Smartphones Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

T-Mobile FCC memo cites Android app that caused network chaos

by Michael Rose (Oct 19th, 2010)

Remember, back in 2007 -- you know, Year One BTAS (Before The App Store) -- when Steve Jobs gave Apple's rationale for keeping the iPhone a closed platform versus allowing native app development? "Cingular doesn't want to see their West Coast network go down because some application messed up," he ...

iControlPad going into production (again), 3000 units in first run

by Mike Schramm (Aug 25th, 2010)

After a few fits and false starts, the image above shows the iControlPad in what's purported to be its final production form, according to inventor Craig Rothwell's Twitter account. Pricing hasn't been announced yet, and sales are supposed to start sometime in September, but Rothwell says the unit ...

iPhone grew more than Android in May

by Mel Martin (Jun 1st, 2010)

At least that's the word from Net Applications, the company that measures visits to clients websites. The latest report says the iPhone not only keeps a large lead over Android, but it actually enlarged its global share last month, going from 30.4. At the same time, Android increased from 5.3. If ...

Apple is unconcerned with NPD's smartphone report

by Mike Schramm (May 14th, 2010)

If Apple is losing any sleep over those recent smartphone numbers, it's not showing it. Their official response to the recent news that Android is selling more phones than iPhone OS could adequately be defined as: "meh." Spokeswoman Natalie Harrison says that the survey was "a very limited report," ...

Frog Design releases 1983 tablet prototypes

by Mike Schramm (Jan 25th, 2010)

It's this week! It's almost a sure bet that we'll finally, after all of these years, see the Apple tablet unveiled this week, and to celebrate, Frog Design (the company responsible for many of Apple's designs back in the day) has given Wired some old shots of prototype tablets from the Cupertino ...

Study: Android and iPhone users show same usage trends, heavy app usage

by Mike Schramm (Dec 28th, 2009)

A study put together by analytics firms comScore and Compete says that while Android and iPhone users probably aren't the same people, they certainly act like it. Usage patterns line up almost exactly across the board, differing by only a few percentage points in categories from social networking ...

iPhone and Android now total 75% of U.S. smartphone web traffic

by Mel Martin (Nov 23rd, 2009)

It's a rather stunning number from AdMob in an October report. The firm reports on web requests from thousands of sites world wide. In the latest report, Apple has 55% of the domestic Smartphone traffic share, and Android has 20%. Interestingly, the Blackberry share dropped 2% to a 12 percent share, ...

MS software architect: Apps don't make the phone

by Mike Schramm (Nov 19th, 2009)

This sounds an awful lot like sour grapes to me: Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's chief software engineer, told a Professional Developers' Conference earlier this week that it wasn't the apps that would make or break the smartphone platforms. Of course, that's what most press and blog outlets seem to be ...

iPhone usage metric for Flickr drops big time

by Mike Schramm (Sep 15th, 2009)

We've posted before how popular the iPhone is as a camera on Flickr, with people uploading tons of photos, both shot by and straight from the iPhone. But now, The Next Web has covered a huge drop in photos referencing the iPhone over on the popular photo sharing site. The suspected culprit? Flickr ...

iPhone nabs 59% of smartphone 'net traffic, 43% of mobile web traffic

by Mike Schramm (May 29th, 2009)

Fortune has the results of an AdMob survey up, and they're pretty surprising -- Apple has apparently taken over 59% of smartphone traffic on the Internet, and in the mobile category in general, they've got a giant 43% of 'net traffic surveyed. But there's another side here: the report doesn't just ...

J.D. Power says iPhone tops smartphone ratings

by Mel Martin (Apr 30th, 2009)

Given all the other good publicity the iPhone has been getting, it won't come as any great surprise that the J.D. Power survey released today says: Apple ranks highest among smartphone manufacturers with a score of 791, performing particularly well in ease of operation, operating system, features ...

iPhone and iPod touch continue to dominate smartphone web traffic

by Mel Martin (Apr 24th, 2009)

Admob has released another monthly survey of smartphone metrics, and Apple continues to look very healthy both in the U.S. and around the world. In website requests, Apple iPhones and iPod touch devices are up 4.2% from the previous month, while Nokia, still the top dog in handsets world wide, is ...

iPhone owners make up 14% of mobile game downloaders

by Mike Schramm (Feb 4th, 2009)

Hot off the heels of the news that the iPhone is dominating independent mobile gaming comes this interesting statistic: 14% of all people downloading mobile games are doing so on an iPhone. Market research group comScore says that not only is the iPhone picking up double digits of all game downloads ...

Turn your smartphone into an iPhone-wannabe

by Dan Pourhadi (Jun 20th, 2007)

Stuck with your current smartphone for the remainder of your service contract? Tied in with business? Just can't wait 'til June 29th to get some of that iPhone-y goodness? No worries: Andy Ihnatko has you covered. In his Thursday column for the Chicago (go Cubs!) Sun-Times, Andy lists numerous ways ...