Category: Mobile

Lexus will recall the 2010 Lexus GX460 in order to update the SUV’s stability-control software. About 9400 vehicles are affected by the recall.

Lexus stopped sales of the GX460 after Consumer Reports issued a “Don’t Buy: Safety Risk” warning. During CR’s “elicit reaction” performance test, the magazine found that the rear of the GX460 could slide nearly 90 degrees before the stability control system intervened, which could potentially cause a rollover.

We’re still a little skeptical the problem requires such a panicked response. CR notes that there have been no recorded GX460 rollovers, and the SUV slid only after drastic driving inputs. Still, Lexus says its engineers reproduced the problem and believe the software fix will prevent such handling traits.

Lexus will begin contacting GX460 owners about the recall in early May. Until then, the company will offer a loaner vehicle to any driver who doesn’t feel safe in their GX460.

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3. 2010 Lexus GX460 – Short Take Road Test

Among the many toys on the 2011 Ford Fiesta will be Sync AppLink, a downloadable upgrade to the Sync hands-free system that allows drivers to use voice commands to control applications on Android or BlackBerry smartphones. While Sync has always allowed drivers to control calls and text messages via voice commands on connected cell phones, AppLink extends voice control to third-party downloadable apps—which Ford says is an industry first.

The first AppLink-ready apps will be the Pandora internet radio player, Stitcher podcast player, and BlackBerry-only Twitter client OpenBeak.

For 2011, all Ford vehicles with Sync will have AppLink capability. Ford plans to gradually add voice support for many more applications, as well as connectivity for the ever-popular iPhone (expected next year), which is noticeably absent from the initial release. AppLink-ready applications will be available from the Android, BlackBerry, and iPhone download stores just like other smartphone apps.

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ARM, the licensing firm whose architecture is the basis of the processors inside most cell phones, as well as many consumer gadgets, will be touring the country talking about the future of mobile computing over the next few weeks. Before that effort got underway I asked Bob Morris, director of mobile computing at ARM, for a sneak peak at ARM’s vision of the future, which he shared in the video below.

Morris credits the rise of the web for everything from personal communications to entertainment to enabling companies to create consumption-centric devices like tablets and e-readers, and he expects the next big effort will be around linking secure payments to broadband-enabled devices — be they mobile computers or broadband-connected TVs. He explained the concept in the video below (one PIN associated with all of your devices); you also can read about ARM’s partnership with Europe’s G&D for the nitty-gritty details.

And apparently things can get even worse for Palm (NSDQ: PALM) … RadioShack, which had been a distributor of both Palm’s Pre and Pixi phones, is no longer carrying the devices. A Sprint (NYSE: S) representative tells Barron’s that it will be replacing the phones with two others in RadioShack stores; “This is in line with Radio Shack’s normal product planning process—there is a designated amount of space in stores for handsets and they work to keep the line up of devices as current as possible,” a spokesman says; RadioShack isn’t commenting.

Neither phone has sold as well as Palm had hoped—and the bad news has come in droves since Palm announced dismal third-quarter results last month. The company has reportedly put itself up for sale—and on Friday announced that its top webOS executive was resigning. Ironically, RadioShack has been hoping that sales of mobile phones will help its own fortunes.

Related

• RadioShack Looks To Mobile Phones For Recovery; Will Run Kiosks For Target
• Palm Adds A Retention Program For Key Employees, As SVP Abbott Quits

Lenovo today reasserted its commitment to the smartphone market, saying it expects mobile Internet products to account for as much as 20 percent of its revenues within five years vs. the low single digit-range today. In fact, the company believes its mobile devices — Lenovo counts both smartphones and netbooks in the definition — will outsell its laptop and desktop PCs by 2016, it said during a media briefing. The product strategy makes sense — Gartner has predicted that smartphone sales will top those of computers by 2013, if not sooner — but Lenovo sure took a strange path to arrive at this point when it comes to smartphones.

Lenovo sold its Lenovo Mobile handset business in early 2008 for $100 million, reportedly to focus on notebooks, only to buy back the same entity for $200 million in November of 2009. Without a presence in the smartphone market during this time, it’s no wonder that Lenovo’s overall revenue percentage from what it calls a “mobile device” is a single digit. But even with a nearly two-year hiatus from the smartphone market, Lenovo isn’t out of the game just yet.

Lenovo is based in China, which, according to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, had 765.97 million mobile subscribers as of February. With a population of more than 1.3 billion, that works out to 42.7 percent without a handset in China. By way of comparison, the U.S. handset penetration rate hovers around 90 percent, while in many European nations, the rate is well over 100 percent as some consumers own multiple handsets. While basing a company in a particular country doesn’t guarantee sales there, upon the repurchase of the smartphone business, Lenovo said it “ranks No.3 in China’s mobile handset market and is the No.1 domestic brand.”

So now that Lenovo once again has a mobile division again — and a large, brand-aware potential market for its mobile products — what’s next? Lenovo could be pondering a pitch to Palm for the company’s webOS operating system and its many smartphone patents. While I still think HTC would be a more likely buyer of Palm, perhaps China is the best resting place for Palm’s platform. With a new start, proper marketing and a rebrand, webOS could get a new lease on life in China under Lenovo’s guidance. Barring that from happening, Lenovo will turn to Google Android for it phone strategy. At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, Lenovo showed off its Lephone — powered by Android but with a custom user interface designed by Lenovo.

Related content on GigaOM Pro (subscription required):

Mobile Market Overview, Q1 2010

Image courtesy of Trusted Reviews.

In advertising, the web has spending certainty, but TV has scale. Now German consumer research firm GfK is trying to bring something like the net’s trump card to the telly – by using mobile phones to listen to which ads viewers really watch.

Members of its Web Efficiency Panel – whose internet usage is monitored to help advertisers understand the impact of their online advertising – are being handed “modified mobile phones, which record exposure to TV advertising through sound recognition”, GfK says.

From the announcement: “Individuals activate the GfK-modified mobile phone when they are watching television, and the phone is able to recognise from the sound which advertisement is being viewed. The recorded data is then transmitted via the phone’s network. Using extremely precise statistical transmission information from Thomson Media Control, GfK is able to determine the television programme during which the panel member was exposed to a specific advertisement.”

The method is a far cry from monitors like UK radio monitor Rajar, whose panelists must fill in diaries chronicling their listening habits. GfK’s system doesn’t measure viewings of actual programming, but using mobile is interesting, since many people already have their mobiles beside them when watching.

GfK says the system, because it profiles users TV and online habits, helps advertisers track campaigns effectiveness from one medium to the other, potentially right through to purchase conversion.

Everyone’s heard of the iPad by now, ICD has announced their Gemini tablet, HTC jumps in with their own tablet news, and now Toshiba says they’re getting into the battle. It’s like the Cold War all over again, but this time instead of mutually assured destruction we’ll just have a bunch of broke gadget lovers.

Focusing on media consumption, Toshiba plans on offering tablet versions running Android as well as versions with Windows 7. Along with multiple options for operating systems, they’re also looking at different form factors, including a dual-screen version. No specs as of yet, but it’s got me interested (as I type from my Toshiba laptop).

Now, could somebody please tell me what to do with a dual-screen tablet computer? [Reuters via Electronista]

Wade Roush wrote:

Everyone around Boston gets into the marathon spirit on Patriot’s Day, even startups. Today, two Boston-based mobile companies are using the event to highlight their technologies.

One is Skyhook Wireless, which makes the software that iPhones, Dell notebook computers, and other mobile devices use to determine their locations based on GPS and Wi-Fi signals. Last month Skyhook  introduced a service called SpotRank that gathers anonymous data on the locations of people accessing Skyhook’s system, creating near-real time maps of demand for location information. Today the company is using SpotRank to highlight location lookups along the route of the Boston Marathon.

In part, it’s a just a demonstration of geek prowess—as more and more people flock to the marathon route to watch the runners, Skyhook’s system will highlight the swelling crowds using its online “heat maps,” especially around the finish-line area near Boston’s Copley Square. But the larger point is to demonstrate how big events that attract mobile phone-toting crowds drive up usage of location-based services.

SpotRank is “the only source of behavioral intelligence [on human travel patterns] of this magnitude available worldwide,” Skyhook CEO Ted Morgan said in a statement last month. “By allowing developers to play with this data we expect to see eye-opening uses of location.” Skyhook hopes that developers will use the SpotRank data, which is available through a provider of mobile developer tools called SimpleGeo, to create new applications and think up new uses for location information, such as predicting crowds and determining the best times for merchants to offer location-based promotions.

Another local startup tapping marathon excitement is FitnessKeeper, maker of the RunKeeper run tracking application for location-aware mobile phones. If you’re a longtime Xconomy reader, you’ll recall that FitnessKeeper founder and CEO Jason Jacobs ran the 2009 Boston Marathon dressed as a giant iPhone, raising more than $2,500 for the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in the process.

Today Jacobs is repeating the stunt, but with some company. Aaron White, a developer for FitnessKeeper and chief technology officer at Cambridge-based startup DoInk, will be running alongside Jacobs in a giant Android phone costume, to mark the release of the RunKeeper application for phones running Google’s Android operating system. The app went live in the Android Marketplace (the app store for Android phones) just last night, according to Jacobs.

This year Jacobs is running to support the American Liver Foundation, while White is raising money for Grateful Nation, an online community created by Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. FitnessKeeper fans can track Jacobs’ and White’s progress live at the RunKeeper website, which also features a series of YouTube videos about Jacobs’ and White’s preparations for the marathon.

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UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS

Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen recently told Fox Business News in a video interview that he expects to see Flash on mobile phones in the second half of this year. What he didn’t say was that the original plan was to deliver Adobe Flash on webOS handsets in 2009, so it appears that the plans have changed. The concern is that with each passing day Flash isn’t available on a wide range of smartphone platforms, its relevance on handsets decreases, mainly due to Apple’s iPhone OS. Below is the full video interview, although the conversation around Flash is mainly in the second half.

Whether you agree with Apple’s steadfast refusal to allow Flash on its mobile devices, the lack of Flash doesn’t appear to be hurting Apple device sales. Even without Flash support, Apple recently reported it has sold a total of 50 million iPhones and in only a few days, 500,000 iPads, not to mention a vast number of iPod touch devices. Some consumers do refuse to buy an Flash-less Apple device, but I’d wager that they’re in the minority. Simply put: the lack of Flash on Apple hardware might hurt sales, but not in a meaningful way.

Making matters worse — if you’re Adobe or a fan of Flash, that is — major media outlets aren’t waiting around for Flash on handsets. YouTube began to transcode its video library to support Apple’s iPhone platform in June of 2007. In time for the recent iPad launch, the New York Times adjusted its website to accommodate the H.264 video codec and HTML5, the still-evolving next generation web protocol that supports video playback without Adobe Flash. CBS is yet another standout example — the network was found testing HTML5 for playback of full television episodes. While it’s true that Flash is still widely used, and probably will be for some time to come, the tremors of a seismic shift away from Flash are now starting to be felt.

Flash faithful are quick to point out that the plug-in is installed on over 95% of all computers — with such a large footprint, how could Flash go away? The argument has little merit in this context, because the desktop world is different than the mobile world — a point that may be lost on Adobe. For example, in the Fox interview Narayen attempted to justify the need for Flash by saying it accounts for “70% of the casual gaming on the web.” That may be true, but in today’s smartphone app economy, it’s also largely irrelevant. Instead of playing casual games on the mobile web, developers are cranking out software titles and consumers are buying them — there are over 50,000 games in Apple’s iTunes App Store alone.

Need another example of Adobe being out-of-touch? Narayen vaguely referenced his own video interview to justify his defense by saying, “[i]f I want to go to Fox Business News or watch a Fox show on my smartphone, I’m going to be capable of doing that on certain devices (with Flash) and not other devices.” While I wouldn’t expect Narayen to know which web sites use Adobe Flash and which don’t, it’s very telling that I watched and heard him say this just fine on my Apple iPad – without Flash.

The one potential saving grace for Adobe right now is Google’s Android platform. It will be among the first mobile platforms to see Flash support and it’s the fastest growing platform in terms of market share right now. A private beta of Flash 10.1 on Android is now complete and Android device owners can now sign up to be notified for the public beta, although no specific timeframe on when the beta will begin is available. If Adobe can convince content partners and developers not to abandon Flash just yet, while at the same time making quick progress towards stable Flash support for Android, there’s hope for Flash. Otherwise, the entire Apple vs Adobe fight could end in a T.K.O. as an expected new iPhone arrives this summer and even more Flash-less mobile devices hit consumer hands.

Related content on GigaOM Pro (subscription required):

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Google introduced its new approach to printing yesterday with the announcement of Google Cloud Print. But “cloud” in this case is equating to “foggy” for some because the entire solution is still at a high-level description. A web-based printing solution hasn’t been implemented yet by Google — instead, the company is positioning for what it hopes to deliver for its Chrome OS, due out in the second half of this year. And by Google’s own admission, it’s going to need help. So for now, Google has simply outlined the plans, checked in some publicly available code and floated an innovative idea. So what is Google Cloud Print, exactly?

Essentially, Google is attempting to remove the computer from the middle of the print equation. In today’s world, we use an application to send a print job to the print server running on our computer. That software manages the task by communicating through a driver (more software) to the physical hardware of the printer. In the Google Cloud Print solution, the computer and accompanying print server software go away and are replaced by the cloud. Google handles the print job and communicates directly with a cloud-aware printer — these don’t exist yet, which is why I said the solution isn’t implemented yet. You may not need to replace your current printer with a cloud-aware one, though — Google will include a proxy software solution in the Google Chrome browser, which will register a legacy printer with the cloud.

What’s the use case?

Trying to see through all of this the fog, I had a phone conversation with Om this afternoon and we tried to make sense of it all. On one hand, I believe that Google’s cloud printing concept has merit and solves a problem that could otherwise hamper adoption of Chrome OS devices. And yet Om made a good point with the opposite point of view: What’s the point of sending a print job up to the cloud only to pull it back down to the printer sitting three feet away? Indeed, it’s not the most effective use of valuable bandwidth, no matter how small the print job is. But I see that situation as the exception and not the rule because Chrome OS is meant for mobile use much more so than home use.

Google may ultimately want to push Chrome OS in every market it can – business, home and mobile — but I’d argue it’s best suited for mobile. Chrome OS is essentially a web browser built on a Linux core and won’t support the desktop apps found in the home and workplace. Instead, Chrome OS leverages web services and browser-based applications as shown in my early preview video. These light apps in a browser are perfect for mobile use in areas of Wi-Fi or 3G connectivity. Put another way, people using Chrome OS in the manner it’s intended won’t have as much of a printing need as desktop or laptop users, and in the rare cases they do, Google wants to be prepared. This same reasoning justifies HP’s foray into a similar offering on a smaller scale with its Mobile Printing application for Apple’s iPhone.

Does this advance printing or is Google just trying to control even more?

There’s a point to be made about Google’s control over our data and it’s a point that scares people away from using Google’s web services. I’m not one of those people as I use Google for nearly everything: personal and work email, my Android phone, document editing on my iPad and more. But I respect the people and business entities that won’t entrust their information to Google. And in fairness to those in this category, I haven’t seen anything in the limited Cloud Print documentation that pertains to data security and privacy, aside from logging in with a Google account. Since the Cloud Print idea is only just floating around now, we should be watching for how print data will be handled. For now, I can only assume that Google will maintain the same level of privacy and security that it does with its other services.

Perhaps that’s too big an assumption on my part, but once you get past it, I see some advancements in printing, which really hasn’t changed much in recent years. Once we see cloud-aware printers, what’s to stop the ones nearest to you from advertising their service? I could easily envision a “Nearby Printer Available” message on my future Chrome OS device just as I see “Nearby Wireless Network” messages on my phone, iPad and notebook today. Printing is only a localized event because printers are chained to the computer today. By breaking those chains with cloud printing, Google is simply looking forward to meeting the needs of mobile users.

Related content on GigaOM Pro (subscription required):

Google Chrome OS: What to Expect

USA Today’s free, solely ad-supported iPad app will switch to subscription in July when the app’s exclusive sponsorship deal with Courtyard by Marriott concludes, Gannett (NYSE: GCI) CEO Craig Dubow said during the company’s Q1 earnings call. The app, which hit Apple’s iTunes App Store just before the iPad launched nearly two weeks ago, has been downloaded 175,000 since then, Dubow said. It is currently number one among iPad news apps, while USAT’s iPhone app, which launched in December 2008, currently ranks the number four in the same category. The company is still in the process of determining the pricing structure for the iPad app subscription, such as whether existing print subs would get a discounted rate or have free access.

No word on whether the iPhone app would also become a subscription product. In addition to the USAT news app, the paper also has a free iPhone travel app called AutoPilot. A Gannett rep did say that USAT doesn’t expect the introduction of the paper’s iPad app to detract in any way from its iPhone version, which is nearing 3 million downloads. The company began charging for an e-paper version of USAT last August.

Later in the call,  Dubow said that the subscription for the USAT iPad app would kick in after July 3rd or July 4th, when the Courtyard Marriott’s sponsorship ends. Asked what the expectations were for advertising and continued popularity of the iPad app, Dubow responded, “Keep in mind, we’re only in this two weeks. The download numbers are encouraging. But it’s hard to say what impact the subscription will have on growth of the app. We’re going to have to get a good read as to whether its replacing print subs or not. The more people see how beautiful it is, I expect we’re going to see continued growth for similar numbers. I believe Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) is covering the [iPad] supply issue, but I wouldn’t comment regarding what this means for the Kindle version; the two are different. I don’t think the Kindle version has the traction that we have on the other side. We see where all this headed.”

As USAT’s iPad app goes subscription, Dubow believes that advertiser demand will still hold steady. As for the pricing, he and Gracia Martore, COO and president, said that they have yet to settle on a price structure for the app subscription. “We’ll be evaluating user data and other metrics going forward and we’ll figure out the pricing for the iPad app subscription.”

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Bob Lutz, GM vice chairman, was present at the company’s Milford proving grounds today as Chevy let us loose in its Cruze compact for the first time on North American soil. It was, he said, “The last time I will address a bunch of automotive journalists on a ride-and-drive, so forgive me if I burst into tears later.”

Now, the idea of Lutz bursting into tears seems about as likely as a squadron of pigs flying past my office window, but it was actually a sad day. Whatever one thinks of Captain Bob—and I’ve been on the end of dressing downs as well as convivial conversations—he’s one of the most impressive figures I’ve come across in more than 25 years of being a motoring hack. He can drive; he loves cars and really knows them; he understands business, particularly the car business; he’s passionate about car design and marketing; and he’s refreshing for speaking his mind and, thank goodness, for not being “on message” all the time, that bane of modern corporate behavior. Much as I like Mark Reuss, last time I saw him he was searching for a PR person to ensure he was speaking with the corporate line. Er, Lutz doesn’t care for that and he’s all the better for it.

When Chevy launched the previous Malibu in 2003, Lutz and I got into a spirited knock-down fight over what was good and bad in the American car industry, especially the GM part. Lutz told me how great the car was and I pointed out that, while he had to act as a booster for it, I wanted to see what came out in five years’ time before judging his impact—he had only been at GM for a year at that point. And, you have to say, he has done a brilliant job of dragging GM’s product portfolio up by its proverbial bootstraps. In 2003, only the Corvette and the big SUVs and pickups were competitive; now, GM’s offerings have a fighting chance in Car and Driver comparison tests, save for a few clunkers such as the Chevy Impala, Buick Lucerne, and the Cadillac DTS.

As for the Cruze, it’s a competitive compact. GM had brought along a Honda Civic and a Toyota Corolla for comparison with three turbocharged 1.4-liter Cruzes: an LTZ with the sport suspension; a 2LT; and the Eco model that was announced at the New York show. The LTZ and 2LT had six-speed automatics and the Eco had a six-speed manual transmission. We can tell you that the Cruzes have better appointed interiors, more rear-seat legroom, bigger trunks, and drive in a more refined manner than the Honda on hand and are more pleasing when the road turns twisty than the Corolla. (All right, that may be damning with faint praise as almost anything is more entertaining than a Corolla on a curvy road.) Perhaps the most notable features of the Cruzes were the ride and general refinement. The wind and engine noise are muted, tire slap is minimal, and they cope really well with bumpy pavement. The turbo engines are willing, too, and mated to excellent six-speed transmissions. Check back early next week for a full write-up of the Cruze.

Whether the car will drive as well as the upcoming Ford Focus remains to be seen, although my Euro friends tell me that the Cruze isn’t in the same league as the current European-market Focus. But we think that Chevy is being more realistic with this car. Lutz says it will be priced comparably with its best competition—think Mazda 3, Civic, and Corolla—whereas we suspect that Ford will be pitching the Focus above its rivals. If you want evidence for that, the Fiesta hatchback is coming to market a couple of grand more expensive than the Mazda 2, which is basically the same car underneath.

As to why the Cruze will be more expensive than the outgoing Cobalt, we’ll leave the last words to the outgoing Lutz. “When the 35-mpg standard came in,” he says, “I said we can do anything the legislators want, but it’s going to end up costing the consumers money. A finance guy from the old days of General Motors would die if he saw this car.”

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Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC) surprised analysts with a strong first quarter, after working for the past year to cut expenses and shift production to higher-end devices.

The joint venture turned a profit, increased the average selling price of its phones, and substantially grew gross margins compared to the year-ago period. The restructuring is obvious when looking at the number of phones it shipped, which dropped 28 percent to 10.5 million from the year ago period. The drop is attributable to building fewer, more expensive phones, which could pay-off. The average selling price increased to $181 (Euro 134) from $162 (Euro 120) a year ago. Sony Ericsson still has work to do to increase its market share, which it estimated to have fallen by one percentage point to about 4 percent.

The company also announced today that it appointed Bill Glaser, Jr, former Sony VP and Head of Sony Group Risk Office, to the position of CFO. Glaser will succeed Ulf Lilja, who will go back to work at Ericsson on July 31. Glaser will report directly to Sony Ericsson’s President Bert Nordberg, and will split his time between the London and Lund, Sweden offices.

Sony Ericsson reported a profit of $28 million (Euro 21 million), compared to a year ago loss of $396 million (Euro 293 million). That clearly beat analysts’ expectations. In a Reuters poll of 27 analysts, the mean forecast called for a 157 million euro loss. However, revenues continued to decline, totaling $1.9 billion (Euro 1.4 billion) during the quarter, or 23 percent less than the year-ago period. Gross margins jumped significantly to 31 percent from 8 percent in the first quarter 2009.

In a release, Nordberg said, “We are pleased to see the positive impact of both the launch of new products and the business transformation programme improving the company’s results.” The company started selling its first Android-based device, the Xperia X10, towards the end of the quarter. A better economy might also help Sony Ericsson, which is forecasting a slight growth in global mobile phone shipments in 2010.

Since mid-2008, Sony Ericsson has reduced its workforce by about 3,150 people for a total of 8,450. It expects to reach its goal of cutting annual expenses by Euro 880 million in the second half of this year. During the quarter, Sony Ericsson said it raised additional funding of Euro 150 million from its parent companies, and now has a cash balance of Euro 563 million.

Were you hoping to put a 2011 Ferrari 599GTO in your driveway? Too late. According to Ferrari, all 599 copies of the 208-mph supercar have already been spoken for. That means anybody else who wants a 599GTO will have to wait until the lucky owners decide to sell their cars.

Yesterday, Ferrari unveiled three examples of the new car to guests at the Modena Military Academy—check out the hot white-and-blue one below. The car will be shown to the public for the first time at next week’s Beijing auto show.

Related posts:

1. Ferrari Releases 599GTO Videos
2. 2011 Ferrari 599GTO – Official Photos and Info

The biggest takeaway from a report published by Millennial Media today is that smartphone users are consuming more content—and therefore more ads—on nearly every smartphone and connected device available in the market.

—Android ad requests grew 72 percent in March month over month.
—iPad impressions increased 713 percent in the first full week the device was available.
—Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) ad requests grew 20 percent month over month.
—RIM (NSDQ: RIMM) ad requests grew 25 percent month over month.

Beyond those major platforms, specific phones new to the top 20 included: the BlackBerry Tour, the Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pixi and T-Mobile’s myTouch, showing the diversity of devices that people are buying and using to access the mobile Web. The iPhone continues to be the No. 1 device in March.

Millennial Media is perhaps the largest independent mobile ad network left in the U.S., following Google’s purchase of AdMob and Apple’s purchase of Quattro Wireless. Both AdMob and Millennial publish analysis on a monthly basis and the results can vary widely.

For instance, Millennial said that in March that Apple’s iPhone made up 70 percent of their U.S. smartphone mix. BlackBerry came in second with 14 percent of the device share, and Android was third with only 6 percent. Contrast that to AdMob, which reports worldwide smartphone information. It said that the iPhone makes up 50 percent of its network, but that Android comes in second with 24 percent. Symbian is in third with 18 percent, and RIM is in fourth place with only a sliver of market share, or 4 percent.

The major differences in the data likely derive from Millennial’s U.S.-centric business vs. AdMob’s global viewpoint.