NOKIA SMARTPHONE MARKET SHARE PLUNGES TO 31%

Stephen Elop's first quarterly results as Nokia CEO have just come out, and while the company's still growing, others seem to be speeding ahead of it. Nokia's reporting its converged mobile devices (smartphones, to you and us) reached volumes of 28.3 million during Q4 2010, which is a neat bump from 20.8 million at the same time last year and 26.5 million in the previous quarter. However, in the context of the broader smartphone marketplace, that figure now amounts to only a 31 percent share, according to Nokia's own estimates, which is a major dip relative to its 40 percent slice in Q4 2009 and 38 percent in Q3 2010.

FCC CHAIRMAN WANTS APPS TO ACT AS NET NEUTRALITY WATCHDOGS

FCC chairman Julius Genachowski wants computer apps to alert users to any violation of the new net neutrality rules put in place by the FCC. Dubbed the "Open Internet Challenge," the FCC wants software makers to help fight net neutrality violators by including code in their apps that would detect all instances of ISPs gone rogue. Here's what Genachowski had to say, according to Reuters:

Our goal is to foster user-developed applications that shine light on any practice that might be inconsistent with the free and open Internet," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said.
The challenge also tries to boost useful research into ways to measure, preserve and track the openness of the Internet.
The FCC said apps could provide real-time data to an individual experiencing a slow Internet connection speed, test networks for Internet service providers and aggregate network data for academics and policymakers.

This does seem to be a good thing, I worry about some of the potential areas for maliciousness. Also, who is going to teach the average user what these messages mean or are the apps just going to inform the FCC directly which leads to a whole other set of issues. [Gizmodo]