Sprint rides the Express to Budget Town

Do you choo-choo-choose the Sprint Express, or does it choose you? The Now Network's mixing things up this holiday season by adding its own branded device -- in reality, a reworked Huawei Boulder that Sprint slapped its name on -- to the low end of its smartphone lineup. Known simply as the Express, it's a portrait QWERTY Android 2.3 handset that will set you back $20 with a two-year contract (after a $50 mail-in rebate). What you'll get in return for that hard-earned Jackson is a 2.6-inch QVGA (320 x 240) display, 3.2MP camera, 256MB of RAM, 512MB of internal storage (with expandable microSD slot), a 1,500mAh battery and a 3G mobile hotspot that supports up to five devices. We doubt it'll be the first stop on anybody's Black Friday shopping list, but we think it may actually get penciled into the schedule somewhere.

Android App Downloads Surpass iOS App Downloads For the First Time

Android has taken the lead in application market downloads, according to reports by by market analysts. This is the first time for the platform to overtake iOS, although Apple still trumps Google in terms of revenue and per-user downloads

ABI Research recently revealed market findings during the 2nd quarter of 2011. According to the analysts, Android Market downloads have surpassed those of Apple’s App Store. During that period, Android got a 44% market share in app downloads, while Apple’s share slid to 31%.

ABI credits this trend to Google’s open approach to Android and application development, citing how the platform is open for use by multiple manufacturers, while Apple’s iOS is a closed ecosystem. Also, quarterly shipment figures point toward a decline in iPhone sales during 2Q 2011, with a 9% shipment growth compared to 15% in the previous quarter. Meanwhile, Android smartphone shipments grew 36% compared to 20% in Q1 2011.

However, ABI qualifies this trend, saying that Apple is not exactly a net loser. In terms of per-user downloads, iOS users still outnumber Android users in average, by a factor of 2-to-1. iOS is said to be a better ecosystem for developers and users. ABI attributes this to better monetization for developers and a better user experience for smartphone users. As such, Android may be overtaking iOS in terms of raw numbers, but Apple’s winning strategy is focusing its market on getting the most out of each user and out of each application.

ABI’s Mobile Applications Market Data research says the global app market is expected to reach 29 billion app downloads by end of the year, compared to 2010′s 9 billion. Meanwhile, the total smartphone install base is expected to grow 46% compared to last year’s.

BlackBerry's business problem

Addictions are tough to break, yet Research in Motion seems to be doing whatever it can to help users cast aside their CrackBerrys once and for all. Consider just a few of the reasons the Canadian maker of the BlackBerry smartphone is ailing: an international outage in mid-October; the Playbook tablet, a weak answer to the iPad; and phones with web browsing that is both laughably low-quality and slow as molasses.

All of these woes mean that RIM (RIMM) faces its greatest existential crisis yet. At a time when its product lineup and network service have never been weaker, Apple (AAPL) and Android users are fiercely attacking BlackBerry's greatest strength -- the business market. Sure, BlackBerry had its moment of hipness, when advertising built around the likes of U2's Bono helped convince kids its smartphones were cool. But "the enterprise" was always RIM's sweet spot. Selling functional e-mail devices with a proprietary -- and secure -- network is where BlackBerry has excelled. That's why its three-day service outage was such a black eye.

For a while now BlackBerry has lagged in the kind of applications that make iPhones and Android devices so popular. And recently Apple has been highlighting business applications like Dropbox and Cisco's (CSCO) WebEx in its iPhone advertising. Though Apple focuses on consumers, it frequently notes that 93% of the Fortune 500 is testing or has already deployed the iPhone -- a terrifying statistic for RIM.

Meet the top 7 app makers of 2011

At the same time Motorola (MMI), which Google (GOOG) is buying, suggests its new Droid RAZR will sell well to chief information officer buyers, who value its inexpensive but high-quality "cloud" capabilities. The cloud lets users access content on networks businesses don't have to maintain themselves. "CIOs today understand there is a shift in IT to cloud and mobilization, whether they like it or not," says Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha.

RIM still has plenty going for it. Peter Walker, the company's senior director for enterprise product management, trumpets the "BlackBerry Balance" technology, for example, which lets business customers control employees' devices while enabling the use of personal apps. It is also beefing up its offerings from independent app developers. A bevy of new phones and tablets built around a redesigned operating system is expected next year.

Most important, the company still has 70 million worldwide subscribers, and shipped some 10.6 million smartphones last quarter. "A whole lot of businesses remain BlackBerry loyalists," says Kevin Restivo, a Toronto-based analyst with market tracker IDC. He says RIM is still strong for businesses where compliance matters, like law firms. Still, he notes, "enterprise is not the exclusive domain of RIM anymore." The problem with this narcotic, it seems, is that there are many suitable replacements.

--Reporter associate Richard Nieva, This article is from the November 21, 2011 issue of Fortune.

Google : Siri is a serious threat

It sounded pretty good until Eric Schmidt said it: Siri, the so-called personal assistant app on Apple's iPhone 4S, is the new face of search. Siri is threatening to sideline the tried-and-true search box that Google turned into a cross between a wishing well and the most trusted way to navigate a rapidly sprawling web. Some said that Google should be concerned. Others, predictably, overreacted and labeled Siri a "Google killer."

Then last week Google's (GOOG) former CEO and current chair released his responses to Senate subcommittees looking into Google's dominance in the search industry. In the past few years, Schmidt has transitioned from a seasoned and successful CEO to something of a loose cannon who spends most of his time retracting, or explaining or laughing away his previous statements. So when Schmidt, citing some of those commentators who saw Apple's (AAPL) Siri as a Google competitor, suggested that Siri could be a force in search, he drew a skeptical response. Some said Schmidt was just downplaying Google's prominence in search. Others pointed out that Siri's own default search engine is Google.

But how can Google be a monopoly that is about to get its clock cleaned by Apple? The truth is less certain, if equally dramatic: The search industry is in the early stages of a disruptive period of change. It will look more like Siri than Google does today -- that is, it will have a more intuitive AI feel to it. Apple and Google -- and maybe even Microsoft (MSFT) -- will play a key role in shaping it. Which means it's well past time to be worrying about whether Google is a monopoly.

Smartphone Buying Guide

Before developing a purchasing strategy, organisations first need to understand the market including the major players and their operating system (OS) roadmaps. For example, Google’s Android platform and Apple’s iOS combined currently command 60 per cent market share.

The following guide outlines the top platforms and the roadmap issues that need to be considered prior to any significant investment.

Google

Android continues to be the platform of choice gaining 40 per cent of the smartphone market in 2011. Moreover, the platform will continue to mature driving developer interest in its ecosystem.

“The release of the Ice Cream Sandwich version will make the platform more appealing to developers, as the OS will unify user interfaces (UIs) across smartphones and tablet form factors,” according to Gartner analyst, Roberta Cozza.

Android’s position at the high end of the market will remain strong, but its greatest volume opportunity in the longer term will be in mid-to-low smartphones. Gartner expects Android to hold 50 per cent market share by 2015.

Nokia

Symbian’s appeal over the next two years will be limited to emerging markets and more price-sensitive consumers in mature markets. Following its alliance with Microsoft, Nokia is expected to retire Symbian during 2012 and to migrate to Windows Phone as its main smartphone OS.

This will impact Symbian’s market share, which is expected to drop globally to 21 per cent in 2011 and 6.6 per cent in 2012, Gartner said.

Nokia will push Windows Phone well into the mid-tier range of its portfolio by the end of 2012, driving the platform to be the third largest in worldwide rankings, ahead of RIM, by 2013.

Apple
Apple’s iOS will remain the second-biggest platform worldwide until 2014, according to Gartner. However, falling prices and increasing volumes of lower cost devices will impact Apple’s market share.

“Our assumption is that Apple will be interested in maintaining margins and profit, rather than pursuing market share by changing its pricing strategy, this will limit adoption in emerging markets,” Cozza said.

Blackberry

The transition to QNX will enable RIM to bring to market more competitive products which will mitigate an overall decline in market share during 2013, Gartner said.

With the migration of legacy Blackberry devices to QNX (the OS used on the Blackberry PlayBook in 2012), RIM will be able to offer users a consistent experience across its whole product portfolio and create a single developer community.

Gartner said organisations most interested in this platform will be those that have already deployed RIM infrastructure or have stringent security requirements.

HP

HP is currently undergoing a major transition. Earlier this year HP announced it would stop producing hardware based on the webOS with plans to explore new alternatives. The announcement came after continuing poor sales of new webOS smartphones and the TouchPad’s failure to capture consumer interest.

Although the webOS platform had potential as a modern OS with a good UI, Cozza said a lack of applications, services and content limited its appeal.

Samsung

Gartner said Bada has done relatively well at the low end of the smartphone market. But one problem with the platform is that it offers no development path for tablet devices. Users want to share applications across devices so this is likely to limit uptake.

Intel Without the support of Nokia, Gartner believes MeeGo has little potential to become a relevant platform in the smartphone market.

Intel has plans to merge MeeGo with another open source effort, the LiMo Foundation, to create a new platform called Tizen. Gartner said both MeeGo and LiMo have, as separate entities, failed to attract mind share and the support of developers.

“Gartner remains unconvinced that a combined effort will change that much,” Cozza said.