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Rumors circulate that Palm is cutting production on the Pre

Nate D’Amico reported earlier this week here on SiliconANGLE how a Collins Stewart analyst was stating that Palm is cutting production on their latest handset, the Pre.  Nate went in to detail on why this rumor, if even true, doesn’t mean a whole lot.  The Pre is scheduled to launch in other countries fairly soon, and is even rumored to be coming to the AT&T network here in the United States in early 2010.

It could also possibly mean that Palm is getting ready for a Pre 2.0, or even some handset we haven’t heard of yet.

While all of this is interesting, it is also worth remembering that the Pre was partially about introducing Palm’s new webOS, which could be put in to different devices down the road.  It could be that an update to the Pre is indeed on its way, or it just might be that Palm is about to split its resources so that it can work on getting a second handset in to the market place fairly soon.

Only time will tell which of the many theories floating around are true, but I don’t think I would be throwing the baby out with te bath water any time soon if I was an app developer

Verizon begins testing 4G network

It appears that Verizon has run its first tests on its upcoming 4G network.

This week in Boston and Seattle, Verizon rolled out its first tests for its upcoming LTE (Long Term Evolution) network which will lead to the 4G next generation network.  While no time line has been given on when this will make it into consumers hands, these are the definite first steps to rolling it out.

True this is a bit of a preemptive move on the part of Verizon as 3G phones are still the major push from all of the manufacturers, and the technology has still not rolled out in all parts of the United States.  (Still waiting in my town of 17,000…)

Once these sorts of speeds do make it into the hands of consumers, the ability to stream video will be greatly improved, opening a whole new realm of application development possibilities.  While some streaming has been possible on 3G networks, cell phone providers have been reluctant to allow them due to the amount of bandwidth they consume, but with 4G being partially tied in to the unused portion of the UHF television bandwidth, the demands on the cellular carrier are greatly lessened.

100 Billion Ads Served by AdMob

Application advertising solution AdMob has now served over 100 billion ads via its various ad placements.

In the company blog post marking this milestone, they had some interesting ways to help you conceptulize what just a large number that is:

• 14 times the entire world population in 2008
• 107 times the distance in miles from the earth to the sun
• One half to one fourth (depending on which scientist you believe) of the number of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy

Oh, thank you, that makes the number so much easier to understand… -cough-

All kidding aside, AdMob did provide some interesting statistics:

• In June 2009 AdMob served ads on more than 16 million unique iPhone and iPod touch devices worldwide (source: June 2009 AdMob Mobile Metrics Report)
• Smartphone shipments worldwide are projected to grow 13% in 2009 to 164 million units (source: Forward Concepts, Smartphone & Chip Market Opportunities: An in-Depth, Global Analysis of Smartphones, Chips & Operating System, February 2009)
• In 2008, the estimated number of mobile subscriptions quickly outpaced PC internet users.  Mobile subscriptions exceeded 4 Billion vs. 1.5 Billion PC internet users (source: International Telecommunications Union (ITU), an agency of the UN)

Considering the number of devices quickly populating the world, the number of ads served by the various ad servers is going to do nothing but continue to grow.  It is also going to make the idea of just releasing ad supported apps more and more viable so long as you can find a way to make your application stand out from the crowd.

Zippo iPhone app passes 5 million downloads

Speaking of free apps, how would you like to have your’s pass the 5 million download mark?

The deceptively simple Zippo iPhone and iPod Touch application that mimics the working of a Zippo lighter hit 5 million downloads, making it one of the top 20 iPhone apps of all time for downloads.  While it is only a promotional tool with no monetization attached to it, it does demonstrate how such a simple concept can become a huge hit in the iPhone App Store.

While it is a free tool for promoting the company, there is a another version of the app planned to be released in the near future that will cost $.99.  There has been no word on what exactly what will be different as the current app does a pretty good job of copying the workings of a real Zippo, but it will be interesting to see how it performs once it is released.

mKhoj changes name to InMobi

When your network grows past its original boundaries, sometimes a name change is in order.

According to MobiADNews, mKhoj was originally founded as a search company in India with ”khoj” meaning search in Hindi. The company began serving mobile ads through out Asia and expanded into the UK last quarter. It has since added services for clients in France, Italy, Germany, and Spain.

Seeing as the company has expanded in to more markets, the name change only made sense, while no other part of the company is changing at this time.

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