Details of the NexusOne keep leaking out all over the place

Have you heard about the NexusOne?  If you answered “no”, you are either Amish or dead.  If you’re the latter, please don’t eat my brains as reading this means you have come back to life as a zombie and yet you are still interested in news on this phone.

The phone completely dominated the past few days of coverage in the tech blogosphere, which is quite possibly good news for anyone pondering developing apps for the Android OS.

Sorting through the plethora of news that has come out is the tough issue, but the most important points to focus on can be summed up pretty simply.  First up, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) filing for the phone came out Monday morning and revealed pertinent information such as the device features microSD and Bluetooth, which are just about standard at this point in smartphones, but the inclusion of 802.11b/g Wi-Fi is where it gets interesting.

Wi-Fi has been a problem in some smartphones due to conflict with various cellular bands, but HTC/Google got it in here, and that opens up all sorts of possibilities with Skype and Google Voice.  Considering how the phone may be sold without a carrier, who would need a carrier with those running on the handset?

Jan. 5th is looking like the probably release date, but we still have no clue as to pricing or exactly how you go about purchasing one.

Android Market hits 20,000 Apps Milestone

It appears that the Google Android operating system is growing into a real contender with the growth of its marketplace for apps having now broken through the 20,000 apps level.

While Google does not provide any official accounting of how many applications are in the Android Market, Web site AndroLib keeps track of the number of both paid and free apps in the store.  According to the site’s tracking, the Android Market passed the 20,000 app mark sometime on Monday afternoon.

The number of applications doubled in the past five months from 10,000, showing that interest in the platform definitely seems to be growing.  2010 is expected to be a big year for the operating system with numerous new phones being released, including the NexusOne.

Of interesting note is that it currently looks like nearly 63 percent of the applications are free ones, meaning that the majority of them are probably ad supported.  If the Android Marketplace continues to grow like this, it could mean good things for advertising networks as well as the platform itself.

Morgan Stanley Says Apple May Have The Most Disruptive Technology Launch Ever

It seems that it is now official: Steve Jobs has delivered unto us the most important device ever built.

Morgan Stanley released a 424-page study (PDF link) about how the mobile space is growing.  The main point of the report is that the mobile Internet is going to be  “at least 2x size of Desktop Internet” eventually.  What is even far more interesting, and because the growth of the mobile space is kind of a “no, really?!?” comment, is that it says that Apple may be to blame for the whole explosion of the Mobile Internet.

The report lists three key elements that Morgan Stanley says lead to the reason Apple changed everything:

• Creating the first centralized storefront for mobile applications, a marketplace for free and low-priced apps that’s easy to search and navigate.
• Overlaying a simple payment and account management system that allows one-click purchases and synching to update apps.
• Offering developers a robust software development kit, with thousands of tools to create, enhance, test, and distribute their apps via the iPhone app store.

Is the report right?  Well, its difficult to argue with as we have witnessed the power of the iPhone, but seeing as the report calls the iPhone/iPod Touch the most “disruptive” product launch, apparently it also is the devices leading us into the promised land.

10.1 Million BlackBerry Phones Shipped Last Quarter

Research In Motion (RIM) shipped a record 10.1 million BlackBerry phones last quarter … why aren’t there more apps for them?

So you love the iPhone, the Android phones get you all excited, but it appears there are still a ton of people who love the BlackBerry phones.  According to Electronista, RIM has sold a total of 75 million BlackBerries in its history, and a whopping 10.1 million of them were in the quarter that ran from Sept. to Nov. of this year, yet people seem to think the BlackBerry is dying for some odd reason.

Lets face it, it’s true that the BlackBerry App World leaves a lot to be desired, but the phone overall is still a solid piece of technology.  Am I biased?  Yep, my BlackBerry Tour is sitting next to me right now.  Sure it isn’t as sexy as the iPhone, but it gets the job done for me, and, oh yeah, I’m not dealing with AT&T.

All that aside, don’t be thinking the BlackBerry is going away any time soon with sales numbers like that. The recent news that customer satisfaction with the brand is growing by leaps and bounds makes wonder if this is the contender more people should be paying attention to.