Nearly five years ago, a smartphone came out that few thought much of. Little did people know that the device would be a harbinger for the next half-decade of mobile innovation, pushing boundaries of technology and launching a fundamental shift in how people interact with computers.

That phone was the HTC G1, the original "Google Phone." It was a clunky, bug-ridden touchscreen device with a slide-out physical keyboard. The G1 did not sell particularly well. The buzz at the time was over Apple's still relatively young iPhone and varying BlackBerry devices, like the original Bold 9000.

Let's not say that the G1 was the beginning of the Mobile Revolution. There are neither beginnings nor endings in the turning of the wheel of technology. But it was a beginning.

The beginning of the Android Era.

It is amazing to look back at the last five years of Android and see just how far the devices that run Google's mobile operating system have come. From the G1 to the Nexus 10, the hardware, software and everything in between has gone from buggy, crash-prone phones to finely tuned devices that dominate mobile computing. Google and its manufacturing partners have done well in a half decade of innovation. What will the next five years bring?

Google is expected to announce a new version of its Android mobile operating system at its I/O developers conference, which runs Wednesday through Friday this week. Google refreshed its flagship Nexus line in November, and new Android chief Sundar Pichai recently downplayed expectations for major new products at I/O, a change from last year, which saw major launches like the Nexus 7 tablet.

Instead, in a sign of Android's maturation, Google will likely put the focus on devices from its hardware partners, like Samsung and HTC—a sign of Android's increasing maturity as a platform. Let's take a look back at the devices that brought Android to this pivotal point in its history.

HTC G1

Released: October 22, 2008

Hardware: 3.2-inch screen (320x480), 1150 mAh battery (removable), slide-out physical keyboard, 256 MB internal storage (expandable external storage), 192 RAM, 3.2 megapixel back camera.

Firmware: Android 1.0

The G1 (also known as the HTC Dream) was the first of Google's flagship smartphones. At the time it was a bit of a curiosity, mostly interesting for how it introduced Google properties (like Maps, Street View, Calendar and Search) to the smartphone market. The G1 was limited to T-Mobile in the United States.

Motorola Droid

Released: October 17, 2009

Hardware: 3.7-inch screen (480x854), 1400 mAh battery (removable), slide-out keyboard, 512 MB internal storage (expandable external storage), 256 MB RAM, 5 MP back camera.

Firmware: Android 2.0 (Eclair)

Boom goes the dynamite. The Motorola Droid was the first true Android smartphone to be popular with the masses. It was released to Verizon with heavy marketing targeted at what the Droid could do that an iPhone could not, like multi-tasking. The "Droid Does" slogan became a popular part of the geek lexicon and was Motorola's high water mark in the smartphone wars. The Droid shipped with the original Android 2.0 "Eclair" version but was quickly updated to a much more stable version in Android 2.1.

Nexus One

Released: January 5, 2009

Hardware: 3.7-inch screen (480x800), 1400 mAh battery (removable), 512 MB internal storage (expandable), 512 MB RAM, 5 MP back camera.

Firmware: Android 2.1 (Eclair)

The Nexus One was the first Android device commissioned directly from Google to serve as the flagship of the operating system. The One was built by HTC (an altered with HTC's "Sense" skin for its Incredible smartphone) and immediately became the sexiest Android smartphone on the market. The Nexus series has since become known as the "guide" device for new versions of the operating system. The Nexus One also marked an experiment by Google to bypass the carriers and sell directly to consumers through its website. The One was also one of the first Android smartphone to ship with Near Field Communication (NFC) functionality. This experiment did not take among consumers and most subsequent Nexus devices were offered through Google alongside subsidized versions from the likes of AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint. Google did not release a Nexus device for Android 2.2, with updated firmware for the Nexus One serving as the de facto flagship for Froyo.

Nexus S

Released: December 16, 2010.

Hardware: 4-inch screen (480x800), 1500 mAh battery (removable), 16 GB internal storage, 512 MB RAM, 5 MP back camera, VGA front camera.

Firmware: Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)

Samsung really started its rise to the top of the Android pyramid in 2010 with the release of its wide-ranging Galaxy S smartphones. Google tapped the Korean manufacturer for the next two Nexus devices, starting with the Nexus S. The device was the flagship for Android 2.3 Gingerbread, which is still the most-used version of the operating system years after its release.

Motorola Xoom

Released: February 24, 2011.

Hardware: 10.1-inch screen (800x1280), 6000 mAh battery (non-removable), 32 GB internal storage, 1 GB RAM, 5 MP back camera, 2 MP front camera.

Firmware: Android 3.2 (Honeycomb)

Google took a break from the Nexus line with Android 3.2 Honeycomb and went with Motorola for the flagship device of the operating system. Honeycomb and the Xoom turned out to be a complete albatross in the Android ecosystem, never gaining traction with consumers or developers. In fact, Honeycomb was so lampooned for being "half-finished" that Google never even released the normally open source Android kernel code and very few devices were ever made that used the operating system. Honeycomb was supposed to be Google's answer to the Android tablet conundrum. To this point, the only Android tablets that had been released ran some version of Froyo or Gingerbread, Android versions that were suboptimal for large screen devices. Honeycomb ultimately served as the stepping stone between Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwich, which married the smartphone and tablet capabilities of Android and made it much easier for developers and manufacturers to create applications for a variety of screen sizes. 

Galaxy Nexus

Released: November 17, 2011.

Hardware: 4.65-inch screen (720x1280), 1750 mAh battery (removable), 16/32 GB internal storage (no external memory), 1 GB RAM, 5 MP back camera, 1.3 MP front camera.

Firmware: Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)

In many ways, Android phones made a giant leap at the end of 2011. Screens started to get bigger (eventually much bigger) and Android got a lot smarter, easy to use and out of its own way. This was epitomized with the Galaxy Nexus and Ice Cream Sandwich. Android can almost be categorized into two phases: Android 2.3 Gingerbread and everything that came before and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and everything that came after. Starting with the Galaxy Nexus, Android smartphones have run smoother, been more secure, had bigger screens and hardware specifications that are all almost nearly double what came before.

Nexus 7

Released: July 13, 2012.

Hardware: 7-inch screen (800x1280), 4325 mAh battery (non-removable), 8/16/32 GB internal memory (no external memory), 1 GB RAM, 1.2 MP front camera.

Firmware: Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean)

The first Nexus tablet was announced at Google I/O in June 2012 and shipped a couple weeks later. The Nexus 7 cemented the market for lower priced tablets (next to the Kindle Fire at $199) with smaller screens in the 7-inch variety. From a hardware point of view, the Nexus 7 was not the most sophisticated tablet ever to be released, but it showed that Android has the ability to seamlessly run on tablet-sized screens while also highlighting the capabilities of Jelly Bean as a tablet operating system. Google refreshed the Nexus 7 later in the year to give it cellular connectivity. 

Nexus 4

Released: November 13, 2012.

Hardware: 4.7-inch screen (768x1280), 2100 mAh battery (non-removable), 8/16 GB internal memory, 2 GB RAM, 8 MP back camera, 1.3 MP front camera. 

Firmware: Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean)

The latest Android firmware is version 4.2, the second instance of Jelly Bean (much in the same way that Android 2.0/2.1 were both Eclair). The Nexus 4 from LG was released at the end of 2012 with two other devices -- the Nexus 10 from Samsung (below) and the upgraded Nexus 7. As yet, adoption of Android 4.2 has been minimal as it is an iterative update to what already existed in Android 4.1, with some minor feature upgrades. While many people consider the Nexus 4 to be a superb instance of an Android smartphone, it was criticized for its lack of 4G LTE, of which most new smartphones have included by default. The phone was made available through Google Play store (along with it tablet siblings) and on T-Mobile.

Nexus 10

Released: November 13, 2012.

Hardware: 10.05-inch screen (1600x2560), 9000 mAh battery (non-removable), 16/32 GB memory, 2 GB RAM, 5 MP back camera, 1.9 MP front camera.

Firmware: Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean)

Samsung came back to produce the first branded large-screen (8-inches or up) Nexus tablet with the Nexus 10. The tablet was the first large screen to roll out with a flagship Android update since Motorola released the Xoom tablet with the Honeycomb release in February 2011. 

What will this week bring at Google I/O 2013? Will we finally see Android 5.0? Or is there another update to Jelly Bean (Android 4.3)? We will be everywhere at I/O next week bringing you news of Google's latest gadgets, apps and developer news. Stay tuned.

The Amazon smartphone is a rumor that just will not die. Citing unnamed sources, the Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon is working on building two smartphones — one of which would be a high-end device with 3D visual capabilities where images would appear to float above the screen without the need of 3D glasses. Users could reportedly control the smartphone via eye movements, perhaps similar to the facial-tracking features of the Samsung Galaxy S4. 

[See Also: Where Does Amazon Fit in the Game of Phones?]

An Amazon lab in Cupertino, Calif. (where Apple is also headquartered), is reportedly working on a variety of devices for the e-commerce giant. These could include additions to its Kindle Fire lineup of tablets and Kindle e-readers, set-top boxes for streaming television shows and movies and the long-rumored Amazon smartphones. Various efforts at the lab has names like Project A, Project B and so forth and are supposedly known as the "Alphabet Projects." 

[See Also: What The Kindle Fire Says About Amazon's Whispered Phone]

The WSJ notes that, "some or all of the devices could be shelved because of performance, financial or other concerns." So there is no guarantee we'll see an Amazon smartphone this year, if ever. 

[See Also: Is Amazon Jumping Into The Smartphone Game?]

As smartphones shift from the realm of early adoption to mainstream use, the demographics of smartphone users are also shifting strongly. A new UK survey has found that more women are using smartphones now than men, and in general users are increasingly older.

It's a pretty clear trend, if you look at the infographic provided by eDigitalResearch and IMRG. In 2010, when smartphones had only penetrated 38% of the UK market, 63% of smartphone owners were men and 37% were women. Contrast that with 2013, when smartphones hold 60% of the UK user base, and you have 58% female smartphone users and 42% male.

Older consumers are owning smartphones, as well, as the devices move from purely business use to consumer ownership. In 2010, a little under a third of all smartphones were owned by people aged 45-74. It's a little hard to get an exact percentage from the displayed pie chart, but in 2013 that age group now makes up about 45% of the overall smartphone population.

That stats show other interesting phenomena in the UK: the rise of browsing as a smartphone activity, as well as the fall of Nokia and the rise of Apple and Samsung as smartphone manufacturers sold in the UK.

Take a look at the infographic below to see other stats from across the pond.

Lead image courtesy of Shutterstock.

As any smartphone owner knows all too well, even the best of today's mobile devices are completely dependent on batteries that can't often keep up with the rest of the technology.

Even the savviest hardware makers are bumping up against the limits of what they can extract from existing battery technology. They're forced to spend enormous efforts creating various engineering "cheats" to coax out the maximum battery life and performance for our most favored gadgets.

Despite frenzied research into both battery hardware and power-management software, the best you can say is that the industry is almost managing to keep up with the demand for more and more portable power. 

10 Times Better Than Today's Batteries

Finally, help may be on the way.

According to a recently published article in the journal Nature Communications, researchers at the University of Illinois claim to have developed lithium ion microbatteries with power densities up to "2,000 times" more powerful than comparable batteries. Or more helpfully, technology that could support batteries either 10 times smaller or 10 times more powerful than today's typical lithium-ion batteries. 

Professor William P. King, who led the university team, clearly has high hopes for the battery technology. In a statement, he said:

In recent decades, electronics have gotten small. The thinking parts of computers have gotten small. And the battery has lagged far behind. This is a microtechnology that could change all of that. Now the power source is as high-performance as the rest of it.

"You could jump-start a car with the battery in your cellphone," the researchers crow in their report. They also claim their battery tech can be recharged 1,000 faster than today's batteries. Put it all together and you could theoretically have a "credit-card-thin phone" that could be recharged in less than a second. 

The new battery tech remains in the labs, however, although the team hopes to trial it in commercial settings later this year. If viable, it could revolutionize the market for consumer mobile electronics such as smartphone and tablets - and spur a new outpouring of innovative hardware and screen designs. 

How Does It Work?

In simple terms, a chemical reaction inside a battery causes the anode to release electrons. When the battery is "on" these electrons flow from the anode to the cathode - which is on the opposite side of the battery. The University of Illinois team claims its breakthrough "integrates the anode and cathode at the microscale." Meaning, this allows for even a very small battery to have a "very high surface area" - and thus provide far greater power density (output) and simultaneously support much faster charging.

Battery Life Is Everyone's Problem

Battery performance continues to limit what smartphones and other mobile devices can do. Apple maintains a webpage devoted solely to helping customers improve battery life of their iPads. The company suggests users "update to the latest software," "use your iPad regularly" and 15 other actions to boost battery life, including "let it breathe." Seriously.

In 2012's J.D. Power smartphone satisfaction survey, "battery life" was listed as "a significant drain on customer satisfaction and loyalty." J.D. Power even noted that battery issues for smartphones resulted in "higher rates of merchandise returns and customer defections."

Is It Safe?

The new microbattery could help solve those problems, if they don't catch on fire. The BBC quoted University of Oxford chemist Peter Edwards wondering if the technology could meet the competing demands of cost, manufacturing scalability and safety:  

I'd want to know if these microbatteries would be more prone to the self-combustion issues that plagued lithium-cobalt oxide batteries which we've seen become an issue of concern with Boeing's Dreamliner jets.

Here's hoping the team at Illinois, or one of the many other groups working on this problem, achieve a commercially viable - and safe - battery breakthrough soon. I hate it when my iPhone runs out of power just when I need it most.

Lead graphic representation of new battery technology courtesy of the University of Illinois.  

What cable cutters? If Verizon Communications latest quarterly earning are any indication, over-the-wire services have little to worry about in the near future.

Verizon's wireline FiOS revenue for pay TV and Internet leaped 15.1% higher in the prior quarter, up to $2.6 billion. That figure is especially telling, given that Verizon FiOS hasn't expanded into any new markets lately. Verizon's pay-TV service seems to be figuring out how to get more customers out of the markets it's already in, probably to the detriment of other cable and satellite providers in the same markets.

"FiOS continues to make inroads in the internet and video markets taking away share from the cable companies," Roger Entner, Lead Analyst and Founder of Recon Analytics commented.

All told, FiOS added 169,000 new customers to its TV plans, and 188,000 new Internet customers. The lack of decline in users broadly demonstrates that there still hasn't been a mass "switch-off" from pay TV providers, as these businesses are still showing signs of growth.

Verizon did pretty well in the wireless side of its business, too, pulling in $19.5 billion in revenue, up 6.8% from the first quarter of 2012. The company also noted that per-account revenue went up 6.9% from this time last year, a sure indicator that more customers were signing up for those hefty data plans.

They'll need those data plans, too - for the second straight quarter the iPhone made up more than 50% of smartphone sales, clocking in at 55.5%. Since smartphones made up for 61% of contract user sales that means 33.9% of all phones sold to Verizon Wireless contract users were iPhones.

The story of Verizon's first quarter earnings is very much one of in-market attrition - they are building revenue by offering plans and services that customers like, and still increase Verizon's bottom line.

"Verizon is firing on all cylinders. In an increasingly saturated market, the company is accelerating subscriber, revenue and profit growth. The ShareEverything plan is being received enthusiastically by consumers," Entner added.

The growth of smartphone sales over feature phones is something businesses should continue to note as well, since it effectively means the target audience for reaching mobile users is still getting bigger, just like everyone predicted.

It's a perfect circle, in a way, as more smartphone customers participate in commerce and social interaction with their devices, Verizon and its competitors will continue to see smartphone growth… which will in turn spark the availability of more commercial services. Today's earning report is part of the turning of this mobile commerce wheel, which shows no signs of slowing.

Coupled with the growth of its wireline FiOS service, Verizon is sitting pretty in the marketplace now.

I suffer from panic attacks. At least, I used to - I've not had a single one since I got my iPhone. And I'm convinced these two things are related.

You may not know this, but panic attacks are surprisingly common. According to a study backed by the National Institutes For Health (NIH), 1 in 8 Americans will experience a panic attack at least once during their lifetime. 

Perhaps any smartphone would help, or even any device capable of creating both distractions and social connections. For me, though, having my iPhone always nearby, always on, its many features and functions ready to occupy my mind, my eyes, ears and fingertips, is often enough to reduce the onset of an attack. The device seems to draw out, bit by bit, all those fears, worries and repetitive patterns that used to conspire to throw me into despair, fear and then panic.

If it really is the iPhone that's helped mitigate my symptoms, and I believe it is, then perhaps others who suffer from similar attacks - and own a smartphone - can also find some relief.

What Is A Panic Attack?

The Mayo Clinic defines a panic attack as:

A sudden episode of intense fear that triggers severe physical reactions when there is no real danger or apparent cause. Panic attacks can be very frightening. When panic attacks occur, you might think you're losing control, having a heart attack or even dying.

In a panic attack, the overwhelming sense of fear, as real as it is inexplicable, wreaks havoc not only on your psyche but on your daily contribution to the world. An attack can strike seemingly at random: at home, with friends at a bar, at work, standing in line at Starbucks; anywhere, anytime. That's what makes them so debilitating. 

Twice, I went to the hospital, convinced my symptoms meant an impending drop-dead heart attack. Both times I was told I was not having a heart attack. Eventually, I was diagnosed as suffering from anxiety disorder - which can lead to panic attacks. 

To treat anxiety, doctors recommend exercise, meditation, more sleep and visualization techniques. For those who suffer full-blown panic attacks, professional help is suggested, as is medication. I was prescribed Prozac. Since getting an iPhone, however - though my case absolutly may not be typical - I have been able to gradually reduce my daily Prozac to its lowest available dosage. I expect to soon be off it entirely. I have also stopped seeing a therapist.

Using The iPhone To Improve My (Mental) Health

The potential for the iPhone to aid physical healthcare delivery and diagnostics is well documented. The market for smartphone tools that aid mental health is far less robust. But they do exist. For example, the iPhone app Viary, leverages traditional cognitive behavior therapy techniques:

Together with a therapist, Viary’s clients choose specific actions that will help them achieve a desired goal. For example a client may decide that exercising, eating healthier food, and listening to classical music makes them feel less depressed. Viary sets reminders for these behaviors - walk for 15 minutes every morning, take a vegetarian lunch, tune into some Beethoven etc, - and the app then collects data on these completed actions. Therapists or coaches can then monitor a client’s progress in real time and even respond. 

For me, however, I'm convinced that simply possessing an iPhone has improved my mental health. No matter what symptom crops up, using the iPhone helps calm me down and makes me feel more connected. If I feel inexplicably worried, no matter where I am, no matter who I am with - and this is out of necessity - I pull out my iPhone and start texting. I later apologize to those I am with.

If I feel alone, I call someone. If I get angry, I play a game - preferably online, with friends. When I am bored, I read on my Kindle app. When I can't get a song out of my head, I take to Twitter. If my breathing seems off, I make reminder lists of what I need to do for the day, the week, the rest of my life. If the feelings persist, I open Evernote and scroll through all the notes that have a "thankful" tag attached to them.

If I feel like I can't leave the house, I check my Fitbit app, find out how many steps I've taken that day, then tell myself I will go outside just long enough to add 1,000 more to my total. This usually works. 

Sometimes, when things get really dark, I scroll through my photos, which makes me happy. If that's not enough, I make notes to myself of everything I am grateful for - then email them, knowing my wife can later access the account. 

And when I feel good, good enough even to help others, I sit in the sun, pull out my iPhone and write a blog post. Like now.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock. 

Just looking at ads is bad enough, so who would want to talk to them? While many people would likely answer "no one," voice-recognition software maker Nuance says the opposite is true.

What Is A Voice Ad?

Wanting in on the booming mobile ad market, Nuance developed a way for people to chat with ads much as they do with Siri on the iPhone. Called Voice Ads, the technology works off the Internet connection of any iOS or Android mobile device.

Voice-recognition software has been around for years, but remains relatively immature as a form of communication between humans and computers. Founded in 1994, Nuance has been developing the technology longer than most other companies. Nuance's technology reportedly powers Apple's Siri, although neither company will confirm it.

Nuance's voice-ad technology is available today through the mobile ad frameworks of Jumptap,  Millennial Media and Opera Mediaworks. An ad framework is what developers embed into their mobile apps, so they can display advertising distributed by an ad network.

Advertisers using Nuance's software development kit could build two-way communications requiring only "Yes" and "No" answers - or ones with more complicated responses. An example of Voice Ads can be seen on YouTube.

The development process is not self-service, though. Ad developers have to work directly with Nuance to connect the advertising to the company's voice-recognition servers over the Internet. And because the technology is so new, it isn't supported in third-party rich-media ad creation tools, except Celtra.

Talking To Ads Could Make Sense

In many ways, Voice Ads make sense on a smartphone. Why fiddle with clicking on tiny links and trying to type on a 4-inch screen, when you can click once and start talking with a brand?

As people get comfortable talking to their smartphones through personal assistants like Siri, it's possible they could be enticed into starting a conversation through a product discount or promotional pricing. According to Nuance, advertisers see lots of potential.

"When you actually have a live conversation with an ad, it's sort of like you're creating more of a tight relationship with the brand itself, because you're having a discussion with it," said Peter Mahoney, chief marketing officer for Nuance. "The brand feels more responsive. It feels like something you can actually have a real live relationship with."

While the thought of having a "tight relationship" with an ad may sound absurd, there is big money at stake. Worldwide mobile advertising revenue is expected to hit $11.4 billion this year, reaching $24.5 billion by 2016, according to Gartner. 

The key is the quality of the experience. Nuance's technology will have to convince people they are actually having a meaningful, two-way conversation. Advertisers will have to give potential customers something in return for having that conversation with a brand.

Speech is continuing to evolve as a means of communication with computers. As people get used to talking to the machines they use in their everyday lives, the jump to talking to an ad may not seem so extreme.

Image courtesy of ShutterStock.

The journalists, analysts and camera crews queued up in a chilly rain at Facebook's Menlo Park, California, headquarters to get the first look at Facebook's new home on Android - the long-rumored Facebook Phone.

The Hype Was Heavy

Would it be new "skin" software designed to put Facebook front and center on any Android device? Or an actual device in of itself - the rumor mill suggested HTC - built from the ground up to feature the social networking giant. Or would it be something completely new and unexpected?

Everyone wanted to know. Heck, the local newsradio station - not known for its tech savvy - gushed breathlessly about the event - right before talking about President Obama's visit to the Bay Area.

But when Mark Zuckerberg walked on stage, it became clear we're talking about both! "Today we're finally going to talk about the Facebook phone," Zuckerberg said. But that phone, the HTC First, is really just a reference model for the best integration of the Facebook Home software that can be downloaded onto any modern Android phone (starting April 12).

What Is Facebook Home?

According to Zuckerberg, Facebook Home consists of a few key capabilities designed to put people, not apps, first. "Today, our phones are designed aroundapps, not people" Zuckerberg said. "And we want to flip that around." He compared the change to adding Newsfeed to Facebook's website, where people started consuming about twice as much content overnight, he said. "We want to bring this experience right to your phone, and deliver it to as many poeple as possible."

There are three key components: Cover Feed, Chat Heads and Notifications.

Cover Feed: Replacing the home and/or lock screen of an Android device, it gives you an immersive experience from the moment you turn on your phone, said Adam Mosseri, Facebook's director of product. Instead of seeing a clock and maybe a snippet of a notification, you see your Facebook Open Graph stories with large images cycling across the screen. News shares, status updates (use the poster's cover photo as the background) are visible right from the get got. You can do a long press to see the whole picture or swipe to get to the next one. You can even add comments right from the home screen, seen below.

Chat Heads: These little round bubbles with the images of your friends shown below are the metaphor for Facebook Home's way of keeping you up to date on what your friends are saying. Incorporating Facebook messaging and texting, you just tap on the Head to join the conversation. (Group conversations smuch all the participant's pictures into the bubble, slightly awkwardly.) The key here is that Chat Heads show up everywhere on the phone, not just in a dedicated app. They're always available - the little Heads show up in the corner of the screen no matter what else you're doing, and follow along when you move to a new app. (You can just flick them away if you want to get rid of them.)

Notifications: If Chat Heads are about connecting to what's important to you, Zuckerberg said, Notifications are there to make sure you don't miss critical information - along with the name and face of the person who's sending you the message. Unfortunately, with the download version at least, Facebook Home will not support notifications of emails, but you can still use the native Android notification bar. It's not as pretty, but it's still effective - something may not matter to high-school kids, but it may to the older professionals who also make up a big part of Facebook's member base.

Finally, Facebook Home adds a new app launcher, for when you still want to use your phone the old-fashioned way. Apps are really important too, so we wanted to make it just as easy to get to your apps. The app launcher is just one swipe away from your home or lock screen.

Many, but not all, of these features can be switched on or off, the company said.

How Big A Deal Is Facebook Home?

While Facebook home is not a complete mobile operating system, it's not some lightweight app, either. "We're not building a phone, and we're not building an operating system, but we're also building something a lot deeper than just an app," Zuckerberg said. "We wanted this to feel like system software, not just an app that your run. We feel like theres a higher bar for that…"

That's critical, because people spend a lot of time on Facebook on their mobile phones. Some 20% of the time people spend on their smartphones is spent with Facebook - 25% if you include Instragram, the company said. And that's three times as much as with any other app.

Still, while Zuckerberg claimed that people look at Facebook 10-12 times a day, they look at the home screen of their phone 100 times a day. Facebook Home brings the social network much closer to the user - and could be expected to seriously up Facebook's engagment time for those who use it.

It also expands on Facebook's Mobile First mantra to what Zuckerberg called "Mobile Best." "We think this is the best version of Facebook there is."

The Facebook Phone

Facebook Home will be available for free download from the Google Play store on April 12, but that's only part of the story. Facebook Home is also the HTC First (seen on the left, below), available the same day for $99.99 exclusively from AT&T - pre-orders start today.

As the first phone with Facebook Home built in, the HTC First offers deeper integration than the downloadable version. The key, Zuckerberg said, is that users don't have to download anything or sign in to anything to get started. In addition, the built-in integration means Facebook Home can (unlike the downloadable version) incorporate notifications from other apps, such as email or Spotify. The email issue, particularly, will be a big deal to some people.

What's Next For Facebook Home?

The April 12 launch date is only the beginning for Facebook Home. Zuckerberg promised that like all Facebook software, it will be updated monthly (not yearly like mobile operating systems). Updates will likely expand Cover Feed to include video, group joins, friending stories and other actions.

Another thing to expect? Ads. While Zuckerberg said there would not be ads in Cover Feed at launch, he didn't dispute a question that they could be added at a later date.

It also makes sense to expect more smartphones with Facebook Home built in. The company made no mention of an exclusive arrangement with HTC or AT&T. The company also promised a tablet version of Facebook home within the next few months. As for a version of Facebook Home for the iPhone and iPad, Zuckerberg was non-committal. That will require working with Apple, he said, in ways that talking to Google wasn't necessary to do the Android version.

And that could actually make some waves in the mobile platform wars. "I actually think this is really good for Android," Zuckerberg said. Even though there are more Android phones out there, he explained, a lot of people do their best work on iphone first. "This could bring more innovation to Android."

Facebook will be working to lead that. "This is a deeply technical problem, and its also a deeply social problem," Zuckerberg said, adding that his company is uniquely positioned to deal with that combination.

Images courtesy of Facebook. Lead image by Fredric Paul.

It's no secret: Windows Phone sales stink. Microsoft's bold, attractive platform has an install base of a meager 2% of the global smartphone market and still sits below 5% in the U.S. smartphone market. The CEO of Samsung, the world's largest smartphone maker, has publicly stated that Windows Phone sales are "lackluster." 

The big question is why the widely praised platform isn't catching on. Microsoft, relatively early to the mobile Web, came to the smartphone party late, and has failed to make its case why anyone - hard-core PC users included - should choose Windows Phone over Android or iPhone - or even BlackBerry.

The Blame Game

For years, Bill Gates spoke of a world of slates, smartphones and smart mobile devices - only to have Microsoft repeatedly fail to capitalize on that vision. 

Misstep #1: It's hardly necessary to quote Steve Ballmer's snide and foolish 2007 remark suggesting the iPhone would always be a marginal player.  Ballmer's strategic missteps have been well documented.

Misstep #2: The "one OS fits all" strategy that now-departed President of Windows Steven Sinofsky championed no doubt delayed the eventual launch of Windows Phone - and needlessly tied the platform's success to the fortunes of the Windows PC, a shrinking market, and the new Windows tablets, an unproven commodity.

Misstep #3: It's likewise easy to blame a hapless Nokia, Microsoft's flagship Windows Phone partner. The Finnish company is still trying to find its way after abandoning its own Symbian and MeeGo platforms and largely ignoring the U.S. market for years.

Each of these mistakes is at least potentially fixable. Execution and speed to market can be improved. Strategy can be revised. App developers can be brought on board. Nokia could right itself. Ballmer has reportedly announced his retirement. 

The Real Problem

None of these missteps, however, reveal the actual reason for Windows Phone's continued failure in the marketplace. Worse, the failure of Windows Phone is a problem that may ultimately prove un-fixable. Here goes:

The real reason why Windows Phone has failed because there is no good reason for it to exist.

Go on, try to think of one. Think of just one reason - one customer-facing reason - why Windows Phone should exist? Is it better? Cheaper? Faster? Simpler? More secure? More connected? 

Ontological Uncertainty

Microsoft has designed a smartphone operating system that might be better, maybe even much better, for those things that Microsoft is good at - such as Word, Outlook, Xbox Play. The problem is, those do not seem to be the things that smartphone users want or need. 

In 2012, UK telecom carrier O2 commissioned a study of smartphone users. It showed that a typical user spends more than two hours a day (128 minutes) with their smartphone. The majority of this time, however, is spent on activities where Microsoft's Windows Phone offers no significant advantages over iPhone or the best Android devices. 

For example, smartphone users spend most of their time browsing the Internet, checking their Facebook status, tweeting, listening to music and sundry other acts. For which of these - or any of these - does Windows Phone offer a superior experience?

The innovative "People Hub" in Windows Phone, for example, may prove the better choice for those who wish to merge all their social networks and contacts under one area. Who cares? In the U.S., the typical smartphone user checks their Facebook page 14 times a day. A dedicated Facebook app, and not a Microsoft social hub, seems likely to be the optimum solution.

And while Microsoft may claim that Windows Phone offers superior email capabilities (a highly debatable position), the relevant fact is that email isn't even a Top 5 feature for the typical smartphone user.

What evidence is there that Microsoft will ever offer a smartphone that provides a superior experience over Android and iPhone for watching television, reading, making calls, listening to music, etc. 

Gaming could be the exception. Integration of select Xbox features with Windows Phone could help the platform differentiate itself, but even that is not guaranteed. Already, iPhone and Android offer millions of games, including some of the most popular games ever created. The Windows Phone/Xbox combination still has to prove it can create something more compelling than Angry Birds. 

Closing the Window of Opportunity

Is there still a chance for Windows Phone to become relevant? Maybe.

Mobile carriers, eager to limit the power of Android and iPhone, may find a welcome ally in Windows Phone. The opportunities for a successful third smartphone ecosystem do exist - in theory. But Microsoft is not even assured of that third position.

Consider these recent positive words in a blog post from Microsoft's chief spokesperson, Frank X. Shaw:

Windows Phone has reached 10 percent market share in a number of countries, and according to IDC’s latest report, has shipped more than Blackberry in 26 markets and more than iPhone in seven.

Yet, even this most positive of spins reveals the significant barriers to sustained Windows Phone success. Current smartphone marketshare numbers put Android at 48% and iPhone at 19%. However, these are misleading. The third largest smartphone platform is the deprecated Nokia Symbian, with 15% of the market, and BlackBerry legacy platforms with 8% of the market. Android and iPhone dominate new sales. 

Worse, the market could be slipping out of Microsoft's reach forever. Each new sale of an Android or iOS device leads to customers purchasing apps, games, music, movies and more, all optimized for that particular ecosystem. The great bulk of such purchases cannot easily be transferred to a new platform - which serves to lock-in customers to their existing platform choice.

Time may be running out on Microsoft to be relevant in the next phase of the global personal computing industry. 

(See also My Week With Android, Or Why I'm Buying An iPhone 5.)

To succeed in this environment, Microsoft not only has to show why its device is superior, which it has so far failed to do, but demonstrate how its product is so utterly superior that customers should leave behind all their iPhone or Android content, apps and familiarity. This is a tall order, indeed. 

Nor is it wise to expect a new hardware partner to rescue the platform. As ReadWrite reported earlier this year, HP will adopt Android for mobile devices. Could Samsung be the savior? Not likely. While the world's largest smartphone maker already offers some Windows Phone-based devices, its long-term strategy, as Bloomberg Business Week suggests, isn't even about Android, but control of its own platform - just like Apple enjoys.  

Windows Phone may be a great-looking, intuitive and well-integrated platform - but it remains unable to convince large numbers of buyers why they should choose it over the market leaders. It's very hard to see how either of those facts will change any time soon.

Image of Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates courtesy of Microsoft. Image of Lumia 920 courtesy of Nokia.

Time and again, Mark Zuckerberg has made it perfectly clear: "We're not going to build a phone." Zuck's most recent pronouncement came at Facebook's 2012 fourth-quarter earnings call.

(See also Facebook's Zuckerberg: We're Not Going To Build A Phone.) 

On Thursday, just two months later, Facebook is widely expected to announce an Android device in partnership with HTC at an event at its Menlo Park headquarters. The phone - yes, the Facebook phone - is expected to run a modified but not fully skinned version of Android, retooled to revolve around the little blue "f" that has come so far. At least that what the leaks seem to reveal.  If we're getting into semantics, you could say Facebook isn't building the Facebook phone - HTC is. 

So, How Did We Get Here?

Want to review the many times Zuck has denied rumors of an official Facebook phone? Here's a refresher:

November 3, 2010:

• "First of all, we're not a hardware company. Second of all, our goal is not to sell anything physical; our goal is to make it so that everything can be social."
• "It would be pretty silly for us to go after a strategy that focused on selling a small number of phones. We don't sell hardware. That's just not what we do." 

September 11th, 2012:

• “That’s always been the wrong strategy for us,” he explained. “It’s a juicy thing to say we’re building a phone, which is why people want to write about it. But it’s so clearly the wrong strategy for us.”

January 30, 2013:

• "People keep on asking if we're going to build a phone," said Zuckerberg. "We're not going to build a phone."

In retrospect, it seems the denials around "building" a phone seems to have left the door open for hardware partners. It's not like we thought Hacker Way was going to turn into Foxconn or anything, but assuming Thursday's event turns out as expected, that Zuck sure is one literal fellow.

But What About The Other Four Facebook Phones?

The real funny thing? If Facebook launches a phone, it won't be the first Facebook phone at all - it'll be the fifth. 

Facebook Phones 1 and 2: Back in Februrary 2011 at Mobile World Congress, HTC unveiled a pair of phones with a curious twist: a physical button dedicated to launching the Android Facebook app. The HTC Status (a.k.a. the ChaCha) and the HTC Salsa were mid-range devices with largely unimpressive specs.

Facebook Phones 3 and 4: That April, a company called INQ announced the INQ Cloud Touch and the INQ Cloud Q - two semi-smartphones that would run a version of Android 2.2 interwoven with Facebook's Social Graph API. The Cloud Touch made it to shelves in the UK; INQ abandoned plans to manufacture the Cloud Q early in 2012.

Of all of the "Facebook phones" to date, the HTC Status enjoyed the most success, but that's not saying much. I reviewed it at the time - It was well built, with a funny little curve to the casing, social widgets everywhere and a tiny blue Facebook button on the bottom right. There was something likable about the Status - it was a playful little device, thoughtfully designed - but who was it for?

The Status went on sale - and then went on sale again - and ultimately just sort of faded away. Now you can get one for a penny on Amazon.

A New Mobile Era For Facebook?

But times have changed and the stakes have gotten a lot higher. After some major mobile fumbles (its slowness to the iPad, building in HTML5, etc.), Facebook now calls itself a mobile company, and really wants to mean it. 

In September of 2011, Facebook's Android app had 66 million monthly active users. By November 2012, that number had tripled. Facebook consumers one quarter of the total time people spend on mobile apps. In the fourth quarter of 2012, 23% of Facebook's total ad revenue was pumped into its coffers via mobile - up from 0%.

Facebook obviously gets the importance of mobile now. But it's still not clear why a new Facebook phone is a good idea. The company is as cozy as can be on Android and iOS already, and Facebook would be lucky to sell even "a small number" of these new phones, just as Zuck warned back in 2010. Even if the new Facebook software presented unique monetization opportunities, the revenue would barely be a drop in Facebook's ever-growing bucket.

So why bother? I guess we'll find out on Thursday. 

All photos by Taylor Hatmaker.

On April 3rd, 1973 a division manager from Motorola was walking down the street in New York City. In his hand was a device. It weighed 2.5 pounds and vaguely resembled a phone. The division manager then put the device to his ear and made a call. 

The manager was Martin Cooper. The device was a DynaTAC 8000x. The call was the first cellphone call in history.

The cellphone is 40 years old today. In place of Cooper’s 2.5-pound DynaTAC that could be used to bludgeon a passerby in a pinch, we now have four-ounce touchscreen computers connected to a world of information that happen to be able to make phone calls.

Cooper, now 84, has kept busy. He founded Arraycomm in 1992 to develop antenna software for mobile phones. He also founded Dyna LLC as a way to incubate innovation around cellular technology. From Dyna launched GreatCall, the company that made the Jitterbug cellphone. Cooper continues to do speaking engagements and is a member of several government groups that advise policy on wireless spectrum. 

I had a chance to meet Cooper in September 2012 when Motorola launched its latest versions of its Razr HD Android smartphones. He was excited about the concept of Smart Actions in the new Motorola phones. Smart Actions are features where the phone knows where you are and what you might be doing and acts accordingly. For instance, it can help extend battery life automatically or know when you are driving and cannot receive text messages. Much of capabilities of Smart Actions will likely end up in Google Now, the predictive technology Google has baked into its newest version of Android.

So today, on the 40th birthday of one of the most important technologies in human history, we salute you, Marty Cooper. On behalf of the human race, we say thank you.

Top image: From the oldest cellphone, to the newest, the Galaxy S4

Martin Cooper image courtesy of Wikipedia Commons

The so-called “Facebook Phone” will be the big news this week. As with many highly anticipated product launches, some believable rumors are filtering out ahead of the official announcement. In this case, the hottest rumors suggest the Facebook Phone will indeed be a “home screen skin” on top of a HTC Android device. 

Facebook Home APK

Tech blog Android Police got its hands on the Android Package File (APK) that supposedly shows what the Facebook phone is going to look like and what kind of features it is going to have. Dubbed “Facebook Home,” the file shows a skin for a HTC device as well as a standalone app that will be available through the Android Google Play app store.

The phone itself looks like it will be a mid-level HTC device with a 4.3-inch screen, Android Jelly Bean (version 4.1.2), a 5-megapixel back camera and a 1.6-megapixel front camera. Code named "HTC Myst." the whole thing looks very similar to the long line of mediocre devices that HTC released through 2011 and into 2012.

The APK shows that the device is running HTC’s Sense skin, version 4.5. HTC just released a new iteration in Sense 5 that will ship with its new flagship HTC One smartphones. The HTC skin should not matter, though, as the Facebook APK essentially creates a Facebook home screen designed to push users to Facebook services like Messenger and contacts. 

Not Just A Phone

Perhaps even more important, It looks like any user that wants to create the Facebook Home experience on their Android devices will be able to. Part of the APK is integration for Samsung’s Touchwiz skin, meaning that the app/home screen will be available outside of the dedicated HTC “Myst” device.

Facebook is well aware that it does not need a dedicated smartphone to compete with the likes of Apple, Google, BlackBerry and Microsoft. Its greatest strength has been to be one of the apps that is absolutely necessary on all of those devices. If the “Myst” device is just a proof of concept running a tightly integrated Facebook experience, the social giant can move horizontally through the Android ecosystem and give users the same experience without having to actually buy a “Facebook Phone.” 

In the end, that's likely a much stronger position for the social networking giant.

Image: Facebook group chat from Facebook Mobile. 

As BlackBerry steers its ship to hopefully happier seas, the smartphone maker is struggling to gain momentum. In its first quarterly earnings report since changing its name from Research In Motion to BlackBerry, the Canadian company announced stagnant earnings on the strength of six million smartphones shipped and 370,000 BlackBerry PlayBook tablets. Total revenue was $2.7 billion, down about 2% from the previous quarter and 46% (from $4.2 billion) from the same quarter a year ago.

BlackBerry said it shipped one million BlackBerry 10 devices in the quarter. All things considered, that is not bad. The Canadian fiscal quarter ended March 2. The BlackBerry Z10 and Q10 (which is not yet available) were announced on January 30 and did not shipping to its first round of countries (Canada, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates) for more than a week afterwards. BlackBerry has been expanding its roster of countries where the BlackBerry is shipping through the end of February and into March. The United States has finally seeing the touchscreen BlackBerry Z10 to major carriers within the past week.

BlackBerry's revenue was generated 61% from hardware, 36% for services and 3% for software and other revenue. Services for BlackBerry include many of its enterprise and government services, such as the BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

"We have implemented numerous changes at BlackBerry over the past year and those changes have resulted in the Company returning to profitability in the fourth quarter," said Thorsten Heins, President and CEO. "With the launch of BlackBerry 10, we have introduced the newest and what we believe to be the most innovative mobile computing platform in the market today. Customers love the device and the user experience, and our teams and partners are now focused on getting those devices into the hands of BlackBerry consumer and enterprise customers." 

While the quarterly earnings from BlackBerry are not outstanding, it should be noted that the company does not appear to be hemorrhaging money any longer. BlackBerry actually made $94 million in profit this quarter. That can be a little deceptive as BlackBerry has gone through massive layoffs and reorganization, but it seems that CEO Thorsten Heins has the company running lean and, for the first time in a long time, shipping actual products and generating buzz. 

BlackBerry also announced that its co-founder Mike Lazaridis is leaving the company and will retire May 1, 2013. Lazaridis leaves less than a month after his co-founder Jim Balsillie sold all of his stock and left the company. 

Shopping for wireless data plans for your smartphone can be an exercise in banging your head against a wall. Over and over. Does AT&T have the fastest data? How much does Verizon charge for overages? Where, oh where, is my "unlimited" plan? Do these new T-Mobile plans save me money? 

Good luck figuring it all out. At the end of the day, your bill is probably not what you thought it was going to be anyway. But, there are general baselines that we can follow from carrier to carrier that can give us a good idea on where to start. WhistleOut, a website that tracks wireless plans among the top cellular carriers in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia, wants to make it easy for you. The WhistleOut team created an infographic that compares plans among the top U.S. carriers. Check it out below.

Top image: Samsung Galaxy S4 by Dan Rowinski

In the United States, the smartphone contract is king. T-Mobile, the smallest of the major American wireless carriers, wants to end the reign of two-year contracts, phone subsidies and early termination fees. It even argues it can save you money in the process.

Well, at least part of that is true.

T-Mobile is instituting its plan to kill the subsidy-and-contract model for U.S. smartphone buyers. Instead of paying one lump sum for a smartphone and 24 months worth of contract, consumers can pay a minimal upfront cost of a smartphone and then a monthly fee as part of their bill.

For instance, if you want to buy a Samsung Galaxy S3 with 16GB of storage from T-Mobile, you can pay $69.99 up front and then $20 a month on top of your phone bill for 24 months. If buyers prefer, they can pay the full amount of the phone up front and skip the monthly installments. 

T-Mobile’s wireless plans start at $50 for one line and 500 MB of data. Users get 2GB of data for $60 and unlimited data for $70. Add the monthly smartphone fee into the equation and users are still going to get cellphone bills between $70-$100 on a monthly basis. 

How The Numbers Break Down

On one hand, consumers will be happy with the fact that they are not on a contract. Ostensibly, that means they can leave whenever they want. But that still have to have to pay for the smartphone they bought. One way or another, users are going to pay for the entire unsubsidized portion of your new smartphone.

For instance, if you choose to get a Samsung Galaxy S3, you are going to eventually pay $550 for the phone. You pay $70 up front plus the $20 fee per a month. If you get the get the unlimited data plan at $70 a month, your total cost is $2,230 for the life of the phone. If you look at the fine print in T-Mobile's contract, it will start throttling users back to "2G" speed after 5GB of data use. If you go with the bottom-tier plan at 500MB of data, the total cost of ownership is $1,750. The most popular tiered plan will likely be the $60/month for 2GB of data. That will run you a total $1,990.

For a comparison, the averages users consume about 2.3 GB of data per month. That includes moderate to heavy usage without playing an excessive amount of videos or using your smartphone as a hotspot (which usually requires a separate charge from the carriers).

T-Mobile does have cheaper phones available. The Windows Phone 8X from HTC costs $0 at checkout and $18 a month for a total of $432. A Nexus 4 will cost you a down payment of $49.99 and $17 a month for a total of $457.00.

Let’s compare T-Mobile to AT&T, which uses the "traditional" subsidy model. If we go with the baseline plan for AT&T, we are paying $40 for 450 minutes of voice time and unlimited texts (an unlimited voice plan will go for $70). Then you add in a data plan tier and messaging. The most popular is 3GB for $30 and $20 for unlimited texts. That is $90 a month, or $2,160 over a 24-month contract. Now, assume that you paid for a $200 subsidized iPhone or brand-new Android. That shakes out to $2,360. So, the difference between the most comparable plans on AT&T and T-Mobile are about $100 in favor of T-Mobile. Good, but not exactly earth shattering.

So, if we look at the baseline plan plus cost of device between AT&T and T-Mobile, you actually pay less on a contract with Ma Bell than you do with Big Pink over 24 months. Depending on the smartphone you buy, you can end up paying more per month and over a 24-month period with T-Mobile.

Does that contract really look so bad now?

T-Mobile’s Motivations

If you ever listen to a quarterly earnings call from the executives at AT&T or Verizon, they often lament the damage to their bottom line that smartphone subsidies do to them. You may pay $199.99 for a new Samsung Galaxy device from Verizon but the carrier is paying the full $550. That is millions of dollars in upfront costs that the carriers absorb.

The iPhone is especially cumbersome on carriers’ bottom lines and the more smartphones the carriers sell, the worse for wear their quarterly earnings are. AT&T, Verizon and Sprint (and yes, T-Mobile) make up the money through the life of a contract. If a user wants out of that contract, they have to pay an early termination fee. 

T-Mobile is doing away with the subsidy by passing on the cost of the phone directly to the consumer. You may not be on a contract, per se, but you are still going to pay a termination fee (the remaining cost of the device plus any other T-Mobile fees) if you want to leave. 

T-Mobile will also allow users to bring their own smartphones with them. So, if you have an unlocked iPhone from AT&T, all you need to do is get a $10 T-Mobile SIM card and activate it on T-Mobile. That way T-Mobile doesn't have to deal with the smartphone manufacturer at all and can just make money providing data. Too bad it is currently illegal to unlock your cellphone. 

The aim for T-Mobile is to take over the bottom of the smartphone market in the U.S. Users that do not need a lot of data and want a very cheap phone can do very well on T-Mobile’s plan. If you want an older phone, like the Samsung Galaxy Exhibit, you will pay $240 for the phone and $1,200 for 500MB of data a month over 24 months. Unless you want to get a straight pre-paid plan from the likes of Cricket, that is about as cheap as it gets among the four major carriers.

The fact of the matter is that, one way or another, you are going to pay both the carrier and the smartphone manufacturer. There is really no way around it. The wireless carriers in the U.S. will always try to convince you that their service is better, faster, cheaper. The fact of the matter is that you will pay nearly the same (within a couple hundred dollars) no matter which carrier you choose. 

If you want a new, top-end smartphone, you are likely better off with the two-year contract from one of the larger carriers. 

Update: Article updated to reflect $20 text messaging per month charge from AT&T.

In June 2007, Apple launched the first iPhone, marking a new era in corporate mobility. Before the fashionable mini-computer, people used smartphones for voice, texting and email. With the iPhone and its remarkable touchscreen users could also be entertained with music, video and games. Corporate executives became so attached to their hip device, they wanted to use it for business, so they bullied IT departments into providing access to email and corporate data. Employees soon joined their bosses and the bring-your-own-device trend began.

Six years later, what started out with one smartphone has grown into an army - far too much for the Wild West atmosphere of BYOD to continue as it has been. Many companies that have allowed BYOD will soon be pulling back on such freedoms. While BYOD may not die altogether, it will carry stricter restrictions meant to finally get this trend under control.

The Fate Of BYOD

"BYOD is clearly an important trend, but we expect it to plateau in the coming one to two years as enterprises decide that the cost and security issues associated with unlimited BYOD do not warrant the anarchy and increased support costs it has often caused," a recent report from tech analyst J.Gold Associates said.

Where the iPhone use to be in a class by itself, the smartphone now competes with Android phones from Samsung, HTC, LG, Sony and 10 other vendors.  In addition, there is the BlackBerry and multiple devices running Microsoft's Windows Phone.

In 2010, Apple added the iPad to the chaos, creating a whole new market for tablet computers that brought lots of competitors from manufacturers in the Android camp.

From the beginning, BYOD was a challenge for IT departments, which had to wrestle with data security, device manageability, support and app control. Nevertheless, enterprises went along with the trend and the majority allowed at least some workers to use their personal devices for business.

But configuration, workflow and security issues were always making things difficult for IT. For instance, cyber-criminals saw an easy target in Android - with so many devices running older versions of the OS, hackers could target known vulnerabilities that were left unpatched by manufacturers and wireless carriers.

BYOD Limits

A survey of enterprises that allow employees to use their own notebooks, smartphones and tablets found that nearly half had experienced a security breach. As a result, more than 40% of the companies either restricted mobile data access or installed security software, according to the poll of more than 400 IT professionals and chief executives conducted by Decisive Analytics and released in August 2012.

Despite the breaches, only 12% of companies outright cancelled BYOD programs, an indication that most remained committed to providing flexibility to employees, while moving toward imposing rules.

Indeed, Gold found that companies are realizing "the current mostly wide-open, laissez fare approach to BYOD is not sustainable longer term, and that more controls and better strategy are needed."

As companies clamp down on BYOD, employees will likely find they will have to surrender their devices in order for IT departments to install technology to protect corporate data and communications. At the same time, manufacturers are providing more enterprise features in order to ensure their products get approved for work and play.

Samsung recently launched technology called SAFE that the vendor boasts brings enterprise-class security to selected devices. People who buy the Galaxy S III or S 4 smartphones, the Galaxy Note II smartphone/tablet hybrid or the Note 10.1 tablet have the option of including SAFE, which provides a container for corporate data and email in order to separate it from personal applications.

BlackBerry, which has always been considered the gold standard in device security, has added similar data-separating technology in the new Z10.

In time, enterprises are likely to give the nod to those devices that can meet the demands of consumers and businesses and shun those that don't. So instead of BYOD, the policy of the future will be BYODA, or bring-your-own-device-for-approval.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

If there is one thing you can say about Samsung, it sure knows how to throw an extravagant party.

After the showstopping launch event at Radio City Music Hall in New York City for the new Samsung Galaxy S4, there's only one question left to answer... is this smartphone any damn good?

During the event, at least, Samsung's theatrics overshadowed the phone itself? Really. We had Jeremy Freaking Maxwell, Samsung's "secret messenger" doing a tap dance routine. We had skits of adolescents traveling the world taking pictures, women sharing music over cocktails and something about an actor and his agent. Oh, and somewhere amidst the festivities, a new smartphone made an appearance. 

Oh, and somewhere amidst the festivities, a new smartphone made an appearance. There was some very limited hands-on time after the show, er... keynote. 

Here it is:

S Travel and Flipboard pre-installed

Samsung Hub is the center of Samsung's media experience

But it wasn't just the phone, Samsung showed off some gadgets that will go with the Galaxy S4, including this cool-looking controller that appears torn out of an Xbox. The Galaxy S4 fits into the controller, which is powered by its own AAA batteries. Instead of using the touchscreen to navigate, you use the controller. In this case, the demo was a Sonic The Hedgehog game.

The Galaxy S4 is expected to be shipped with a quad-core processor in the United States. An enterprising reporter ran a test on the processor during his demo time (not me, and I did not get his name) and confirmed that the test devices at Radio City were running quad-core processors. When putting that processor to the test, we looked at the Fast & Furious 6 game coming to the phone from Kabam. It played smooth and fast.

But what about the phone itself?

First Impressions

• The body of the Galaxy S4 is thin and light. If you are familiar with a Galaxy S3, that light, almost cheap-feeling plastic body, is reprised in the S4. 
• From a shape perspective, the S4 is more squared-off (like the Galaxy S2) than rounded (like the Galaxy S3). It is thinner than both.
• The screen is totally beautiful, at least from my initial look, and highly responsive. This matches what users have come to expect from Galaxy S devices - the S3 was an extremely smooth touchscreen.
• It is bloated with all the "S" apps and everything else that Samsung has thrown into its new flagship smartphone. On the one hand, all the new and unique features Samsung definitely bring some real benefits. On the other hand, the "S" apps and all the stuff in the S4 add up to a very busy user experience.

President Samsung Mobile JK Shin rises from the floor at Radio City

Overall, it is hard to tell with a just quick impression exactly what the experience of using the Galaxy S4 will be like. There are so many new features that could be terrific - if they actually work as advertised. The danger is that Samsung's Galaxy S4 smartphone could turn out to resemble its own launch event: overblown, overproduced and visually appealing - but more annoying than pleasant.

Photos by Dan Rowinski.

If you are surfing the Web from a mobile device these days, odds are you are doing it not from a smartphone, but from some type of tablet. According to a study done by Adobe, for the first time tablets have surpassed smartphones for percentage of website views. 

Adobe analyzed more than 1 billion visits for more than 1,000 websites and found that 8% of traffic came from tablets. That ranks ahead of the 7% of visits that came from smartphones. Of course, that leaves 85% or so percent of Web traffic still coming from desktop PCs and laptops. 

The tablet number is significant because there are far, far fewer tablets in circulation in the world compared to the vast proliferation of smartphones. 

Adobe attributes tablets increased Web usage compared to smartphones to users preferance for “more in depth visits” with their tablets. Adobe says that page views and visits are 1.7-times higher on tablets than on smartphones.

Adobe notes that all the regions it tracks tablet traffic saw total traffic double in the last year. The United Kingdom has the highest percentage of tablet traffic, with 12.2% of views, while China had the lowest at 3.1%. 

From an entirely mobile perspective, there are two ways to look at these numbers. Just six years after the launch of the first iPhone (July 2007, the essential start of The Mobile Revolution) and three years since the launch of the iPad, smart mobile devices now garner nearly one out of every six website pageviews. That is not insignificant. On the flip side, though, no matter how much we harp on the notion that the mobile Web is not just the future, but also the present, the vast majority of Web traffic still comes from the legacy that is the PC. 

No One Stays On Top Forever

Room For Growth?

Even as it lost the lead in market cap, Apple may also have lost its primacy in generating buzz. No product this year - shipping or not - has generated the buzz of Google Glass. Even the launch of a new smartphone is no longer all about Apple, as Samsung ratchets up the hype leading up to next week's launch of its flagship Galaxy S4. 

Getting Harder To Move The Needle

I simply don’t believe Apple will make, or even wants to make, a TV set. To realize the dream, as discussed previously, you need to put a computer - something like an Apple TV module - inside the set. Eighteen months later, as Moore’s Law dictates, the computer is obsolete but the screen is just fine. No problem, you’ll say, just make the computer module removable, easily replaced by a new one; more revenue for Apple… and you’re right back to today’s separate box arrangement. 

For the first time in a long time, Android 2.3 Gingerbread is no longer running on the majority of Android smartphones. According to Google’s dashboards, the two-year-old flavor of its Android mobile OS now runs on only 44.2% of devices.

It's been a long, slow death for Gingerbread, which was released in December 2010. At the time, it offered a great leap in usability over Android's two previous builds — Éclair and Froyo — and was the first version of Android to really take off with users worldwide.

But with the subsequent release of Ice Cream Sandwich (Dec. 2011) and two iterations of Jelly Bean (the first of which was in July 2012), most Gingerbread devices are either holdovers from people that have not yet upgraded to a new device, have had there firmware updated by their carriers and manufacturers or cheap devices that can be found in torrents in emerging markets. 

Google names each version of Android alphabetically after tasty desserts. Android 2.2 was Frozen Yogurt, or Froyo; 2.3 was Gingerbread; 4.0 is Ice Cream Sandwich and 4.1-4.2 is Jelly Bean. (We'll just overlook the ill-fated 3.0 release dubbed Honeycomb.) Google analyzes the usages of each version by tracking how many devices access the Google Play app store in a given month.

Another Way Android Is Like Windows

When ReadWrite managing editor Fred Paul wrote the other day that Android is like the mobile version of the Windows PC operating system, he was right in more ways than one. Fred mostly meant that Android is becoming a malware haven the way Windows once was. But the two OSes have a similar relationship when it comes to distribution.

For years, older versions of Windows have lingered in certain regions long after the rest of the world has moved on. That's a somewhat bigger deal for Windows, since Microsoft puts out new versions roughly every three years — Android, by contrast, has had seven named versions since Sept. 2009. According to StatCounter’s global breakdown, Windows XP (2001 release, 6.6% global share) and Vista (2007 release, 24% share) are still running on roughly 30% of all Windows PCs. Even in the U.S., XP and Vista combined account for almost a full quarter of the entire Windows ecosystem.

Why do older versions of Windows stick around so long? In part, because Microsoft licenses a variety of manufacturers to make laptops and PCs and sell them across the world. Certain regions (Korea, for instance) or sets of buyers — such as federal, state and local governments — hang on to older versions longer to save money. Those same buyers also tend to favor cheaper PCs with older technology when it comes time to upgrade, and PC manufacturers cater to those customers.

With Android, The U.S. Is Ahead Of The Curve

The same phenomena occurs with Android, just on an accelerated scale. If you look at Android distribution in the U.S. against the rest of the world, you'll see that the rate of adoption for newer versions is much higher here than across the Android base as a whole.

See the chart from Google on Android distribution from Feb. 2013 below. Gingerbread 2.3.x still makes up 44.2% of the entire ecosystem. Froyo makes up 7.6% and Éclair 1.9%. Overall, that means that the global distribution of Android is still majority running some version of 2.x at 53.7%. 

Newer versions of Android have been gaining steam recently but are still in the minority. Android 4.0.x Ice Cream Sandwich reaches 28.6% of all Android devices while the newest Jelly Bean builds are on 16.5%.

In the U.S., the trend is reversed. According to numbers obtained by mobile analytics company Localytics, Ice Cream Sandwich builds were on 33% of Android devices in the country as of the end of Feb. 2013. Jelly Bean in the U.S also outperforms the global base of Android as a whole, at 21.62%. Together, the newest versions of Android make up 54.48% of Android devices in the U.S.

Gingerbread still accounts for the largest single slice at 38% in the U.S., but its share is starting to evaporate as manufacturers upgrade certain older devices and releasing new, popular devices — such as the Samsung Galaxy Note II, the Galaxy S3, the HTC One, the Motorola Razr HD series and so on — running the latest versions of Android.

Weeding Out Gingerbread In The Rest Of The World

When it comes to mobile distribution, the U.S. is the leading indicator of new smartphone adoption, at least when it comes to Android and Apple’s iPhone. Gingerbread devices in the U.S. are increasingly hard to find at carriers like AT&T and Verizon, and are often very cheap or free when they turn up. 

In the rest of the world, Gingerbread’s long tail is still very prevalent, with companies like Huawei and ZTE serving mid-to-low-end Gingerbread phones to emerging markets like China, Indonesia and India. 

The next wave of Android devices to hit the U.S. will just extend this trend. The HTC One runs Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2 while the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S4 is expected to run Jelly Bean 4.2.2. Huge marketing campaigns for both devices will probably push up share of the newest Android builds to 65% or higher by mid-year.

But just like older Windows versions have been harder to dig out of in the rest of the world, Android 2.3 will remain a large presence on a global scale in the foreseeable future. 

Top photo: HTC One