Android beats Symbian to #1 spot

Figures from Canalys indicate that Android shipments exceeded Symbian shipments globally during the last quarter of 2010 to take the number one spot in the smartphone market.

They say that Android shipments were up by 615.1% since Q4 2009 to 33.3 million units in Q4 2010, taking the lead from Nokia/Symbian on 31.0%, Apple on 16.2% and RIM on 14.6%. Unit sales across all platforms were significantly up except for Microsoft that dropped from 3.9 million units to 3.1 million units.

You might be surprised at the level of sales Nokia still makes - remember though that a lot of midrange Nokias are technically smartphones even though they may not be used as such, and Nokia also makes significant sales in China.

Also remember that these 33.3 million Android units are split between different manufacturers, although HTC and Samsung account for about 45% of Android shipments between them.

On paper, Nokia's position still looks pretty good.. but in practice they are suffering in key markets, especially North America where volume and share have dropped significantly. We expect Nokia to stage a fightback starting next month at MWC with a new MeeGo based tablet that should be very competitive against high-end Android.. and perhaps even the possibility that Nokia might start manufacturing Android or Windows Phone 7 based devices.. who knows?

[Via]

Video: LG Optimus Me

I guess there must be a spec somewhere for an "entry level" Android phone.. and this might well be it. Still, it brings smartphone capabilities to the feature phone price range which can't be bad.

The Sidekick is back.. running Android!

TmoNews has some spy shots of what appears to be a new 4G T-Mobile Sidekick device, built by Samsung and running Android 2.2.

The original T-Mobile Sidekick line has been dead for a while - they were proprietary devices developed by a company that got taken over by Microsoft. The result was one of the biggest disasters in recent tech history, a cock-up so great that it effectively killed off the line.

An Android-based Sidekick seems like a great idea, although it has to be more than just an Android phone with a QWERTY keyboard - the appeal of the original Sidekick was the ease of use especially with messaging, something that T-Mobile will have to replicate.

There's no word on availability, but these pictures show a pretty well rounded piece of hardware, so perhaps an official announcement will come at MWC next month.

[Via]

Samsung Galaxy Ace, Galaxy Fit, Galaxy Gio and Galaxy Mini

Four cheap(ish) Android phones from Samsung all with broadly similar specifications..

Video: Motorola ATRIX

Moto just raised the stakes with the new ATRIX - dual core, shedloads of RAM and a large "quarter HD" display that beats almost all the Android competition.

Video: Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc

A huge improvement over the old XPERIA X10, the Xperia Arc comes with a large display and it looks great too.. but for a top-of-the range phone it lacks a dual core processor which is a shame.

LG Optimus Black

A new year, and LG have come up with a completely new display technology called NOVA that promises a brighter, clearer display and lower power consumption at the same time. Shame that the phone itself seems a little dull.