According to the NPD Group, Google now enjoys 28 percent of the smartphone market, earning the company the second-place spot behind Research in Motion (36 percent) and pushing Apple to third place (21 percent).

Google acquired reMail, a popular iPhone application that provides "lightning fast" full-text search of your Gmail and IMAP e-mail accounts. And then promptly discontinued it.

Manufactured by HTC, designed by Google, service by... anyone? The so-called Nexus One is supposed to be the Google Phone we've been hearing about. According to this, Google plans to sell it direct to consumers as an unlocked device. It's my opinion that this could be the upset to the American mobile market that is needed to give us more European like freedom to choose our handsets.

A fun little app to give your iPhone the Droid's red glowing eye and some marketing points about the Droid was rejected by Apple. Big surprise!

A humorous comic strip takes on the issue of iPhone vs Droid.

Good sales, but they are behind where they hoped the phone would go. What were they expecting? There are several models of Android phone to choose on multiple carriers. Apple had a magic funnel leading everyone who wanted in to go with 1 device, 1 carrier (to rule them all and in the darkness bind them.)

"Sprint Nextel next year will introduce a new, more open application store on its feature phones, turning to a third party to manage it with the goal of getting new offerings out to consumers in an average of one week."

"Droid was looking like quite the contender with its QWERTY keyboard, 5MP camera, replaceable battery, turn-by-turn GPS and MicroSD slot. Droid and its 854x480 3.7-inch screen promised customers a viable alternative to AT&T's swamped network and the Apple's draconian app policies. Why did it have to spoil a good thing by punishing its Microsoft Exchange users with an additional $15 fee?"

Can Blackberry gain ground in the iPhone dominated world of fun-loving teens and college students?

If Apple doesn't do something about the momentum being gained by Android, it may find itself losing the top dog spot. Forbes believes this is a direct result of iPhone/AT&T exclusivity.

A game SDK for the iPhone. Looks to have some pretty nifty social tie-ins and is supporting multiplayer gaming in a current beta. Something to look at when/if we are going to write a socially connected game.

This article talks about some issues with providing in-game deliverables as part of a microtransaction business model. It seems that the iPhone/iTunes Store model restricts them to a minimum cost of $1, which most developers would like to see reduced. Another aspect of the article I found most interesting was how the game developers have come to deal with social interaction. My first instinct is that a great way to make an app sticky would be to link in with Facebook. They're saying it actually provides more incentive to the user when there is an in-game newsfeed and social stats.