Daily Bits

nexus one

New Android Phones to Replace Credit Cards?

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It’s the stuff that sci-fi is made of. How many stories have you read or heard or even watched about being able to use your mobile phone for practically everything? For sure, this idea is nothing new. However, the actual implementation of this idea is something else.

With the recent announcement from Google, though, it seems that we just might be able to use our mobile phones in lieu of credit cards in the future. At the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Google head honcho Eric Schmidt talked about – and showed off – the new mobile operating system that they are working on. While the mobile phone was a mere prototype, the new version of Android – dubbed “gingerbread” for now – seemed to be ready for release. It won’t however, be released till the next several weeks or so.

What is really interesting about Schmidt’s demo is the fact that he talked about “near-field technology.” What’s it all about? In the future, mobile phones will have a chip that will serve as a way to conduct transactions the way credit cards do right now. While has was quite excited about the potential of the technology, he added a word of caution about credit card-like transactions not being available in the immediate future.

What got the attention of the people present at the demo was the mobile phone which ran the new version of Android. As is to be expected, rumors are flying around that the phone is a prototype of the Nexus S (S for Samsung), Nexus One‘s successor. While that phone is “dead,” there is still hope for a successor, something which a some people are looking forward to.

In the meantime, hold on to your credit cards.

Nexus One, iPhone, Motorola Droid Sales Compared

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Mobile analytics company Flurry has published an interesting report. A comparison actually of the sales figures of the first generation iPhone, Motorola Droid and Google Nexus One during the first 74 days since these phones were first released. And guess what? The report found out that sales of the Nexus is nowhere near the outstanding sales achieved by both Droid and iPhone.

Apple managed to post its 1 million units sold on its 74th day of being released. This is the reason why Flurry decided to measure the same for the Nexus One to see how far its sales went after 74 days. Unfortunately, Google’s first major venture into the mobile phone market is an epic fail with the Nexus One managing to get only around 0.135 million units sold.

Interestingly, the Motorola DROID managed to post the most number of units sold during its first 74 days of becoming available in the market with 1.05 million units sold.

Can we now conclude that Google’s first venture into the selling and marketing of mobile handset is an epic fail? Before we do so, we might want to consider first how these three phones were made available. For all we know this might have affected the Nexus One’s sales performance.

Apple has its brick and mortar stores scattered across the states which helped Apple in selling the iPhone. This is in addition to its online store. For Motorola Droid, this was distributed by Verizon Wireless. While the Nexus was only made available for purchase online through Google’s web store. Even if it was released under T-Mobile contract plan, Google did not allow T-Mobile to distribute the phone on their own. [Read more…] about Nexus One, iPhone, Motorola Droid Sales Compared

BlackBerry Users Ready to Ditch Their Phones for the iPhone, and Android Too

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I was about to write a post about a different topic but decided not to when I chanced upon this article currently running on Ars Technica saying that 40% of BlackBerry users are willing to trade their current phone for  an  iPhone.  This has caught my attention since I recently got a BlackBerry Bold 9700, but I did not ditch my iPhone 3GS for it.

The report was citing the study conducted by market research Crowd Science. According to the study, two in five BlackBerry owners are said to be planning on swapping their current phone for an iPhone as soon as its time for them to upgrade.  And among the reasons suggested by the study is the fact that RIM may not be keeping up with consumer demand in its effort to fight the encroachment from the iPhone and even Android devices more particularly Google Nexus One.

This is quite interesting since RIM holds a pretty strong reputation in the smartphone market although this was slightly rocked by the iPhone’s rapid growth last year.

CrowdScience also suggested that this development can also be attributed to the fact that many smartphone users are now using their units for both personal and business use and not for business purposes alone anymore. And since the iPhone is both personal and business oriented it is no wonder that it is threatening BlackBerry’s stronghold in the business mobile phone market as well.

Aside from the iPhone, current BlackBerry users are also eyeing to replace their units with an Android-based phones, more particularly with the Google Nexus One phone. 32% of the surveyed BlackBerry users says they are ready to exchange their phone with a Nexus One.

Crowd Science CEO John Martin said that BlackBerry users are getting restless with the BlackBerry brand and are getting enticed by the allure of iPhone.

“Rather, BlackBerry as a brand just isn’t garnering the loyalty seen with other mobile operating systems,” said Mr. Martin.

Now, here’s the best part. About 90% of current iPhone and Android users are not planning to swap their current phones with another model.

Five Most Anticipated Gadgets of 2010

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With 2009 coming to a close, several manufacturers are already prepping up their latest gadgets for a 2010 launch. We’ve seen some of these gadgets as early as now and they have been generating  buzz already.

We’ve gathered up 5 of these gadgets which are starting to catch fire as early as now despite the fact that they are still being planned for release in 2010. So, here goes our top five most anticipated gadgets of 2010.

1. Apple Tablet

Not the JooJoo, not the CrunchPad or any of those tablet magazine demoed by  Time Inc. but the real Apple Tablet which has been rumored to be already in the works and which Apple remains mum about.  This makes us want the Apple Tablet even more. Will Apple finally release it in 2010? Or is there really an Apple Tablet?  We”ll soon find out about that. [Read more…] about Five Most Anticipated Gadgets of 2010