The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled in favor of Apple in the company’s patent lawsuit against HTC, which will result in an import ban of some HTC Android phones starting on April 19, 2012.

HTC was found in violation of U.S. Patent No. 5,946,647, which turns an email address, phone number, or other types of information into a link that can be interacted with in a variety of ways. For example, you can tap on a phone number to dial it or an address to open it up with a maps application with directions.

The delay before the ban takes affect means HTC will have enough time to remove this feature or change it so it doesn’t violate the patent. If it does before the import ban takes effect, then none of its phones will be banned and can be sold without interruption. This is what HTC plans to do according to a statement they sent to BGR which says, in part, “However, the ‘647 patent is a small UI experience and HTC will completely remove it from all of our phones soon.”

The significance of this win for Apple is not so much about HTC as it is in getting leverage against other Android makers and the dozens of lawsuits and counter-lawsuits which are currently taking place all over the world. This is a small victory, but a victory nonetheless, and as FOSS Patents points out, it’s likely that Apple’s patent lawsuits will be more effective in the future as they get better at defending their patents in court.

Via [Engadget]

Dr. Muttick observes that despite steady progress in securing desktop computers using safer hardware, operating systems, and applications, malware is not going extinct. And with today’s explosive proliferation of smartphones, tablet computers, and other mobile devices, we have to wonder whether our pocket devices can also be secured.

There might be an assumption that with all that has been learned about protecting desktop computers, the new wave of mobile hardware should be relatively secure. In his paper, Dr. Muttick examines and describes in detail why this is unlikely to be the case, noting that while the overall threat of malware might decline, damage to mobile devices is likely to be high because smartphones are always connected, always carry some personal data, and are even equipped with small cameras, microphones, and positioning devices—just like spies carried in old Cold War era movies. The wider choice of built-in devices compared with desktop computers (or laptops and notebooks) makes mobile operating systems and applications more complex, and ultimately increases the attack opportunities.

That said, some platforms are better than others in this context. Dr. Muttick says that with the core of contemporary mobile OSs (such as iOS and Android) being based on Unix/Linux, the systems are reasonably secure, but nearly all types of threats to desktop computers seen in recent years are still possible on mobile devices, with threats readapted to mobile environments and, unfortunately, a likelihood of new kinds of malware that target smartphone capabilities not available on desktops.

Dr. Muttick says Apple’s iOS is currently the biggest rival for Google’s Android, and praises Apple for so far doing an excellent job of securing its devices, with currently no reported cases of malware for iPhones that have not been jailbroken.

On the other hand, with Android, many hardware manufacturers take the open-source core provided by Google and make their own modifications, some of which are security related. This fragments the OS space into many proprietary branches maintained in parallel, and inevitably lengthens the time for OS security updates.

He also observes that the world of mobile software distribution is being dominated by Apples App Store and Googles Android Market, which respectively employ distinctly different policies and apply filtering in separate ways. Apple’s rigidly centralized distribution only permits two ways to receive a new app: 1) from an App Store download; 2) from iOS Mobile Device Management (which requires approval by Apple).

Google runs and controls the content in the Android Market, but any device can also download applications from third-party markets on the Internet or use a browser to download an APK from a URL.

Consequently, Apple’s more tightly controlled store is safer, while Android’s more open software distribution has had malware issues on multiple occasions. Dr. Muttick says Apple’s proactive approach is focused on prevention, while Google’s plan is apparently to encourage creation of apps and deal with the problems as they occur, in reactive mode, which the professor says from a security perspective creates exactly the kind of environment in which malware gangs feel comfortable.

For more on McAfee’s dedication to finding new ways to keep customers safe, visit www.mcafee.com.

Read [Securing Mobile Devices: Present and Future (PDF)]

One of the criticisms leveled at Android is the problem of fragmentation: because Android is “open,” phone manufacturers are free to put it on any phone they like and sell it. They are not, however, required to include the latest version of Android, to offer upgrades in a reasonable amount of time, or to make upgrading an option at all. Indeed, since wireless carriers would prefer you buy a new phone (and contract) rather than installing a free upgrade that gives you lots of new features, there’s not much incentive for them to push the upgrades out to users at all. Even Microsoft has struggled with the problem.

Apple, on the other hand, has an agreement where they, not the carrier, handle support for the iPhone. iOS 5 will be available for download on October 12th, and can be installed on products as old as the iPhone 3GS.

Google responded to the problem in May by announcing a consortium of Google, handset makers, and wireless carriers who would promise to update Android phones for at least 18 months after their release. However, the group hasn’t released any information about how often updates would be released, or how they would determine if a phone is capable of being upgraded.

The Android and Me website has published an Android update report card, detailing what version of Android is available for phones currently being sold in the US. Of the manufacturers in the alliance, LG has the best percentage (9 out of 15 phones (60%)) and HTC has the highest number with 14 of its 24 phones (58.3%) being upgradable. However, these aren’t upgrades to the latest version of Android (2.3 for handsets), just an upgrade from the version the phone had when it was released.

The Report Card by carrier is even more revealing: only two of the thirteen Verizon phones have received an update, and only two run the latest version of Android. T-mobile has updated only three of 15 phones, and AT&T has updated only two out of eight.

The report card wraps up by giving a comprehensive list of Android phones currently being sold, and their software version. While there are plenty with 2.3, many of the phones are still shipping with 2.2, 2.1 (which came out in January of 2010), and in a couple of cases, Android 1.5 and 1.6.

NetMarketShare’s desktop operating system market share metrics for September 2011 show the Mac OS up significantly by more than a third of a point, Linux up a smidge as well, and Windows off by roughly a third of a point, most of which went to Apple’s OS. August, 2011 metrics are in parentheses for comparison.

Desktop

• Windows – 92.44% (92.90%)
• Mac – 6.45% (6.03%)
• Linux – 1.11% (1.07%)

In the Mobile/Tablet category, it shook out like this in September. iOS gained another point and a half of share, JavaME was still in second-place but down more than two points, and Android gained just over a quarter point. Symbian and Blackberry were down slightly, and Windows Mobile and Windows Phone down significantly.

Mobile/Tablet

• iOS – 54.65% (53.04%)
• JavaME – 18.52% (20.57%)
• Android – 16.26% (15.98%)
• Symbian – 6.12% (6.21%)
• BlackBerry – 3.29% (3.33%)
• Windows Mobile – 0.27% (0.34%)
• Windows Phone – 0.25% (0.34%)

Operating System Versions

In terms of OS specific versions, Windows is still out in front by a wide margin, with greybeard XP still hanging on to a greater than 50 percent percent market share while Windows 7 continues to grow, now over 30 percent. Apple’s OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard—at 25 months since its release in August, 2009, and now superseded by OS X 10.7 Lion—remains the most prolific Mac OS version by far, and actually increased its share in September. However, OS X 10.7 Lion has now displaced OS X v10.5 Leopard in second place in the Apple OS spectrum by a substantial margin, with OS X 10.4 Tiger now just holding on to a O.30 share. As noted, Linux gained a bit and is solidly back above a one percent share.

Desktop

Windows:

• Windows XP – 50.50% (52.46%)
• Windows 7 – 32.42% (30.60%)
• Windows Vista – 9.09% (9.40%)
• Windows NT – 0.23% (0.18%)
• Windows 2000 – 0.17% (0.18% )
• Windows 98 – 0.03% (0.05%)

Macintosh:

• Mac OS X 10.6 – 3.53% (3.46%)
• Mac OS X 10.7 – 1.41% (1.03%)
• Mac OS X 10.5 – 1.15% (1.17% )
• Mac OS X 10.4 – 0.30% (0.31%)
• Mac OS X (no version reported) – 0.04% (0.04%)

Linux – 1.11% (1.07%)

Mobile/Tablet

iOS

• iPhone – 27.59% (27.39%)
• iPad – 24.11% (22.50%)
• iPod – 24.11% (3.14%)
• iOS Combined – 54.65% (53.03%)

JavaME – 18.52% (20.57%)

Android

• Android 2.2 – 7.25% (7.93%)
• Android 2.3 – 6.03% (4.89%)
• Android 2.1 – 2.95% (2.14%)
• Android 3.1 – 0.38% (0.23%)
• Android 1.6 – 0.25% (0.30%)
• Android 3.2 – 0.23% (0.14%)
• Android 1.5 – 0.14% (0.19%)
• Android 3.0 – 0.03% (0.06%)
• Android – 0.03% (0.03%)

Total Android Combined – 16.26% (15.24%)

Symbian – 6.12% (6.21%)

BlackBerry – 3.29% (3.33%)

Windows

• Windows CE – 0.20% (0.23%)
• Windows Phone OS7 – 0.25% (0.22%)
• Windows Mobile – 0.07% (0.11%)

Total Windows Combined – 0.52% (0.56%)

For more information, visit netmarketshare.com.

Browser Share

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer still has a commanding lead in Desktop Web browsers, with 54.39% of the total market, albeit down slightly from last month. Second-place Firefox was essentially static. Google’s Chrome browser continues its steady advance and cruises past 16 percent. Safari also posted a gain, but only a quarter point improvement. Fifth-place Opera was static.

In the Mobile/Tablet category, Safari for iOS is way out in front, with the many versions of Opera Mini cumulatively in second place followed by Android. The others finishing well back.

Browser Total Market Share September 2011 (August ’11 figures in parentheses):

Desktop

• Microsoft Internet Explorer – 54.39% (55.31%)
• Firefox – 22.48% (22.57)
• Chrome – 16.20% (15.51%)
• Safari – 5.02% (4.64%)
• Opera – 1.67% (1.68%)

Mobile/Tablet

Safari

• Safari 5.0 – 47.73% (46.15%)
• Safari 4.0 – 6.31% (6.53%)
• Safari 5.1 – 0.15% (0.13%)
• Safari 3.1 – 0.10% (0.12%)
• Safari 7.1 – 0.07
• Safari 3.0 – 0.02%

Total Safari 55.57%

Opera

• Opera Mini 4.2 – 6.26% (6.68%)
• Opera Mini 4.1 – 5.13% (5.82%)
• Opera Mini 5.1 – 3.21% (3.70%)
• Opera Mini 4.3 – 1.42% (1.53%)
• Opera Mini 6.1 – 1.19% (1.03%)
• Opera Mini 6.2 – 0.90% (1.08%)
• Opera Mini 3.1 – 0.30% (0.34%)
• Opera Mobile 11.1 – 0.25% (0.32%)
• Opera Mini 5.2 – 0.17% (0.17%)
• Opera Mobile 10.0 – 0.14% (0.20%)
• Opera Mini U – 0.09% (0.12%)
• Opera Mobile 11.0 – 0.07% (0.03%)
• Opera Mini 4.4 – 0.04% (0.06%)
• Opera Mini 2.0 – 0.04% (0.05%)
• Opera 9x – 0.03% (0.06%)

Total Opera – 19.24% (20.98%)

Android

• Android Browser 4.0 – 15.50% (15.15%)
• Android Browser 3.1 – 0.45% (0.51%)
• Android Browser 5.0 – 0.09% (0.06%)

Total Android – 16.13% (15.72%)

Symbian – 4.70% (5.83%)

Blackberry – 2.68% (2.90%)

Microsoft Internet Explorer

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 Mobile – 0.25% (0.22%)
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 – 0.16% (0.19%)
• Total Microsoft Internet Explorer – 0.41% (0.41%)

You can check it out at netmarketshare.com.

Sprint’s reputation has not only suffered for years due to poor customer service and network quality, but it’s also taken quite a beaten by Apple’s iPhone. Sprint chief executive Dan Hesse, in an investor conference sponsored by Goldman Sachs days ago, admitted publicly that the iPhone did have an effect on sales and was the main cause of people switching carriers. Hesse took extreme care not to confirm that Sprint would be carrying the iPhone, but did mentiont making some improvements to their networks and what the iPhone could mean to the carrier. While Hesse dodged around mentioning the iPhone by name, he made perfectly clear that Apple was a part of Sprint’s future plans. Sprint also cited Apple’s popular smartphone, especially the $49 iPhone 3GS, as a major factor for the customer deflection. One major talking point at the event was that the iPhone could cause some strain to its network when Sprint officially releases the iPhone 5.

A supported belief was that Sprint wouldn’t drop unlimited data the moment the iPhone arrives at the Network. The company noted that it would only drop unlimited data if it didn’t think it could stay profitable while it was available. Sprint has “great runway room” to keep going, he explained. Hessen said the company is doing everything it can to keep the plan, even holding regular meetings under the theme, “Thinking Unlimited.” This leads us to believe we might see similar action to what Verizon did when the company introduced tiered-data plans back in July.

Sprint may have not confirmed it may carry the iPhone, but avoiding the subject did nothing to dispel the rumors that Sprint would soon carry the iphone on its network. Maybe the reason they deliberately decided not to confirm or deny it is that a finalized deal hasn’t been talked-out between the two parties. To point out that fact, Verizon followed a similar strategy last year when it had secured an iPhone deal months earlier but didn’t want to jeopardize sales of its existing hardware.

Now that the rumors point out a possibility of Sprint network selling the iPhone 5 this fall, could it help Sprint sales at all? Or did the iPhone deal come too late for the Sprint network? That will depend, in my opinion, on whether Sprint starts offering something the competition currently lacks, such as an iPhone 5 with 4G network support.

Via [Cnet]

Some bad news for customers on Verizon’s unlimited data plan; like its competitor AT&T, Verizone revealed it has started throttling customers that it believes to be using an excessive amount of data. The carrier found that the top 5% of its data users were using 2 GB+ each month, and therefore those are the customers that this new policy, which started on September 15th, will affect. More specifically, those with a 3G device (4G LTE device owners won’t be throttled) in the top 5% of data users will be affected when on the 3G network and connected to a congested cell site.

Sadly, as there is no 4G LTE iPhone available (yet, anyway), iPhone users with unlimited data plans on Verizon will either have to put up with the throttling, use less data (or more Wi-Fi), switch to a tiered data plan, or switch to a 4G LTE device. As bandwidth becomes even more in demand and prices continue to rise, we can expect to see other carriers that still offer unlimited data plans to follow AT&T and Verizon’s moves to deal with these issues. The only thing consumers can really do at this point is embrace the changes.

Via [9to5 Mac]

The Mobility division, which holds various electronics patents, had been spun off from the rest of the company in January. The acquisition makes Google a smartphone hardware manufacturing player, allowing it to apply the vertical integration and seamless control of mobile hardware and operating system software development that has proved an elegantly winning formula for Apple.

However, it’s likely that an even bigger aspect of the deal for Google was that Motorola Mobility, a pioneer in the mobile-phone business, holds more than 17,000 patents on mobile phone technology, which should help inoculate Google and Android against the tsunami of recent patent litigation sweeping over the industry.

Waterloo, Ontario based Research In Motion (RIM), which pretty much invented the smartphone category with its once-iconic BlackBerry phone, is feeling the pain these days, largely due to competitive pressure from Apple’s iPhone in its traditional market, and failure to make much of an impression in the hot tablet computer sector with its putative iPad-challenger: BlackBerry Playbook. Apple’s announcement of its forthcoming iMessage service as part of iCloud will essentially cancel one of the most significant remaining advantages BlackBerry had over the iPhone.

Sales of RIM’s PlayBook tablet have been mediocre, with, for example, Best Buy over the long Labor Day weekend slashing the PlayBook’s price of Research in Motion’s BlackBerry by $50 for the 16GB and 32GB models and by $150 for the 64GB model in hope if stimulating interest and sales. Office equipment chain Staples is rumored to be planning an even deeper PlayBook discount later this month that would knock 50% off the original price for all models. That sort of discounting can’t be a good sign for RIM.

On Tuesday, investment bank Jaguar Financial Corp., a minority shareholder in Research In Motion Ltd., urged fellow shareholders pressure RIM management to “seize the reins” in order to to maximize shareholder value before more market value is lost…including a potential sale of the Company or a monetization of RIM’s extensive patent portfolio, which includes RIM’s share of a recent $4.5 billion acquisition of Nortel’s patents by a consortium of six companies, including RIM and Apple.

In a press release, Vic Alboini, Jaguar’s chairman and CEO contends that “The status quo is not acceptable, the Company cannot sit still. It is time for transformational change.” Mr. Alboini notes the precipitous decline in the Company’s share price—from $149.90 in June 2008 to $29.59 on September 2, 2011, representing a decline of approximately 80.3%—while RIM’s competitors, notably Apple and various hardware makers selling Google Android-based smartphones, have seen a significant increase in market share at RIM’s expense, both in the enterprise and consumer markets, with corresponding increases in their in share prices and overall valuation.

Indeed, in the wake of the Google/Motorola deal, both RIM and longtime cellphone stalwart Nokia are both considered ripe takeover targets after having their share prices beaten down due to perceived competitive shortcomings in competition with Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android. So, should Apple, which is rolling in cash liquidity, consider buying RIM? It’s a prospect that I suspect would please Mr. Alboini.

There’s been speculation that Microsoft Corp. might buy either RIM or Nokia to boost its profile in the smartphone game. In that light, it’s arguable that Apple should consider preemptively purchasing one or the other or both. Buying RIM would enhance Apple’s iPhone profile in the lucrative enterprise and institutional sectors, and secure the proprietary and popular BlackBerry messenger service (BBM) which offers a free alternative to texting (SMS), as well as preempting Microsoft (or KOrea’s Samsung) from acquiring the company. RIM reportedly also holds at least 2,033 patents (Evercore Partners analyst Alkesh Shah says it’s more like 10,000 to 15,000), covering a spectrum from mobile security to advanced wireless technology to enterprise mobility to email.

RIM’s market cap is now under $15 Billion, which would likely be more like $20 billion+ with a takeover premium factored in, but still pocket-change for Apple with its $70+ billion cash hoard. And despite recent setbacks, RIM still reportedly controls 8% of the mobile handset hardware market and 25% of the smartphone market.

On the other hand, Apple is also believed to be a multiple Nokia technology licensee. And with Nokia estimated to be holding at least 50 essential 4G patents, and possibly in excess of 100 essential 3G patents, Apple could unencumber itself from paying a lot of royalty fees ad infinitum by picking up Nokia as well (although, a complicating factor there might be that Nokia uses uses Microsoft’s Windows Mobile OS in its smartphones).

Seems to me that these would be strategic moves well worth Apple’s consideration, especially in light of the Google/Moto deal. How do you feel?

For August, 2011, NetMarketShare has changed the way it calculates Operating System Market Share metrics, now separating Desktop and Mobile/Tablet OSs into two discrete categories.

They explain:

The combination of mobile and tablet usage has continued to rise dramatically and is now over 6% (and growing at an accelerating pace) of all browsing on the internet. Because of this rise, mixing the device types reduced the value of the data. For example, there was no publicly available way to display the top mobile operating systems without having them mixed in with desktop and console operating systems. In the past based on our report structure, it was difficult to determine the share of technologies on specific platform types and all share numbers were grouped into an overall category by default….

For now, mobile and tablet are still in the same category. This is due to the current lack of competition in the tablet market. However, in the future, we plan to also separate tablets into their own category.

This change has of course altered the proverbial landscape considerably, with one consequence being that share percentages for the three significant Desktop OS players have all bumped up significantly from July’s figures (shown below in parentheses), and the Mobile/Tablet numbers radically, so comparison with last month is skewed in both categories, which now represent different pies.

Desktop

• Windows – 92.90% (87.60%)
• Mac – 6.03% (5.61%)
• Linux – 1.07% (0.91%)

Mobile/Tablet

• iOS – 53.04% (3.00%)
• JavaME – 20.57% (1.11%)
• Android – 15.98% (0.81%)
• Symbian – 6.21% (0.37%)
• BlackBerry – 3.33% (0.19%)
• Windows Mobile – 0.34% (0.02%)
• Windows Phone – 0.34%

Operating System Versions

In terms of OS specific versions, Windows XP has finally slipped below a 50 percent percent market share while Windows 7 continued to grow, closing in on 30 percent. Apple’s OS 10.6 Snow Leopard at 23 months since its release in August, 2009 and now superseded by OS X 10.7 Lion remains the most prolific Mac OS version, but lost a tenth of a point in July. iOS (iPod, iPad, and iPod versions collectively) at an even three percent leads all other Apple OS versions except OS X 10.6, in second place in the Apple OS spectrum for the eighth consecutive month. JavaME stayed ahead of Linux, which seems stalled at less than one percent market penetration and back where it was in May.

Desktop

Windows:

• Windows XP – 52.46% (49.69%)
• Windows 7 – 30.60% (27.92%)
• Windows Vista – 9.40% (9.27%)
• Windows NT – 0.18% (0.44%)
• Windows 2000 – 0.18% (0.19%)
• Windows 98 – 0.05%

Macintosh:

• MacOS X 10.6 – 3.46% (3.76%)
• Mac OS X 10.5 – 1.17% (1.17% )
• Mac OS X 10.7 – 1.03% (0.32%)
• Mac OS X 10.4 – 0.31% (0.31%)
• Mac OS X (no version reported) – 0.04% (0.04%)

Linux – 1.07% (0.91%)

Mobile/Tablet

iOS

• iPhone – 27.39%
• iPad – 22.50%
• iPod – 3.14%

Total iOS Combined – 53.03%

JavaME – 20.57%

Android

• Android 2.2 7.93%
• Android 2.3 4.89%
• Android 2.1 2.14%
• Android 1.6 0.30%
• Android 3.1 0.23%
• Android 1.5 0.19%
• Android 3.2 0.14%
• Android 3.0 0.09%
• Android 0.03%
• Android 1.0 0.01%
• Android Ecl 0.01%

Total Android Combined – 15.24%

Symbian – 6.21%

BlackBerry – 3.33%

Windows

• Windows CE – 0.23%
• Windows Phone OS7 – 0.22%
• Windows Mobile – 0.11%

Total Windows Combined – 0.56%

For more information, visit netmarketshare.com/.

Browser Share

A similar separation by device change applies to Web browsers, with Safari taking an apparent hit in the desktop category, reflecting the Apple browser’s share having previously been combined representing both desktop and mobile/tablet versions.

In the Mobile/Tablet category, Safari for iOS is way out in front, with Opera in second place followed by Android. The others are well back.

Browser Total Market Share April 2011 (March ’11 figures in parentheses):

Desktop

• Microsoft Internet Explorer – 55.31% (52.71%)
• Firefox – 22.57 (21.47%)
• Chrome – 15.51% (13.49%)
• Safari – 4.64% (8.10%)
• Opera – 1.68% (1.65%)

Mobile/Tablet

Safari

• Safari 5.0 – 46.15%
• Safari 4.0 – 6.53%
• Safari 5.1 – 0.13%
• Safari 3.1 – 0.12%
• Safari 3.0 – 0.02%

Total Safari – 46.43%

Opera

• Opera Mini 4.2 – 6.68%
• Opera Mini 4.1 – 5.82%
• Opera Mini 5.1 – 3.70%
• Opera Mini 4.3 – 1.53%
• Opera Mini 6.2 – 1.08%
• Opera Mini 6.1 – 1.03%
• Opera Mini 3.1 – 0.34%
• Opera Mobile 11.1 – 0.32%
• Opera Mobile 10.0 – 0.20%
• Opera Mini 5.2 – 0.17%
• Opera Mini U – 0.12%
• Opera Mini 4.4 – 0.07%
• Opera 9x – 0.06%
• Opera Mini 2.0 – 0.05%
• Opera Mini 4/2 – 0.04%
• Opera Mobile 11.0 – 0.03%
• Opera Mini 4.9 – 0.02%
• Opera Mini 5.0 – 0.02%
• Opera Mobile – 0.02%
• Opera Mini 1.2 – 0.02%

Total Opera – 20.98%

Android

• Android Browser 4.0 – 15.15%
• Android Browser 3.1 – 0.51%
• Android Browser 5.0 – 0.06%

Total Android 15.72%

Symbian – 5.83%

Blackberry – 2.90%

Microsoft Internet Explorer

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 Mobile – 0.22%
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 – 0.19%

Total Microsoft Internet Explorer – 0.41%

You can check it out at netmarketshare.com.

After T-Mobile revealed last month that they had over a million iPhones on their network, despite the fact that users had to modify their SIM cards in order to be able to use their iPhone with the carrier, they have now officially released their Micro SIM cards, making the iPhone along with other GSM smartphones officially compatible with the T-Mobile’s network.

T-Mobile has even specifically mentioned the iPhone in its Micro SIM card’s product description, showing that the carrier’s move is highly targeting those who own unlocked GSM iPhones. Even though AT&T is in the process of attempting to acquire T-Mobile, the carrier has been heavily rumored to possibly be receiving the iPhone officially since its introduction, which could still happen even if AT&T does acquire T-Mobile. They had stated the carriers would still operate independently as the process of combining the two companies takes place.

The new Micro SIM cards from T-Mobile are available now free of charge with a two-year contract when purchased via the carrier’s online store.

Via [MacRumors]

The iPad now accounts for over 1% of all web browsing in the world, and in the United States that number rises to 2.1% according to a NetMarketShare report. Lest you think this isn’t a very impressive number, keep in mind that on July 4th the iPad will have been available for only 14 months. Getting 2.1% of the U.S. market when there are many competitors is not easy to do.

If you take a look at all mobile browsing in the United States, the iPhone and iPad together make up 60.7% with the Android (smart phones and tablets) at 31.6%, Blackberry at 6.9%, Symbian at 0.4%, Java ME and Windows Mobile both at 0.2%. It’s hard to imagine how the folks at IDC could predict that Windows Mobile will have a bigger market share than the iOS and Blackberry devices by 2015.

Whatever actually happens, it’s a safe bet that mobile devices will continue being a popular way to access the web.

Read [NetMarketShare] Via [The Register]