TheWindowsPhone

Another 2010 Q1 market share report has been released, this time focusing exclusively on smartphones. While the report we wrote about yesterday was interesting for showing that smartphones barely crack the top 5 in terms of usage, this new report from the NDP group shows a slight shuffle in the top smartphone sellers.

Android seems to be taking over – although their growth is slowing a bit – thanks to heavy marketing on Droid and some hot HTC Android devices. Android officially passed the iPhone and is on its way to catching RIM’s still-sliding BlackBerry. Meanwhile, Windows Mobile continued it’s slow death and is now approaching Symbian territory.

Palm’s line just looks funny.

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In a recent study of 1,958 Symbian phones, 1 in 63 was found to have some form of malware installed. The intrusive software included spyware, viruses, worms and trojans, as well as hundreds of unlicensed software programs installed on the handsets.

Rhomobile has announced details around the ‘Mobile Application Development Challenge’ they are hosting, including an extension on the deadline. The contest promotes Rhomobile’s Rhodes framework, which allows developers to write once to create native apps for all leading smartphones including iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian and Android, and features a $10,000 grand prize.

Click through to read more details about this great mobile development contest

AT&T has provided us all with its own hands-on video of three of its most anticipated phones of their spring line up – one of which is the Samsung Propel Pro – a Windows Mobile 6.1 device featuring a full QWERTY keyboard, Wi-Fi, and enterprise applications. The Samsung Propel Pro will be on sale for an expected $149.99 in April (customer’s pay $199.99 and after mail-in rebate, receive $50 AT&T promotion card).

The other two phones featured in the above video are both Symbian devices (Nokia’s E71x along with Samsung’s Impression) and will also be released as part of AT&T’s spring lineup.

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Are you a world class hacker looking to rake in some sweet pocket change? Well, for one I’d like to welcome you to our site (please don’t hurt us) and two, I’d like to introduce you to the Pwn2Own contest at CanSecWest.

Pwn2Own is currently running both desktop browser hacking challenges as well as mobile operating system hacking challenges. The big five platforms – Windows Mobile, iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, and Symbian – are all represented and willing to shell out $10,000 to the hacker that successfully breaks through their security barriers… in exchange for the code, of course.

We don’t know yet how good these mobile OS hackers are, but I’m betting several people will walk away swingin’ a big ol’ bag of cash. The browser hacking challenge has already seen one galant programmer break into Safari in 10 seconds! Nice work!

Check out the whole Pwn2Own itinerary after the jump!

Google Sync (beta) has been released for iPhone and Windows Mobile phones! While Symbian and BlackBerry devices have been supported for some time, it’s good to see Windows Mobile now gets to benefit from this awesome application.

Google Sync lets you sync your Google services (Gmail and Google Calendar) with your phone. And the best part? It runs silently in the background backing up your contacts and saving all of your email information. Never lose your contact info again!

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Love Facebook? Well, in just a few days Emoze (a popular Symbian Facebook application) will be available for Windows Mobile!

Why is Emoze so great? It’s like Push Facebook – you know? When someone sends you a message to your Facebook account, Emoze allows it to be received immediately as though it were Push mail.

Eitan Linked, Emoze CEO, had this to say:

We are proud to give our users an unrivalled mobile experience that lets them play a more dynamic role as a part of Facebook’s 130 million strong community. Facebook is a prime example of how social networking is changing the world and our users will not miss a trick!

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Grab it here!

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Sanjay Jha, CEO Motorola

According PC Magazine, Motorola’s Sanjay Jha has confirmed (though strangely non-chalantly) that Motorola expects to release a phone based on Windows Mobile 6.5 platform in the second half of 2009.

Windows Mobile 6 has not delivered the experience that I think Apple has been able to deliver, but as you look at the plan that is Windows Mobile 7 and even 6.5, I think there are significant new added features which will help the platform,” Jha said. “We have now targeted new teams which are focused – in California and Seattle – to deliver experiences. That is where we have to differentiate.

Motorola also announced that it plans to eliminate its MOTOMAGX and Symbian platforms in order to focus on the Google Android, Windows Mobile, and P2K 3G solutions.

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