Incumbent smartphone OS software vendors such as Symbian and Windows Mobile and BlackBerry OS will soon face a serious challenge from Linux consortia, says ABI Research.
The LiMo Foundation (with Verizon support) and the Open Handset Alliance (with Google support), are serious alternatives, says ABI.
“By 2013, we expect that Linux will take 23% of the smartphone market and will be the second most prevalent solution behind Symbian, says ABI Research VP Stuart Carlaw. And although LiMo and Android will take the lion’s share of the market for Linux solutions, there will be opportunities for solutions such as Maemo which is used by Nokia’s Web Tablet.
Nokia leads in cell phone sales for “regular” phones. But ABI Research found that Nokia’s position was only 4% for Symbian in the American “smart phone” market. The company’s leadership in the European markets may be challenged by a combination of a resurgent Windows and emerging Linux, while simultaneously being locked out of the North American market, says ABI.
Here’s a list of 50 Android applications that emerged from Google’s Android Developer Challenge, and a slideshow of the applications (pdf).
Apple’s App Store is the only way to get official third-party iPhone applications onto your device. Developers have been submitting their applications to Apple for testing and verification since the iPhone SDK became available, this March.
Personally, I can’t wait for Platial’s iPhone application which could map out 150 million pieces of user-supplied location-based data. Now all I need is an iPhone — or something like it.
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