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Apparently our friends across the pond aren't too taken with Google's Android operating system. Its presence in European markets has increased in recent months, but only slightly, and not nearly as much as in the U.S. Could it be that Europeans don't like the little green android?

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It seems to me a femtocell is a no brainer for the carriers to push. These miniature cell phone base stations go in your house and connect to your broadband internet service. This is ideal for people that have a number of dead spots in their house or no coverage at all if in a rural area. Their use, however, remains very low.

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With the court case safely behind them, Verizon Wireless continues to pull no punches in its anti-iPhone marketing campaign. The latest assault takes on the masculinity of the iPhone, and essentially says that it has none. Them's fightin' words, Verizon!

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Lots going on in the world of Research In Motion today. Some of the items you'll find in this post include a nifty sale going on at AT&T stores today as well as an upgrade to BlackBerry Apps World. More inside!

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Verizon Wireless has said that the HTC Droid Eris will receive a significant system update at some point in the fist quarter of 2010. The update will boost the Eris' version of Android to at least 2.0, and possibly even 2.1.

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Windows Mobile 6.1 had been getting a bit long in the tooth. Not much had changed from the user's view since 2005 when WinMo 5 launched. WinMo 7 is what people are waiting for, but in the mean time, Microsoft released an update to the platform that had the most radical changes since WinMo 5 was released without the desktop style menu system. Microsoft appeared to give up on 6.5 even before it launched.

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This evening I received an email from Verizon Wireless. It contained some welcome news for owners of the Motorola Droid. You see, Google has pushed out new SDKs for Android 2.0.1 and Android 1.6. This means the folks over at Motorola and Verizon can dig their hands into the code to fix the Droid's camera issue. Oh, and I have some info on the Droid BOGO event happening this weekend.

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The average selling price of smartphones may be dropping these days, but that doesn't mean that contract plan prices have dropped, too. BillShrink put together a list of devices and what their total cost of ownership is. Check it out.

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For the US, it is generally assumed that the ultimate marriage between device and carrier would be the iPhone on Verizon. The iPhone is unquestionably the most popular single phone out there for consumers and Verizon is the largest network in the US with impressive coverage and a great 3G network. The iPhone though may be headed to T-Mobile first.

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Using a Windows Mobile device? Like performing lots of searches when on the go? Need better performance all around? Get ready for a better Bing. It's free, and it's here today.

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Images have appeared of what purport to be a new Android device from Motorola. One quick glance is all it takes to discern that this device is a non-keyboard version of the Droid. Closer inspection, however, reveals a truly unique feature: an HDMI out port.

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We were in a meeting yesterday at General Motor's headquarters with Kirk Gutmann, chief technology and strategy officer, when a woman walked in and handed Gutmann a note. I could see type highlighted in bright yellow. She said, "You need to be in a 4 p.m. board meeting that just got called." I saw a flash of concern pass over Gutmann's face. We shook hands, and our meeting was quickly adjourned. Less than an hour later, I learned CEO Fritz Henderson had resigned.

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With the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention this week reporting widespread H1N1 flu outbreaks in 32 states, many companies are dealing with or anticipating the need for staff to work remotely in the months ahead. This can present a challenge for IT organizations that haven't in the past dealt with large numbers of remote workers.

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The companies you use to access the internet, both household broadband as well as wireless, have an incredible amount of information on your online habits. They know where and when you to go to sites and in the case of wireless carriers, they usually know where you are in the real world. To supplement their revenue, they are apparently selling this information to the government.

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Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of that little thing called Twitter, is showing off his latest project, and Square is trying to turn iPhones into a mobile payment hub for merchants. It's a very interesting idea, but, like Twitter, I'm wondering how it's going to make real money.

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Some good news for users of the Motorola CLIQ. Motorola is offering a system update for the device that makes some major improvements in battery life, screen accuracy and accelerometer accuracy. Too bad the CLIQ is stuck on Android 1.5, though.

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Video calling is one of those features that has the "neat-o" effect on people. It's fairly common in some European markets, but has yet to make much of an impact in the U.S. Perhaps the newest version of fring for the iPhone will change that, as it allows one-way video sharing from the iPhone to another device running either fring or Skype.

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Neither Verizon Wireless nor Motorola have reported official sales figures for the Droid smartphone, but estimates place current sales between 700,000 and 800,000. That makes reaching the one million units sold milestone (pun intended) within Motorola's grasp.

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Black Friday in the US was boosted by mobile phones, but perhaps not in the way you think. Yes, there were definitely some good deals on mobile phones, but I'm talking about people using mobile phones to hone in on good deals and even complete some purchases.

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Today, citing people familiar with Nokia's 2010 product roadmap, Reuters is reporting that Nokia will release just one new device in 2010 running its Linux-based Maemo platform. That's a bad idea, Nokia.

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Today LG and AT&T introduced a new Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphone, the eXpo. The device's defining feature is a removable Texas Instruments DLP pico projector, which can be used to share movies...er...PowerPoint Presentations when on the road.

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Just before the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless all announced sales for Black Friday and over the weekend. Conspicuously absent was any sort of sales event promoted by Sprint. Turns out Sprint was saving its deals for Cyber Monday instead of Black Friday.

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Ever since Google's Android phone has been known about, there has been speculation that Google would make a "Google Phone" to sell. Google has steadfastly maintained they don't want anything to do with hardware though. They are satisfied with making the platform and working with hardware makers to bring Android to the consumers. That may change.

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At least three of the four major network operators in the U.S. have announced sales on devices for the Black Friday shopping bonanza. Here's a round-up of what AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless are offering. My favorite deal is the buy-one-get-one BlackBerry offer that Verizon has scheduled for Friday, November 27.

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The holiday shopping season has fully arrived, and stores across the country will be opening early and offering bargains. If you're brave enough to hit the big box retail stores this weekend, Best Buy is offering five different Android handsets for $99 each.

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I've said before the iPhone is nice but what really makes the platform stand out is the App Store that now has over 100,000 apps available. There are grumblings however from an increasing number of developers not happy with the way Apple is treating those that keep the App Store's shelves stocked.

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Hewlett Packard has occasionally tossed a new iPAQ-branded smartphone into the market more as proof that it can still make them than to scare up any real sales. Its latest smartphone is perhaps one of the best-looking it has ever crafted, but HP crippled it with a terrible, horrible, no-good name.

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Did your iPhone catch the new "Duh" iPhone virus? If so, Apple says it's your own fault for jailbreaking the iPhone. iPhones that have not been jailbroken are not susceptible to the virus, and jailbreakers can take steps to protect themselves.

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The iPhone and devices based on Android make up 75% of mobile web traffic according to a recent report by AdMob. These two devices together don't make up anywhere near 75% of the device sales, but they have a disproportionate share of web browsing.

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AT&T just got a partner it its fight with Verizon Wireless. Apple is stepping into the advertising fray with two new commercials that point out features that the iPhone has that Verizon's phones iDon't.

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Neither AT&T nor Apple has ever admitted how long the exclusive sales arrangement is for the iPhone. Despite their silence, at least one person strongly believes the deal will end in June 2010, which means the iPhone will then become available via more carriers in the U.S.

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Samsung adds to Verizon Wireless' inventory of Windows Mobile 6.5 devices with the new Omnia II. This media monster packs social networking powers, a five-megapixel camera, support for Divx and Xvid, and comes with a budget-friendly price of $200.

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With the Apple iPhone setting the market on fire, it seems difficult to imagine another platform replicating its success. That isn't going to stop people from trying though. If even only half as successful, there is a lot of money to be made. The latest platform to catch fire is Android. Will it succeed, or be an also ran?

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It's been a few weeks since the Motorola Droid crash-landed on Verizon Wireless, and I wanted to give it a good amount of real-life usage before I reviewed the handset. So, does the Droid live up to the hype, or is it another failed iPhone killer?

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Based on the spec sheet that's floating about the Interwebs today, it appears as though Motorola's next Android phone is probably headed to AT&T -- which remains to be the only major U.S. carrier not already offering an Android handset.

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The Motorola Droid has one of the weirdest bugs I've ever heard about. It concerns the camera. It seems some users are finding that the autofocus doesn't work quite right. Motorola says a software fix is on the way.

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A generous -- and in-focus -- number of images of the unannounced BlackBerry Pearl 9100 have been posted to the Internet. If you're a fan of the Pearl line of smartphones from BlackBerry, it's time to get excited.

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Amid a year when the iPhone 3GS was released, Android exploded on the scene after simmering in the form of the T-Mobile G1 for nearly a year and Verizon launching some great ads talking smack about AT&T's performance, there have been a few wireless blunders that are best forgotten. 2009 isn't over yet, but there would need to be something pretty spectacular to top the turkeys on this list.

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The stats are in. During the third quarter of 2009, the Apple iPhone 3GS was the top-selling smartphone in the U.S. Research In Motion, however, owned nearly every other spot in the top ten. Who's the real winner here?

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The Palm Pre has been on sale at Sprint for about six months now. Its little brother, the Pixi, just hit store shelves this past weekend. Both can (already) be had for a song and a dance.

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Apple spends a lot of time emphasizing what you can do with the phone, and most of that is related to the apps, not the platform or any of its built in functions. With over 100,000 apps available, whatever you want to do, "There's an app for that." Are the apps more important than the platform? Microsoft's Ray Ozzie doesn't think so.

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Though the current feud between AT&T and Verizon Wireless borders on the ridiculous, it isn't stopping either company from continuing the schoolyard brawl. AT&T was dealt a blow in court today and came out swinging in response. Its own "attack ad" -- if you can call it that -- misses the mark.

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Apple and Google have been planning to leverage the popularity of mobile devices to serve up ads to enhance their bottom lines. Now that devices are powerful enough to browse the normal web and bandwidth concerns are minimal, this looks like the perfect time to jump in in a big way.

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Right smack in the middle of today's announcement of Microsoft Office 2010 was a teeny little paragraph noting that Office Mobile 2010 is already available to Windows Mobile 6.5 phones in beta form.

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A new study from JiWire unearths some interesting bits of information regarding Wi-Fi use at airports. More than half of users tend to make more than $100,000 per year, and 75% plan to make a big-ticket purchase in the next 12 months. Does that describe you?

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On Monday, Verizon Wireless officially responded to lawsuits filed against it by AT&T. Verizon calls AT&T's lawsuits "meritless," points out that the ads are factually accurate and that "the truth hurts."

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As indicated previously, Microsoft has released a client for Windows Mobile 6.0 and 6.1 users giving them access to app store that WinMo 6.5 users have had access to for just over a month. Deciding on whether or not to install this is a no brainer - do it. You won't regret it.

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Have you been longing for access to applications on your Windows Mobile 6.0 or 6.1 smartphone? Jealous that Windows Mobile 6.5 can and you can't? Be jealous no more, as users of WinMo 6.0 and 6.1 can download and install Microsoft Marketplace for Windows starting today.

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Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein recently said that Android is for "techies" and webOS (its own smartphone platform) is for "people." He also said that he thinks webOS doesn't need 80 gazillion applications to become appealing to the masses. Really?

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The onslaught of Android devices is fully under way. The latest salvo comes from Samsung, which announced the Galaxy Spica i5700 Android device. The Galaxy totes an 800MHz processor and a couple of multimedia surprises under the hood.

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