The Live Indian Entertainment Blog

stock market: when valuations run far ahead of current revenues, hope is packaged as hype. That is the situation Facebook is in after it filed for an initial public offering (IPO) of shares last week. is 27 times its current revenues or 100 times its earnings - matching Apple and Google in optimistic pricing. Questions have already been raised on whether the pricing is justified. I would add to the debate by pointing to giants that have already fallen.

The biggest of them is, of course, Yahoo, the horizontal portal that still survives with a market value of around $20 billion - having bravely (perhaps stupidly) spurned a takeover offer from Microsoft. Yahoo had tried to buy Facebook for $ 1billion not so long ago!

In the "dotcom" bubble of 2000 and after, we saw many companies go bust. There was Excite@Home that promised broadband content at a time when Internet bandwidth was barely there.

Apple iOS device such as an iPhone or iPad, or an Android device.

One of the reasons for app crashes is the proliferation of mobile operating systems on iOS and Android. As Apple and Google have released more new operating systems, each with multiple updates, app developers face more operating systems to test apps on. In data that mobile app monitoring startup Crittercism compiled for app crashes between December 1 and 15, there were at least 23 different iOS operating systems on which apps had crashed and 33 Android operating systems on which apps had crashed. (See the graphs above.) Note that the graphs that separate out Android and iOS show these number of operating systems and the graph that combines both iOS and Android shows less–22 iOS and 17 Android.

ome U.S. officials this year are expected to get smartphones capable of handling classified government documents over cellular networks, according to people involved in the project.

The phones will run a modified version of Google's Android software, which is being developed as part of an initiative that spans multiple federal agencies and government contractors, these people said.

The smartphones are first being deployed to U.S. soldiers, people familiar with the project said. Later, federal agencies are expected to get phones for sending and receiving government cables while away from their offices, sources said. Eventually, local governments and corporations could give workers phones with similar software.

The Army has been testing touchscreen devices at U.S. bases for nearly two years, said Michael McCarthy, a director for the Army's Brigade Modernization Command, in a phone interview. About 40 phones were sent to fighters overseas a year ago, and the Army plans to ship 50 more phones and 75 tablets to soldiers abroad in March, he said.

"We've had kind of an accelerated approval process," McCarthy said. "This is a hugely significant event."

Currently, the United States doesn't allow government workers or soldiers to use smartphones for sending classified messages because the devices have not met security certifications.

The era of smartphones has officially arrived. More were shipped globally last year than client PCs for the first time ever, according to Canalys.

Vendors shipped 488 million smartphones in 2011 as compared with 415 million PCs, the market research firm said Friday in a report on country-level smartphone and PC shipment estimates for the year. The market shift was made all the more impressive by the fact that Canalys included tablets, no slouches in the growth department themselves, in its figures for PC shipments.

Smartphone shipments in 2011 grew by 62.7 percent compared with figures from the year before, while shipments of 159 million units in the fourth quarter of last year represented a 56.6 percent increase from the same period in 2010.

"Smartphone shipments overtaking those of client PCs should be seen as a significant milestone," said Canalys analyst Chris Jones in a statement. "In the space of a few years, smartphones have grown from being a niche product segment at the high-end of the mobile phone market to becoming a truly mass-market proposition."

Apple was the single leading smart phone vendor in 2011, enjoying record shipments of 37 million iPhones in the fourth quarter and just over 93 million for the full year. But Google's Android operating system, used by multiple vendors in various handsets that together totaled 238 million smartphone shipments last year, owned the biggest chunk of the market with a 48.8 percent share.

Android phones grabbed better than half the smartphone market in the fourth quarter, when 81.9 million units running Google's mobile operating system shipped for a 51.6 percent share of the market as measured by software platforms.

Apple's share of the smartphone market in 2011 was 19.1 percent, equal to its market share as gauged by software platforms, since the iPhone maker is the sole user of its own iOS mobile operating system.

The era of smartphones has officially arrived. More were shipped globally last year than client PCs for the first time ever, according to Canalys.

Vendors shipped 488 million smartphones in 2011 as compared with 415 million PCs, the market research firm said Friday in a report on country-level smartphone and PC shipment estimates for the year. The market shift was made all the more impressive by the fact that Canalys included tablets, no slouches in the growth department themselves, in its figures for PC shipments.

Smartphone shipments in 2011 grew by 62.7 percent compared with figures from the year before, while shipments of 159 million units in the fourth quarter of last year represented a 56.6 percent increase from the same period in 2010.

"Smartphone shipments overtaking those of client PCs should be seen as a significant milestone," said Canalys analyst Chris Jones in a statement. "In the space of a few years, smartphones have grown from being a niche product segment at the high-end of the mobile phone market to becoming a truly mass-market proposition."

Apple was the single leading smart phone vendor in 2011, enjoying record shipments of 37 million iPhones in the fourth quarter and just over 93 million for the full year. But Google's Android operating system, used by multiple vendors in various handsets that together totaled 238 million smartphone shipments last year, owned the biggest chunk of the market with a 48.8 percent share.

Android phones grabbed better than half the smartphone market in the fourth quarter, when 81.9 million units running Google's mobile operating system shipped for a 51.6 percent share of the market as measured by software platforms.

Apple's share of the smartphone market in 2011 was 19.1 percent, equal to its market share as gauged by software platforms, since the iPhone maker is the sole user of its own iOS mobile operating system.

Apple temporarily removed older iPhones from its online store in Germany due to a previous legal victory won by Motorola Mobility, according to legal blog Foss Patents. Slashgear later reported that Apple was granted a temporary halt on the ban.

Separately, the site also reported that a German court granted Motorola's request to permanently ban Apple's push e-mail services, a key feature of its iCloud offering.

So apparently Google's decision to cough up $12.5 billion to acquire Motorola for its patent portfolio was a wise move, with the handset manufacturer scoring a decent number of legal victories against Apple. Apple and Motorola have mixed it up in several courtrooms around the world, although the litigation battle hasn't been as intense as Apple's efforts against HTC and Samsung Electronics. That Motorola is taking the high ground on the litigation front bodes well for Google, which plans to use the patent portfolio to defend its Android partners.

Still, this was no decisive victory, with Apple already appealing the ban.

"Apple appealed this ruling because Motorola repeatedly refuses to license this patent to Apple on reasonable terms, despite having declared it an industry standard patent seven years ago," said an Apple spokeswoman.

"Although the enforcement of the injunction has been temporarily suspended, Motorola Mobility will continue to pursue its claims against Apple," said a Motorola spokeswoman.

Apple said it had removed older iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 4 models from its online store, said Floiean Mueller, who runs Foss Patents, citing a German news service. He notes that the iPhone 4S is still available, most likely because that model switched to a Qualcomm cellular radio, as opposed to the 3G UMTS versions that came before. Also removed were iPads with similar 3G UMTS connections.

The removal has to do with a December ruling that went in Motorola's favor. That ruling found that Apple had infringed on a patent dealing with one aspect of mobile cellular technology.

But Apple told Slashgear that the products would go back on the site. The company argued that the Motorola patent should be licensed under a fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory basis because it is considered an essential industry patent. Under that status, known in legal circles as FRAND, Apple should be able to buy the rights to use the patents at the same rates as everyone else because it is an agreed upon industry standard.

Mueller noted that the products were only removed from the online store, and

As if you didn't already know it, if you wanted any further proof that CDMA is dying, Google no longer "supports" CDMA devices as part of the AOSP (Android Open Source Project). That includes devices that combine CDMA / LTE technology, as Verizon's devices have to, since CDMA is the backstop when LTE is not present, and includes tablets like the Motorola Xoom, as well.

First noticed on Friday, CDMA devices disappeared from Google's Android developer devices. First noticed missing was the Verizon Galaxy Nexus, but closer examination noted that the Motorola Xoom was gone, as well (remember, it is a stock Android device, and was the first Honeycomb device, too), and the Sprint Nexus S 4G, too (once again, the Nexus S 4G was a stock Android device).

So, what happened? Since the Verizon Galaxy Nexus was the first missing device spotted, folks immediately thought it was furor over the Google Wallet issue on that device. In fact, Google made a statement to The Verge implying that, but later backed off, saying it had made that statement in error.

Instead, it appears to be a technical issue. As Google's Dan Morril explained on a Google Groups page, CDMA devices are being removed from the AOSP site because they need carrier-signed .apk files (which users can’t generate). In other words, they can't be open source, and thus can't be part of the AOSP.

This includes Sprint as well as Verizon, and would include other CDMA carriers, such as U.S. Cellular, as well.

No matter what, though, CDMA Nexus devices (and the Xoom --- which Motorola has said will get ICS soon) will continue to be supported. They will continue to have unlockable bootloaders, and Google will make as many of the closed-source binaries as possible available for CDMA devices.

Still, this change does give AT&T a potential for a slight PR edge over Verizon, now.  Both have LTE service, with Verizon's far more widespread across America, but since Verizon uses CDMA as a backup, in a way, it's somewhat of a second-class citizen when compared to an AT&T LTE device (not really, but hey, we're talking about marketing here).

As if you didn't already know it, if you wanted any further proof that CDMA is dying, Google no longer "supports" CDMA devices as part of the AOSP (Android Open Source Project). That includes devices that combine CDMA / LTE technology, as Verizon's devices have to, since CDMA is the backstop when LTE is not present, and includes tablets like the Motorola Xoom, as well.

First noticed on Friday, CDMA devices disappeared from Google's Android developer devices. First noticed missing was the Verizon Galaxy Nexus, but closer examination noted that the Motorola Xoom was gone, as well (remember, it is a stock Android device, and was the first Honeycomb device, too), and the Sprint Nexus S 4G, too (once again, the Nexus S 4G was a stock Android device).

So, what happened? Since the Verizon Galaxy Nexus was the first missing device spotted, folks immediately thought it was furor over the Google Wallet issue on that device. In fact, Google made a statement to The Verge implying that, but later backed off, saying it had made that statement in error.

Instead, it appears to be a technical issue. As Google's Dan Morril explained on a Google Groups page, CDMA devices are being removed from the AOSP site because they need carrier-signed .apk files (which users can’t generate). In other words, they can't be open source, and thus can't be part of the AOSP.

This includes Sprint as well as Verizon, and would include other CDMA carriers, such as U.S. Cellular, as well.

No matter what, though, CDMA Nexus devices (and the Xoom --- which Motorola has said will get ICS soon) will continue to be supported. They will continue to have unlockable bootloaders, and Google will make as many of the closed-source binaries as possible available for CDMA devices.

Still, this change does give AT&T a potential for a slight PR edge over Verizon, now.  Both have LTE service, with Verizon's far more widespread across America, but since Verizon uses CDMA as a backup, in a way, it's somewhat of a second-class citizen when compared to an AT&T LTE device (not really, but hey, we're talking about marketing here).

One of the positives, and at the same time negatives, of Google's Android Market has been the "anything goes" style of app acceptance into the Market. That's been criticized more and more, as more malware writers target the Market with infected apps, some of them taking legit apps and lacing them with trojans.

Google has come up with a fix that doesn't go as far as Apple or Amazon.com (for its Appstore), meaning as far as curating apps, but at the same time cures the Market of its "Wild Wild West" problems. It's called Bouncer.

Bouncer is a service that Google has been working on for some time. Just announced on Thursday, Bouncer scans the Android Market for potentially malicious software automatically. With Bouncer, Google can protect users against malware while still removing the (some call draconian) application approval process of the App Store from the equation.

To detect malicious software, Google looks for known signatures as any antivirus might do, but also runs apps on a simulator in the cloud. The company also analyzes new developer accounts to help prevent repeat-offenders from returning.

What's interesting, though, is that Google said that Bouncer has been running silently, sans publicity, for some time. The company was vague, and said "for some time," but they also indicated that from their estimates, Android malware is declining.

The news was met with approval, but also criticism, as some had been calling for Google --- if it wasn't going to curate apps --- to scan them, instead, since the Android Market opened.

Kevin Mahaffey, chief technology officer at Lookout, one of the more highly regarded mobile security firms, said "We think it is great that Google is working with the Android community to provide an alternative to a manual curation process, allowing developers to innovate quickly while also increasing the baseline level of security for Android users."

We have security software on all our Android devices, but not as much for protection against malware as for protection against loss or stolen devices. The software we use allows remote lock, location, and remote wipe, to protect against instances when our devices --- with all our important data --- might be lost.

comScore's latest U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share numbers for Q4 2011 are in, and the newest report from the market research firm shows Android closing in on 50 percent market share, while slightly increasing its lead over iOS.

Android is up 2.5 percentage points from September, to 47.3 percent market share, while Apple, continuing in second position, grew 2.2 percentage points to snag 29.6 percent of smartphone market share. Everyone else saw drops, with RIM at 16 percent share dropping 2.9 percent, followed by Microsoft at 4.7 percent, dropping 0.9 percent, and Symbian at 1.4 percent dropping 0.4 percent.

It means Android grew its lead over iOS very slightly, but everyone else aside from the two most popular smartphone platforms was a loser.

In terms of overall cell phone (both smart- and non-smartphones) manufacturer market share, Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 25.3 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers (unchanged from September), followed by LG with 20 percent share (a slight drop of 0.6 percent) and Motorola with 13.3 percent share (a drop of half a percent). Apple was the sole OEM in the top five that increased its market share, rising 2.2 percent to 12.4 percent. RIM dropped again, from 7.1 to 6.7 percent.

Smartphone use continues to climb. 97.9 million people in the U.S. used smartphones during the three months ending in December (up from 91.4 million people in the previous comScore ranking).

That number represents 40 percent of all mobile subscribers.

In terms of mobile phone use, comScore's survey showed that 74.3 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers text messaged in December, up 3.2 percentage points. 47.6 percent of mobile subscribers downloaded applications, up 5.1 percent. 47.5 percent of subscribers used Web browsers on their devices, up 4.6 percent.

31.4 percent gamed on their devices, up 2.6 percent, and 23.8 percent listened to music on their mobile phones, up 2.9 percent.

In a positive note for those waiting for Facebook to go public (as opposed to its S-1 filing on Wednesday), 35.3 percent of mobile subscribers accessing social networking sites or blogs during the period, up 3.8 percent.

It was a pretty "positive" comScore result, with the losers being LG, Motorola, Microsoft, RIM, and Symbian, and with Android and Apple continuing to rise.

A recent Nielsen report showed that iPhone sales skyrocketed in Q4 2011, meaning that although market share continued to go the way of Android, that might change. Much of that recent sales rise was driven by the iPhone 4S; it remains to be seen if the recent Android introductions (Galaxy Nexus, RAZR, RAZR MAXX and the upcoming Droid 4) will reverse that trend.