Smartphone Sales Up 12% In Q3

Global mobile phone sales reached 308.9 million units in the third quarter of 2009, a slight increase of 0.1 percent from the third quarter of 2008, according to a new report from Gartner.

Smartphone sales showed solid growth with more than 41 million units sold for a 12.8 percent increase from the same period last year.

"The third quarter of 2009 saw the announcement of many new mobile devices, including several Android smartphones ready for the holiday season in the fourth quarter, but hardware commoditisation and the growth in open platforms will make it harder for them to stand out," said Carolina Milanesi, research director at Gartner.

"Many devices will reach the market in time for Christmas, and mobile carriers will run incentives for consumers during the holidays. We expect sales of mobile devices in the fourth quarter of 2009 to show year-over-year growth," said Ms Milanesi.

"As many vendors and industry watchers call for a decrease in sales into the channel, our sell through data is showing that 2009 performance will be flat rather than down over 2008."

Nokia led the mobile market in Q3 with 36.7 percent of the share, followed by Samsung at 19.6 percent and LG with 10.3 percent market share.

Nokia also ranked at the top in smartphone sales with 39.3 percent of the market, followed by Blackberry maker Research in Motion with 20.8 percent and Apple with 17.1 percent.

"Smartphones continued to represent the fastest-growing segment of the mobile-devices market and we remain confident about the potential for smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2009 and in 2010," said Ms Milanesi.
 

 

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YouTube Gets Well Over a Billion Views Per Day

YouTube announced that it is has been serving well over a billion views a day. This announcement comes three years after Google acquired the company. 

Chad Hurley, CEO and Co-founder of YouTube wrote on the company blog that since the early days, YouTube has been committed to three basic principles as described:

- Speed matters: Videos should load and play back quickly.

-  Clip culture is here to stay: Short clips are voraciously consumed and perfect for watching a wide variety of content.

- Open platforms open up possibility: Content creation isn't our business; it's yours. We wanted to create a place where anyone with a video camera, a computer, and an Internet connection could share their life, art, and voice with the world, and in many cases make a living from doing so.

"Three years after the acquisition, our platform and our business continue to grow and evolve," says Hurley. "We are still committed to the same principles that informed the site early on, but we know things have changed. As bandwidth has increased, so has our video quality. As we've started to see demand for longer, full-length content, we've brought more shows and movies to the site. There are now more ways than ever to make and consume content, and more of you are looking to turn your hobby into a real business."

YouTube has certainly accomplished a lot since it was launched. They even have 3D videos now.

YouTube has already had a pretty interesting week or two. First, Google announced that it would include YouTube promoted videos in AdSense. The only known footage of Anne Frank was found to be posted on the site, and YouTube has been streaming the announcements of the Nobel Prizes. The company also formed some new content ID partnerships.

Open Android Alliance Poses Problem For Google

About 11 months ago, Google made a big announcement about the Android Open Source Project.  The word "open" was used six times in a single official blog post.  But now, a group of developers has formed the Open Android Alliance to take things a lot further.

Android seems to be a little too synonymous with Google for the new group's tastes.  Its homepage declared, "We aim to replace all closed source, proprietary applications in the base Android install with open source applications that can be freely distributed."  That would mean parting ways with things like Gmail, YouTube, and Google Maps.

The group also noted, "We don't have anything against the existing closed applications, however, we believe in open platforms and want all users to be able to modify their systems as they see fit."  And it said, "Above all, remember, we are NOT 'Anti-Google'.  We are 'Pro-Android.'"

The Open Android Alliance's level-headed position puts Google in a somewhat embarrassing spot.  The search giant has all its Android Open Source Project hullabaloo to live up to, after all.  There's also the matter of its membership in the similarly named Open Handset Alliance to consider.

Dan Goodin reported that an alpha offering from the Open Android Alliance should come to light within two months, so Google doesn't have a long time to figure out its approach.