Android loses ground to Apple in second quarter

Android still owns more than half the U.S. smartphone business, but it declined in both shipments and market share in the second quarter. Google's mobile OS grabbed a 56 chunk of the the market in the June quarter, down from 61 percent a year ago, according to a report released today by Strategy Analytics. Shipments fell to 13.4 million from 15.3 million in 2011's second quarter. At the same time, the iPhone saw increased demand. Apple's smartphone market share surged to 33 percent last quarter from 23 percent a year ago. Shipments rose to 7.9 million from 5.9 million over the same period. Apple revealed last week that it sold 26 million iPhones for the quarter. That proved lower than the 29 million anticipated by Wall Street but up 28 percent from the 20.3 million sold in the prior year's quarter. And with a new iPhone reportedly on the way in September, Apple is poised to witness a surge in demand in the coming months. "Android remains the number one platform by volume in the United States, but its market share is approaching a peak and Apple iOS has been gaining ground," Strategy Analytics executive director Neil Mawston said in a statement. "Apple is rumored to be launching a new iPhone in the coming weeks, and that event, if it takes place, is going to heap even more pressure on Android in its home market."

iPhone, iOS Rule the Enterprise, but Android Is Gaining: Good

Mobile devices based on Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows Phone platforms are increasingly being supported by enterprises, but it’s Apple’s products that dominate, according to a July 25 report from Good Technology. Good, which provides cross-platform support for enterprise customers, reported on its customers’ mobile device activations during the second quarter. Key findings from the report include: The Apple iPhone 4s, which during the first quarter was activated at the rate of four times any other device, leveled out during the second quarter, accounting for nearly 31 percent of activations. iOS activations accounted for nearly 71 percent of all activations during the second quarter, down from nearly 80 percent during the first quarter. Activations of Android phones, meanwhile, grew to 37 percent, nearly doubling its first-quarter presence. The Apple iPad was by far the most popular tablet, accounting for 94.5 percent of all second-quarter activations, but Android tablets still made strides during the quarter, increasing from 2.7 percent during the first quarter to 5.5 percent during the second. Driving this growth, Good found, was Samsung’s Galaxy Note “phablet,” which features a 5.3-inch display. Samsung devices put in a good showing overall, with the Galaxy S II, the Galaxy Nexus and the Galaxy Note being among the top 10 devices to be activated by Good customers. More specifically, the top devices, in descending order, were the Apple iPhone 4S (nearly 31 percent), the iPad 3 (13.5 percent), the iPhone 4 (12.5 percent), the iPad 3 (10 percent), the Samsung Galaxy S II (4.5 percent), the Motorola Droid Razr (3 percent), the iPad (2 percent), the Samsung Galaxy Nexus (nearly 1 percent) and the Galaxy Note, at about a half a percent. Windows Phone 7.5 devices, which Good began supporting in April, accounted for 1.2 percent of overall activations, which Good expects will increase with time, and particularly the release of Window 8 and Windows Phone 8 during the fourth quarter. Mobile deployments rose within government and public sector industries—where BlackBerry maker Research In Motion has been losing ground—as well as manufacturing and wholesale and retail industries, Good found. On the whole, the report echoes similar indicators of a market in which Apple, despite its might, is losing market share to Android devices, and Microsoft, with partners including Nokia and HTC, are fighting for a foothold from which to work to build market share. “Android’s gains in this quarter mirror the pattern Good saw in Q2 2011, where Android picked up steam once the latest iPhone hardware had been on the market for a while,” according to the Good report. “By comparison, Android activations were 29 percent in Q4 2011, 32 percent in Q3 2011 and 25 percent one year ago in Q2 2011.” The report is the among the latest to suggest that Apple’s one-device-a-year policy it part of the reason that Samsung has gained on it and become the world’s largest manufacturer of both mobile phone and smartphones. “Good attributes Android’s growth this quarter—with activations nearly double—to the availability of new and feature-rich Android devices by Samsung,” the report continued. “The company attributes the iOS decline to market saturation, as most iOS device hardware has been available for some time.” Despite the above-mentioned industries that showed particular growth during the quarter, Good’s financial services customers, by far, continued to lead in mobile device activations. Finance activations were 37.8 percent during the quarter—up from 36.1 percent during the first quarter—while the next-largest industry, professional services, accounted for just more than 10 percent of activations. Good believes the wealth of financial services activations is “a direct result of the industry’s continued embrace of the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) model,” the company wrote. This group also overwhelmingly led tablet activations, exceeding 45 percent during the quarter, while the next-largest industry accounted for 9 percent of activations. “Mobility is not simply another device for IT to support or hurdle to overcome. Rather, it’s a much broader shift to a new way to empower employees, customers and partners with new applications to connect and collaborate as never before,” John Herrema, senior vice president of corporate strategy for Good, said in a statement on the report. The report suggests, Herrema added, that Good customers—and presumably similar businesses—are “really embracing mobility as a new strategy for boosting productivity and business insight.”

Android Gets Security Boost From Duo Security, DARPA

A DARPA-funded project will help Android users keep tabs on mobile vulnerabilities and help its developer, Duo Security, gather data on the problem of the slow patching of smartphone flaws. A software project funded by the U.S. government and developed by a small security startup will put wireless carriers' patching practices under the microscope. Smartphone security firm Duo Security plans to release an app for Android phones on July 23 that will check the operating system on consumer devices for known, but unpatched, security flaws. Dubbed X-Ray, the application will detect all privilege-escalation vulnerabilities, which would allow a malicious app to take control of a smartphone, as well as other severe security flaws, said Jon Oberheide, chief technology officer and co-founder of the company. While developers of desktop operating systems and software have accelerated their patching of vulnerabilities, smartphone manufacturers and wireless carriers are far slower in securing mobile devices. "Mobile malware authors have capitalized on the fact that such vulnerabilities go unpatched for many months due to conservative carrier patching practices," Oberheide wrote in an email. "We hope that X-Ray will raise user awareness about the security of their mobile devices and put pressure on carriers to step up their game when it comes to patching their users' devices." Once installed, X-Ray will probe the system and determine what software and which versions are running. Duo Security maintains a database of which software versions are vulnerable to the eight major privilege-escalation flaws that could be used by an attacker to take control of the user's phone. In addition, unknown binaries are submitted to Duo Security's servers for analysis and vulnerability scans. "There is a very small number of unique binaries out there in the world, maybe 100 or so different variations and different builds and different models of phones, so we can very quickly gather information on the near-100-percent population or binary variations," Oberheide said in an interview. When X-Ray finds a vulnerable smartphone, it will notify the users, who have, unfortunately, a limited number of options. The user can check their carrier for an update, complain to the company, if there is no patch, or jailbreak the phone and install a third-party version of Android. A typical flaw in the Android operating system must be discovered by researchers, fixed by the original developers, added to the Android source code, incorporated into the firmware for the specific phone make and model by the manufacturer, and finally, pushed out by the carrier to each individual device. It's a process that can take months to patch a vulnerability, if at all. In July 2011, for example, nearly half of all phones were still vulnerable to the RageAgainstTheCage vulnerability—and a malicious application known as DroidDream that used the flaw—even though the fix had been available in the Android source code for nearly a year. At some point, Duo may offer a user the option of patching the vulnerability on their phones automatically, but that would require the company's software to exploit the flaw and use it to patch the system, Oberheide said. The software project is one of the first to get funding under the Cyber Fast Track program, an initiative managed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to spur innovative security research by funding small companies and individual researchers. The initiative, managed by former L0pht hacker Peiter "Mudge" Zatko, has funded some five-dozen projects to date. As part of the project, the company plans to port the application to other mobile-device platforms.

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean

4.1.1 July 9, 2012 Vsync timing across all drawing and animation done by the Android framework, including application rendering, touch events, screen composition and display refresh Triple buffering in the graphics pipeline Enhanced accessibility Bi-directional text and other language support User-installable keyboard maps Expandable notifications Ability to turn off notifications on an app specific basis Shortcuts and widgets can automatically be re-arranged or re-sized to allow new items to fit on home screens Bluetooth data transfer for Android Beam Offline voice dictation New interface layout for tablets with smaller screens (closer resembling that of a phone)[70] Improved voice search Improved camera app Google Wallet (for the Nexus 7) High resolution contact photos Google Now Multichannel audio[71] USB audio (for external sound DACs)[71] Audio chaining (also known as gapless playback)[71][72][73]

Android 4.0.x Ice Cream Sandwich

4.0.1 October 19, 2011 Virtual buttons in the UI, in place of capacitive or physical buttons Separation of widgets in a new tab, listed in a similar manner to apps Easier-to-create folders, with a drag-and-drop style A customizable launcher Improved visual voicemail with the ability to speed up or slow down voicemail messages Pinch-to-zoom functionality in the calendar Integrated screenshot capture (accomplished by holding down the Power and Volume-Down buttons) Improved error correction on the keyboard Ability to access apps directly from lock screen Improved copy and paste functionality Better voice integration and continuous, real-time speech to text dictation Face Unlock, a feature that allows users to unlock handsets using facial recognition software New tabbed web browser, allowing up to 16 tabs Automatic syncing of browser with users' Chrome bookmarks A new typeface family for the UI, Roboto Data Usage section in settings that lets users set warnings when they approach a certain usage limit, and disable data use when the limit is exceeded Ability to shut down apps that are using data in the background Improved camera app with zero shutter lag, time lapse settings, panorama mode, and the ability to zoom while recording Built-in photo editor New gallery layout, organized by location and person Refreshed "People" app with social network integration, status updates and hi-res images Android Beam, a near-field communication feature allowing the rapid short-range exchange of web bookmarks, contact info, directions, YouTube videos and other data Support for the WebP image format[48] Hardware acceleration of the UI[59] Wi-Fi Direct[60] 1080p video recording for stock Android devices 4.0.2 November 28, 2011 Fixed minor bugs on the Verizon Galaxy Nexus, the US launch of which was later delayed until December 2011 (For Canadian consumers, 4.0.2 reportedly created a bug on the Galaxy Nexus that crashed the application market when users attempted to view details of any Android application. It also inadvertently reduced the NFC capabilities of the Nexus phone).[61][62] 4.0.3 December 16, 2011[63] Numerous bug fixes and optimizations Improvements to graphics, databases, spell-checking and Bluetooth functionality New APIs for developers, including a social stream API in the Contacts provider Calendar provider enhancements New camera apps enhancing video stabilization and QVGA resolution Accessibility refinements such as improved content access for screen readers[64] 4.0.4 March 29, 2012[65] Stability improvements Better camera performance Smoother screen rotation Improved phone number recognition[66]

Android 3.x Honeycomb

3.0 February 22, 2011 Optimized tablet support with a new virtual and “holographic” user interface Added System Bar, featuring quick access to notifications, status, and soft navigation buttons, available at the bottom of the screen Added Action Bar, giving access to contextual options, navigation, widgets, or other types of content at the top of the screen Simplified multitasking – tapping Recent Apps in the System Bar allows users to see snapshots of the tasks underway and quickly jump from one app to another Redesigned keyboard, making typing fast, efficient and accurate on larger screen sizes Simplified, more intuitive copy/paste interface Multiple browser tabs replacing browser windows, plus form auto-fill and a new “incognito” mode allowing anonymous browsing Quick access to camera exposure, focus, flash, zoom, front-facing camera, time-lapse, and other camera features Ability to view albums and other collections in full-screen mode in Gallery, with easy access to thumbnails for other photos New two-pane Contacts UI and Fast Scroll to let users easily organize and locate contacts New two-pane Email UI to make viewing and organizing messages more efficient, allowing users to select one or more messages Support for video chat using Google Talk Hardware acceleration Support for multi-core processors Ability to encrypt all user data 3.1 May 10, 2011[47] UI refinements Connectivity for USB accessories Expanded Recent Apps list Resizable Home screen widgets Support for external keyboards and pointing devices Support for joysticks and gamepads Support for FLAC audio playback[48][49] High-performance Wi-Fi lock, maintaining high-performance Wi-Fi connections when device screen is off Support for HTTP proxy for each connected Wi-Fi access point 3.2 July 15, 2011[50] Improved hardware support, including optimizations for a wider range of tablets Increased ability of apps to access files on the SD card, e.g. for synchronization Compatibility display mode for apps that have not been optimized for tablet screen resolutions New display support functions, giving developers more control over display appearance on different Android devices [51] 3.2.1 September 20, 2011 Bug fixes and minor security, stability and Wi-Fi improvements Update to Android Market with automatic updates and easier-to-read Terms and Condition text Update to Google Books Improved Adobe Flash support in browser Improved Chinese handwriting prediction 3.2.2 August 30, 2011 Bug fixes and other minor improvements for the Motorola Xoom 4G 3.2.4 December 2011 "Pay as You Go" support for 3G and 4G tablets 3.2.6 February 2012 Fixed data connectivity issues when coming out of airplane mode on the US 4G Motorola Xoom

Android 2.3.x Gingerbread

2.3 December 6, 2010 Updated user interface design with increased simplicity and speed Support for extra-large screen sizes and resolutions (WXGA and higher)[31] Native support for SIP VoIP internet telephony Faster, more intuitive text input in virtual keyboard, with improved accuracy, better suggested text and voice input mode Enhanced copy/paste functionality, allowing users to select a word by press-hold, copy, and paste Support for Near Field Communication (NFC), allowing the user to read an NFC tag embedded in a poster, sticker, or advertisement New audio effects such as reverb, equalization, headphone virtualization, and bass boost New Download Manager, giving users easy access to any file downloaded from the browser, email, or another application Support for multiple cameras on the device, including a front-facing camera, if available Support for WebM/VP8 video playback, and AAC audio encoding Improved power management with a more active role in managing apps that are keeping the device awake for too long Enhanced support for native code development Switched from YAFFS to ext4 on newer devices[35][36] Audio, graphical, and input enhancements for game developers Concurrent garbage collection for increased performance Native support for more sensors (such as gyroscopes and barometers) 2.3.3 February 9, 2011 Several improvements and API fixes.[37] 2.3.4 April 28, 2011 Support for voice or video chat using Google Talk.[38] 2.3.5 July 25, 2011 System enhancements:[39] Improved network performance for the Nexus S 4G, among other fixes and improvements Fixed Bluetooth bug on Samsung Galaxy S Improved Gmail application Shadow animations for list scrolling Camera software enhancements Improved battery efficiency 2.3.6 September 2, 2011 Fixed a voice search bug (The 2.3.6 update had the side-effect of impairing the Wi-Fi hotspot functionality of many Canadian Nexus S phones. Google acknowledged this problem and fixed it in late September).[40][41] 2.3.7 September 21, 2011 Google Wallet support for the Nexus S 4G.

Android 2.2.x Froyo

May 20, 2010 Speed, memory, and performance optimizations[27] Additional application speed improvements, implemented through JIT compilation[28] Integration of Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine into the Browser application Support for the Android Cloud to Device Messaging (C2DM) service, enabling push notifications Improved Microsoft Exchange support, including security policies, auto-discovery, GAL look-up, calendar synchronization and remote wipe Improved application launcher with shortcuts to Phone and Browser applications USB tethering and Wi-Fi hotspot functionality Added an option to disable data access over mobile network Updated Market application with batch and automatic update features[27] Quick switching between multiple keyboard languages and their dictionaries Voice dialing and contact sharing over Bluetooth Support for Bluetooth-enabled car and desk docks Support for numeric and alphanumeric passwords Support for file upload fields in the Browser application[29] Support for installing applications to the expandable memory Adobe Flash support[30] Support for extra-high-PPI screens (320 ppi), such as 4" 720p[31] Gallery allows users to view picture stacks using a zoom gesture 2.2.1 January 18, 2011 Bug fixes, security updates and performance improvements 2.2.2 January 22, 2011 Minor bug fixes, including SMS routing issues that affected the Nexus One.[32] 2.2.3 November 21, 2011 Two security patches

Android 2.0/2.1 Eclair

October 26, 2009 Expanded Account sync, allowing users to add multiple accounts to a device for email- and contact-synchronization Exchange email support, with combined inbox to browse email from multiple accounts in one page Bluetooth 2.1 support Ability to tap a Contacts photo and select to call, SMS, or email the person Ability to search all saved SMS and MMS messages, with delete oldest messages in a conversation automatically deleted when a defined limit is reached Numerous new camera features, including flash support, digital zoom, scene mode, white balance, color effect and macro focus Improved typing speed on virtual keyboard, with smarter dictionary that learns from word usage and includes contact names as suggestions Refreshed browser UI with bookmark thumbnails, double-tap zoom and support for HTML5 Calendar agenda view enhanced, showing attending status for each invitee, and ability to invite new guests to events Optimized hardware speed and revamped UI Support for more screen sizes and resolutions, with better contrast ratio Improved Google Maps 3.1.2 MotionEvent class enhanced to track multi-touch events[23] Addition of live wallpapers, allowing the animation of home-screen background images to show movement 2.0.1 December 3, 2009[24] Minor API changes, bug fixes and framework behavioral changes 2.1 January 12, 2010[25] Minor amendments to the API and bug fixes

Android 1.6 Donut

September 15, 2009 Voice and text entry search enhanced to include bookmark history, contacts, and the web Ability for developers to include their content in search results Multi-lingual speech synthesis engine to allow any Android application to "speak" a string of text Easier searching and ability to view app screenshots in Android Market Gallery, camera and camcorder more fully integrated, with faster camera access Ability for users to select multiple photos for deletion Updated technology support for CDMA/EVDO, 802.1x, VPNs, and a text-to-speech engine Support for WVGA screen resolutions Speed improvements in searching and camera applications Expanded Gesture framework and new GestureBuilder development too

Android 1.5 update, dubbed Cupcake

April 30, 2009 Support for third-party virtual keyboards with text prediction and user dictionary for custom words Support for Widgets - miniature application views that can be embedded in other applications (such as the Home screen) and receive periodic updates[17] Video recording and playback in MPEG-4 and 3GP formats Auto-pairing and stereo support for Bluetooth added (A2DP and AVRCP profiles) Copy and paste features added to web browser User pictures shown for Favorites in Contacts Specific date/time stamp shown for events in call log, and one-touch access to a contact card from call log event Animated screen transitions Added auto-rotation option Added the current stock boot animation Ability to upload videos to YouTube Ability to upload photos to Picasa

Android 1.1

February 9, 2009 Details and reviews available when a user searches for businesses on Maps Longer in-call screen timeout default when using the speakerphone, plus ability to show/hide dialpad Ability to save attachments in messages Support added for marquee in system layouts

Android 1.0

Android Market application download and updates through the Market app Web browser to show, zoom and pan full HTML and XHTML web pages – multiple pages show as windows ("cards")[7][8] Camera support – however this version lacked the option to change the camera's resolution, white balance, quality, etc.[9] Folders allowing the grouping of a number of app icons into a single folder icon on the Home screen.[10] Access to web email servers, supporting POP3, IMAP4, and SMTP.[8] Gmail synchronization with the Gmail app Google Contacts synchronization with the People app Google Calendar synchronization with the Calendar app Google Maps with Latitude and Street View to view maps and satellite imagery, as well as find local business and obtain driving directions using GPS[9] Google Sync, allowing management of over-the-air synchronization of Gmail, People, and Calendar Google Search, allowing users to search the Internet and phone apps, contacts, calendar, etc. Google Talk instant messaging Instant messaging, text messaging, and MMS Media Player, enabling management, importing, and playback of media files – however, this version lacked video and stereo Bluetooth support[8][9] Notifications appear in the Status bar, with options to set ringtone, LED or vibration alerts[7][8][11] Voice Dialer allows dialing and placing of phone calls without typing a name or number[8] Wallpaper allows the user to set the background image or photo behind the Home screen icons and widgets YouTube video player[12] Other apps include: Alarm Clock, Calculator, Dialer (Phone), Home screen (launcher), Pictures (Gallery), and Settings. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support

Android version history

The version history of the Android operating system began with the release of the Android beta in November 2007. The first commercial version, Android 1.0, was released in September 2008. Android is a mobile operating system developed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance, and has seen a number of updates to its base operating system since its original release. These updates typically fix bugs and add new features. Since April 2009, each Android version has been developed under a codename based on a dessert or sweet treat. These versions have been released in alphabetical order: Cupcake, Donut, Éclair, Froyo (frozen yogurt), Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, and Jelly Bean. The pre-release versions of Android were dubbed Astro and Bender, but these names could not ultimately be used for trademark reasons.[1] The most recent update to the Android OS was Jelly Bean v4.1, which was announced in June 2012, and was released into the Android Open