Remember when Google killed the Nexus One a month ago? Yeah, it’s still sold in a few places here and there, but it’s mostly dead. And apparently it had to die in order to find its heaven: Android app developers.

A new post tonight on the Android Developers Blog declares that the now-for-developers-only Nexus One has proven to be “a little too popular.” As Tim Bray writes, “we blew through the (substantial) initial inventory in almost no time, and they’re back-ordered from HTC.” In other words, they’re now completely sold out.

To be clear, Google is selling unlocked versions of the Nexus Ones to registered developers through a publisher page in the Android market. What’s odd is that though they didn’t say so in their very brief post announcing the Nexus One’s death, the assumption is that they were killing it off because it wasn’t selling well. In fact, CNN had them just over 100,000 units in the same time that other phones like the iPhone and another Android-powered phone, Droid, had sold a million units.

I’m still convinced that the Nexus One is the best Android phone I’ve tried. Even the newer ones (EVO and Droid 2) simply don’t stack up. And I loved Google’s ballsy attempt to sell it themselves and bypass the carriers — but clearly that didn’t work too well, and they quickly abandoned that model.

At least the Nexus One is apparently having a good afterlife.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Remember how back during the Antennagate press conference, Steve Jobs explained that all smartphones have an Achilles Heel known as their antenna? Oh sure, we all rolled our eyes and then oohed and aahed when we learned we’d get bumpers. Well guess what… Jobs was right. Again. And now, courtesy of Tawkon we’ve got the proof.

First, a quick recap. Tawkon is an Israeli company that developed a radiation measurement app. Once installed, the app provides an indication of the current rate of cellular radiation emitted by the cellphone in-hand. From our original review:

The purpose of Tawkon’s app is to provide the user with an indication—or “prediction” as they call it—of the radiation level being emitted by the iPhone. This level changes based on environmental conditions, distance from cell towers, and even the manner in which the device is held. To illustrate: the iPhone’s antenna is located at the bottom of the device. If the user cradles the phone too tightly in the palm, the antenna has to work harder, thereby increasing radiation.

Tawkon wanted to debut its technology in an iPhone app, but couldn’t get it approved in the App Store. To their surprise, they were invited by Apple to visit the Cupertino HQ where they had meetings characterized as “positive” by Tawkon’s CEO, Gil Friedlander. App Store approval is yet to be achieved.

Tawkon has continued to plug-ahead, releasing a Blackberry app (download here). An Android version is in development.

Now that everyone is up to speed, let’s get back to the issue at hand: Proof that the death grip is real.

Tawkon produced the video below in which it’s clearly demonstrates that when the iPhone 4, the Blackberry Bold, and the Nexus One are held in the death-grip style, all three handset antennas are impacted. As the video shows, the result is that each of the three handsets compensates for the death-grip’s impact by increasing its cellular broadcast levels to a range that Tawkon considers ‘High’.

Too late to save Papermaster’s job, but the proof is in the pudding. I mean, the cellular radiation emissions.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

As if Nokia needed yet another wake-up call, self-declared ‘Nokia fanboy since 1999′ Ricky Cadden, aka Symbian Guru is so utterly fed up with the company and the products it releases that he’s quitting his blog (via Mobile Entertainment).

Cadden has purchased himself a Nexus One and seems well on his way to become an Android fanboy.

Anyone with the slightest interest in the mobile industry should read his goodbye post, which is a scathing analysis of why Nokia and Symbian are in the corner where the punches are being served.

Particularly people at Nokia and Symbian.

Here’s a teaser:

I can’t continue to support a manufacturer who puts out such craptastic ‘flagships’ as the N97, and who expects me to use services that even most of Nokia’s own employees don’t use.

I also can’t continue to support a mobile operating system platform that continually buries itself into oblivion by focusing on ‘openness’ while keeping a blind eye towards the obvious improvements that other open platforms have had for several iterations.

As on his decision to put Symbian-Guru on permanent hold:

And so, after 3 years and 8 months, Symbian-Guru.com is officially done. Thanks to Nokia’s consistently piss-poor hardware choices and Symbian’s lack of ability to even remotely compete in terms of features, abilities, and overall experience, I’ve lost my passion for both.

Ouch. Double ouch.

(More on MobileCrunch)

(Image courtesy of Barrett Hall / popofatticus on Flickr)

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Mobile search could grow from 9 percent of all queries this year to 20 percent by 2012, estimates RBC analyst Ross Sandler in a new report issued today. There is still a huge gap between mobile’s share of overall search queries and its share of search advertising. Sandler estimates that mobile will still represent less than 2 percent of search ad budgets this year, compared to the 9 percent overall share. But he thinks that gap can narrow and that mobile search advertising can be a $2 billion to $3 billion market in 2012.

His assumptions seem a bit aggressive on the ad revenue side. There might always be a gap between mobile search share and mobile search ad spending because of the relative effectiveness of search ads on PCs versus on mobile phones. But Sandler does a deep dive into mobile search advertising and comes up with some compelling reasons why that gap should at the very least begin to narrow just as mobile search starts to take off thanks to the growth of large touchscreen devices such as the iPhone, iPad, Android, and Blackberry.

One big advantage the new generation of smartphones have over PCs in terms of search advertising is that the screen real estate devoted to search ads is much bigger. A single search ad on a PC takes up about 4 percent of the screen real estate, whereas a single search ad on a smartphone takes up about 20 percent of the screen. The relatively larger size of the ads results in higher click-through rates on mobile (as much as 3 to 5 times as much).  On the iPhone, one search ad takes up 22 percent of the screen, and if two search ads are served up it takes up nearly half (48 percent).  For Android, those numbers are 18 percent and 38 percent for one and two search ads, respectively.

Sandler tested the same keywords across different devices (an iPhone, Android Nexus One, Blackberry, and aPC), and found that the average, for both the iPhone and the Nexus One, was 1.1 paid search results per query, compared to 9.2 search ads per query on a PC.  Searches on Blackberries showed hardly any paid results.

Another key driver for mobile search revenues should be the growth of local ads.  Sandler found that the ratio of localized or geo-targeted ads to non-local ads is still low and expects that to grow as advertisers learn how to geo-target their search ads.  Geo-targeted ads should also perform better, leading to higher mobile search ad revenues.

So how many people actually conduct searches on their smartphones? According to comScore, half of all smartphone owners conduct at least one search per month, 20 percent search once a week, and 11 percent search almost daily (which is about the same as the percentage of people who search on feature phones every month).

This year, Sandler estimates there will be 374 million people with smartphones, increasing to 766 million in 2012.  Consequently, the number of smartphone searches will grow from 157 billion to 586 billion (up from 35 billion two years ago).  The comparable number of searches on PCs this year will be 1.3 trillion, growing to 1.6 trillion in 2012.  Any way you look at it, mobile searches will become a significant portion of total searches within two years.  But how much will those searches be worth?  That is still a guessing game at this point.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Last last night (early this morning) there was some confusion about our post indicating that Android 2.2, Froyo, had started to roll out. Some thought we had Photoshopped the pictures (I wish I was that good at Photoshop), others though we were just using the developer build, and others thought we got some sort of special press copy. But rest easy people, I have in my inbox a confirmation from Google that says the following: “The roll out to Nexus One devices has begun!“

Naturally, I asked the company what the deal was with the roll out, since I was as surprised as anyone to see 2.2 ready to install on my device when I picked it up last night. After all, Google itself had just tweeted out that the new OS would be available on the Nexus One in the “next few weeks.” But that looks to be a solid under-promise, over-deliver — very nice, Google.

Actually, like many other Google roll-outs, this will be a staggered one. So it may be a couple of weeks before everyone gets it (Google didn’t say). And yes, it does look like a lot of members of the press are getting it first (maybe because we got the device at the Nexus One launch event prior to its launch, who knows). But again, it is starting to roll out to everyone.

Those who can’t wait for the OTA update, can manually install a build. Phandroid details how to do that — sounds easy enough.

Having played with it for the past day now, I can safely say that Android 2.2 is indeed a big, big improvement over 2.1. The speed alone is the killer feature — and there are a number of other nifty feature upgrades as well. Now I just feel bad for the new EVO 4G, which Google gave to all attendees at Google I/O. Because it runs a customized Sense build of Android, it’s likely going to be a bit before we see the 2.2 version of that. And it makes the device feel sluggish compared to the Nexus One with 2.2 now.

[image via TFTS]

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Sometimes there are advantages to staying up really late at night. I had just laid down in my bed to try and get some sleep before an early flight to New York tomorrow when I remembered I hadn’t charged my Nexus One. I reached over to my bedside table to grab it, and I see an alert letting me know a system update is available. Having just read numerous reports that Android 2.2 would be coming to the device in the “next few weeks” I figured this couldn’t be the new OS codenamed “Froyo.” But it was.

Yes, apparently Google is starting to roll out the Android 2.2 Froyo update to Nexus One devices right now. I just tried the EVO 4G (the newest Android phone which Google gave out at Google I/O this week) but 2.2 isn’t available for that device yet. I guess being the “Google Phone” has its advantages. Nexus One owners, if you’re up, check for an update right now.

I can tell you right away, as promised, Android 2.2 is much faster than Android 2.1. During the Google I/O keynote, Google promised a speed increase of 2x to 5x over 2.1 (and did a humorous demo with an iPad to show the speed) – it appears they weren’t lying.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

When Google launched its Nexus One Android phone, it also launched alongside it an online phone store where the Nexus One and future Android phones would be for sale. It was a slightly disruptive play to de-link the purchase of a phone from an actual carrier. The idea was, you could pick your phone, pick your plan, and mix and match.

Well, it didn’t turn out that way. Carriers don’t like to give up control. In fact, Verizon decided not to sell the Nexus One at all, and instead opt for its own more Incredible Android phone. The phone store turned out to be a flop, and Google just announced that it will be closing up shop online:

While the global adoption of the Android platform has exceeded our expectations, the web store has not. It’s remained a niche channel for early adopters, but it’s clear that many customers like a hands-on experience before buying a phone, and they also want a wide range of service plans to chose from.

The Nexus One phone will still be available through carrier partners. But Google’s online phone store will become an “online store window” showcasing Android phones available globally—directly from the carriers. Google has enough on its hands going up against Apple. It needs the carriers on its side if it wants to win the bigger battle.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch