Google's Play Store has just reached an incredible 25 billion downloads, and in order to share the celebratory mood with its hundreds of millions of users, Google has teamed up with some of the biggest app houses to offer a selection of titles for just a quarter.
iOS 6 was launched a few days back and while feedback overall is positive, its Apple-made Maps app has received a lot of negative feedback. Users dislike the distinct lack of transit directions, inaccurate data, lack of points of interest especially when compared with Google Maps on iOS 5 and especially with the even stronger Maps app on Android smartphones.
Although some users are reporting a few issues with Apple's new iPhone 5 smartphone, the first weekend sales figures seem to indicate that users have taken the device to their hearts, with Apple looking likely to have yet another commercially successful piece of kit on their hands. The official press release also made it known that users have snapped up the opportunity to download and install iOS 6 more than one hundred million times, since it went officially live last week.
It has long since been known that Google could be offering as many as five new devices to its Nexus range this Fall, and seeing as Google brands rather than builds hardware, it teams up with reputable manufacturers in order to bring such new and exciting products to market. The Galaxy Nexus, for example, was made by South Korean mobile device glutton Samsung, while the much-lauded Nexus 7 tablet was hooked up thanks to the engineering work of ASUS.
The last few weeks have been dominated by the announcement of new hardware from Apple and Nokia in the form of the iPhone 5 and the rather gorgeous looking Lumia 920, respectively. Media events held by Nokia and Apple concentrated on introducing the world to the two new pieces of kit and have succeeded in raising excitement levels for the future of the industry. Apple's new iPhone and the Lumia 920 are sure to be extremely successful in their own right, but it's also worth paying some attention to what the world's largest smartphone vendor - Samsung - has in store for us.
Although a large number of people were a little disappointed when the news came through that Apple would be removing the native YouTube app with the launch of iOS 6, but the blow was softened a little with the news that Google would release their own official app that would offer all that video viewing goodness to iPhone and iPod touch users. We are still waiting for the official launch of iOS 6, but Google have made good on their promise, with their official YouTube app landing in the iOS App Store today.
Google and ASUS had to cut a few corners to sell their Nexus 7 at $199. The tablet has no rear camera, support for cellular data, or expansion via microSD card slot, and comes with an SD front facing camera. Despite all these things, the tablet is still being sold at a loss to gain traction.
It's been a pretty big day in mobile space, with two of the big guns both showcasing new products and innovations to be released in the near future. Motorola's "On Display" event saw a glut of new devices slide into the fold, including the DROID RAZR HD, RAZR MAXX HD and RAZR M Android smartphones, while the Nokia and Microsoft partnership saw the birth of a couple significant new Lumia devices, as well as more details regarding Windows Phone 8.
Although it has become one of the most hotly contested industries in the world at the minute and is potentially an extremely stressful market for manufacturers to be involved in, consumers should be taking the opportunity to sit back and reap the rewards and device choice that is coming out of the smartphone industry. It's becoming increasingly difficult to actually keep up with all of the different device launches and announcements, but generally speaking, the large manufacturers like Apple and Samsung make sure their products get noticed.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with what is going on with Apple and Samsung as they continue to battle it out with each other over the alleged infringement of various patents. We've already had the major trial and verdict in San Jose, with Samsung being told they are liable to the tune of $1.05 billion for breaching a number of Apple patents, as well as a Japanese court ruling in Samsung's favor in a separate case regarding a utility patent that centers around transferring data between two devices. Court rulings and alleged infringements in different markets all over the world make this a difficult one to get your head around.
