There are “reports” that Android has reached a new milestone as far as the number of apps are concerned.

According to Business Insider, Android now boasts a healthy 250,000 apps compared to Apple’s 350,000 apps, putting the mobile OS within range of iOS.

While it’s expected that Android will eventually have more apps as the OS gains popularity worldwide, I am a bit skeptical about these numbers overall. More →

After wooing developers and convincing Nokia to ditch MeeGo for Windows Phone 7, Microsoft has proven that the company still has relevance in the new mobile world that the masses are embracing.

While Windows Phone 7 will probably steal the bronze away from Blackberry (at least as far as apps are concerned), in order to challenge both Android and iOS, Microsoft will need to rethink its approach to mobile.

Instead of trying to challenge iPad 2 and end up fighting for second place, Microsoft should instead try to make another stab at the mp3 market by releasing a WP7 device minus the phone. More →

Another year and another Pwn2Own event where hackers display the latest exploits against OS’s for prizes and cash.

While juggernauts like iPhone and Blackberry fell victim to the exploits of hackers, it looks like no one even bothered to attack  Android, despite the extra incentive Google was offering.

Although Android has their fair share of problems (especially when it comes to updating the mobile OS), Google’s built in security measures make the platform less appealing to brute force hacks, something rivals like Apple  and RIM can not boast about.

In fact RIM was so spooked by the hacks that they are recommending Blackberry users turn off javascript until the company releases a patch for the exploit.

Currently Google’s only weakness thus far are malware apps, although they could easily close off this exploit by hiring a team to review apps upon Android Market in order to verify their overall security.

Note: Windows Phone 7 also was not touched by hackers, although it’s unclear whether it was due to lack of interest (as the mobile OS is fairly new to the market) or to Microsoft’s security features.

Dear Google and Microsoft, we have a problem. Even though both of your mobile OS products are outperforming expectations, respectively, both platforms suffer one critical flaw that is holding you back.

For some strange reason you allow carriers to dictate when updates happen as well as give them the ability to block updates, preventing users from upgrading the device for simple things like critical security updates (at least with Android).

Honestly while this hasn’t slowed down the adoption of your devices, it gives people one more reason to choose iPhone over Android and Windows Phone 7. More →

With iPad 2 out, some are wondering whether or not a decent competitor will emerge to challenge Apple’s crown for king of the tablet devices.

Although Motorola’s Xoom is barely surviving the tablet wars, it doesn’t appear that they (or any future Android tablet) will be able to compete against iPad 2 in the near future due to 3 simple blunders. More →

Android tablet lovers will be pleased to hear that Motorola’s Xoom will finally gain the ability to watch Flash videos this month, a feature that is eternally absent from their rival.

Unfortunately it seems that instead of a finished product, consumers may instead receive something that is still “slightly” buggy.

Adobe has just announced that Flash Player 10.2 will be available to download from the Android Market on Friday, March 18.

It’s actually only a beta release for Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) tablets, which will also require Google’s 3.0.1 system update. However, it’s at least a full-fledged upgrade for Android 2.2 (Froyo) and 2.3 (Gingerbread) systems. (ZDnet)

Although most geeks probably do not mind a few bugs for the ability to view the entire web, consumers may not be as forgiving with semi-frequent errors while “beta testing” flash upon the Xoom.

While the Xoom is one of the few tablets available that can challenge iPad 2 (at least on paper via specs), Google along with OEM’s need to release mature products to the masses lest they create a bitter taste for new customers.

Hopefully Google, Motorola and Adobe are able to work out all of the bugs out of the beta quickly before the market becomes saturated with tablets running iOS.

Samsung is apparently taking advantage of Symbian chaos that ensued after Nokia ditched Symbian for Windows Phone 7.

Although known mostly for their Android devices, Samsung is apparently trying to introduce Symbian developers to their home brew OS known as Bada.

“If you are a Symbian developer unhappy about Nokia’s recent announcements, and are hence looking for a new platform to showcase your talents, we say ‘Hello!’ and ‘welcome to bada (operating system),’ said a newsletter posted by a Samsung developer on the Internet and quoted in online media.

“If you’re new to the bada development, or are moving your app from Symbian, we’d like to welcome you.” (Reuters)

Apparently Bada has many similarities to Symbian which Samsung hopes will attract disgruntled Symbian developers in order to boost their native mobile OS.

While the mobile OS looks mature (at least upon Samsung’s Wave smartphones), it’s uncertain whether Symbian developers will embrace Bada over Android, or even iOS (both which support tablets).

Samsung has designed Bada to court low to mid range devices, although with Apple moving into that space, Samsung may have to find a way to win over Symbian developers before Steve Jobs does.

(Hat tip: Mobile Burn)

Microsoft has released stats regarding the size of their app store for Windows Phone 7, and the news of it should make RIM tremble.

Windows Phone Marketplace currently offers more than 9,000 quality apps and games and enjoys a base of over 32,000 registered developers, delivering an average of 100 new apps every day. The Windows Phone Developer Tools have now been downloaded more than one million times, and we recently announced an update to let developers take advantage of OS updates such as the addition of copy and paste functionality. (Windows Phone Developer Blog)

Note: Emphasis mine.

Currently Blackberry App World sits at 22,885 apps (including a few test apps) which is a decent number considering how much attention iOS and Android receive from developers.

However if Microsoft’s app store continues to grow at its current momentum of 3,000 new apps every month, we could witness Windows Phone 7 stealing the bronze away from Blackberry in about 6 months (if not sooner).

With iOS and Android app stores widening their respective leads and Microsoft attempting to sprint ahead of them from behind, RIM’s only hope for relevancy may lie with Android Market (a decision that could starve out their native app store).

After embracing Windows Phone 7 to the shock of everyone, Nokia has now sold off Qt which might be good news for Symbian and MeeGo fans.

Digia has reached an agreement with Nokia to acquire the relevant licenses for Nokia’s Qt software group. [...]

“We are excited to extend our Qt business to serve our new customers. Building on our in-depth Qt expertise and experience from demanding mission critical solutions, we will offer world-class commercial licensing and support services to Qt Commercial customers,” said Digia SVP Harri Paani in a statement.

“We also look forward to driving further the evolution of Qt by bringing in new features and services.” (Know Your Mobile)

While it seems puzzling why anyone would want to own Qt (especially with Android dominating the globe), acquiring the “dying” platform is a wise move by Digia as it will enable them to gain a foot hold in the OS mobile wars without building something from scratch (think Samsung’s Bada).

Despite the sale (or rather the sale of the right to license the platform), Nokia is retaining their copyright’s to the platform, which might signal that they are not entirely wagering their existence upon Windows Phone 7.

In an attempt to help monetize their platform, the VoIP king is launching ads upon Skype and is even leveraging their relationship with Facebook in order to empower users to share the ads with friends.

While including ads may help Skype off set the cost of providing free video chat services for millions of users, the question is will their service pay off?

Skype “Home” provides a sponsored large masthead space at 650 x 170 pixels expandable to 650 x 340 pixels for advertisers to display ads that can include audio or video. Since the ads are on Skype, advertisers can add a Click & Call button in the ad as another call to action. In addition, it allows people to share the ad to their Facebook or Twitter accounts, and with one-click, ads can also be closed with the “Close Ad” button. (Business Wire)

Skype’s plan on placing ads upon the home screen instead of on top of conversations is great for Skype fans, but it may not benefit advertisers as users will probably spend most of their time in the “conversational area” of Skype (unlike the home page).

Unless Skype was able to present some kind of “Groupon like” deal of the day, I fail to see how these ads will receive an abundance of user attention outside of Skype fans closing the ad out of annoyance.

Although it’s great to see Skype putting users ahead of advertisers, hopefully the company an adopt a strategy that benefits users and advertisers in order to help pay for their free video chat sessions.

(Image Credit: Official Skype Blog)