Today’s mobile roundup features Microsoft’s snubbing of HTC for upcoming Windows 8 devices, a new Android app from Microsoft, and Yellow Pages goes green with a new Android app of their own.

HTC left out of the Windows 8 mania

According to some sources, Microsoft is not including HTC in the launch of Windows 8 devices as the software giant is not happy with the low sales of the Taiwanese company.  According to the sources who chose to remain anonymous, Microsoft is concerned that HTC is not selling enough hardware and that the company is not well-versed in producing tablets, which would be the main selling point of Windows 8.

“Every consumer knows about Samsung’s Galaxy platform and the iPhone, and you are starting to see consumers coalesce around them,” said Matthew Thornton, an analyst at Avian Securities LLC, who yesterday cut his rating on HTC to negative. “Things just get worse from here. It’s a very bleak outlook.”

Indeed, HTC’s outlook just continues to decline.  They’ve had several poor performing quarters in a row and need to do something to regain the faith of their partners and the customer base.

Another blow for HTC is that Apple has once again filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission to block their devices from entering the US.  Apple stated that HTC infringed some of their patents regarding the way a phone number of URL in an email or text was turned into an actionable item, such as dialing a phone number or jumping to a web page.

On the upside, the HTC One X is likely to help the manufacturer get back in the smartphone game, though they truly are lacking on the tablet side.  And at least one other  company in the mobile sector likes HTC.  Sony recently partnered with HTC to extend their mobile version of their PlayStation suite, making HTC the first outside manufacturer to support Sony’s gaming platform.

Microsoft’s Android app

Microsoft’s Information Platform and Experiences (IPE) Israel group, which is part of the worldwide IPE team, unveiled on{X}, a range of tools exclusive for Android devices that promises to help automate users’ lives.

Users would need to download the Android the app then configure rules on the on{x} site using scripts or recipes to help you with everyday tasks.  There are already templates you can use such as ‘Launch the music app when I am walking’ or “text my wife I’m on my way when I leave work.” Though there are ready-made template scripts, the team emphasized that users can create their own recipes using JavaScript API that outlines triggers and actions.  And example of such recipe is this: When I leave home remind me to buy milk’ (Trigger = leave home, Action = remind me to).

“The code we write is an action that we hook up to a sensor-based event,” says the team.

It’s one way Microsoft is hoping to infiltrate rival platforms, through applications.  And it’s also a jab at Siri, the voice-activated personal assistant found only on the iPhone 4S.  We’re likely to see these customizable scripts available on Windows 8 devices in the near future–perhaps Microsoft’s just using Android as a beta test platform.

Yellow Pages goes green

Yellow Pages Directory Inc. is upping their effort in going green with the launch of a new Android app that is compatible with all smartphones and tablets running the Android Platform.  The app is now available on Google Play for free.

The Yellow Pages Goes Green app harnesses the power of the accompanying website and shrinks that functionality down into the palms of users’ hands, allowing them to forego wasteful, printed yellow-paged books and instead search online for businesses in the US.