Android in May 2013: JB rise continues, GB still leads

While Jelly Bean and ICS combine for almost 60% of the Android landscape, it's still Android 2.3 Gingerbread that accounts for roughly 36.4% of all Android handsets used in May.

While the gap between Jelly Bean and Gingerbread has narrowed over the last month (4.6 percent point increase and 2 percent point decrease, respectively), it's clear that Gingerbread devices will be around for quite a while. Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich has gone down by close to 2 percent point as well, likely losing some of its share to Android Jelly Bean upgrades - a trend which should continue in the coming months.

It's important to note that starting last month, Android usage calculations are based on the number of devices which manually access the Google Play store, rather than background activations through the Google servers, which arguably is a more accurate reflection of the Android landscape

Intel introduces new quad-core Atom with built-in LTE

Intel introduced the first major upgrade to its Atom line of mobile chipsets with the Bay Trail-T SoC, which features a new microarchitecture and Intel's brand new LTE modem.

The new microarchitecture is called Silvermont and is built on a 22nm process, matching Intel's new Haswell chips. It promises either a 3x performance increase or a 5x energy saving over the current Atoms, depending on what's needed.

The performance increase will come in the form of better single-threaded performance and up to 8 CPU cores, though the first chipset will be quad-core.

The Bay Trail chips will be used in tablets (both Android and Windows 8.1) including 2-in-1 tablets that will launch this holiday season at $399, but also entry level laptops and even desktops. The mobile solutions target 8+ hours of battery life on a 30Wh battery and a 10.1" screen (measured by playing a 1080p@30fps video).

Speaking of video, Intel's chips have support for 4K video decoding and promise great performance for 3D games, but there's no info on the GPU itself.

Smartphones are also in the cards with the Merrifield platform, which is also built on a 22nm process. Intel showcased a reference platform at Computex 2013 but gave no timeline for when such smartphones will hit the market.

The new XMM 7160 modem will be built into some Bay Trail chipsets for global LTE roaming at low power usage. That challenges Qualcomm's dominance in the field, though the Snapdragon maker isn’t standing still either.

Qualcomm outs WP8-loving quad- core Snapdragon 400 with LTE

Qualcomm has just announced a quad-core edition of its Snapdragon 400 chip, which comes with full LTE support. The chipmaker says the new quad-core Snapdragon 400 is fully compatible with Android and Windows Phone 8, making it the first quad-core CPU available for the Microsoft mobile OS.

This would not only bring Windows Phone 8 back in the game in terms of the number of cores in the handsets it runs on, but also give it cool connectivity features. The chief among them is 802.11ac Wi-Fi, which is currently only to be found in the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4. The rest of the connectivity features include 42Mbps HSPA+, China's TD-SCDMA, Bluetooth, FM, and NFC.

The Snapdragon 400 itself is comprised of four Cortex-A7 CPU cores each clocked at 1.2GHz. This placed the chip in the company's lower mid-range spectrum of products and is targeted at emerging markets.

Speaking of availability, expect the chip to make its debut around the end of the year. Qualcomm will also showcase a reference design tablet that'll be powered by the Snapdragon 400 to demo its computing prowess.

It's official: HTC One is coming to Verizon this summer

It's been a tough couple of months for the Verizon subscribers, who were were left out of theHTC One fun. The wait is finally over then as the largest carrier in the US has confirmed that it will be offering the HTC flagship.

Today Verizon announced HTC One is going to hit the carrier's retail network later this summer. There are no details beyond this info, but we guess the pricing and availability will be announced in the upcoming weeks.

It’s coming – the HTC One will be available on the #Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network later this summer #HTCOne @HTCUSAMon Jun 03 16:30:26 via Sysomos HeartbeatVerizon Wireless
VZWnews

It's great for both HTC and Verizon that they managed to reach an agreement, with one extending the reach of its key smartphone and the other getting another cool handset to offer its customers.