RUMOR: AMAZON WORKING ON SMARTPHONE

Amazon could have a smartphone on store shelves by the fourth quarter of next year according to Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney. “Based on our supply chain check, we believe FIH is now jointly developing the phone with Amazon,” Mahaney wrote in a research note. “However, we believe that Amazon will pay NRE to FIH but the device and multiple components will actually be manufactured by Hon Hai’s TMS business group.” Additionally, Mahaney said that Amazon will likely use a Texas Instruments OMAP 4 processor, and that it will adopt Qualcomm’s dual-mode 6-series baseband chip as well. Read on for more.

“For a normal brand like HTC, they need to price the product at US$243 to make 30% gross margin,” Mahaney wrote. “If Amazon is actually willing to lose some money on the device, the price gap could be even bigger,” he explained, noting that Amazon’s device could be sold for between $150 and $170, or about the price it will cost to build the phone.

RUMOR: SAMSUNG'S BADA MOBILE OS TO GO OPEN SOURCE

Samsung launched its own smartphone OS, Bada, almost two years ago and so far adoption by consumers, and developers, has been lukewarm at best. If a Wall Street Journal rumor is true however all that may change. According to the report Samsung is going to make Bada open source for developers and manufacturers. Citing the usual "person familiar with the situation", Samsung apparently isn't interested in snagging any outside companies like, say, webOS, but wants to strengthen its independence from Android after Google announced it will purchase Motorola. Right now, it feels like we've already seen this story play out for the still-kicking Symbian. On the other hand, maybe Samsung, with its massive manufacturing capabilities and current hit-making prowess, can strike the right balance of hardware, software and apps to make it worthwhile.

SPRINT MAKES DECISION TO SCALE BACK "BLOATWARE" ON SMARTPHONES

Recently, HTC received oodles of praise from a minuscule-but-passionate group of folks who appreciate the company's stance on unlocking its bootloaders, and today we learned that folks at The Now Network made a similarly impressive change after hearing yet another enthusiastic sect. Sprint's VP of Product Development Fared Adib appeared on the November 2010 episode of The Engadget Show, and it was during that appearance that he heard a rather shrill cry of users begging for a smaller amount of "bloatware," or at the very least, bloatware that users could customize or outright remove. For those unfamiliar with the term, it generally refers to applications that are preloaded onto devices from the carrier; by and large, these clutter up the application grid, and many power users aren't exactly enthralled by any carrier-imposed OS changes.

Adib confessed that he jetted back from NYC and immediately informed his team that the bloatware needed to go. To quote: "Ben, we've got to get rid of these preloaded apps on our devices. A lot of customers don't want this." You may have noticed a dearth of those very apps on the EVO 3D, and according to Fared, customer feedback on the newly cleaned slate has been overwhelmingly positive. We inquired on whether this approach would be pushed across the company's product spectrum, and he seemed eager to admit that it would. In fact, Sprint's taking quite the different approach internally than some folks may be used to. It's effectively trying to get out of the way in as many areas as possible, and in turn, litter your future phones with as little content as possible. In fact, he's pushing to make whatever programs Sprint does preload user-removable, and it's a mantra we can only hope other carriers latch onto.

SMARTPHONE USERS IGNORING OTHER DEVICES TO GET ONLINE

According to Pew Research 83 percent of American adults own a cellphone, 35 percent have a smartphone, and 87 of percent smartphone owners use their handset to browse the internet and read email, apparently having decided that the things are good for more than just making phone calls and keeping papers from blowing away. Also of interest is the fact that 28 percent of the 2,277 people surveyed actually use their small screen devices as their primary method for accessing the internet.

MICROSOFT'S SMARTPHONE SHARE DOWN 35% AFTER WINDOWS PHONE 7 RELEASE

ComScore issued its May report on mobile subscriber market share in the U.S. last week, as usual, Google’s Android OS and Apple’s iOS grew more popular in the month, mostly at RIM’s expense. Perhaps equally as troubling as RIM’s continued slide, however, is Microsoft’s position with Windows Phone. As noted by Winrumors, Microsoft’s share of the U.S. smartphone market has dropped a whopping 35% since it released its next-generation smartphone platform in November of last year. At that time, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile accounted for an estimated 9% of smartphones sold in the U.S. In May, Microsoft’s combined share was just 5.8%.

The lack of carrier attention has left the OS as something of an afterthought thus far. With Windows Phone 7.5 “Mango” devices due later this year and Nokia set to launch its first Windows Phone before 2012, Microsoft is well-positioned globally. Here in the U.S. however, the Redmond-based tech giant needs far more carrier support if it hopes to make a dent in an already crowded smartphone market.

VERIZON 3G CUSTOMERS CAN UPGRADE TO 4G AND KEEP UNLIMITED DATA PLAN

Great news for everyone on one of Verizon Wireless' unlimited data plans: if you're rocking a 3G smartphone, you can eventually upgrade to an LTE handset, keep the unlimited plan, and have access to a $30 / month 4G tethering plan. That's according to VZW's official Support account on Twitter, and it's decidedly lovely news for those who were concerned that they'd be locked into EV-DO forever.

HUGE RARE EARTH MINERAL DEPOSITS FOUND IN PACIFIC OCEAN

Every time someone goes out and buys a new TV, laptop, iPad, Android smartphone, or any such device they are using up some of our rare earth minerals which these gadgets require to work. They are called rare not because there is only a small amount on earth, but because the deposists are small and therefore require a lot of mining to recover very little.

Another problem exists in the fact China holds about 97% of the rare earth mineral market, and it decides how much exits the country. This pushes up prices and makes it more difficult for companies outside of China to not only manufacture enough devices, but also to keep the costs of those gadgets competitive.

It will come with great relief then, to hear that Japanese researchers have found very rich deposits of rare earth minerals as well as the metal yttrium. In total around 26 sites located in the international waters of the Pacific Ocean have been found to have high concentrations buried between 3,500 and 6,000 meters beneath the sea bed.

The deposits are so rich they are thought to increase our reserves by 1000x. Current reserves are estimated at 110 million tonnes, but this new discovery adds another 100 billion tons.

Not only does this take the pressure off in terms of finding alternatives in the near future, the locations of the deposits near Hawaii and Tahiti means the reliance on Chinese exports will be removed. Prices should fall and competition will not be influenced by a lack of supply.

RIM'S PLAYBOOK 2 CANCELLED FOR QNX SMARTPHONE

Sources have reported RIM was working on a 10-inch BlackBerry PlayBook 2 that the company hoped to launch in time for the holidays this year. Now, according to a report from BlackBerry enthusiast blog N4BB, those plans have been canceled. The blog claims that RIM decided to pull the large-form tablet and instead focus as much effort as possible on building and releasing its first QNX-powered BlackBerry smartphone. Specs of the purported next-generation BlackBerry smartphone include a single-core 1.2GHz processor — though it may be swapped for a dual-core if RIM can find a way to reduce the drain on the battery — along with a 4.3-inch high-resolution touchscreen display. Further details surrounding the device were not made available, nor was a codename, launch name or a time frame for the device’s release.

LEAK: MOTOROLA UPCOMING DEVICES

Motorola inadvertently went live with an upcoming website redesign on Tuesday evening, revealing six unannounced devices set to be released in the near future, reports claim. Before Motorola was able to pull the test site, cell phone blog Pocketnow.com was able to procure some telling screen grabs.

Devices pictured include Motorola’s upcoming second-generation Android tablet, the XOOM 2, a watch phone codenamed “Tracey XL” after fictitious crime-fighting gadget hound Dick Tracey, and four smartphones: the ultra-thin Motorola “Slimline” and Motorola “Zaha,” the upcoming 4G LTE-enabled Motorola “Targa” and the Motorola “Pearl.” No further information about the devices was made available by the screenshots.

ASUS UNVEILS PADFONE

ASUS on Monday unveiled its second convertible tablet just ahead of Computex 2011 in Taipei, Taiwan. Using what ASUS calls the “n+1″ concept, which refers to taking a current product and adding a single change that allows the product to evolve beyond its current capability, ASUS sought to simplify the process of moving between a tablet and a phone.

The result is a unique 10.1-inch tablet that acts as dock for a 4.3-inch Android smartphone dubbed Padfone. Similar to Motorola’s “webtop” design that allows a smartphone to be docked in a laptop, ASUS’ Padfone smartphone powers the tablet when it is docked. All of the data stored on the smartphone is accessible on the tablet’s display, but the UI is tweaked and enlarged to better accomodate various functions. ASUS’ first convertible design, the Eee Pad Transformer, is in high demand in every market where it is available, and ASUS clearly hopes to build on that success with the Padfone.

BIGGEST THREAT TO TV ADERTISING IS SMARTPHONES, NOT DVR

TV viewers are a famously fickle bunch, which tends to drive TV advertisers crazy. The prevalent theory remains that skipping past ads using a pesky DVR is the biggest enemy of marketers, but new research has once again contradicted that received wisdom.

The IPG Media Lab in Los Angeles pulled together a representative group of 48 TV and online video viewers and asked them to sit through some programming while equipped with the usual "devices or distractions" that accompany their viewing habits. Central to the study was the measurement of time each person spent facing the screen and how engaged they were with the content.

The first thing noted was that 94 percent of TV viewers and 73 percent of online video consumers used some other form of media to augment their visual entertainment. Smartphones were the most common, with 60 percent of test subjects resorting to their handset while gawking at the TV. That's resulted in a mediocre 52 percent attention level during actual programs and 37 percent during ads. In other words, two thirds of the time, commercials are being ignored and smartphones are helping people with that heinous behavior.

Ironically, fast-forwarding adverts using a DVR garnered attention levels that were 12 percent higher, mostly because people were trying to make sure they didn't skip too far ahead.

RUMOR: AMAZON PLANNING ENTIRE LINEUP OF ANDROID DEVICES, INCLUDING SMARTPHONE

Amazon is planning to release an “entire family” of Android-powered devices, not just one tablet as originally thought, according to Android and Me. The rumor hasn’t specified whether or not Amazon is planning multiple sized tablets, or a tablet and a new Android-powered eReader, although there’s some speculation that a smartphone could be in the works too.

It’s no secret that the company is working on at least one tablet. Earlier this week Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos, said “stay tuned” for more information on the product, which is rumored to have been manufactured by Samsung and could launch as early as this summer. However, Android and Me disputes those claims and believes the devices will land closer to the holiday season.

Either way, it certainly makes sense for at least one Amazon tablet to exist: the firm has already launched its Unbox movie and TV streaming service, Amazon’s Cloud Player and Cloud Drive for music and data storage, and Kindle for books, all of which fit perfectly on a tablet.

ANDROID OS RISES WHILE BLACKBERRY FALLS

Android’s U.S. market share is continuing to grow at the expense of RIM, Microsoft, and Palm, according to a new report from comScore that took a snapshot of the mobile phone market during the March quarter. The report found that Android powered 34.7% of all U.S. smartphones, up 6% from December 2010. RIM’s BlackBerry OS market share fell 4.5 points to a 27.1% share of the market, while Microsoft’s Windows and Palm’s webOS each saw a 0.9 percentage point decrease. Apple’s iOS market share jumped 0.5 points to a 25.5% share of the market, just behind RIM’s 27.1% grasp. Samsung remained the most popular mobile phone brand with a 24.5% share of the market, followed by LG (20.9%), Motorola (15.8%), RIM (8.4%), and Apple (7.9%). The report also found that 234 million Americans above the age of 13 used mobile devices.

US ARMY'S SMARTPHONES TO RUN ANDROID

The US Army has selected Android to power the smartphones it eventually wants to issue to every soldier. Last year, there was question around whether the Army would select the iPhone or Android, but today they made the announcement. The idea here is to use smartphone technology to keep soldiers connected and in constant contact with monitoring personnel at military bases. Even though the program isn’t fully baked yet, they have settled on one thing: Google Android is the way to go.

That doesn’t mean that every solider will get a standard issue Droid when they sign up for the service, but it does mean that the hardware the Army eventually chooses to run its smartphones will support Android. The program, called the Joint Battle Command-Platform, is a project between MITRE and the US Army to develop the smartphones that will eventually be strapped to every soldier’s hip.

In fact, “smartphone” may be a bit of a misnomer for what the program aims to create: it’s less of a device that soldiers will be able to spend hours playing Angry Birds on and more of a tiny, portable computer and communications device. The device will only run apps that the Army approves and develops. Among those proposed apps are a mapping suite that will give soldiers situational awareness like where the enemy is and where friendly forces are. The suite would also allow commanders to track where their forces are on the battlefield.

The platform also allows for so-called “critical messaging,” which will allow commanders and forces in operation areas to exchange messages quickly and silently. There’s still debate and discussion around how the Army will keep the environment secure, and how the system will work in environments with no infrastructure for connectivity, but the project is still in its early stages.

The goal of the project is to develop a mobile platform using commercially available technology that the Army can extend with applications. So far, it looks like Android is the optimal choice for a platform that will work consistently with different hardware components, but is also open enough to give them flexibility when developing applications. No one’s sure what the product of the program will eventually look like, but the Army expects to release its development kit, called the Mobile/Handheld Computing Environment, in July to programmers and partners.

ANDROID ACTIVATIONS PASS 350,000.....PER DAY!

Google on Thursday during its first-quarter earnings call revealed that daily Android activations have surpassed the 350,000 mark. That adds up to nearly 2.5 million Android activations each week and about 10.5 million activations each month. Google said in December of last year that it was activating 300,000 Android devices each day, and if it can maintain its current pace there’s no question it will achieve global market dominance for years to come.

Some research firms say it’s already the world’s top smartphone operating system, having recently passed Symbian’s quarterly sales pace for the first time, and just about every firm on the planet is predicting that Android’s market share will continue to grow for the foreseeable future.

ANDROID 33% OF US MARKET; iPHONE UP

Android is continuing its rise upwards but has yet to take any share away from the iPhone, comScore found on Friday. February, the first month of the Verizon iPhone's availability, saw Android climb up to exactly 33 percent of the US smartphone field, a seven point climb from November. Apple's platform still managed to climb very slightly to 25.2 percent.

All of Google's advances came at the expense of every other platform, the research group said. RIM was hurt the most and saw its share drop below 30 percent for the first time, falling to 28.9 percent. Windows Phone 7 did little to stop Microsoft's decline and saw its combined efforts drop to 7.7 percent. HP, with the Pre3 and Veer still months off, dropped to 2.8 percent.

US DEVELOPING 'PANIC BUTTON' SOFTWARE FOR ACTIVISTS

According to a fresh Reuters report, the US State Department is currently developing a software-based "panic button" that would wipe a phone's address book and beam out emergency alerts to fellow protesters if they were apprehended. The goal here is to protect the privacy of those captured while promoting their best interests, and to let others know that trouble is brewing.

AT&T CRACKING DOWN ON ILLEGAL TETHERING

AT&T has started to issue warnings to customers unofficially tethering their smartphones to its network. In an email to unauthorized tetherers, the company writes, “Our records show that you use this capability, but are not subscribed to our tethering plan.”

The correspondence goes on to note that users will be automatically enrolled in the $45 per month “DataPro for Smartphone Tethering” plan if they ignore the warning. “The new plan – whether you sign up on your own or we automatically enroll you – will replace your current smartphone data plan, including if you are on an unlimited data plan,” the email continues.

The standard DataPro offering is $25 per month and provides users with 2GB of monthly data, although some users are still clinging to a discontinued, $30 per month 5GB data plan. It is safe to assume that a large portion of the unofficial, tethering populous is jailbroken iPhone users and rooted Android users. “If you discontinue tethering, no changes to your current plan will be required.”

LEAKED: DELL'S SMARTPHONE AND TABLET LINEUP FOR 2011 AND Q1 2012

WPCentral and Android Central got their hands on alleged smartphone and tablet roadmaps for the entire year, detailing the company's plans for devices running operating systems that have yet to be formally announced, including Android Ice Cream (yes, Ice Cream!) and Windows 8 as well as the tablet-friendly Honeycomb. Here's the full rundown.

Smartphones:

• Things look pretty boring (and by boring, we mean beautifully curvy) until approximately mid-April of this year, when the Venue Pro gets some "additional features and enhancements" which we're pretty sure we can name.
• Then, Q3 brings the Wrigley, what looks like a vertical QWERTY slider identifying itself as "Windows Phone 7 Next Gen," and sporting a 1GHz CPU, 4-inch 800 x 480 screen, and a 8 megapixel camera with 720p video recording. Nothing out of the ordinary, as far as we know.
• By September, things should get very interesting as Android Ice Cream will apparently be out, and Dell's Hancock will scoop it onto a a 4-inch qHD screen with dual cameras, dual-core processing and 1080p recording.
• Starting Q4, would-be Hancock buyers will have a dual-core multimedia slate alternative, as the Millennium drops the keyboard for a larger 4.3-inch screen and DLNA support (though the front-facing camera is limited to VGA resolution.)

Tablets:

• Dell's Streak 10 won't keep us waiting for long: come April, the Gallo will reportedly be chomping away at some tasty Honeycomb. But that's not all -- Dell lists a handwriting update for the Gallo in October or thereabouts. There's also a Streak 7 update scheduled for July -- we imagine that's the point when Dell believes it can shoehorn Android 3.0 onto its older brother.
• Meanwhile, Dell's 10-inch Windows 7 slate, internally known as Rosemount, is slated for June, with a 1366 x 768 resolution that should allow for native playback of 720p video.
• We can't tell you what the Sterling is, but it's likely a mid-sized one, as it's slated to take over the Streak 7's duties in or about October with Android Honeycomb on board.
• Finally, come CES 2012 in January, we now expect Dell to drop three new tablets at once: the Opus One and Silver Oak running Android Honeycomb, and the Peju with Windows 8. (The Streak 10 / Gallo will apparently soldier on.) Numbers on the left of the charge suggest that the Opus will be small, the Silver Oak mid-sized, and the Peju large.

As noted at the head of the slide, all details here are subject to change.

MICROSOFT TO KILL OFF ZUNE BRAND

Microsoft’s Zune brand has been much maligned over the past half-decade or so, and it’s a shame, because while it never caught the public’s imagination like the iPod did… it’s still one of the best PMPs on the market, boasting features like song-sharing that Apple still hasn’t managed to catch up to.

Over the years, though, the Zune brand has become a bit of a joke… mostly because it’s the first concrete example of Apple leading the way (with the iPod) and Microsoft, for all of its billions, being incapable of catching up.

Now, according to Paul Thurrot, Microsoft is looking to kill the Zune branding once and for all, moving existing Zune services into the Windows Live and Windows Phone 7 ecosystems, among others.

My sources tell me that the Zune brand is on the way out and that all Zune products and services will be moved into other businesses, including Windows Live. Zune will essentially cease to exist under this plan.

The Zune brand is synonymous with the 2006 PMP wars, but Microsoft lost those, and Apple won. No one cares about PMPs anymore, unless they are baked into their smartphones, and that’s the new battlefront for Microsoft: they need to beat the iPhone now, not the iPod.

The Zune line, excellent as it was, is a relic. Future Windows-based PMPs will use Windows Phone 7, not Zune technology. Microsoft may have spent a lot on the brand, but they never went anywhere with it.