill, I am going to jump on the bandwagon and say that AT&T’s iPhone exclusivity may be coming to an end this year. Why? Well, AT&T made a statement that they are going to be the premier vendor for Microsoft’s latest mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7. I don’t understand why AT&T would back a competitor to the iPhone unless their exclusivity is coming to an end. It’s time to place your bets. I say that the iPhone is available on another carrier for the holidays, and I’ll predict T-mobile over Verizon since T-mobile’s GSM technology is the most compatible with AT&T and Apple, out of spite, wants to stick it to Verizon for their Android promoting, iPhone-bashing ads. What do you think? Feel free to sound off in the comments!

I have to believe that Apple felt a little sting from the NPD report. Even though Apple is printing money these days, losing market share for them is embarrassing considering their inflated egos. This week, articles resurfaced about the exclusivity deal between Apple and AT&T. If you haven’t seen it yet… you better sit down…the exclusivity was for 5 years which means the evil cult and service-deficient service provider are best buds until 2012. All I can think is, why? Apple had a huge opportunity in front of them and let it pass. Just think about how many Android handsets Verizon, T-mobile, and Sprint can get into the marketplace by then. Gregg wrote a great article this week with his analysis on Apple’s lost opportunity.

I want to end this week’s update with a video that provides a sneak-peek of the future. Imagine the possibilities if you could choose a phone based on its form factor, specs, etc… and then load the OS of your choice. Well, one developer started a project that demonstrates the future isn’t that far. He started work to get Android running on the iPhone and has successfully demoed limited functionality on the 3GS. I definitely encourage you to watch it and start dreaming of the future.

As always, if you see or hear anything else interesting in mobile, let us know by leaving a comment below.

By signing a long-term contract that could last into 2012 according to Engadget, Apple has left the door open for its competitors by failing to service 75% of the US market, especially when surveys show that nearly half the people on Verizon would buy the iPhone if it were available.

The potential pitfalls of the exclusivity became evident today in an NPD research report showing Android as the number 2 smartphone OS behind RIM, the makers of BlackBerry. What do RIM and Android have in common? They are available on all four carriers and have handsets that come in multiple form factors at prices ranging from free to $299 on contract. By contrast, Apple is available on one carrier, has one model, and starts at $99, with the most people having to pay at least $199 to gain access.

While the AT&T arrangement may be a sweetheart deal for Apple, it could become the Achilles heel for the iPhone. As Android continues to proliferate the mobile landscape, Apple could find itself in an uphill battle when the exclusivity finally ends for the following reasons:

1. Mobile phones are bought on contract
People get locked into their phones for two years, at least. Even if the iPhone AT&T exclusivity ended tomorrow, many people would be forced to wait until their contract expired to get access to the handset

2. The gap between the iPhone and its rivals has narrowed
The Android Marketplace is rapidly catching up to Apple’s App Store. In fact, nearly all major productivity apps are available on both platforms, as well as most good games. In addition, the Android hardware is nearly equivalent, if not better than the iPhone. If you don’t believe it, then you have not put your hands on Verizon’s latest Droid model, the HTC Incredible.

3. It’s all about mindshare
Android is proliferating in much the same way rabbits multiply. The shapes, sizes and price points are out there to fit anyone’s taste. While I will never bet against the Cupertino propaganda machine, mindshare is shifting to the new game in town. Couple that with the fact that Android is migrating to devices other than phones like tablets, set-top boxes, TVs and appliances, and you begin to envision a world where it’s better to have an Android device over an Apple device.

Would marketshare be different without iPhone exclusivity? Results in countries where the iPhone is available without an exclusive carrier have demonstrated just how dominant the iPhone can be. Apple has turned away from that opportunity here in the US.

To give credit where credit is due, Apple is printing money these days. While you can’t argue the strategy to this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple is lamenting its decision to tie itself to AT&T two or three years from now.