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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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.

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The Mobile Application Development Challenge submission deadline date has been extended to May 24, 2009, enabling developers to use the latest release of Rhodes 1.0, with a first prize of $10,000 to the individual or company building the best mobile application. Additional prize packages will include iPhone 3G 16GB, AT&T (HTC) Fuze with Windows Mobile, BlackBerry Storm smartphones, Nokia N97 and G2 Google Android phones. The grand prize of $10,000 will be announced on June 1, 2009 and additional prizes will be announced at a later date.

Contest Requirements
-Registration deadline: April 15, 2009
-Application submission deadline: May 24, 2009
-Applications must run on at least two device operating systems
-Downloads of the build versions for all of these applications must be made available for Windows Mobile, RIM and Symbian
-Applications must operate upon synchronized local data via RhoSync

Criteria for Judging
Rhomobile will evaluate submissions in the following areas:
-Application Originality: value proposition to end users and usefulness of the application
-User Experience: overall usability of the application
-Device Leverage: demonstration of device capabilities
-Code Quality: documentation and maintainability of the code

Availability
Register for the Mobile Application Development Challenge by April 15, 2009.

The Rhodes framework is now available free for download.

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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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!

Phones (and associated test platform)
* Blackberry(TBA)
* Android(Dev G1)
* iPhone(locked 2.0)
* Nokia (NYSE: NOK)/Symbian(N95-1)
* Windows Mobile (HTC Touch)

Day 1 (Raw functionality out of the box, users configured for service) post phone, post email
* SMS
* MMS
* Email (arrival only)
* wifi on if default
* bluetooth on if default
* Radio stack

Day 2
* All of Day 1
* Email/SMS/MMS (reading only – no secondary actions)
* wifi on
* bluetooth on (not accept pairing by default. Paired with a headset. pairing process not visible)

Day 3
* All of Day 1 and 2
* one level of user interaction with default applications
* bluetooth on (not accept pairing by default. Paired with a headset/other devices upon request. pairing process visible)

What is owned? Must demonstrate…
* loss of information (user data)
* incur financial cost

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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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