HTC Holiday phone packs a 4.5-inch display

Although not officially confirmed by HTC, it seems the next big thing from the company will be a smartphone called the Holiday.

Hopefully planned for release around the October-December period, the Holiday gives users a full 4.5 inches with which to check out all the latest and greatest Android 2.3-compatible apps.

Images of the device were apparently leaked to Engadget, one of which shows a "myAT&T" app in the menu, leading one to believe this device will be exclusive to AT&T upon launch.

Other technical specs reportedly include a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, 1 GB of RAM, and both a rear-facing (8-megapixel) and front-facing (1.3-megapixel) camera.

Although HTC is one of the biggest names in Android right now, it does not have a large and storied history with AT&T. Its landmark G1 phone - the first Android phone in the world - came out on T-Mobile and more recently it has been instrumental to Sprint's advancement of 4G technology with its 'Evo' brand.

Yet somehow, even though everyone knows AT&T's reception and customer service fall at the bottom of the charts, it manages to nab some of the coolest phones.

The Holiday doesn't appear to be super special, but with Android 2.3, two cameras, and such a large display, we can certainly imagine it being a heralded device for the Christmas marketing bonanza. Stay tuned for the official announcement from HTC in the coming months

Google Acquires Motorola Mobility to 'Supercharge' Android

Image via CrunchBase

August is normally a slow news month, but not today. Google announced Monday that it will acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion in order to "supercharge" its Android mobile operating system and build up its patent portfolio.

In a blog post championing the acquisition, Google chief Larry Page insisted the acquisition will not change Google's commitment to keeping Android open. "We will run Motorola as a separate business," he wrote. "Many hardware partners have contributed to Android’s success and we look forward to continuing to work with all of them to deliver outstanding user experiences."

Andy Rubin, senior vice president of mobile at Google, echoed those sentiments. "We expect that this combination will enable us to break new ground for the Android ecosystem. However, our vision for Android is unchanged and Google remains firmly committed to Android as an open platform and a vibrant open source community," Rubin said in a statement. "We will continue to work with all of our valued Android partners to develop and distribute innovative Android-powered devices."

Perhaps more important to Google's bottom line will be the acquisition of Motorola Mobility's patent portfolio. "Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies," Page wrote.

Earlier this month, Google accused Apple, Microsoft, and other tech giants of trying to "strangle" Android with its coordinated patent purchases and pledged to "intensely" defend its mobile OS through patent purchases of its own and opposition to what it considers anti-competitive patent bids.

Last month, a consortium of tech rivals purchased 6,000 wireless technology patents held by Nortel, which Google had said it wanted to buy. Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, Research in Motion, and Sony joined forces to purchase the patents, which cover wireless, wireless  4G, data networking, optical, voice, Internet, service provider,  semiconductors, and other patent portfolios. Microsoft and Apple also teamed up to purchase patents from Novell, along with Oracle and EMC.

Page said Motorola's 2008 decision to "bet big" and make Android the sole operating system across all of its smartphone devices "is one of many reasons that there is a natural fit between our two companies."

"We believe that their mobile business is on an upward trajectory and poised for explosive growth," Page wrote. "The combination of Google and Motorola will not only supercharge Android, but will also enhance competition and offer consumers accelerating innovation, greater choice, and wonderful user experiences."

"We have shared a productive partnership with Google to advance the Android platform, and now through this combination we will be able to do even more to innovate and deliver outstanding mobility solutions across our mobile devices and home businesses," said Sanjay Jha, CEO of Motorola Mobility.

Google said it hopes to close the deal by the end of 2011 or early 2012, pending regulatory approval.

Stay tuned for more details.

Google Android Now on 135 Million Devices

Google's Larry Page had a quite successful first quarter.

Among the highlights was certainly Android, which is now said to be present on more than 135 million active devices. According to Google, 550,000 Androids are now activated every day and there have been more than 6 billion App downloads.

Google is categorizing Android as a "high consumer success" product, next to Chrome and YouTube. Page noted that Google is heavily investing in those segments to ensure their "long-term success." Android appears to be especially growing like a weed as the activation count was at just 500,000 per day a month ago and the total device count was at just 100 million two months ago. Google noted that more than 250,000 apps are now available for Android.
Page also briefly commented on the patent situation of Android and told investors that Google is building its defense against lawsuits. "Obviously we have a number of intellectual property patents in progress not just already issued." However, he deflected the question by an analyst, by simply adding more numbers explaining the success of Android: 400 different devices, 39 OEMs, 231 carriers in 123 countries: "And that velocity is only increasing. Despite the efforts of some of our competitors, there hasn't been any slowdown in any of those things," Page said.
Of course, that may make Android an even more attractive patent suit target. According to Spencer Wang, an analyst with Credit Suisse, Google holds only about 650 patents in total, which less than the number of patents IBM gets approved every 2 months.