How Google plans to beat the iPad

CLICK to read msnbc.com: "Today we got the best look yet at Google's anti-iPad, the Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet OS. Though much has been shared previously, it's finally clear what Google is doing to differentiate its tablets from the iPad — and what Google thinks works so well on Apple's platform that they're borrowing it for themselves.

Google knows that the home screen is the chief battleground for smart phones and tablets right now. When you go to the iPad's home screen, the icons just kinda stare up at you. Nothing comes to life until you've clicked on an app. On the Android Honeycomb tablet OS, the home screen can be alive with activity from various widgets, including stacks, grids and lists, all showing content that changes whenever updates arrive.

Even switching from one app to another from the home screen is a dynamic experience — like the latest desktop OSes, you can see an updated thumbnail of the app you're switching to before you click on it.

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What should we expect from Android’s Gingerbread and Honeycomb updates?

Marty Gabel | Appolicious ™ Android App Directory: "Cupcake. Donut. Eclair. Froyo. What’s up next? Why, it’s Gingerbread and Honeycomb of course. These future Google Android updates may posses sweet nicknames, but they also pack a lot of power and continue to improve the still quite youthful Android operating system, hopefully adding both function and performance.

When can we expect these updates? A lot depends on the mobile carriers and the device manufacturers themselves. With a huge number of devices (both smartphones and tablets) on different networks, some old, some new, there’s no uniform rollout like Apple iPhone users see. You take your chances with the device you buy, and the staggered rollout of these updates continues to be a large bone of contention with many Android owners.

Still, there’s plenty of information on what we can expect from the forthcoming updates. We’re just not sure when they’re going to drop. Let’s take a look at some of the new functionality, features, and improvements we hope to see when Gingerbread and Honeycomb finally get unleashed.

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Android smartphones, tablets on the march

Android smartphones, tablets on the march - Yahoo! News: "Just a year ago, Android handsets accounted for a slim 8.7 percent of the global smartphone market, with OS vendors such as Nokia, RIM, and Apple well in the lead, according to an industry survey. Not anymore. Also: Android establishes a beachhead in the tablet market.

We've already been hearing plenty of reports about how Google's Android OS has been surging in the domestic and worldwide smartphone marketplaces, but the latest figures from the industry analysts at Canalys put the new mobile platform landscape on stark perspective, with Android sales seeing an extraordinary, 615-percent growth spurt in 2010 to topple Nokia's Symbian platform off its throne.

As of the end of the fourth quarter last year, Android enjoyed a 33.3 percent share of the global smartphone market, according to Canalys, with Nokia's Symbian OS trailing (just barely) at 31 percent.

Mind you, Nokia still ranks as the No. 1 global manufacturer of smartphones, the survey noted, with the Finnish phone giant seeing worldwide shipments of its smart handsets grow 30 percent in 12 months.

But that wasn't enough to stop Android, which saw its global market share kick in the afterburners with help from a veritable gang of smartphone makers—think HTC, Samsung, LG, and Acer, according to Canalys.

After Nokia comes Apple, which saw its fourth-quarter 2010 global iOS market share dip ever so slightly to 16.2 percent, from 16.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009—although as with Nokia, Apple still saw a healthy surge in global sales (up nearly 86 percent compared to the fourth quarter of '08).

In fourth place, we've got BlackBerry maker RIM with 14.6 percent of the global smartphone market, down more than five percent from the year-ago 2009 period, while Microsoft saw its fourth-quarter 2010 market share slump to 3.1 percent.

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