How to install Kindle on a UK TouchPad

Rating: Beating the non-US block on a webOS device

It’s just like Google’s Music beta service which the search engine company is determined to restrict to US citizens only. For some reason Amazon in its infinite wisdom has decided not to allow non-US citizens to use the Kindle app on webOS devices. This seems to be despite the fact that the iOS and Android versions of the Kindle app are global. So GoMo News had to search for a way to beat this blocker. And thanks to a posting on Amazon’s own Kindle forum here, we’ve discovered a solution. This solution will cover installing other webOS apps which for some reason aren’t available via the HP App Catalog. It assumes you’re using a Windows based PC to install apps onto a webOS device.One of the casualties of this particular exercise will probably be software you originally installed for a Nokia handset.

That’s because apps designed to work with webOS on your PC are Java based.

So in our case the Nokia Ovi suite application installer attempted to launch itself every time we tried to install a Java app. You’ll probably have to remove it to carry on.

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Gartner: Still no true iPad challengers through 2015

Media tablet sales are set to grow from 17.6 million last year to 326.3 million in 2015, and the bulk of them will continue to be Apple iPads. So says Gartner, which on Thursday put forth a four-year estimate of tablet sales by operating system. The numbers reflect that Apple has a large head start with a mature tablet, as all other competitors are still struggling to catch up. That premise doesn’t surprise, but Gartner’s projected growth of QNX-powered tablets does.

Even over the next four years, as competing tablets and their supporting ecosystems mature, Gartner projects Apple’s iPad will hold a majority share of all tablets sales over the next four years. Android will continue to chase for the No. 2 spot but still manage just over a third of market share by 2015, while QNX and Microsoft slates bring up the rear. HP is considered to be out of the game completely due to abandoning the TouchPad hardware business with a massive inventory fire-sale. I think there’s a very slim chance that situation reverses itself due to speculation of HP replacing its current CEO, Leo Apotheker.

Here’s how Gartner sees the tablet market taking shape, with all figures in thousands:

A few thoughts jump to mind. First, I don’t doubt Apple’s dominance in the tablet market throughout the next few years. If anything, I think it’s understated by the estimates. That’s not to say the iPad is the best tablet for everyone, but it currently has the broadest customer appeal and most mature ecosystem for applications and services. Apple gave itself a good 18-month lead in the market and others are still scrambling to offer a fully comparable tablet experience.

I also wonder how Amazon’s upcoming tablet plays into the estimates as we already know the device is based on Android, even if it’s heavily customized so as to hide Google’s interface. The same holds true for the popular and extensible Barnes & Noble Nook Color, which ought to see a hardware refresh in the near future. I suspect that with weak sales of traditional Android tablets, these combination e-readers / tablets will make up the bulk of Android tablet sales, but Gartner makes no comment on that aspect.

Then there’s QNX. Earlier this week, I noted that Research In Motion shipped a scant 200,000 PlayBook tablets with QNX in the most recent quarter. That figure follows an estimated 500,000 PlayBooks shipped in the quarter prior to that. The data reflects shipped PlayBooks, not actual sales, and even if they were sales, I don’t see how Gartner expects RIM to sell 3 million PlayBooks this year. Even with a software update to add native email and support for Android applications, it appears impossible that RIM will sell 2.3 million tablets or more between now and the end of 2011.

It’s too early to call out any numbers for Microsoft tablets, although a touch-friendly Metro interface and ARM processor support for Windows 8 gets Microsoft in the game. Gartner expects a reasonably quick uptake once Windows tablets arrive, but I’ll wait and see the final product before taking a stab at sales. Regardless, the iPad is still the once and future king of tablets; at least for the next few years.

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Android vs. iPad: the tablet sales figures that matter

Android tablets reportedly accounted for 30.1 percent of last quarter’s global tablet shipments, indicating that Google is finding fast success against Apple’s iPad. The key word, however, is “shipments,” which isn’t a measurement of sales. That means the 4.6 million figure, reported by research firm Strategy Analytics, includes every Android tablet in a warehouse, in transit from the manufacturer to retail outlets or sitting on store shelves waiting to be sold. On the other hand, Apple’s 9.3 million figure (61.3 percent of tablets) represents actual sales. What’s the real deal here when it comes to tablet sales by platform?

John Gruber, a high-profile blogger, caught this insightful tweet from Robert Synnott that sheds more light on actual sales:

Follow @rsynnott

@rsynnott
Robert Synnott

@gruber For stats, Google claimed 135m active Android devices at recent earnings, they show 0.9% active 3.x: developer.android.com/resources/dash…

July 21, 2011 12:21 pm via Twitter for MacReply RetweetFavorite

Google says it has activated 135 million cumulative Android devices so far. So why not look at Google’s own developer dashboard figures to see how many of those devices are running a version of Honeycomb? That won’t account for an exact sales figure, but it should provide a far more reasonable estimate; if a device is hitting the Android Market, it’s likely a “sold” device and not a dormant tablet in a shipment box.

Google’s dashboard currently shows that 0.9 percent of all Android devices that accessed the Market in the two-week period that ended on July 5 are running Android 3.0 or 3.1. That figure multiplied by 135 million devices works out as a reasonable estimate of 1.2 million Android tablets actually in use.

This estimate makes more sense to me, although there are a few issues that aren’t accounted for. Android tablets actually have been around before Honeycomb launched this year. Think of the Samsung Galaxy Tab, which I bought due to better portability, or any number of other Android 2.x slates that have been available for a year or more. Also not included are any Honeycomb tablets that didn’t access the Market in the past two weeks. It’s likely a small figure, but it’s a valid number to be sure.

Essentially, however, all of this means the iPad is outselling all Android tablets combined by nearly an eight to one ratio at the moment. That differs greatly from how people are interpreting the Strategy Analytics data, which could be construed as one Android tablet sold for every two iPads.

None of this information is meant to suggest which tablet platform is “better” or which you should buy. I’ve repeatedly said that the best tablet is the one that meets your individual needs. There’s much to like about the HP Touchpad, Android tablets, the BlackBerry PlayBook and the iPad. But let’s not kid ourselves: Love it or hate it, there’s no denying that Apple’s iPad is handily outselling competitors for the time being.

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