IPhones account for 23% of business smart phones to BlackBerry's 51%, ComScore says (Los Angeles Times))

December 3, 2010 | 11:56 am

Apple Inc.'s iPhone has earned itself close to a quarter of the business smart phone market, according to ComScore Inc., while BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion Inc. accounts for about 52%.

That conclusion is based on two months of data -- that's ComScore's first snapshot of the smart phone market for business users -- meaning no trend is discernible.

The data set, from September, includes employees whose companies fully or partially pay their monthly smart phone bills. Not included are those who use their personal smart phone at work but are not reimbursed, nor those who foot the monthly bill for a company-supplied device.

ComScore acknowledeges that the data set leaves out some people who use their personal smart phones for business purposes, but stood by the general picture painted by the numbers.

"These numbers may not be a perfect measure of the enterprise market, but they should provide a reasonable quantitative representation of subscriber market share in that segment," said ComScore senior analyst Andrew Lipsman.

In October, quarterly sales of the iPhone surpassed those of the BlackBerry for the first time, with the iPhone selling 14 million and the Blackberry about 12 million -- numbers that include both consumer and business purchases.

That prompted Apple Chief Exectuive Steve Jobs to say, "We've now passed RIM, and I don't see them catching up to us in the foreseeable future."

Apple and RIM have been fighting to gain ground in each other's strongholds: RIM attempting to produce consumer-friendly phones and Apple trying to promote the iPhone as a device that can be used for a variety of business purposes.

"The lines are blurring," said Shaw Wu, an analyst at Kaufman Bros. "For many people, they use a single device to handle both their personal and professional lives. That's what Apple's about -- they're really good at that."

"But I'm not ready to count RIM out," he said.

Neither Apple nor RIM responded to requests for comment.

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Google Voice for iPhone

Earlier this year we launched a Google Voice HTML5 web app for iPhone users. Today we’re taking the Google Voice experience on the iPhone to a whole new level with the launch of the official Google Voice for iPhone app.

With this native app, you’ll continue to have access to all the major Google Voice features on your iPhone, like:

• Cheap rates for international calls
• Free text messaging to U.S. numbers
• Voicemail transcription
• Display your Google Voice number as caller ID when making calls

In addition to these benefits, the app provides some features that make using Google Voice on your iPhone a much better experience:

• With push notifications, the app will alert you instantly when you receive a new voicemail or text message
• Most of your calls will be placed via Direct Access Numbers, making them connect just as quickly as regular phone calls

Google Voice for iPhone is available to download from the Apple App Store today. You’ll need an iPhone with iOS 3.1 or later and a valid Google Voice account to use the app. At this time, Google Voice is available in the U.S. only.

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Touchscreen Gloves - warm gifts for smartphone users

If you are a smartphone user that lives in a cold part of the world, you will probably be interested in these touchscreen compatible glove solutions. We test out Isotoner's Smartouch gloves, AGloves, and the GloveTips.com kit.

Find more videos on our YouTube channel!

If you live in a part of the world that tends to get cold during the winter, and you are one of the many people using one of those cool new touchscreen equipped smartphones, then you might already know where I am going here. Regular gloves just don't work with thecapacitive touchscreen^(INFO) displays used on most new smartphones these days. You can tap and swipe all day long, but you won't get anywhere.

Unless, of course, you use one of these new touchscreen compatible glove products. I took a look at three different solutions: Isotoner's Smartouch gloves ($20 to $35), Agloves ($17.99), and a conversion kit from GloveTips.com ($19.99).

The Isotoner Smartouch gloves are very traditional looking fleece lined gloves. They are fairly warm, good looking, and comfortable to wear. A big plus for smartphone wearers is that each glove has three fingers and its palm covered with a grippy material that ensures you won't drop your phone. Wearers can use both their thumb and index fingers (from either hand) to operate a smartphone, and the contact area seems to be reasonably shaped, leading to mostly accurate interactions with the phone.

The Agloves are stretchy, thin gloves that have silver thread woven throughout (hence the Ag in the name). This ensures that any part of any finger or thumb (or palm or wrist...) can be used to control a smartphone. That feature is really nice, as you can use whatever part of your finger or thumb that comes naturally. It makes them very accurate with a touchscreen. The downside is that the gloves are not particularly warm, and they are very, very slippery with glossy devices. Unless you have a ruggedized phone or some other phone with a rubber-like coating, you should be very, very careful when wearing the Agloves.

The last system I looked at was the GloveTips.com glove conversion kit. The company sent me a generic pair of men's leather gloves that I could then apply the touch sensitive glove tips to. Each kit includes a number of tips that allow you to touch enable a handful (ahem) of fingers or thumbs, as well as an installation kit. That kit includes a very nasty looking needle, which you'll see in the video. Installation for me was not that easy, and the end result is that the contact area on the tips were too small. I also was unimpressed with the need to stuff some conductive thread and cloth into the gloves.

In the end, the Isotoner Smartouch gloves offered the best suite of features for me personally. They are fairly warm, won't have you dropping your precious smartphone, and are reasonably accurate to use.

A Mobile Phone

A mobile phone (also called mobile, cellular telephone, cell phone, handphone or handy[1]) is an electronic device used for two-way radio telecommunication over a cellular network of base stations known as cell sites. Mobile phones differ from cordless telephones, which only offer telephone service within limited range through a single base station attached to a fixed land line, for example within a home or an office.