What the F*WK? "Android Fragmentation"

According to Nielsen, Google's Android OS runs 43% of America's Smartphones - that's a lot, and sounds like Google should be flying high considering they've only been around for a few years. Not so fast my friends. Android is open source & free, meaning any OEM can leverage it to create the next great Android device. This is great for Google. This has resulted in a tremendously fragmented ecosystem that, according to app developers, presents a significant problem (see chart below).

Michael DeGusta presents this another way: it's also incredibly troubling for the end consumer. Little-to-no high-end devices run on the latest version of Android; how frustrating is it for a consumer to spend $200 on a device that's outdated 3-weeks later?

Image via Phandroid.

Tech Thursday: Smartphones in Cars

A recent Business Week article on smartphone apps in cars covers ground we at FIWK have already been over, but it's still interesting to consider.

Below is a CNet Car Tech video which covers another really interesting way for smartphones to communicate with cars - especially electric cars. Ford is displaying the ability for an app on your phone to set the charging parameters and features on your electric vehicle remotely (starting about halfway through the video):



This is a great integration of phone and car technology, right?

In a related story, the grill on the Ford Focus electric is one of the best examples of robot mouth in automobile history.

Tech Thursday: Tibiwangzi!

I've always wondered how Asia's youth (more specifically, those with character-based languages) would be affected by the Western-centric PC and mobile worlds. This brief article (and quoted study) from AFP (China Youth Daily) shows that many of those who grew up with the computer have been affected, and have been affected more severely than you may have imagined: 83% of those surveyed "admitted having problems writing characters"

Tech Thursday: Mobile Credit Accounts

Our tech savvy co-author Scott has referred me to the following Bloomberg article, titled by Bloomberg BW as Scott "Smartphones May Replace Credit Cards".

The article discusses an initiative headed up by the phone companies, but also confirms that the credit card companies themselves are working on mobile phone payment solutions. Between the two groups it sounds like this functionality will definitely arrive at some point. Hopefully the competition will lead to good deals for the consumer.

Tech Thursday: Windows Phone 7 Review by Wired

I don't have the grandiloquent style that Scott does when it comes to describing the tech world, so I will just introduce the Wired review of the new Windows Phone 7 operating system by saying that I am very interested to see how the competition between Apple's iPhone, Google's Android, and Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 shakes out. I can only hope it will result in a better product for the end user as each OS strives to add more features, better apps, and cleaner user interfaces.

This is yet another arena in which the big three tech companies are competing. Thank you Scott for the link. Anyone have an opinion on which mobile operating system will be the standout, and why?

HTC "You" phone commercial

I think this commercial does an awesome job of visual storytelling

Japan - The Next Galápagos?

A friend just linked me to this New York Times Article describing why Japan's smartphones haven't gone global, and I was particularly amused by the Galápagos reference - seems appropriate, no?