Android OS to be number 2 by 2012 according to Gartner
Look out Apple and RIM, Google is huffing and 
puffing at your doors.
Currently the Google Android mobile operating system currently has about 2% of the market, but Gartner Inc. is predicting that number could surge as high as 14.5% by 2012. This would place the OS ahead of Apple’s iPhone, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile and RIM’s BlackBerry. This would place it second only to the Symbian OS which currently powers 50% of all phones, but could fall to 39% by 2012.
To no great surprise, Gartner is saying that a lot of this success will be due to the number of handsets that Android runs on. By 2012 it is forecast that the Google OS will be appearing on 40 handsets, as opposed to Apple’s iPhone OS running, presumably, only on the iPhone. You could easily launch into a "quality vs. quantity" debate here, but it would be futile as each OS has its supporters, and at the end of the day it truly will be quantity over everything else that is winning the day.
None of this is to say the iPhone is just going to disappear, of course. The Gartner predictions place Android at 76 million units sold by 2012, giving it that 14.5% market share mentioned earlier. Apple’s iPhone is predicted to be at 71.5 million units, or 13.7% of the market. The placement of the other big names have Windows Mobile at 66.8 million units (12.8% market share) and the BlackBerry at 65.25 million units (12.5% market share). So it isn’t like anyone is exactly going to be having a "bad day" in 2012, but it does show that a major mis-step by any one of the players and the leader board is tight enough to see a major shift.
One interesting note is that sixth place is predicted to be various Linux devices which leaves Palm in seventh place with 2.1% market share. Apparently Gartner doesn’t have much faith in their new webOS? 
MobiAdNews adds mobile advertising gallery for reference and inspiration
MobiAdNews, a site dedicated to all the news in the mobile advertising space, has launched a new section of its site to provide advertising professionals and developers with a place to show off their hard work.
The new Mobile Apps Gallery is setup as a place for companies to show off their advertising applications, but it is also a great place for people to see what others have done and get possible inspiration for their next project.
While the assortment of apps is impressive already, you can take special notice of the application for the Millennial Media application for Fanta that won them two Mobi awards a little while back. Whenever you click on the images for the various programs, you are taken to a details page that tells you about the campaign, total numbers of downloads, comments from MobiAdNews on aspects of the campaign and more.
Barnes & Noble ebook reader rumored to be powered by Android
There’s been a lot of talk about the pending ebook reader coming from Barnes & Noble, and while it has been confirmed the device exists, the rumor of what powers it is still not 100 percent certain. Gizmodo reported earlier this week that the unnamed device would be powered by Google’s Android OS, which could open up a whole new world to mobile application developers.
Seeing as the device is going to be a 6" color e ink touchscreen, apps should look extremely sharp on the device, and unlike Amazon’s Kindle, this makes it sound like B&N’s device will be a lot more versatile. As opposed to just being a way to read books, the addition of the ability to run applications will make this far more like a small computer, and depending on the price point, this could be a huge boon to both the Android market, which people shown above already think is on its way to being the second most popular mobile OS, and to the ebook reader market that has struggled to gain mainstream acceptance. Apps that take advantage of the strengths of the device’s power and screen size should do really well.
T-Mobile warns users that contacts may be lost forever
While this isn’t necessarily an application related story, it should serve as a warning to anyone who stores data exclusively in a cloud could be facing serious issues if the system should ever happen to crash. Sadly, this is exactly what’s happened to T-Mobile and their popular Sidekick line of phones.
Over a week ago, the data for the Sidekick’s contacts went out, and while service has been restored to some customers, not all of them have been able to get their missing data back. Until some form of solution is found to this problem, T-Mobile is instructing their users "Sidekick customers, during this service disruption, please DO NOT remove your battery, reset your Sidekick, or allow it to lose power." The theory is that the devices will keep what is currently in their memory for as long as you are able to keep the device running, but after that, everything will disappear if you reboot the device.
A definite lesson is to be learned here for anyone storing data in the cloud with their app that these should be some way to back that data up, because right now things are so bad for the Sidekick that T-Mobile has suspended sales of it.
Windows Mobile 6.5 receives extremely poor reviews as it is finally unveiled
It seems that Microsoft just can’t catch a break when it comes to the mobile market.
While many people had hoped that 6.5 would be a revolution, it is being widely panned as totally lackluster. Windows Mobile 7 can’t get here fast enough it seems, but will WinMo even be relevant by the time it can be released?
While Gartner was predicting that WinMo would still be relevant in 2012, you have to wonder if it really can hold on that long. With Android showing up more places, developers throwing all their weight behind the iPhone and so on, with WinMo 6.5 being such a disappointment, will people even bother working on it?
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