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The iPhone goes to war, thanks to Raytheon

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We’ve lamented the iPhone’s unsuitability to be used as a weapon before. An iPhone wielded in the sock makes a satisfying nunchuku, don’t get us wrong, but in the viscera-choked inferno of the modern battlefield, you’re just never going to be able to close the projectile-perforated distance between you and your enemy enough to give [...]

What Were The Best New Desktop Apps Of 2009?

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It’s that time of year again folks.
Last December, we asked you to nominate your favorite new desktop apps of 2008. Popular choices back then included Evernote, Dropbox, 1Password and Things.
But what new stuff has grabbed your attention during 2009?

Remember, this is new apps we’re talking about. Perhaps one of those myriad Twitter clients has [...]

Lou Reed releases Lou Zoom, a surprising iPhone contact app

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Lou Reed’s a strange one, but then again, you’d pretty much expect him to be: as a teenager, the Velvet Underground founder was institutionalized by his parents and underwent a course of electro-convulsive treatment in order to cure his “homosexual feelings”… a traumatic event that I’ve always felt directly inspired Reed’s 1975 double album of [...]

All I wanted for Christmas was a Little Nook

Nook
This was supposed to be my Nook review. I ordered two way back in early November. I was supposed to be telling you all about the Nook’s awesome-touchiness, fast page turning, loaning books to friends and even giving a short primer on how you can check out books from your local library and read them [...]

Apple Displaces Windows Mobile For Smartphone Market

More smartphones are using Apple’s OS X operating system than Windows Mobile, a researcher said Thursday. Apple’s software now has 12.9 percent of the global smartphone market, pushing Microsoft out of No. 3 behind RIM and handset giant Nokia.

OS X-based smartphones – fueled by Apple’s popular iPhone – saw a 327 percent year-over-year increase, rising from 3.4 percent of the market in the third quarter of 2007. The increase far outstripped the 11.5 percent annual increase in the overall smartphone market, according to Gartner.

By contrast, Microsoft’s marketshare fell 3 percent to 11.1 percent.

“For the first time, iPhone sales exceeded sales of Microsoft Windows Mobile devices worldwide and in North America,” the research firm announced.

Another first: Symbian-based handsets fell below 50 percent of world sales to 49.8 percent of marketshare.

In what Gartner called a year for the weakest recorded sales growth for handsets, leader Nokia lost 3.1 percent of its No. 1 spot as No. 2 RIM and No. 3 Apple posted strong growth.

“Nokia is feeling the pressure from increased competition in the consumer smartphone market,” Gartner analyst Roberta Cozza said in a statement.

Cozza said the large handset maker first avoided the growing demand for touchscreen interfaces and now won’t be able to ship its new N97 until the first half of 2009.

Affirming the prediction of a slowing handset market, Nokia Thursday said it expects a five percent drop in handsets sold in 2009.

About the author

Ed Sutherland

Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.

Email the author | Read more posts by Ed Sutherland.

4 comments

    What other smartphones use OS X?

    “For the first time, iPhone sales exceeded sales of Microsoft Windows Mobile devices worldwide and in North America,”

    It means there are MORE iPhones in the wild than phones using windows mobile.

    To Calloway’s point, uh… “fueled?”

    Hahaha, now can we call Apple crapware and the evil empire, and Steve bloJobs the devil like they did when Windows dominated the PC market?

    ipod=evil
    iPhone=evil

    Think different….like everyone else

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