Google may have stated there wouldn’t be a follow-up to the Nexus One, the flagship Android phone sold by the company online, but information leaked this week that a second iteration is on it’s way. Best Buy online leaked photos of a handset made by Samsung, dubbed the Nexus S. It is expected the Nexus S will be the first phone to ship with Gingerbread, aka Android 2.3. The hardware of the original Nexus One handset made by HTC was ahead of the pack when released, but with high-end phones the norm nowadays can the Nexus S sell as well?
The growth of Android adoption has not slowed, and numbers released this week showed the platform had moved into the global number two smartphone position behind Symbian. Android has captured 25.5 percent of the world’s smartphone market, up from a mere 3.5 percent a year ago. Smartphones are all the rage currently, but only account for 19.3 percent of all cellphones sold, so there is a lot of room for smartphone makers to grab a piece of the ever growing pie.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab with Android is just hitting consumer’s hands, and to compete with the iPad it needs apps written to take advantage of the larger screens on tablets. That process is just getting started as this week two such apps were released. The Wall Street Journal launched its Android tablet edition which provides access to its online content using a weekly subscription scheme. Fuze Meeting, which brings remote collaboration to Android tablet users, was also released this week.
Our own Om Malik took delivery of a Galaxy Tab and the GigaOM staff captured the unboxing on video. The Tab is highly portable given its 7-inch form, and only weighs about half what an iPad weighs. The screen on the Tab is brilliant and responsive, and it is apparent this tablet is the first serious competitor to the larger slate from Apple.
