In August, Android shipments beat out iPhone shipments for the first time, which is important for business owners and developers. DigiTimes reports that Android shipments around the world will surpass 55 million.

If that’s true, it means a 561 percent growth over last year’s shipments.

You want to keep posted on smart phone sales so you can not only choose the platform to use for your personal and business phone, but also so you can develop apps for the most popular phone platforms.

You want to focus attention on the phones that are growing the fastest and look to have the longest staying power – complicated apps can take up to 6 months to develop, and as with all technology products, you’ll want to stay ahead of the curve, not behind. Now, iPhone apps are still a huge portion of the market, so you don’t want to ignore the platform, but Anroid is a force that looks to have staying power, at least for the foreseeable future. As Android grows, developers and hardware manufacturers are undoubtedly going to focus more attention and more resources on the platform, making it a solid choice for future projects.

One development you will want to watch for is more countries open to purchasing Android apps. Currently, customers in only 13 out of 46 countries that sell Android phones can actually purchase applications for the phone.

In order to grow the Android market, Google will need to find a way to fix that little problem.

But while Apple likes to promote itself as a freedom-loving, innovation above all company, that moniker applies only to the users of its products (and now, it only applies to small pockets of those users).

Apple itself is a company that is closed, exclusive, and protective – all values that don’t blend with the ethos it tries to project, and doesn’t fit well with innovation and development.

Take the recent lawsuit that Apple filed against HTC. They have accused the Taiwanese company of infringing on their patents. They’ve used a careful strategy, filed in two courts, and have addressed tick tack little issues, like sliding a button to unlock a phone.

But what is Apple really after? Well, Apple has found that they like zero competition – it drives profits immensely. So now that the Google Android platform has proven to be a formidable opponent to the iPhone, Apple has decided that instead of fighting the Android on features, price and user interface, they will fight the platform in court.

Rather than going after Google directly, they are starting with the smaller companies that use the Android OS, chipping away at the base. Experts like patent attorneys and intellectual property consultants see Apple filing multiple suits over several years, starting with those that don’t have the money and power to fight back.

Instead of using patents to increase and forward innovation, Apple uses patents as weapons in a war to limit innovation through competition and try to whittle the electronic world down into a one-screen theater, where Apple is all that can play.

This model mirrors the HTC Magic found outside the U.S., with a 3.2 inch touchscreen display and a virtual keyboard.

Reviewers say the phone, which has gone through several name changes on its way to market, is an improvement on the first T-Mobile G1 in nearly every category, and is smaller as well.

While some will regretfully note the lack of a hardware keyboard, others point out that most of the new smartphones at this pricepoint have virtual, not physical, keyboards. While users may be used to this feature (or lack of a feature) some would prefer the physical keyboard.

The Bluetooth stereo support is standard on the new phone, and it has an adequate video and still camera, at 3.2 megapixels.

It accepts a micro SD memory card, although you have to open the battery cover to find it. The autofill choices are more numerous on the G2, and the dictionary seems to do a better job of finding the word you’re after, making typing go more quickly.

The OS is still Android 1.5, and there are a growing number of apps for the system.

This new offering fully committed to Google’s Android operating system only reinforces the fact that Android will be supported in the future and continue to be stronger.  Apps like Webdatamation’s FileDroid, will continue to provide an avenue for businesses to reach new customers and provide useful services to the smartphone community.

Ask about Android development next time to speak to one of our staff.

iPhone Dev Center is the place to get started if you are thinking to build your app for the iPhone. Well this news will dishearten you a bit if you have been developing applications on the windows environment. Yes, iPhone elegantly points you out during registration that the iPhone SDK would require an Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X Leopard as a primary technical requirement. So if you have addressed that technical feasibility, I guess the iPhone SDK is all yours for the taking!

Registration will be over after four easy steps. Well, easy almost. After the process is over and that you have logged in, the Dev Center will present you with the iPhone SDK for iPhone OS 2.2.1 (well, that was there when I last accessed. Don’t be surprised if you stumble upon a newer release!). The SDK includes the Xcode IDE (the integrated development environment to code and test your app), an iPhone simulator, including a set of exclusive tools to develop apps for the iPhone and the iPod touch.

The iPhone simulator is quite a handy tool for testing your iPhone app. The software emulates the iPhone on your Mac. Thus you can get a WYSIWYG visualization of the overall look and feel of the app. As far as getting started with developing your first iPhone app is concerned, the Dev Center boasts of a lot of organized resources and featured content that will help you get a hands-on on the coding guidelines to get your app live.

“…and there is nothing called free lunch!” Yes, if you want what Apple has coined as, “a complete process for developing and distributing iPhone or iPod touch applications”, or more commonly, the iPhone developer program, then you might land up paying $99 for a standard program and $299 for an enterprise program.

Power packed with end to end tools for complete development and deployment of applications on the iPhone, the iPhone developer program provides you with the iPhone SDK 3.0 and the iPhone OS 3.0 Beta, but at a price. So when you pay, you get a direct access to over 1000 new APIs that you can use to enhance the functionality of your applications.

Right through development, testing and distribution, the developer program is the right choice for you if you are more inclined towards building robust enterprise apps for the iPhone. If you are more into developing casual apps or widget like mid sized applications, the SDK would be more than sufficient. With the plethora of information already made available by Apple on the official website, you’ll develop your app within no time. Interested? Get started!

The core of Andriod comprises of an operating system, key applications, add-ons and plugins as well as middleware. So it basically forms a complete software stack for mobile devices. It is build upon the open Linux Kernel and adds a custom virtual machine to it, that facilitates optimization of hardware and memory resources. This additionally makes Android an “open” development framework in its true sense. The direct advantage that Android promises is extensibility, and the architecture can be extended to accomodate any future technologies as they continue to emerge.

As an example, a developer writing a new app for the Android can directly invoke any of the phone’s core functionalities. Whether it is making calls, sending text messages, navigating through the underlying file system or using the camera, the rich set of APIs in the SDK will provide the developers with a very cohesive development experience.

The icing on the cake is that Android is open source. Developers can download the Andriod SDK and start developing custom software or plugins for devices that support the Andriod framework. Already, a huge number of applications have already gained popularity in the Android market, including our very own FileDroid.

Are you thinking about the competition from the existing mobile market? Well, for a quick take on that, we have to simply wait and watch. Android can be called the new kid on the block and it is likely to face tough competition from iPhone, Palm Pre, Windows Mobile and Symbian. The open handset alliance, owned by the company, has already 34 companies as its mutual members which include several handset manufacturers, mobile operators and chipmakers. An interesting observation however is the fact that the first launch of Android on HTC was not a grand success. I must say here, that when a new product rolls out into the market, and something that is as complex as an operating system, it has to go through a substantial amount of fixes and updates before being declared stable for all devices. I guess that is what the Android is going through right now. However, it is too early to draw a conclusion about either success or failure of Android. I think Android can get very popular, it just needs good hardware. The G1 doesnt do justice to the Android OS.

A liitle bit of Google is in all our lives, isint it? We have to wait for that little bit to get into our mobiles!

Although android smartphones can be powerful web browsers and business tools, many users like to utilize them for gaming as much as anything else, so free games that collect customer data, promote your brand or give customers access to products for purchase are popular development solutions.

MySpace mobile is another highly popular android app, as is the Weather Channel. But what about non-proprietary kinds of apps, the kinds you can develop to promote your business?

Look at the Free Dictionary, another highly popular download, and consider what other similar services customers might like. Translation dictionaries and phrase translators are extremely useful and popular, for example. Provide G1 customers a quick service they can’t get somewhere else, or they can get better from you.

A version of the horoscope might be a winner, as the Daily Horoscope app is one of the top downloads for android, as is Ringdroid, that gives you the ability to create your own telephone ringtones.

Wallpaper and background programs are highly popular, as are shopping programs like Compare Everywhere and ShopSavvy.  Both allow you to use your phone as a barcode scanner, searching online and comparing local prices.

Games are the top download for all smartphones, android or Apple, and a version of a popular game or a new, “addictive” game may be just the development project for your business.

Popular downloads besides PacMan include solitaire versions, slide puzzles (easy to incorporate your logo and an addictive style of game), poker in various varieties, snake, puzzles and brain teasers, trivia, tic tac toe and chess.

Providing cool features and moves for your customized android game with win you downloads, revenue and potential customers.

For example, some of the chess games allow players to choose landscape or portrait orientation and to make moves using a trackball, the keyboard or the touchscreen. One game will take note of the piece you have selected and then highlight all possible moves by that piece, allowing the player to strategize. One will allow a reversal of several moves, so the player can go back and correct a mistake or poor move as well.

Innovative ideas will win recognition in this burgeoning market, where there are hundreds of thousands of downloads to G1 smartphones each day. For a platform that only opened in late October of 2008, the android app market is a huge one with lots of potential for any business.

IPhone owners can find all kinds of applications at the Apple App store. If you’re a developer, you can post your application for free or for a fee, depending on what you’ve put into it and what you want to get out of it.

It costs $99 to download the Standard SDK and $299 for the Enterprise version, or you can ask a company  like Webdatamation to create an iPhone app for you.

SDK provides an environment for development tools that is similar to other Apple environments. Developers will find the source editor and graphical debugger look familiar and are intuitive to use.

Apple also provides an iPhone Simulator with SDK that allows a developer to run an app on the simulator, see how it would act in an actual iPhone environment, and then debug the app locally with the iPhone simulation.

In order to facilitate optimization, use the development instruments to collect and compare data. The instrument panel allows you to display the data graphically and in real time, making optimization easy.

Other development tools for SDK users include a drag and drop interface builder, an iPhone reference library, and a coding how-to reference that gives you examples of code you can add to your app to make it more functional, or simply serve as examples of ways you can develop your own.

Look for the videos and documents that cover all kinds of topics, and join the developer’s forum to get questions answered and to answer questions from other iphone developers.

If you want to create iPhone apps to promote your business, Apple’s SDK is your method of reaching the tech-savvy group of customers who own Apple iPhones by developing apps for the iPhone.

Both have the advantage of being open source programs, which means they are constantly updated and improved. There are many plugins and applications created by a core of invested users, increasing functionality and removing bugs with regularity.

Still, there are plenty of differences, as anyone who has used both systems will note.

Here are some things to consider about Umbraco:

• It can be edited in Microsoft Word, making for easy editing for most users.
• There are OSS or commercial install options
• A high-quality, highly functional CMS
• Install gives you a blank page – no template, not much of anything else – This means plenty of freedom and flexibility – freedom to succeed or freedom to fail. Success of a site is entirely up to a developer, meaning you must have a highly qualified and creative developer who also knows legal compliance and standards compliance.
• Umbraco has high requirements for hosting, so it is difficult to find a “shared” hosting environment that will support it
• Still working on good ecommerce solutions
• Version 4 has better support for Safari and Firefox
• There are good plugins available, and a management system built into Umbraco

By contrast, here are some items to consider about DotNetNuke:

Has a proprietary feel, despite being open source

• Dot NET developers like it, those who are not dot NET developers have trouble with it
• Based on Microsoft’s ASP.NET, which is the most popular web technology currently
• Cheap to use and reduces total development costs – no ongoing licensing fees
• Full access to source code so it can be altered to fit individual organizations
• Can manage text, image, documents, links, events, news, banner ads and threaded info
• Supports multiple websites
• Installs easily
• Can manage site hosting, content, security, web design and membership in one program
• Multi-language ability
• Fully extensible and scalable
• User friendly interface and intuitve site wizards, help icons and interface for those familiar with Dot NET
• DNN has a large user base (125,000 registered users) and a core programming team dedicated to the system, so it is a large community. There are also an increasing number of third party developers of plug-ins, etc. for DNN

Which open-source hosting program is right for you? It depends on your abilities, wants and business model. Either way you go, using an open source CMS might be the way for you to save money and still have a strong, attractive site.

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