Smartphones

Color: Trojan horse photo startup

What likely lies behind Bill Nguyen's whimsical new iPhone app

FORTUNE -- Repeat entrepreneur Bill Nguyen launches his latest company Wednesday. The name, Color, is as cute a confection as his last startup, Lala. Whereas Lala cleverly connoted that the company was a music service – Apple (AAPL) bought it in 2009 and promptly shut it down -- Color only hints at what the company does.

This could be because Color is MORE

Can Nokia and Microsoft win in the workplace?

The phonemaker and the software giant have struggled in smartphones. But together they just might crack the corporate market.

Nokia's recent decision to outfit its phones with Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 software should be a CIO's dream come true. Corporate tech chiefs love their vendors to compete, and the Nokia/Microsoft hookup would appear to offer companies a viable alternative to RIM, (RIMM) whose BlackBerry system rules with a 33% share of MORE

Gartner: iPad is 'dramatically' slowing mainstream mobile PC sales

The research firm blames devices like Apple's for a 34% drop in its 2010 growth estimates

"We expect growing consumer enthusiasm for mobile PC alternatives, such as the iPad and other media tablets, to dramatically slow home mobile PC sales, especially in mature markets."

That's George Shiffler, research director at Gartner, Inc., giving his clients the bad news that the 15.9% growth his company had projected for notebook computer sales MORE

Today in Tech: Verizon iPhone reviewed, Android Honeycomb hands-on

A curated selection of the day's most newsworthy tech stories from all over the Web.

The early Verizon iPhone reviews are in, and as expected, they're extremely positive. Though the hardware remains largely the same as the iPhone 4 for AT&T -- save the lack of a mini SIM card slot, as well as some slight shifting in the volume buttons and external antenna notches -- changing mobile carriers did wonders for MORE

Apple is still sucking most of the profit out of the mobile phone business

In the fourth quarter of 2010, the iPhone had 4.2% market share and took 51% of the profit

On the same day that Canalys reported that Google's (GOOG) Android had become the world's leading smartphone platform in Q4 2010 -- with 33.3% of market share to Nokia's (NOK) 31% and Apple's (AAPL) 16.2% -- Asymco's Horace Dediu posted the chart at right that puts Android's growth in perspective.

It shows the percentage MORE

A Twitter guy takes on big banks

Jack Dorsey has a bold idea: make accepting a credit card as easy as sending a tweet.

Until recently Jack Dorsey was best known in the business world as the creator and chairman of Twitter, which has transformed the way millions of people communicate and get information. These days, though, Dorsey, 34, has been garnering bigtime buzz for his latest venture, Square, a service that aims to upend the banking industry MORE

ComScore: Android continues to gain ground in September

Apple holds steady while Microsoft, RIM and Palm all lose market share.

Google's (GOOG) Android platform had another winning quarter, according to comScore's Mobilens. Android phones went from under 15% of the U.S. smartphone market in June to over 21% in September according to a report by ComScore. Google started out the year at 7%. Apple held steady at 24.3%, although July saw a spike with the launch of the iPhone 4.

RIM (RIMM) MORE

Get ready for Verizon's 'Dream Phone'

The soon-to-be-unveiled Verizon iPhone is the answer to many consumers' prayers. But a deal with Apple will test the company that Ivan Seidenberg has spent his career building.

By Sarah Ellison, contributor

The most talked-about cellphone in America is one that doesn't officially exist: the Verizon iPhone. Ever since the 2007 launch of Apple's iPhone -- which crippled swaths of AT&T's network -- consumers have yearned for a Verizon iPhone as if MORE

Motorola unleashes midrange Android phones for AT&T and Verizon

All told, Motorola announced 7 Android phones: Bravo, Citrus, Defy, Droid Pro, Flipout, Flipside and Spice.

Motorola (MOT) CEO Sanjay Jha announced a whopping seven (mostly) new Android phones at CTIA today.  None are what I would call superphones but they will appeal to a broader range of prospective Android fans ...

The numbers don't lie: Mobile devices overtaking PCs

Here it comes: Mobile will soon outsell PCs.

Tim Bray last week attempted to conceptualize the market change that is happening in computing in a post called the Great Game.  In a nutshell, what we are seeing in smartphones is bigger than anything that has come before it.  Much bigger than the PC.  And it is coming so fast that we don't realize what's happening.

The Numbers Are Really Big MORE