To continue the topic of tablet wars that was started on this blog, let’s take a closer look at the global tablet market in the third quarter of this year. According to the IDC Worldwide Tablet Tracker data, two leading Android tablet manufacturers represented by Samsung and Amazon gained a 27.4% cumulative share of the global tablet market (a 20.9% increase from Q3 2011), while Apple’s share shrunk to 50.4% (a 9.3% drop from Q3 2011).

Samsung and Amazon Tablets Heat Up the Game

Q3 2012 was definitely a time for success for Samsung and Amazon tablets. Samsung, a long-term player in the field of the Android-based tablets, shipped 5.1 million tablets worldwide in 3Q12 and captured as much as 18.4% of the tablet market. This was a prominent 325.0% growth from 3Q11, when it shipped 1.2 million tablets.

Samsung debuted in the US with its first 7-inch tablet, Samsung Galaxy Tab, back in November 2010, and sold 1 million of copies within the first two months, as reported by PC World.

The latest generation model of the Samsung tablet, the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, was originally unveiled on February 27, 2012 at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. After a generous hardware update curated by the Samsung R&D center, this model was finally launched in the United States, the United Kingdom, and South Korea on August 16, 2012. Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 came in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions and had a price tag starting at $499 (the pricing model similar to the third-gen iPad’s).

Amazon, a new player in this field, announced a 7-inch Android-based tablet with a color touch screen on September 28, 2011. It was available for as little as $199; currently the price for the refreshed 7-inch version is $159. It was a bargain for those who could not afford a more expensive tablet and who didn’t require much from a tablet, e.g. a web camera, a larger screen, more storage, etc.

The Kindle Fire HD was announced on September 6, 2012. It was the second generation of Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet line available in two form factors, 7 inch and 8.9 inch. These two models, priced from $199 to $499, helped Amazon grow its worldwide market share from 4.8% in 2Q12 to 9.0% in 3Q12.

The iPad Family Grows Even Faster than Expected

In recent years, Apple started losing market share to Android tablets and this trend proved to be more prominent in Q3 2012. Last quarter Apple tablets captured a 50.4% global market share; it was a 9.3% drop from the same period last year when Apple’s share was 59.7%.

In a chase for more sales and customers, Apple offered three new models this year. March 2012 was the time for the third-generation iPad release. The iPad 3 was offered for $499, the same price as the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1.

To compete in the fierce market flooded by the cheaper and spec-rich Android tablets, Apple, 7 months later, released a fourth-generation iPad with a faster A6X processor and a Lightning connector and offered it for $499. The ridiculous thing was that the iPad 4 was released so soon after the iPad 3 release, although Apple used to update its models once in a year. This fact might actually make the owners of the now “old” third-gen iPad feel a little bit… upset.

There was one more iPad to hit the shelves in October 2012: the iPad mini. It had a 7.9-inch screen, 16G memory, and offered LTE cellular capability, starting at $329. The iPad mini didn’t have a Retina display; this step was obviously made by Apple in order to cut the costs and lower the price. Its retail price was still definitely above the same-form-factor tablets such as the Nexus 7, Amazon Kindle Fire HD and Nook HD, so we’ll see how it competes.

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As stated in a TrendLabs 3Q 2012 Security Roundup report, the number of malicious and high-risk Android apps has reached a whopping number of 175.000 this year! This is almost 4 times as much as predicted by TrendLabs, and these figures tend to grow really fast!

Popularity comes at a price, and curious Android users who download a lot of apps have to pay for it. For example, the Obama vs Romney Android app, which served many unwanted annoying ads outside the app, was downloaded as many as 1,000 times from Google Play alone.

What the Adware Apps May Do On Your Mobile Device:

Access the Internet without your knowledge
If you access the Internet mostly via Wi-Fi – you have less to worry about. If you access the Internet via costly 3G or 4G connection – the adware modules may boost your mobile bills.

Collect user data and send it to the ad network to serve you ads better
The worst thing is that some apps may do this without your explicit knowledge or consent. The data sent from your mobile device may include device’s IP address, device identifier, your location, as determined by GPS, your phone number, etc.

Interfere with your mobile experience
Some ads within the ad-based Android apps are perfectly legitimate since they are contained within the app. However, an increasing number of mobile ad networks place ads outside of the app. For example, they may send ads via PUSH notifications or add unrelated icons to your phone.

Drain the battery of your mobile device
Since all mobile ads download advertisement data from the Internet, they will have to access their network from time to time in the background. As we all know, extensive use of Wi-Fi and 3G decreases your battery charge. If your smartphone goes dead by the end of the day – check out our blog post dedicated to the problem of smartphone battery drain and the ways to solve the issue.

Five Tips to Protect Your Mobile Device from Adware and Malware

1. Download Android apps only from Google Play
Getting apps from Google Play is the safest way, as this is the primary marketplace for Android apps. Google Play is thoroughly checked for adware and malware on a regular basis. Once a suspicious app is detected by the Google Play editorial staff or reported by users, it is quickly removed from the Google Play website. However a link to the harmful app may often remain on third-party sites.

2. Read user reviews before installing an Android app
When reading the app description on the Google Play page, take a look at the app rating and the overall tone of reviews. Although some of the reviews may be biased or written by the developer staff, a lot of unbiased reviews and the rating volume may give you a clue as to the quality, performance and credibility of an app.

3. Are you downloading a free app? Make sure it doesn’t include any adware modules
A number of Android developers use an ad-based business model to cover their expenses and support product development, so find out if this is the case with the new app you are going to install. Some ad-based Android apps are not very intrusive and this can be learned from the user reviews. However some apps may use a very aggressive model of advertising, for example pushing ads via notifications, so beware. If you need an Android email client, use EmailTray, which is guaranteed not to give you the above problems.

4. Read what permissions the app in question requires
The “PERMISSIONS” tab on the app description page normally provides a list of functions that the app may use on your phone or a tablet. For example, an app may share your location detected by your GPS module, read contact data, modify global system settings, etc. If you see that the app requires too much and feel that you don’t trust the app vendor – reserve yourself from downloading this app.

5. Install mobile security and anti-virus software
If you download all kinds of Android apps on a regular basis, a good preventive step would be to install anti-virus software to ensure that you don’t get trapped by the mobile adware or malware developers.

You can try out any of the following anti-virus apps for Android:
Mobile Security & Antivirus by Trend Micro
Dr.Web Anti-virus by Doctor Web, Ltd
Anti-Virus FREE by AVG Mobile technologies
Kaspersky Mobile Security Lite by Kaspersky Lab
Lookout Security & Antivirus by Lookout Mobile Security

Hope this will help you keep your Android smartphone or tablet safe from aggressive adware and malware. Be careful when installing new apps, and have a happy mobile experience! Ooh, did we wish you a Happy Halloween?

Corporations are going mobile and this seems to be a growing trend. According to a Zenprise report issued in October 2012, 74.7% of organizations will deploy mobile apps in the next 12 months. Moreover, 52.2% of all organizations have or will deploy mobile apps considered to be “mission-critical” to their organization.

We’ve compiled a list of the best Android productivity apps which are definitely a must-have for any business implementing a progressive strategy of mobile integration.

Top 10 Android Productivity Apps

1. Web Browsing

Chrome for Android (FREE)

This is probably the first app you download after buying your smartphone, and the best choice is Chrome for Android. Chrome is fast, eye-pleasing and easy-to-use, so you won’t regret installing it. On top of this, it will allow you to sign in to your Google account and sync your open tabs, bookmarks, passwords, and omnibox data from your computer to your mobile device. You will also love the incognito mode and auto fill features.

2. File Management

ES File Manager (FREE)

Unfortunately the Android platform doesn’t offer a decent built-in mechanism for managing the files on your phone. The good news is that you can always get a good file manager at Google play. ES File Explorer is a veteran Android app with over ten million installations, and it certainly deserves your attention. It generously embraces the functions of a file manager, application manager, task killer, Dropbox client and FTP client. ES File Explorer will allow you to access files as root, so you won’t need a second file manager like Root Explorer on your phone.

3. Office Documents Management

Google Docs, a part of Google Drive (FREE)

An office suite is generally what you need for word processing, spreadsheet editing and presentation management, and the Google Docs app for Android does this job, absolutely free of charge. While some users complain about an ugly interface and cropped functionality, we must admit that this is currently the best free app for to create, view and edit office documents.

4. PDF Documents Viewing

Adobe Reader (FREE)

Since most Android tablets do not offer a decent PDF reader, you’ll have to install a standalone app. The good news is that the most famous is free to use, so go and grab your Adobe Reader on Google play. Adobe Reader supports various view modes, adding and editing notes, sharing to a variety of other applications, and searching documents for text.

If you ever need to create PDF files – you can upgrade to the pro version for a reasonable $9.99 fee and then easily convert existing Word, Excel, PowerPoint, RTF and text files (among others) to PDF format.

5. Email & Contact Management

EmailTray (FREE)

Although the latest generation mobile devices are equipped with high-speed processors, high performance and low battery consumption are still big advantages for any mobile app. EmailTray is a lightweight email client with powerful email prioritizing and contact management features. This Android email app (which can sync its smart algorithm with the EmailTray desktop email client) will help you get focused on the most important emails and boost your email productivity.

6. VOIP Calling

Skype (FREE)

Skype is the most popular Internet telephony service provider in the world and the Skype app for Android enables you to make low-cost calls and SMS messages to mobiles or landlines, plus  free Skype-to-Skype video calls from your smartphone. With the Skype Android app, you will also be able to send pictures, videos and files to any of your Skype contacts. Skype to Skype IMs, video and voice calls are free over 3G or WiFi, however operator data charges may apply if you try this over your carrier network. The Skype staff recommends using an unlimited data plan or WiFi connection if you want to save on calls.

7. Notes & Clippings Management

EverNote (FREE)

EverNote is a great Android productivity app for organizing your life and taking notes on the fly. It will also let you take image and audio-based notes, letting you take a snapshot or leave a voice message to yourself. Thanks to EverNote, you’ll be able to manage your notes across all of the devices you use, just like EmailTray does with your email.

8. Getting Things Done

Taskos To Do List (FREE)

Taskos is a simple yet powerful to do list manager for Android. It will let you create tasks by typing them in or dictating them using the voice recognition feature on Android phones. You’ll be pleasantly surprised with the Taskos’s ability to auto-complete names from your contact list and call these people right from inside the application. Taskos also syncs with Google Tasks, making it easy to add and edit tasks no matter where you are.

9. Navigating & Finding Directions

Google Maps (FREE)

If you travel on business a lot, the Google Maps app for Android is what you really need. The app has lots of options that let you display your selected map in a variety of formats including Google’s Streetview mode that displays images of the street and surroundings. The Google Maps app will also please you with voice guided turn-by-turn GPS navigation; driving, public transit, biking, and walking directions; local search and business reviews. Since Google Maps are a veteran application in the mapping and directions field, it is one of the most accurate and reliable services available.

10. Stock Market Price Monitoring

CNBC Real-Time (FREE)

CNBC Real-Time is a free Android app which is meant for real-time monitoring of stock market prices. The app delivers quotes before, during, and after-market hours, sourced directly from the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. You’ll be able to create and track your favorite company stocks live, set up a custom CNBC Ticker with a playlist of favorite stocks and receive breaking stock market-related news in order to always be informed on what is moving the markets.

According to the TrendLabs monthly mobile review issued in September 2012, 62% of smartphones have less than 20% of power remaining at the end of the day, 33% of devices go below 10% power, and 12% of devices run out of power completely.

Why Does Your Smartphone Battery Run Out So Fast?

• Touch phones, by design, use more battery power
• A larger and brighter screen drains your battery more
• A powerful multi-core processor consumes more power
• A sleeker phone requires a smaller battery which provides less capacity
• Wi-Fi access and Bluetooth activity eat up energy
• GPS modules consume battery power
• Many apps download and upload data in the background and use power for that.

The industry isn’t standing still: smartphone processors are getting faster and now allow a gazillion apps to run simultaneously; contemporary AMOLED displays consume much less energy than the old-fashioned TFT and LCD screens did; more powerful batteries are being manufactured, etc. But the problem is that the new extended batteries are falling behind our needs: smartphone screens are getting bigger and consume more energy; contemporary apps, games and video require more powerful processors which eat up more energy, too. Once the 4G/LTE technology gets adopted across all mobile devices smartphones will consume even more power.

10 Ways to Extend Your Smartphone Battery Life

1. Set your phone to the minimum comfortable brightness
Yes, you’d better do it yourself. The automatic brightness function uses the phone’s light sensor and puts the brightness up when the sun is too bright or puts the brightness down when it’s dark and extra illumination is not required. Unless you spend a lot of time outdoors in the bright sun, you can always set your phone to the minimum brightness that is comfortable for you.

2. Adjust the screen timeout to 15-30 sec
Configure your screen to turn off automatically after a short period of inactivity, e.g. 15 or 30 seconds. It is obvious that the quicker the screen shuts off after the last activity, the longer battery life you will have.

3. Turn off your GPS module when you don’t need it
It might be very useful to use a GPS module built in your smartphone when you find yourself in unfamiliar surroundings and need to find a way to the nearest restaurant. But you don’t need GPS the rest of the time – so why not turn it off?

4. Turn off Wi-Fi in public places where Wi-Fi is not available
When your Wi-Fi is ON, a transmitter and a receiver will run continuously. When you get to a place where a Wi-Fi is not available, your phone will still try to find the nearest Wi-Fi hotspot available (with no success) and this will unfortunately consume extra energy.

5. Don’t use a Bluetooth handset unless you are driving a car
The Bluetooth gadgets are cool but we often forget how much energy they consume. Avoid using the Bluetooth headset when not driving a car and talk on the phone the old fashioned way.

6. Use simple lightweight apps with minimum animation and data download
In most cases, you’ll have to choose between cool design and usefulness. If you need an app for entertainment – get a fancy-looking one. If you need a good productivity tool (a calendar, a task manager or an email app) – go for a lightweight application which will help you complete the tasks efficiently.

7. Install apps from trusted vendors only
For Android devices, download apps only from Google play. The Google play editorial staff does their best to review the apps on a regular basis and remove those that execute malicious code.

8. See if you are using any malware apps
If you are still unsure about the apps you have installed, use a task manager to see if there are any malware processes running on your smartphone. Get rid of the app in question if you detect any of the following processes: AIRPUSH, ADWLEADBOLT, BOXER, FAKE, TROJTOUCHNET, TROJGAPPUSIN, SMSBOXER, FAKEINST, ADWIZP or ADSWO.

9. Revew the list of your apps on a regular basis and uninstall those you don’t use
Many apps may run background tasks that drain the battery, so clean your phone of the applications you don’t really use.

10. Keep yourself from using the ad-based apps
Many mobile developers cooperate with ad networks to support their free product. Free ad-based apps use third-party modules to upload user information and download ads for you, so using a free app may result in a dead battery by the end of the day. So here’s good advice: read user reviews before downloading an app to make sure it won’t drain your smartphone battery.

If you are looking for a lightweight email client – grab the EmailTray email app for Android. It’s free and not ad-based. EmailTray will track your email accounts all in one place, prioritize them by sender importance into 4 separate Inboxes and notify you only about priority emails. Don’t load your smartphone with unnecessary functions – make your email flow effective, hassle-free and less power-hungry.

As reported by comScore, 116.5 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in August 2012. This was a 6.5% increase from May 2012, when the number of smartphone users hit 110 million. A majority of American smartphone users preferred Android-based devices in May 2012; this was true as well in August.

US Smartphone Market: The Share for Android and Apple Increased at the Expense of RIM, Microsoft and Symbian

According to the comScore MobiLens data, Android smartphones gained a 52.6 % market share in the U.S. by the end of August 2012. It was a prominent 1.7 % growth from 50.9 % in May. The advancing army of Android-powered phones was represented by the Samsung Galaxy series, Motorola Droid Razr, HTC One, LG Genesis and some others.

Apple smartphones gained a 34.3 % market share by the end of August 2012, a 2.4 % growth from 31.9% in May.

RIM’s BlackBerry OS continued to be the third-most-popular mobile platform in the U.S., with an 8.3 % market share. Unfortunately RIM’s share had shrunk substantially in the three months covered in the report (a 3.1 % drop from 11.4 % in May). BlackBerry’s share of the smartphone market has fallen far behind the #1 and #2 market leaders.

Microsoft’s share dropped from 4.0 % to 3.6 % by the end of August (a 0.4 % drop). The Symbian OS experienced a 0.4 % drop on the US market as well – from 1.10 % in May to 0.7 % by the end of August.

As we can clearly see from the chart below, the Android and iOS smartphone platforms grew their market share at the expense of RIM, Microsoft and Symbian OS:

Most Popular Mobile Phone Manufacturers from June-August 2012

According to the comScore data, Samsung ranked as the top device manufacturer with 25.7 % of U.S. mobile subscribers in June, July and August 2012. The #2 mobile phone brand was LG – with an 18.2 % share of the mobile market. Apple gained a 17.1 % share of mobile subscribers, followed by Motorola with 11.2 % and HTC with 6.3 %.

See the chart below which outlines the US market share of each mobile manufacturer in August 2012:

If your choice is Android, the leading smartphone platform, we’ve got good news for you! There is an advanced, lightweight email productivity tool available on the market: the EmailTray Android mail app.

EmailTray has a smart algorithm that will organize your mail according to sender priority and help you save extra time that you would have otherwise wasted on sorting emails in your Inbox, deleting spam messages and prioritizing the good ones. Download the free EmailTray Android mail app from Google Play and say good-bye to a cluttered Inbox, once and for all.

Media tablets have become a fast-growing market with great opportunities. In just a few years, tablets have entered our lives and redefined our attitude towards mobile communication and networking, gaming, online shopping and office productivity.

There are currently two leading operating systems fighting for leadership of the global tablet market: iOS represented by Apple’s iPad devices and Android represented by a variety of vendors (Samsung, Amazon, Asus and others). Let’s see how they have been stacking against each other from early 2011 through the first half of 2012.

Q1 2011:

Apple Tablets Ruled the Game with a 65.7% Global Market Share; Android Took 34%

At the beginning of 2011, Apple products accounted for 65.7% of the global tablet market, while Android-based media tablets saw a collective market share of 34.0% (stats provided by IDC).

Q2 2011:

Apple Represented 68.3% of the Global Tablet Market; Android Slipped to 26.8%

As stated in IDC’s Press Release, worldwide media tablet shipments in the second quarter of 2011 were driven by continued demand for Apple’s iPad 2, which saw shipments reach 9.3 million units, representing a 68.3% share of the worldwide market. RIM’s PlayBook, introduced in the second quarter of 2011, took a 4.9% share of the market and made the Android-based media tablets slip to a 26.8% market share, down from 34.0% the previous quarter.

Q3 2011:

iPads Represented 61.5% of the Market; Android Took 23%

According to the IDC report, Apple continued to drive worldwide media tablet shipments in Q3 2011. The company shipped 11.1 million units in 3Q 2011, up from 9.3 million units in Q2 2011. That represents a 61.5% worldwide market share (down from 68.3% in Q2 2011).

HP both entered and exited the market in Q3 of 2011 with its $99 TouchPad product based on the Microsoft WebOS. The company shipped 903,354 units to grab a 5% share of the worldwide market, number three behind Samsung’s 5.6% market share (Android based). Barnes & Noble shipped 805,458 units of the Nook Color to achieve the number  four spot with a 4.5% market share. ASUS rounded out the top five with a 4% share. As a result, the cumulative share of the Android-based devices slipped to 23% in Q3 2011.

Q4 2011:

Apple Suffered a Slip to 54.7%; Amazon’s Kindle Fire Heated Up the Game and Pushed  Up Android to the 25.9% Mark

In Q4 2012, IDC reported that Apple suffered a market share loss mostly because of Android’s gain and Apple took only 54.7% of the global tablet market share. The reason was the swift introduction and rising popularity of Kindle Fire, a cheap $199 tablet offered by Amazon that gained a 16.8% market share. Samsung grew its market share from 5.5% in Q3 to 5.8% in Q4. RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook saw its market share drop from 1.1% to 0.7%. WebOS, which controlled 5% of the market in Q3 2011 because of the HP TouchPad, dropped to zero % in Q4.

As a result, in Q4 2011 the cumulative share of the Android-based devices reached 25.9% which came at the expense of Blackberry, iOS, and webOS devices.

Q1 2012:

iPads Regained 68% of the Global Tablet Market

As IDC reported in another Press Release, Apple shipped 11.8 million iPads during Q1 2012 and grew its worldwide share to 68%, as opposed to 54.7% in the last quarter of 2011. Amazon’s Kindle Fire saw its share decline significantly in the first quarter to just over 4% from 16.8% in the previous quarter, falling to third place as a result. Samsung took advantage of Amazon’s weakness to regain the number two position.

Q2 2012:

Apple Tablet Devices Reached Nearly 70% of the Market Share

As reported by IDC and IHS iSuppli, Apple shipped 17 million iPads during Q2 2012 and covered 69.6% of the tablet market. Samsung experienced exceptional growth, and landed in second place with 9.2% share on 2.3 million tablet shipments. Amazon (Kindle Fire) and Asus took the third and fourth spots with 4.2% and 2.8% share, respectively.

Note: The shipments of the Google/ASUS co-branded Nexus 7 aren’t reflected in these totals, as that product officially began shipping into the channel in the third quarter of 2012.

Forecasts and Predictions on the Tablet Market for 2012-2016

See below the IDC global tablet forecast predicting that the dominance of iOS devices will lessen from 2012-2016 because of the popularity of Android-based devices:

As you see, Android is not going to give up, and we’ll keep an eye on the tablet market for you. If you are an Android fan and want to be productive with your email flow, try out the EmailTray email app for Android. Apart from being a lightweight email app with a user-friendly interface, it provides an intelligent email prioritizing feature that lets you focus on important mail and eliminates information overload.

A mobile phone is no longer a means of making and receiving calls only. The SMS and MMS features, calendar, calculator, alarm clock, a built-in photo camera and many other features have extended the ways we use a mobile phone nowadays. Having a smartphone now practically means having a computer in your pocket. With a smartphone, you can make calls, check your mail, browse your favorite websites and make online purchases, view weather forecasts and track your favorite sport teams, play games, edit and share documents online and so much more. There is no wonder that more than half of U.S. mobile subscribers now own smartphones.

A Rapid Growth of the U.S. Smartphone Market from 2007-2012

According to this comScore Data Mine report, 9 million Americans owned a smartphone in July 2007 – representing just 4 percent of the entire mobile market. By May 2012, this figure reached as many as 110 million users! See below how fast the smartphone market has been growing within the last 5 years:

To understand what share smartphones occupy on the overall mobile phone market, let’s refer to the Nielsen Mobile Netstats: during Q2 2012 smartphone penetration continued to grow, with 54.9 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers owning smartphones as of June 2012.

Operating Systems Popular on the U.S. Smartphone Market

As reported by the comScore Data Mine, Android now captures the majority share of the U.S. smartphone market. Google Android’s share of the smartphone market eclipsed 50 percent in February 2012, an increase of 17 percentage points since February 2011. Apple ranked second with 30.2 percent of the smartphone market (up 5 percentage points versus a year before), followed by RIM at 13.4 percent, Microsoft at 3.9 percent and Symbian at 1.5 percent.

Do U.S. Mobile Users Prefer Browsers or Apps?

It’s an interesting question, and comScore’s Mobile ® Metrix 2.0 gives the answer: apps account for 4 in every 5 US mobile media minutes. On Facebook, 80 percent of the time spent was via app usage compared to 20 percent via browser. Twitter accounted for an even higher percentage of time spent with apps at 96.5 percent of all Twitter use minutes. As we know, there are bazillions of Twitter and Facebook apps which allow you to schedule your status updates, track your Twitter performance and more.

The chart below demonstrates the method used to access various Internet properties by mobile users – from Google sites to Facebook, Twitter, ESPN and many others:

As we see from the reports above, most smartphone users prefer the Android platform and rave about mobile apps – most obviously because they are sexy-looking, fast and are focused on specific tasks. The good news is that the EmailTray email app for Android has these characteristics and gives you access to your mail in a convenient way. The EmailTray Android app provides an intelligent email prioritizing feature which lets you focus on important mail and eliminates information overload.

If your choice is the Kindle Fire tablet – you are not left out in the cold: EmailTray developers have prepared a Kindle Fire mail app for you, too. Download the EmailTray mail app for Kindle Fire, and enjoy your mailing experience!