Google powered Android phones and IPhone Unlocked Device  are both starting to dominate the market share for smartphones.  According to Gartner the combined worldwide market share for both operating systems reached 25% in the first quarter which is up 12% from the year before.  The iPhone still has the bigger share at 15.4% (up 5 points) but Android is starting to catch up fast with 9.6% (up 8 points).  All of the other smartphones lost relative share in the first quarter.

Android is now the fourth largest smartphone operating system surpassing Windows Mobile which now sits in 5^th place.  The iPhone is number 3 while RIM and Symbian are numbers 2 and 1 respectively on a worldwide basis.  Although if you look at all mobile phone sales RIM is number 4 and the iPhone ranks 7^th with just a 2.7% market share.

Android is rising faster than the iPhone in relative share but is still trailing in relative numbers.  Gartner estimates that consumers bought about 8.4 million iPhones in the first quarter compared to 5.2 million Android phones.  Both numbers are up considerably over last year’s first quarter as only 4.9 million iPhones were sold in that time frame along with 4.6 million Android units.

With the recent launch of Android 2.2 which supports Flash technology it is expected that the Android OS will continue its upward trend and close the market share gap with the IPhone even more in Q2.  By having access to Flash Player 10.1 Android devices have a technology that Apple does not support possibly giving it the edge while competing for new customers.  This technology will allow users to have a different and more enjoyable experience when using their Smartphones to surf the web.  I will certainly not be surprised if the Android OS inches even closer to the iPhone in terms of worldwide market share.

Sony has released one of the smallest android phones out there.  The Unlocked Sony Ericsson Xperia x10 Mini is a compact phone has taken the words to a whole new understanding.  It easily fits in the palm of your hand, and has maintained many of the qualities of its big brother, the Xperia x10.  The overall measurements are 3.27" x 1.9".  It has a thickness of .63 inches, which makes it very small and slim phone, which Sony Ericsson has kept the curved design feature, make it a great phone to hold..

The Xperia x10 Mini has a 2.55-inch capacitive screen with QVGA resolution, and uses the Android interface, known as UX utilizing Timescape UI.  This allows the user a better experience as well as integrating with web services and social media.  Since the screen is so small, you will not be able to have more than one widget at a time, but this does not seem to be a liability.  There are four shortcuts you applications in the home screen, which you can also change, based on your preferences.  Surprisingly, the small phone even sports a five megapixel camera, including a flash, auto focus and geo-tagging.  It also has video capability, which can be utilized in the 640x480 pixel resolution.

The  Xperia X10 Mini from is able to surf the web extremely smoothly, but small screen size sometimes it is a little hard to read.  It will work with the 3G, Wi-Fi networks, and this smart phone, with the touchscreen capability is a fast and extremely functional phone. It is Bluetooth supported and has A-GPS, digital compass and a 3.5mm audio jack.  This may be too small to phone for some people with larger hands, but it can be utilized by everyone.  It is expected that the phone will be available sometime in the second quarter of 2010.  Its sister phone, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro Unlocked Gadget.

Unlocked Samsung released the (Gravity 2) in a response to all of those that wanted a great messaging phone.  It is a newer model of the Gravity from Samsung and is not only a candy bar style phone, but also has the slide out keyboard.  The great pumpkin color and the slim design make it easy to handle.  The phone is 4.5 inches x 2.5 inches and is .60 thick.  It makes it very easy to carry the phone and to hold.  The screen provides 2.3 inches of viewing and has a 240x320 mega pixel screen resolution.

The Samsung Gravity 2 is great for those looking for a cellular phone with enhanced messaging features, and all of the phone functions to make life easier.  The front of the phone has three larger keys for sending receiving and messaging.  The outer ring of the ok button will give you the ability to navigate your social media contacts as well as your call logs.  There is a lot of room in between the keys and they are raised in order to be able to access them much easier.  There is a data entry book that will allow you to store over 1000 entries and giving you the ability to store all kinds of great information about your family and friends.  The phone will let you do predictive text, which makes messaging just that much simpler.

The Samsung Unlocked ( Gravity 2) gadget uses the 3G network and is Bluetooth ready.  It comes with A-GPS application with term by turn directions.  It has all of the wonderful media features, and streaming videos is quite simple.  The phone has a two megapixel camera with zoom and all people shot features.  It also has an MP3 player, which you will feel to download and store all of your favorite music and you can even choose your favorite song as background music for your phone.  The battery life gives you 5.5 hours of talk time and over 12 days of additional standby time.  This phone is in an affordable price range and is a great social media and messaging mobile phone device.

Sony Ericsson Unlocked gadgets has been asked really busy since the conference in Barcelona a few months ago.  They have not only release the Xperia X10, the X10 Mini but also the Mini Pro.  This small phone is elegant and slim, while being able to fit comfortably into the palm of your hand as well as your pocket or purse.  It has all of the multi-platform features and functions of the Xperia as well.

The Unlocked  Xperia Mini Pro by Sony Ericson has the four icons on the main screen of this touchscreen smart phone and you can access the widgets for all of the features that you use often.  What is great about this particular phone is the fact that it also has a four QWERTY keyboard that slides out.  The phone has the curved features like its other siblings so that it is easy and comfortable to hold.  The interface that it uses is the Timescape, which helps to bring all of your communications integrated into workplace.  In addition, it also has the musicscape application so that you can keep all of your music organized and together one place.  You are able to download from all of your favorite websites, and it displays the songs information while it is plain.

The five-megapixel camera has auto focus, zoom and geo-tagging, which will provide clear and wonderful pictures that you are able to directly send to your friends using all of your messaging features.  You can purchase additional applications from the android market, which is constantly being updated.  It will give you 3.5 hours of talk time and up to 360 hours of standby time.  This small package carries a lot of power and keeps Sony Ericsson, a major player in the Mini style of phones.

Rumors are starting to fly surrounding the price of the upcoming myTouch 3G Slide Phone from T-Mobile.  Recent speculation has this new device hitting retail stores with a price of $399.99 on an Even More Plus plan and $149.99 with an Even More plan after a $50 mail in rebate.  This is also an option to pay $23 per month over 20 months.  While this is the same price T-Mobile is asking for the original and slide-less myTouch 3G I am not so sure that these rumors are accurate.  Also, this new T-Mobile handset was originally set to be released on June 2^nd but it is sounding more and more like it will be released on June 16^th.

While it would be great if the new myTouch 3G Slide was released as the same price as the original myTouch 3G it is unlikely that a newer and better device will be released for the same price.  I would expected the myTouch 3G Slide to be slight more expensive than the original but not too much more where it would scare off consumers.

It is nice to finally get a gauge of what the new myTouch 3G Slide will be priced when it is finally released by T-Mobile.  From these initial rumors it looks like this new handset is going to be one of the more affordable Unlocked  Samsung Galaxy S Android 2.1 devices to be released this summer.  Hopefully T-Mobile is able to release this product on June 2^nd as some people are speculating so consumers will not have to wait much longer to get their hands on this fantastic smartphone.   If the release date does end up being June 16^th I guess that won’t be too big of a deal.  We have waited this long so another 2 weeks shouldn’t be too hard to get through, right?

For those Sprint customers who have been patiently waiting for the arrival of the BlackBerry Bold 9650 today is your lucky day.  After searching Sprint’s website it appears as if this device is finally available for sale online.  The retail price is $450 but this new BlackBerry device can be had for as little as $199.99 after a $100 mail in rebate and 2 year contract.

The Unlocked BlackBerry Bold 9650 offers a wide variety of features that make it one of the best smartphones available right now.  The BlackBerry Bold 9650 comes with a 3.2 Megapixel camera, WiFi, microSD compatibility upgradeable to 32GB, Instant Messaging capabilities with the best messaging programs, GPS, Sprint TV and Bluetooth.  The full QWERTY keyboard also makes sending text messages and emails a breeze.  With all of these features standard it is easy to see why the BlackBerry Bold 9650 is expected to be a hot seller this summer.

With sales starting to slip for BlackBerry devices RIM is trying to make big comeback in the smartphone market with this new device.  Perfect for the business crowd or the casual smartphone enthusiast the BlackBerry Bold 9650 offers a wide array of features that will appeal to the masses.  Whether you wish to use this phone for business or pleasure there will be a ton of features and apps that will suit your needs.  The BlackBerry Bold 9650 is one of the most sophisticated Unlocked Smartphones on the market to date.  If you are looking to upgrade to a BlackBerry device this would be a great one to get your hands on.  Even if you currently have a BlackBerry you should consider upgrading to this handset as well.  I am sure you will not be disappointed that you did.

Due to an inadequate supply of parts there has been a widespread shortage of HTC Unlocked (Incredible) Android devices according to Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam.  While having been unable to stockpile enough key components such as the WVGA capacitive display assemblies manufactured by Samsung, entire shipments of the HTC-made Android smartphone are selling out within hours of their arrival at retail stores.  According to McAdam the shortages are so severe that Verizon Wireless has had to pull way back on the number of deliveries in order to focus on online sales.  If there had not been such a shortage of handsets the Incredible would have easily outsold its predecessor the Motorola DROID.  Roughly 100,000 units of the Incredible were sold in the first two days this device was on the market.  Verizon’s website claims that orders for the Incredible will be fulfilled by June 3^rd.

It appears that the demand for the Droid Incredible has far exceeded Verizon’s expectations.  This is good news and bad news for the cell phone manufacturer.  Of course it is great news that their new Android device is such a big hit with consumers but it is unfortunate that they are unable to keep these smartphones in stock due to an inadequate supply of parts.  The HTC Google Nexus One Android gadget was predicted to be one of the hotter Android devices on the market when it was released but I am willing to bet that many industry experts did not foresee this shortage of units.  Nor did they ever think these devices would be selling out within hours of being delivered to stores.  Hopefully Verizon gets their act together quickly so that everyone who is eagerly waiting to get their hands on one of these new smartphones can do so before June 3^rd as Verizon mentioned.

We have already known for some time that AT&T was planning to upgrade its 3G network in a big way over the coming months but many industry insiders did not figure the upgrade would be as big of an improvement as tech websites Engadget and Gizmodo are reporting.  At a recent Reuters event in New York City AT&T’s Operations CEO John Stankey mentioned that AT&T is going to more than double the speeds of its current 7.2 Mbps 3G network by the end of the year.

While AT&T has made significant improvements to their network in the past few months it is not expected to reach speeds anywhere near T-Mobile’s 21Mbps network.  Although I am sure that many Unlocked Quickfire  AT&T customers would be delighted if the network were to reach speeds of 14.4Mbps as expected by this announcement.

AT&T’s network is notorious for being spotty and slow in major cities.  If this latest announcement is accurate AT&T’s network should see a great improvement and users of their 3G network will be greeted with a much better user experience.  With Sprint set to come out with their 4G network in the coming months AT&T had to do something to address their sometimes shaky 3G network.  This improvement that is expected to double the speeds of their network is better than expected.  If AT&T is able to double the speed of their 3G network I would expect more people to purchase Unlocked Smartphone with this cellular network leader.  Their upgraded network would be one of the best in the United States if this plan actually comes to fruition.  Hopefully they can complete this upgrade ahead of schedule so we do not have to wait until the end of the year to see these increased speeds.

If the FCC gets its way you might be able to rest a little easier when it comes to your cell phone bill.  In an intitiative spearheaded by Joel Gurin, the head of the FCC’s Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, the days of seeing an extremely high cell phone bill will become a thing of the past. Gurin is trying to eliminate “bill shock” through a system where phone carriers would notify mobile subscribers via an unspecified method if their current cell phone usage is likely to result in a bill that is significantly higher than their normal monthly plan.

A similar system has been in place in the European Union since 2009 and has been a resounding success.  Said Gurin: “We’re issuing a Public Notice to see if there’s any reason that American carriers can’t use similar automatic alerts to inform consumers when they are at risk of running up a high bill. This is an avoidable problem. Avoiding bill shock is good for consumers and ultimately good business for wireless carriers as well.”

I think this a great idea and will help protect consumers from running up an extremely large cell phone bill.  With more and more consumers switching over to smartphones they may not know how much data they are using if they are on a limited plan.  Instead of having to manually check in on their account all of the time the mobile carrier could send them alerts letting them know when they are nearing their monthly data, text or voice limits.  If someone would go over their monthly allotment then it is completely their fault as their mobile carrier did the best they could to alert them that they may be reaching their limits which would result in a higher bill.

It looks like T-Mobile and Garmin-Asus have finally settled on a release date for the much anticipated Garminfone.  This new mobile device with a GPS slant will ship in June for $199 on a two year contract.  The Garminfone will run its own heavily customized Garmin UI over the  Google Nexus One Unlocked Android operating system.  In addition to this slick UI the Garminfone will come with a 3 megapixel autofocus cam, microSD expansion that supports up to 32GB, WiFi and full HSPA.  The phone will also come bundled with a charging dash/windshield mount.

The Garminfone has been one of the more highly anticipated  Unlocked smartphone releases in recent memory.  Definitely geared towards the GPS junky the Garminfone also has features that will appeal to anyone looking for a new mobile device.  The 3 megapixel camera and microSD expansion up to 32GB are extremely nice touches.  While you are using your Garminfone to travel the countryside without getting lost you will be able to take many pictures along the way and store them on your phone to share with friends and family.

One of the best features about the Garminfone is the windshield/dashboard mount that comes with the device.  Since this phone is manufactured by a GPS company it would make sense that the GPS function of the phone is its best quality. Since many users will be using this device as a GPS unit it only makes sense that they would want a dashboard or windshield mount to accompany their new GPS unit.  Instead of selling the mount separately Garmin is including it with the purchase of the mobile phone to allow their customers to easily use this navigation device while driving in their cars.