Head to head
Apple is still the No. 1 smartphone manufacturer, as it had been for over a year, but there are signs that the iPhone is approaching saturation in the developer community. In a Millenial survey, Android was the No. 1 platform developers plan to support in 2011, with Microsoft's Window Phone 7 and the iPad tied for second. The iPhone was relegated to fourth place, after the Blackberry.
The extraordinary growth of Google's Android phones can be traced in six months of smartphone advertising data from Millenial Media, the largest independent mobile ad network,
Through a series of pie charts, they show Android overtaking Research in Motion's (RIMM) Blackberry between June and July in ad impressions, gaining rapidly on Apple's iPhone between July and September and finally coming even with Ios in October with a 37 percent share apiece.
However, Millenial's November report shows that Android and iOS tied for the second month in a row, at 38 percent each. After six months of gains, there is now something that looks like equilibrium.
Apple puts sharp focus on camera development
Apple have released a flurry of imaging related patents showcasing the effort it's putting in to improve the camera on the iPhone.
The development came out on top of the iPhone's High Dynamic Range feature that Steve Jobs demoed last September. They indicate, as Patently Apple's Jack Purcher put its, "the importance that Apple is facing on cameras within the context of the greater iOS device revolution."
Purchers highlights three of the patens: One for correcting blurry photos, another for masking skin tones and a third for reducing radically-based chroma noise.
Google is most searched
Apple's iPad lost by a hair to number one Chatrouletee in Google's list of the fastest rising search terms for 2010.
Twitter was number eight and Facebook number ten. Android did not make the list.
In the consumer electronics category, the iPad was number one and the iPhone 4 number two. Android didn't make this list either, but an Android phone- the HTC Evo 4G- did.
