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According to the recent comScore report on U.S. Mobile phone industry trends, Google's Android platform recorded a 7.1% Market share for Jan 2010 period positioning itself as the fourth biggest smartphone platform in the U.S. Blackberry maker Research In Motion (RIM) was the leading smartphone platform in the U.S. with 43% market share followed by Apple (25.1%), Microsoft (15.7%), Google (7.1%) and Palm (5.7%). For Jan 2010 period, top five U.S. Smartphone platforms represented 96.6% of the total smartphones in use. Android Mobile OS grew 4.6% since Sep 2009, while Microsoft and Palm saw a decline in their Smartphone OS share during the same period. Palm, which has been facing increased competition from Android and iPhone operating systems, slipped to fifth position behind Android.

Recent IDC Forecast report estimates Android Mobile OS to ship 68 million units making it the second most popular smartphone operating system worldwide behind Nokia's Symbian by 2013.

Nokia leads the global smartphone OS market in 2009 with 38.9% share, followed by RIM (19.8%), Apple (14.4%), HTC (4.6%) and Samsung (3.3%).

U.S. Smartphone Platform Market Share: Sep 2009 - Jan 2010

According to the latest comScore research note, U.S Internet Users watched more than 225 million videos on Vevo in Jan 2010. The music video website, which was launched in Dec 2009 as a joint venture between Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and EMI Music with Google as Technology partner, served 50 million more videos in January than previous month. Google sites top the list with more than 12.8 billion videos being watched in Jan 2010, representing a 39.5% share. Hulu took the second spot with 903 million videos, representing a share of 2.8%. Except AOL and Vevo, all other video property sites saw a decline in number videos watched in Jan 2010 compared to Dec 2009 period. Fox Interactive Media slipped from fourth position in Dec 2009 to sixth spot in Jan 2010, as the number videos served by the network dropped by more than 250 million.

In terms of the unique viewers, Google Sites (including YouTube) ranked top with 136.4 million unique viewers, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 51.4 million for Jan 2010. Vevo, with 32.3 million unique viewership stood at ninth position followed by AOL LLC.

                Number of Videos viewed (000s) online in U.S.

The Hurt Locker won the Best Picture at 82nd Annual Academy Awards 2010 held at Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. Kathryn Bigelow has won the Best Director award for the same movie. This is the first time Best Director award is won by a woman. The Hurt Locker, which was nominated in nine categories, also won Oscars in Best Original Screenplay, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Film Editing. Jeff Bridges won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance in Crazy Heart. Sandra Bullock won Best Actress Oscar for Blind Side. Avatar won Oscars in Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects categories. As expected, Mo'nique has won Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Precious:  Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire. Geoffrey Fletcher won an Oscar in Best Adapted Screenplay category for Precious. Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett won in Best Original Song category for "The Weary Kind" in Crazy Heart while Christoph Waltz won Best Supporting Actor award for Inglourious Basterds. El Secreto de Sus Ojos (The Secret in Their Eyes) from Argentina won in Best Foreign Language Film category. Here are the Oscars 2010 winners:

Precious won the best picture and Lee Daniels won the best director for Precious at 25th Film Independent Spirit Awards hosted by Eddie Izzard  at LA Live in download Los Angeles. Precious, which was nominated in five categories won best director (Lee Daniels), best first screenplay (Geoffrey Fletcher), best supporting female (Mo'Nique), best female lead (Gabourey Sidibe) and the best picture. The Leo Tolstoy drama The Last Station, which was also nominated in five categories did not win any awards. Jeff Bridges won best male lead for his role in Crazy Heart. Country-music drama Crazy Heart won best first feature film for director Scott Cooper. Geoffrey Fletcher  won best first screenplay award for Precious. Scott Neustader and Michael H. Weber won best screenplay for (500) Days Of Summer.


Humpday won John Cassavetes Award, which honors films made under $500,000. Paranormal Activity which was nominated in best first feature film category lost to Crazy Heart.


Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire and The Last Station were both nominated in five categories each.

The Spirit Awards recognize and honor movies that are made with less than $20 million budget, with majority of it originating outside the Hollywood studio system. And the award goes to:

Apple today announced the availability of iPad tablet devices in U.S. The Wi-Fi only iPad models are going to be available in the U.S. on April 03, while Wi-Fi + 3G models are going to be available in late April. In addition, all models of iPad will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK in late April. Beginning March 12, US customers can pre-order both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models from Apple’s online store or reserve a Wi-Fi model to pick up on Saturday, April 3, at an Apple retail store. Apple unveiled iPad tablet on Jan 27 in a media event in San Francisco. The base price of entry level iPad with 16 GB storage is set at $499. 32GB version and 64 GB version are going to cost $599 and $699 respectively. WiFi+3G version iPads are going to cost $130 more compared to Wi-Fi variants.

For the third time, Apple Inc., has been ranked the most admired company in the world by Fortune's 2010 annual rankings. The iPod and Mac maker ranked top in five of the nine key areas considered for the rankings. The annual rankings list companies based on their Innovation, People management, Use of corporate assets, Social responsibility, Quality of management, Financial soundness, Long-term investment, Quality of Products/Services and Global competitiveness.

Internet search giant Google ranked second in the list. Other technology and Consumer Electronics companies from the 50 most admired companies list include Amazon.com (5), Microsoft (11), IBM (15), Cisco Systems (20), Intel (31), Hewlett-Packard (32), Sony (38), eBay (40), Nokia (41), Samsung Electronics (42) and AT&T (45).

With 250 million iPods, 43 million iPhones, and 32 million iPod touches sold to date, plus the announcement of iPad tablet, Apple changed the way music is distributed and consumed in digital age. Cupertino, Calif., based Apple also ranked third in BusinessWeek's fourth annual Customer Service Champs 2010.

Susan Uman, a Netflix subscriber from Manhattan, is suing the movie rental company and Warner Bros. in a class action lawsuit filed in Manhattan Federal Court for the 28 day delay of new release DVDs. Warner Bros. and Netflix announced on Jan 06 that Netflix subscribers would have to wait 28 days from the day new release movie DVDs and Blu-ray discs are available for public to rent. In return, the DVD rental company got access to older movie catalogs from the studio to be used in it Watch Instantly streaming service. Warner Bros. made a similar agreement on Feb 16 with Redbox, the operator of DVD vending kiosks in grocery stores for $1 a night DVD rentals. This move is seen as a desperate effort by Hollywood studios to sell more DVDs during the 28 day period.

The lawsuit claims the 28-day waiting period is a"scheme to restrain trade" that limits the value of Netflix subscription and demands Netflix to stop the practice.

According to a recent report from technology and market research firm Gartner, the worldwide sales of Touchscreen mobile devices is expected to surpass 362.7 million units in 2010, representing a 96.8% increase from 2009 sales of 184.3 million units. From a sales volume perspective, Asia Pacific is going to be the leading region for touchscreen mobile devices in 2010 representing 35.6%, followed by Western Europe with 26.8% and North America with 24.4% of the total sales. In Asia Pacific region, sales of touchscreen mobile phones are projected to surpass 129.1 million units in 2010. The report notes , by 2013 touchscreen mobile devices will account for 58% of all mobile device sales worldwide and more than 80% in North America and Western Europe.

Apple introduced iPhone smartphone in Jun 2007, whose success helped other manufacturers to introduce touchscreen smartphones and personal internet devices including Motorola Droid, Google Nexus One. Penetration of touchscreen smartphones, which is at 46.56% in North America, 49% in Western Europe and 23.4% in Asia Pacific is an indication of the amount of sales growth they are going to see in coming years.

If the recent survey is any indication, Netflix soon may be able to claim a true anywhere-anytime online streaming service through its Watch Instantly program.The DVD rental company sent out a survey asking its customers if they would be interested in an iPhone online streaming application that lets users watch movies and TV shows over Wi-Fi network. Netflix streaming application, which is embedded in numerous internet connected gaming consoles, high definition TV sets, DVD players and Blu-ray disc players, already lets its subscribers watch movies and TV shows online without waiting for a physical DVD in mail.

With the advent of services like EPIX and HBO Go, Netflix is feeling the need to go mobile to maintain its competitive advantage. Even though there are number of iPhone applications for Netflix queue management, like iPhlix and PhoneFlicks none of them facilitate online streaming. On Feb 17, Sony announced that Netflix streaming will be available on its Wi-Fi enabled personal internet viewer - Dash. Recent survey explores the possibility of similar streaming application for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad tablet devices.

Challenges: Netflix's first challenge would be to convince Apple to allow its streaming application on iPhone and other mobile internet devices, as it directly competes with Apple's iTunes service. Once the application is available on iPhones connected through Wi-Fi, Netflix has a bigger challenge of getting cellular mobile operators agree to allow the service on their 3G networks. Carriers have every reason to not to allow any online media streaming service through 3G as it clogs their network (as seen in AT&T network for iPhone usage). Mobile carriers may agree to allow the service over 3G for a fee - either flat rate or per GB data transfer, which brings a final challenge for Netflix: Can Netflix provide free online streaming for its subscribers forever? Netflix already pays Content Delivery Networks (CDN) like Akamai, Limelight and Level 3 to stream its media content to TVs, gaming consoles and computers. Having to pay iPhone carriers for 3G use of streaming service means more overhead costs for Netflix.

Availability of Netflix streaming on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad tablet would definitely help the DVD rental company get more subscribers in long term.

Netflix survey text below: