Apple has had a wonderful year even though it has had to deal with a bunch of issues concerning iPhone 4. The company has launched Apple iPad and is in the process of introducing new iPods and Apple TV to the market. What the company did not expect was Android growing so fast in such a short period of time. All experts believed that Android would overtake Android by 2012. As much as Apple wants to avoid that scenario, Android is just coming on too strong. Is Apple getting nervous? Possibly. How else could one explain Steve Jobs taking jabs at Google Android:

we think we’re ahead of everyone else … we think some our friends are counting upgrades in their numbers.

That is a clear jab at Google for claiming that it is activating 200,000 Android devices every day. Steve Jobs is clearly underestimating the Android platform or just don’t want to admit that Android is here to stay. Google has already responded to Steve Jobs:

Steve Jobs may be able to come up with numbers that beat Google’s numbers at this point, but it is clear where iOS and Android are headed towards. Apple has had a very good year, and it will continue to innovate. But its platform is a closed one. Apple is its own worst enemy when it comes to platform growth.

We have known for a while that Samsung Galaxy Tab has been in the works. Samsung may have kept the details on this device under wraps for a while but it is finally ready to introduce the device to the public. The device, which is expected to hit the European markets in mid-September, has a 7-inch capacitive touch screen with 1024×600 resolution. As reported earlier, Galaxy Tab will run Android Froyo from the get go.

Here is what you can expect to get in Galaxy Tab:

• ARM Cortex A8 1GHz Processor
• 3.2 megapixel camera
• 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera
• 7 hours of battery life
• (GSM/GPRS/EDGE) + 3G + WIFI

There is no word on how much this device will cost nor do we know how the deal with Verizon will work out. Galaxy Tab may not be as large as the iPad, but it has its merits.

Here are just a few reasons Microsoft believes Android not to be free and generally a bad platform to go with:

• Android OEMs (which are not stock Android build) have customization costs
• Lawsuits are costly
• Android’s fragmentation problem is a big issue
• Microsoft’s platform is more OEM friendly
• Android OEMs have to pay to make Android as good as Windows
• Android does not support automated testing
• Android’s UE sucks

Unfortunately, Microsoft failed to bring up the most important reason why OEMs should stick with Microsoft. Android is an open platform and is in general not good for business. Let’s face it. If you are not paying for something, it won’t be a good. Besides, everybody knows how great Microsoft operating systems are. Windows ME and Vista have been so revolutionary that there is just no need for consumers to look beyond Microsoft.

Even if Android was not free, it would still have a better chance of dominating the mobile OS market than Microsoft Phone 7. Microsoft does have the tendency to put its foot in its mouth when criticizing its competitors. Both platforms have their advantages. Making up stories and trying to take cheap shots at Android won’t make Microsoft a market leader. Innovation, openness, and thinking outside-the-box might.

The Android tablet market is heating up. Just as Apple gets ready to announce a few upgrades to its existing products, Android tablet makers are getting ready to introduce those iPad challengers to the market. Samsung Galaxy Tablet, which is coming to Verizon soon, has a decent set of features and is ready for gaming, video-calling, and other exciting activities. It’s not going to be the only new Android tablet in town though. According to NotebookItalia, Toshiba Folio 100 will take advantage of Tegra 2 chipset and will run Android 2.2.

Toshiba Folio 100 is much more closer to Apple iPad than other tablets that we have heard about. It does have a 10.1 inch screen and has a multi-touch display. It does have a 1.3 web camera, which sets it apart from Apple iPad. The Folio 100 will accept SD cards too. HDMI support is very nice too.

Unfortunately, there is no word on when this device will be released. The price is not known either (though one should not expect this unit to be cheap without a contract). Will it be a formidable iPad challenger? That remains to be seen.

Don’t you just love hearing about all those so-called mysterious Android devices that are in the works. Rumors have been going around a dual-core Android device that is expected to be released by Verizon in the near future. It turns out HTC Scorpion is not such a mystery after all. Not when BGR published a few images of the device. Details are still a bit sketchy about Scorpion but we know it does have a 4.3 inch screen and a 8 MP camera. A front-facing camera is expected to be featured in this device.

Credit: Boy Genius Report

According to BGR, the device is expected to have a dual-core 1.5 Snapdragon processor, which is very impressive to say the least. It will ship with Android 2.2 (though we wouldn’t be surprised if that changed). It will be interesting to see how this device performs in the battery department. It is clearly a high-end smart-phone with all the blings one can expect. Will it fare better than HTC EVO? We will have to wait and see.

Credit: liliputing.com

Dell, HTC, and Motorola are all planning Android tablets for the upcoming months. You can count ViewSonic among those companies. A 7 inch ViewSonic tablet has been in the works and is expected to make its debut in the near future. ViewPad 7 will feature 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS capability. At this point, we don’t know which version of Android will this device ship with.

ViewSonic’s 10 inch tablet seems even more impressive. Having the chance to dual-boot Windows 7 and Android on a tablet is a very tempting proposition. There is no word on how these tablets will be priced, though they are expected to be competitive with Apple iPad in that regard.

Android tablets are coming. In a short few months, we will have too many of them around. ViewSonic’s tablet probably won’t kill off Apple iPad, but it’s another decent-looking Android tablet for Android fans to consider.

Leave it to the good folks at Facebook to let it known how they really feel about Android. Apparently, developers are finding Android too sloppy to work with (or just blaming Android for their troubles). Joe Hewitt who has been behind Facebook’s mobile application had this gem to say about Android:

The more I work with Android the more it reminds me of Windows… as in, it’s really flexible, agnostic, and developer-friendly, but also really sloppily designed

Android tools are horrendous, OS is hideous, but the absence of big brother telling me what to do gives it a slight edge,

Dell’s Aero dubbed as “the lightest small phone ever” has finally been released in the U.S. The device has a 3.5 inch screen and weighs less than 4 ounces. It does have a 5 mp camera and a 8x zoom too. Dell Aero may have some decent features, but it is clearly not made to compete with high-end Android phones. It will cost you $100 + a contract with AT&T but surprisingly only runs a modified version of Android 1.5.

Dell Aero is a decent tool for those of you who will be spending a lot of time on those top social networks. The phone does have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, so it is not totally useless. Considering that not everyone wants those high-end Android phones, Dell Aero may do fine. We are just surprised that devices are allowed to ship with earlier versions of Android even though Google is trying to address the “fragmentation” problem.

The days of Apple dominating the tablet market by itself are close to being over. Apple iPad may be selling like hot-cakes, but there is no question the company has had it easy in the past few months. It was a matter of time before other decent tablets started showing up. HP, RIM, and Android tablets are all in the works, which means Apple will find it harder to dominate this market no matter how good iPad 2 will be.

Many expected HP to introduce a regular Windows tablet. With the company putting its focus on WebOS, HP’s rumored tablet can be a formidable challenger to Android and Apple tablets. HP’s tablet is expected to make its debut in early 2011. LG already believes its tablet to be a better device than iPad. We will have to wait and see if consumers see it that way though as far as LG Optimus is concerned.

The best challenge to iPad is expected to come from HTC and Motorola. Google gPad will be a decent device, so will be the Black Pad by RIM. But Motorola has shown in the past that when it comes to challenging Apple products, it has the best ideas. Will Apple iPad continue to be the top dog in the tablet market in the near future? Perhaps. But the tablet wars are far from over. In the end, it’s not about Android but consumers having choices when it comes to picking up a tablet.

Leaks happen all the time, especially in the smart-phone industry. We all remember how Apple dealt with Gizmodo after it leaked details about iPhone 4. Apparently, Apple is not the only company that gets tough with bloggers when they leak something they shouldn’t have. Motorola seems to have started sending cease & desist letter to those sites that published details about the company’s Froyo update plans (including Froyo ROM). People give Apple a difficult time for being controlling and closed-source. Motorola devices may be using an open source mobile OS. But the company is doing the best job possible to keep people from anything that is not approved by it.

It’s nice that Motorola’s eFuse does not kill phones completely, but it will make life difficult for the owners of modified phones:

If a device attempts to boot with unapproved software, it will go into recovery mode, and can re-boot once approved software is re-installed. Checking for a valid software configuration is a common practice within the industry to protect the user against potential malicious software threats.

People want to jailbreak or root their devices. Smart-phone companies are trying to stop that practice. Has anything changed?