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comScore has just released their ‘U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share’ report for the three month period ending in July. The report once again sees Apple’s market share increasing, this time up 1 percentage point to capture 27% of the market. This is in comparison to Google, who came in at an impressive 15% increase to top the chart at 41.8% market share. They are of course followed by the usual suspects, RIM in third at 21.7% (down 5%), and Microsoft at 5.7% (down 1%).

Apple’s market share among mobile OEMs is also on the increase, growing 1.2% to capture 9.5% of the market. Of course, Samsung (who also increased 1%), still dominates among OEMs with 25.5% of the market. LG comes in at second with 20.9%, followed by Motorola, and Apple.

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RIM has filed an ‘opposition action’ (via Patently Apple) in Canada against Apple’s trademark application for ‘WebKit’, the rendering platform based on KHTML that Apple help create before making open-source. The move grants RIM more time to build their case before a November 22, 2011 deadline.

Apple originally filed the trademark application in May of 2010 which, while getting a little bit of media attention, kind of flew under the radar of most. After all, WebKit has been made open-source.. so trademark or no trademark this shouldn’t affect Google, RIM, and all other platforms currently relying on WebKit in their browsers. Right?

If Apple were granted the trademark, it would mean other companies wouldn’t be able to associate the “WebKit” name with their products. Something that could potentially become more valuable if the WebKit name was marketed more prominently as a feature of future devices. Perhaps if Apple branded “WebKit” as a feature or technology in future products, other companies inability to do so would give Apple an advantage. Apple’s trademark application asserts the company’s rights to the name based on a “screenshot of Applicant’s website [WebKit Nightly Builds page] showing use of mark in connection with download of Applicant’s software”.

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Assuming Android goes proprietary to Motorola, it falls behind Apple in market share by 2012 and Windows Phone (the Other category) gulps up nearly half the mobile phone market.

There’s a good reason why Apple’s products “just work”. But it’s been a bumpy road for the Cupertino, California company because right from the onset competitors were ridiculing its vertically integrated approach to business. Apple’s supposedly ‘closed’ ecosystem is a major weakness, critics cry. The past decade, however, saw the marketplace validate the strategy through booming sales of Apple gear. But what if GOOG actually tried the AAPL model with Motorola, which today makes about one in ten Android smartphones?

That’s the dilemma Piper Jaffray resident Apple analyst Gene Munster set out to explore in his Friday note to clients. In short, making Android proprietary and exclusive to Motorola would add about 35 percent to operating income for Google, the accidental hardware company. By 2015, the phone biz would add $10.5 billion in operating profit and $56 billion in revenue, resulting in a per-share earnings of $25.16 by 2015. There’s just one problem with this hypothetical strategy:
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Apple is intent on stopping Samsung from marketing and selling “copycat” Galaxy devices in all of the European Union.

Apple has already tried to ban the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in most of Europe (injunction lifted), but today they are going even farther with their legal proceedings, asking a Dutch court to ban all Galaxy series devices. The ban includes the widely popular Galaxy S II, which has seen some success in Europe.

Apple’s complaint, seen by Webwereld, a Dutch IDG publication, seeks an injunction for the entire Galaxy series. This includes smartphones — the Galaxy Ace, Galaxy S and Galaxy SII — and tablets: the Galaxy Tab 7 and Galaxy Tab 10.1. Other Galaxy devices, like the Gio, Nexus, 551, Europa, Apollo and Mini are also involved, albeit only in a footnote in which Apple states, “It is expected that these devices are also covered by one or more of the patent rights invoked.”

On top of trying to ban sales, Apple is trying to push the thought of Samsung sending a letter to all of their partnered retailers within 14 days to end sales. Stated strongly:

For the record we would like to mention the fact that by storing, offering and/or selling of the above mentioned Galaxy smartphones [and tablets], you commit infringement of the intellectual property rights of Apple Inc.

The trial will take place in The Hague, Netherlands September 15th, and the judge said  if he grants any injunctions, they would take effect no sooner than October 13, reported Webwereled (via Computerworld)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdT3eKdto4w&feature=player_embedded]

Historypin, a user-generated map displaying historical data of nearby locations, is now available as an iOS app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Created in partnership with Google by not-for-profit We Are What We Do, the app allows users to add their own historical photos by pinning them to a map, capturing historic moments as they happen, and creating replicas of historical images. The images are then shared with users requesting data for a specific location….

Historypin uses Google Maps and Street View technology to reveal the user-generated photos and data related to historical events that happened close to your current location. It does this by “overlaying them onto the live camera view”…essentially aiming to give you a live snapshot of what your surroundings looked like in the past.

Simply holding your phone up in the street will provide you with relevant nearby images. Selecting one of the images allows it to be overlaid onto the iPhone’s camera view. You can then fade between the image and your live shot for comparison, as well as pull up stories and data related to the image and your current location.

Full list of features and some shots of the app in action after the break…

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Our German is more than a little rusty (and so is Google’s) but it appears that five devices that are suspected of being either iPhone 5s or knockoffs were confiscated at the Munster-Osnabruck airport on July 21st.

It still isn’t certain if they were real or fake but it is newsworthy that Germans are confiscating iPhones, real or fake, at the Airports since there are so many fake iPhones coming out of China, India and Sears these days. Maybe they were just Samsung Galaxies?

The men in possession of the devices were coming from Turkey.

It appears that the customs officials are working with Apple to determine the origin of the devices.

Benm.at has the story

Here’s another version of the story.

Update: Reader Till translated the important bits, below:

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Cross-posted from 9to5google.com

Want to get your Game on in the new Google Games?

Tab for Google+ is an app available on the Mac App Store that brings Google+’s web functionality to the Mac desktop. The app is available for free and offers just about every feature plus.google.com offers — except Hangouts. Upon logging in via your Google account, you’ll be greeted with the main sections of the app: Streams, Photos, Circles, Profile and Notifications.

The sections follow suit with the functionality of the website. Streams and Photos curates content from the people you’re following. Circles allows you to see your list of circles and the content coming in from each specific one. Lastly, Notifications let’s you know what’s going on with your account.

Of course, this application won’t replace Google+’s website, rather it’s just a nice app that sits in your applications bar to view while you work. Perhaps if the website is more your thing, check out Google+ for Mac which is essentially just a browser window. We’re hearing the developer is working to make it native though. Check out another screenshot after the break:

Download Tab for Google+ — Download Google+ for Mac

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MacRumors posts some “iPhone 5 renderings” they commissioned from CiccareseDesign to create high quality drawings made as closely as possible to the original leaked case designs we’ve posted on a few..different..occasions.

The final dimensions of the new design are calculated to be: 4.33″ x 2.36″ and .27″ thickness at the top and .21″ at the bottom In comparison, the iPhone 4 dimensions are: 4.5″ x 2.31″ x .37″. So the new design is actually shorter than the existing iPhone 4, but slightly wider and thinner.

They do bear a striking resemblance to the ones the Verge posted in April:

Full Gallery below:

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Apple just passed Exxon in Market Cap to become the world’s most valuable company. Quite a turnaround for a company that was on its last legs just over a decade ago.  AAPL passed the 400 mark last month on the back of monster earnings news but fell sharply as the US market plummeted over the last week.  Luckily for Apple, it didn’t fall nearly as sharply as Exxon, in the face of lowered oil costs.

The markets are still open and volatile today but at this moment, 1:19PM EDT, Apple’s market cap is at $341.53B while Exxon Mobile’s is at $341.51B.

Congratulations Apple!

Update 2:00EDT: Apple is now on top by over $1B (image below)

Update2 4PM ET. AAPL closed at $346.74B, Exxon rallied at the end of the day to $348.32B

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Today the US Patent and Trademark Office posted 20 new patents granted to Apple Inc, two of which are valuable patents related to the iPhone, iPad, and iOS. Patents like these have been becoming more important as mobile device manufacturers take each other to court.

According a report from Patently Apple, the three most noteworthy of the patents include one for integrated touch screen technology that allows the display to be “thinner, brighter and require less power” and require less parts to manufacture, another is related to the “Voicemail Manager” for iPhone, and the last appears to be related to “improved installation, retention and removal of hardware components” in Mac Pro or other tower-like personal computers.

Perhaps the most notable of the three is the “Integrated Touch Screen” patent. Below is a snippet of Apple’s summary from Patently Apple.

Apple’s Summary: The patent relates to touch sensing circuitry integrated into the display pixel stackup (i.e., the stacked material layers forming the display pixels) of a display, such as an LCD display. Circuit elements in the display pixel stackups could be grouped together to form touch sensing circuitry that senses a touch on or near the display. Touch sensing circuitry could include, for example, touch signal lines, such as drive lines and sense lines, grounding regions, and other circuitry.

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Google has just pushed an update for the official Google+ app for iOS, bringing with it support for iPad and iPod touch, two devices the app was previously unavailable for, among a few other features including aggregated circle add notifications, huddle settings, and the usual “Performance and stability improvements”.

Unfortunately, this iPad support is not completely native as the app will just be a pixel-doubled iPhone application. This choice by Google is still better than no iPad support at all, though. You should be able to update the app now via the App Store or swing by iTunes and grab the new version now. We’ll keep you posted with any other discoveries we might make in this latest update.

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While Google passed the 40% smartphone share (Microsoft must be happy!) in the US threshold, Apple continues to outpace the industry as a whole posting modest 1 point gains in the US smartphone category according to comScore.   Apple moved up from 25.5% in March to 26.6% in June on the year old iPhone 4 model which also saw its US debut on Verizon.

Apple also moved up in the hardware category, below:

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Although Chrome controls one-fifth of the global web browsing market and has overtaken Firefox as the second most-used browser in the UK, Google’s browser has been growing slower in absolute terms than Apple’s Safari in the month of July. In July, Chrome added .34 percentage points of market share for a 13.45 percent web usage share. In the same period, Safari grew .57 percentage points for a 8.05 percent web usage share in July, per latest Net Applications metrics. Apple’s and Google’s browser were the only ones growing (with the exception of the Other category), while Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox ceded market share and had 52.81 and 21.48 percent web usage share.

A big factor: Apple just revamped its consumer MacBook Airs and Mac Minis as well as refreshing the Mac OS with Lion.

Of course, the numbers are not representative of the whole market because Net Applications derives stats from some 40,000 participating web sites, but they’re a good and fairly accurate indication of market trends.

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Google has released an update to their Shopper app conveniently giving users information on daily deals, including Google Offers. The update adds a “Offers” and “My Offers” tab at the bottom, along with the Shop tab you know and love. The Offers tab displays deals in map view that are available in your city. The deals you find can be saved in the My Offers tab for later use.

Businesses, on the other hand, can publish deals through Google Places. If Google Offers is available in your city you can redeem your purchased offers in the My Offers tab. Check out the update in the App Store.

Cross posted from 9to5Google.
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Before left and after right.

You kind of knew this was going to happen: Google Books is now back in the  iOS App Store, but without ability to buy books directly from online.  Note the missing button at the top left.

Apple, you win. Google, Users lose.

Cross-posted on 9to5Google.com
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For reasons yet undefined, Google Books has been removed from the iTunes App Store.  We noticed the App was gone earlier this week but thought it might have been just a blip.  Now it has been awhile.

Google Books was just updated in April with new 3D page turning, landscape mode and search so it is unlikely that Google decided to orphan it.  Google launched its Books initiative in December of this year as a competitor to Amazon and Apple’s eBookstores.

So why is it gone now?  The timing with Apple’s new, controversial Terms of Service would seem like the most obvious explanation.

Was Google in violation of Apple’s new in-app purchase terms of service? Or, is this because Harry Potter is coming out on Google Books?

We’ve reached out to Google and Apple for answers.

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Just hours before today’s earnings call, the well-connected Yukari Kane, Joann S. Lublin and Nick Wingfield of the WSJ report:

Since Steve Jobs went on medical leave this winter, some members of Apple Inc.’s board have discussed CEO succession with executive recruiters and at least one head of a high-profile technology company, according to people familiar with the matter.

The conversations weren’t explicitly aimed at recruiting a new chief executive and were more of an informal exploration of the company’s options, said these people. The directors don’t appear to have been acting on behalf of the full board, some of these people said. Apple has seven directors, including Mr. Jobs. It is also unclear whether Mr. Jobs was aware

Interestingly, the WSJ actually got a response from Jobs. “I think it’s hogwash.” he said.

According to the report, Board members have even held talks about the company’s leadership with some search firms after those recruiters informally approached them, said three of these people. (…or at least according to voicemails left on their machines?)

It would be shocking if Apple had to look outside its own walls for a successor, at least outside of interviewing for due diligence purposes.  Full article available through Google Plus.

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Developers wishing to sell apps to business in volume for discounted rates now will be able to according to an email just sent to developers. Apple upgraded its Paid Applications Agreement today which allows for a new type of pricing.

For instance, a hospital could buy a medical app for its 2000 employees in one big swoop rather than hitting the buy button 2000 times.   
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We just got word that Spotify will launch tomorrow in the US (as reported last week).  Perhaps something nice to put on your new Mac?

New York, July 13, 2011 – Spotfy, the award-winning digital music service loved by millions of Europeans, will become available tomorrow morning in the United States by invitation and subscription. Spotify is a new way to listen to and manage your music, discover new tracks and share songs and playlists with friends – music whenever you want it, wherever you are.

Be one of the first people in the U.S. to experience Spotify by signing up at www.spotify.com.

Spotify will announce more details at 8:00 AM EST.

You’ll want to hit this link at some point in the morning.
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Google Analytics, which is used on millions of sites worldwide to show web publishers who is visiting their sites, today published its first report on Web traffic. Among other interesting tidbits was the above chart showing Windows losing a staggering 5.1% of its market year over year.

At the same time, the Mac OS actually gained almost a percentage point of the market.  But the groundswell was in the “Other” category which includes iPads, iPhones, Android and other non-Mac/Windows/Linux machines.  That category was up almost 5 %.

The “Post PC Era” seems to be fast approaching.

Google conveniently also found a 1% gain in Search Engine  referral traffic, below:

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A consortium including Apple Inc, Microsoft, EMC Corp, Sony, Ericsson, and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion bought bankrupt telecommunications gear maker Nortel Networks Corp’s remaining portfolio of 6000 patents for $4.5 billion, in an auction that began early this week.

RIM reportedly paid $770 million, Ericsson paid $340 million.  It wasn’t immediately clear how much Apple paid.

Google had originally opened bidding with a $900 million bid.  The consortium of strange bedfellows will split up the portfolio based on the split of the purchase price.

The sale is subject to Canadian and U.S. court approvals which will be sought at a joint hearing expected to be held on July 11.  Full press release follows:

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