The iPhone climbs to No. 2 in terms of general smartphone OS market share in the U.S., while Windows Mobile drops to third. Research In Motion’s BlackBerry OS still tops the list, and in fact does so with an impressive gain in customers over the course of 2009, according to a breakdown of the report by DailyTech.

comScore compiles its results for the smartphone survey every three months, collecting data from thousands of U.S. consumers. The latest three-month period, the one which is detailed in this latest report, ended in October of this year.

RIM, as mentioned, saw pretty significant growth throughout the year. At the beginning of 2009, it had just under 10 million customers, and according to the comScore report, it now boasts 14.96 million in the U.S. RIM has been employing aggressive pricing strategies to compete with the iPhone’s success, including handset giveaways and deep discounts, and it looks like the BlackBerry maker’s efforts have paid off nicely.

Windows Mobile actually showed negative growth — it’s the only smartphone company that can make this unfortunate claim, and now has around 7.13 million users. Buyers could be shy of committing to a device that runs Windows Mobile 6.5 when version 7 is set to launch sometime early in 2010. Everyone else, including Palm’s WebOS, Google’s Android, and Symbian all experienced modest gains. Android still tails all others, but during the most recent period it broke the 1 million mark, and I’d expect to see it surge even further on the strength of the Droid in upcoming surveys.

As for the iPhone, it grew to 8.97 million users over the period ending in October. That’s a pretty impressive lead over Windows Mobile, though it means Apple still has a lot of ground to make up before it can snatch the crown from powerhouse RIM. It’s even more impressive when you consider that at the beginning of the year, the iPhone only had around 5 million users, meaning it experienced about 70 percent growth over the course of 2009, a performance that likely has a lot to do with the release of the 3GS and the significant price drop and continued sales of the 3G model.

Overall, the smartphone market continues to do well. Roughly 11.8 percent of the American population claims to now own one, according to this most recent poll.

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ChangeWave’s last survey took place in June of this year, and since then, Apple’s stock has jumped 5 percent. The last time there was a big jump in Apple sales, the iPhone 3G was introduced, and it lasted six months before the rise started to plateau, though it always showed positive growth. If that trend is any indication, the iPhone 3GS should continue to inflate sales until the new year at least, which could put Apple in a position to overtake RIM.

RIM fell one percentage point from the last survey period in June 2009, from 41 percent to 40 percent. The BlackBerry has been steadily falling since January of 2008. The smartphone maker does have the Storm 2′s release on the horizon, but competing against major, new devices like the Palm Pre and the 3GS will be tough.

Speaking of the Pre, Palm is also included in the survey, and remains behind in third place with only 7 percent market share. When ChangeWave started conducting its survey in June of 2006, Palm owned 36 percent of the market, topping RIM, its only close competitor, which had 30 percent. Worth noting is that this is the first survey in nearly two years where Palm didn’t lose some of its share.

Aside from being the only company to show positive growth between surveys, Apple is also the leader going forward in terms of planned purchases by respondents. Thirty-six percent of those surveyed who plan on making a smartphone purchase in the next three months are planning on choosing an iPhone. RIM follows with 27 percent choosing BlackBerry devices.

Apple also leads in another very important category: customer satisfaction. A whopping 74 percent of respondents say they are “Very Satisfied” with their iPhones, while only 43 percent of RIM customers say the same about their BlackBerry devices, the next closest cell phone on the survey. It’s a telling gap, and one which explains why Apple could overtake its perennial rival in the U.S. sometime in the next six months. A new product launch in June could seal the deal.

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Based on a thousand-point scale, 1,148 business users were asked to rate smartphones on five weighted criteria: ease of use (29 percent); OS (23 percent); physical design (21 percent); features (16 percent); and battery life (11 percent). The iPhone scored 803, up from 778 last year, and far above the industry average of 724 for the 2009 survey. That number, 724, was also the score of the second place finisher, RIM’s BlackBerry. The rest of the survey, Samsung, HTC, and Palm all scored below 700.

Interestingly, Apple’s efforts to sell the iPhone in the workplace with enterprise features like Exchange support may not be the driving factor in the iPhone’s increasingly popularity among business users. While nearly half of smartphone users report downloading business utility applications to increase productivity, more than half download third-party games. As the App Store utterly dominates that software genre, it can only mean good news for the iPhone in business in the future. As for the general consumer, the iPhone scored even better in the survey.

Some 3,221 smartphone owners rated their devices as follows: ease of use (30 percent); OS (22 percent); features (21 percent); physical design (18 percent); and battery life (9 percent). Apple scored 811, above average in every area except battery life. No other competitor managed to score above 800, with second-place LG being the only other manufacturer to score above the industry average. Third place went to the RIM BlackBerry, but more interesting was the lackluster performance of Palm.

It appears the Pre and webOS have yet to impact positively for Palm in the survey. Further, 22 percent of smartphone owners want Wi-Fi in their next handset, something the forthcoming Palm Pixi curiously lacks. Consumers are also looking for a touch-screen interface, 21 percent, and GPS, 17 percent. The iPhone has all those features, but those features all require something the iPhone needs more of: battery life, battery life, battery life. Let’s hope Apple is paying attention to that part of this survey, too.

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That appears to be the sole purpose of the incremental update, too, besides a few standard maintenance and bug fixes. Maybe Palm is hoping this is the time Apple will just roll over and acquiesce to having another manufacturer’s device take advantage of its proprietary software. Not likely.

So who’s the villain here? Is it Apple for being the big bully and not letting Palm play along with its iPod and iPhone devices? Or is it Palm, which isn’t satisfied with its own solution and has to go leeching off the better software design of its rival, despite the repeated objections of both that company and organizations governing its devices’ use?

Here’s an excerpt from the USB-IF’s letter (via Softpedia) back to Palm in response to the smartphone maker’s complaint against Apple:

Your letter also states that:
“Palm will shortly issue an update of its WebOS operating system that uses Apple’s Vendor ID number for the sole purpose of restoring the Palm media sync functionality.”
I attach for your information the USB-IF’s adopted and published policy regarding Vendor Identification Numbers (VIDs). Under the Policy, Palm may only use the single Vendor ID issued to Palm for Palm’s usage. Usage of any other company’s Vendor ID is specifically precluded. Palm’s expressed intent to use Apple’s VID appears to violate the attached policy.
Please clarify Palm’s intent and respond to this potential violation within seven days.

So, according to the Forum at least, Palm is in the wrong here. And why wouldn’t it be? We can lament all we want the fact that iTunes doesn’t provide an API to hardware manufacturers so that we could use our Sansa, Zune, BlackBerry, and whatever other devices with it, but the fact remains that it doesn’t, and because of that no company really has the right to commandeer the use of the software for its own purposes. What if the DSi started doing that with Sony’s Media Go PC software for the PSP? Obviously, it wouldn’t fly.

And it’s not like iTunes media is inaccessible for devices other than iPods and iPhones. BlackBerry’s recently released Desktop Manager for Mac allows for syncing with iTunes playlists. It does so by reading the iTunes library .XML file, which is readily available to all programs, and it handles the actual syncing process on its own. It’s something Palm could easily mimic.

I was rooting for the little guy, but as this drags on, I’m beginning more and more to take Apple’s side. Palm is looking increasingly like it’s unwilling to try to stand on its own. No doubt the update war will continue, but to what end? Apple will eventually win, and Palm’s time would be better spent trying to design an equally elegant solution of its own.

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Steve Jobs, Jon Rubinstein, Ed Colligan

According to Bloomberg, former Palm CEO Ed Colligan rejected an offer by Steve Jobs to refrain from hiring each other’s employees.

Similar allegations have been made regarding Apple and Google recently, though in that instance the policy was supposedly an informal and undocumented one, but with Palm there are “communications” involved.

“We must do whatever we can to stop this,” said Steve Jobs on the issue of “poaching” employees, the practice of hiring away highly-capable individuals from one company to another. In the most notable example of employees sharing between the two companies, Jon Rubinstein, SVP of Apple’s iPod division until 2006, later became Executive Chairman of the Board at Palm, and was a driving force behind the company-saving Pre initiative. This seems to have not sat well with Steve Jobs, hence his “communication” with Ed Colligan in 2007 about Rubinstein attempting to recruit more Apple employees. Colligan’s reported reply was short, but succinct.

“Your proposal that we agree that neither company will hire the other’s employees, regardless of the individual’s desires, is not only wrong, it is likely illegal.”

It certainly would be a violation of anti-trust law, if it happened. Considering this incident occurred two years ago, it’s remarkable that the Department of Justice hasn’t been interested, which Palm claims it isn’t. Of course, it’s possible Colligan didn’t release details of a “likely illegal” offer until recently, but that seems odd, too. Also odd is the fact that no one knows what exactly Jobs wanted Colligan to do.

According to Bloomberg, the “exact details of what Jobs proposed to Colligan aren’t known; Jobs didn’t mention a proposal in the communications reviewed by Bloomberg.” So, to sum up, there is nothing written down, the “communication” was verbal, two years old, and originates from a company with an increasingly bitter relationship with Apple.

Don’t expect to see Steve Jobs doing doing a perp walk anytime soon over this one.

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Once again, it’s that special time of the week when we all join hands, take a deep breath and exhale as we take a spiritual journey through the latest app picks for iPhone.

Before we reach app Zen, however, it’s time for a refreshing run through of the week’s iPhone news and Apple happenings.

Credit cards at the ready, the week opened with the resurgence of the Apple tablet rumor. Fueled by word from component suppliers in China, the rumor is that we could see an Apple tablet retailing by October this year.

One year on from the App Store’s launch and Apple is feeling particularly pleased with its paradigm shifting achievement. So pleased, in fact, that it dropped a big number in celebration: 1.5 billion App Store downloads in the first year. Impressive indeed. I wonder if Nokia, Palm or RIM will ever catch up?

Our own Clayton Lai returned this week with “Jailbreak,” an ongoing series that’s all about getting the most out of your jailbroken iPhone. His latest offering explains how to spruce up your iPhone’s lock screen with calendars, Twitter feeds and more.

Still on the subject of jailbreaking, over on the iPhone 3GS there’s a new unlock in town: purplesn0w. It improves on the Dev Team’s ultrasn0w, providing a much more stable unlock, while improving battery life and Wi-Fi connectivity.

It seems that most users won’t notice any difference with the latest iTunes update, however Palm Pre owners are in for a surprise sandwich filled with the meat of disappointment: Apple has blocked Palm Pre syncing in iTunes. Pre owners, I adore your device, but it was bound to happen, it has happened, get over it.

And finally, Google has brought local web search to the iPhone. The service makes use of the iPhone’s 3.0 software update, which now includes HTML 5 Geolocation API support in Safari. This basically means that web sites can determine your location and provide you with relevant and useful data. By which I mean adverts, lots of adverts.

Moving on to the picks, this week I’ve been looking at Worms, Spell Number, Zombies & Me and Tap Star.

Worms ($4.99)
This brings me back to the old days — all the cool kids got their console fix with the SNES or Genesis, but I had an Amiga 500. For a time, I had very little interest in chubby Italian plumbers or a blue hedgehog with an attitude problem. It was all about British dev studios churning out classic games: Sensible Software’s Cannon Fodder, Ocean’s Robocop and, of course, Team 17 with Worms. Featuring a brigade of cheeky, well-armed worms, the game is a turn-based strategy, incorporating a bevy of weird weaponry, perfect for extended multiplayer gaming sessions. For the retro fanboys with a penchant for the Amiga, this is a definite download, but it’s also worth checking out for newbies looking for an explosive (and amusing) strategy fix.

Spell Number (Free)
So you’ve updated your iPhone to OS 3.0, or you’ve taken it one step further and bagged yourself an iPhone 3GS. Either way, there are a few tweaks and improvements that may make your Apple device even more wonderful. One such tweak, provided by Spell Number, activates Emoji — colorful and scrumptious emoticons, available exclusively to iPhone users over in Japan. Simply download Spell Number, enter the number 91929394.59, then press the Home button, go to Settings → General → Keyboard → Japan and activate Emoji. Unlike various other Emoji-activating apps for iPhone, this one is absolutely free and, notably, works for OS 3 and the 3GS. This is a definite download, especially for folks who would like to spice up their SMS and email messages with some Emoji goodness.

Zombies & Me (99 cents)
The slow-moving dinosaur of the game industry, EA, recently founded its own micro-game production studio to start churning out potential iPhone hits at a fast rate — one a month — while experimenting with new gameplay styles. Zombies & Me is the first release as part of this initiative and, surprisingly, it looks gorgeous, sounds scrummy and plays well, too. The premise is simple, Granny’s house is about to be raided by hungry zombies and it’s your job to dash around the garden, leading the undead in to various bombs, while trying not to have your brains sucked out. Serious kudos to EA for stepping away from the big brand franchise factory methodology and investing in something a little more experimental.

Tap Star ($4.99)
Finally a viable competitor to Tap Tap Revenge hits the App Store. Created by Epic Tilt and with serious support from Sony Entertainment Music — clearly wanting to get in on the App Store game to leverage some of its content — comes Tap Star, a new rhythm action game. While Tap Star lacks the character and flair of Tap Tap Revenge, it makes up for this failing by bundling tons of tunes from Sony’s catalogue, including tracks from Elvis, Cyndi Lauper, Pink and Britney. I’ll be sticking with Tap Tap Revenge, it’s just so much richer, but fans of Sony’s catalogue in particular may want to check out Tap Star.

That’s all the picks for this week. I’ll be back in seven days with more news from the week and picks from the App Store.

In the meantime, what apps have you been using this week?

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It appeared to be just another innocuous third-decimal-point minor update, but today’s release of iTunes 8.2.1 carried more than the usual “bug fixes and stability improvements.” (Those are still there, too.) For owners of the recently introduced Palm Pre unfortunate enough to have already downloaded and installed the update, it also ends the iTunes playlist syncing party. It was inevitable, since Apple clearly regards iTunes syncing as the exclusive, sacred territory of its own devices, but it probably still has a few Pre owners trying to turn back the clock.

TUAW’s Christina Warren first suggested that Pre syncing was blocked with this update, having spotted a crucial passage in the release notes stating, “Tunes 8.2.1 provides a number of important bug fixes and addresses an issue with verification of Apple devices.” While Warren didn’t have access to a Pre to test her theory herself, many Pre-specific sites and bloggers quickly confirmed that it was indeed the case that the device is no longer recognized. So far, the reports I’ve seen are specific to Macs, but I doubt the Windows version of iTunes would retain Pre syncing.

Interestingly, when Pre owners plugged their devices in, they found that iTunes came to the front, just as it does when you plug in an iPod or iPhone, but no device showed up in the source menu. This suggests that the program is still aware that the device exists, but that Apple has introduced some kind of blocking software to stop the process there. It also suggests that it might be possible for Palm or independent devs to create a workaround to get syncing functioning again.

In the meantime, if no fix ever does surface, Pre owners can always use doubleTwist or The Missing Sync for Pre to get around Apple’s blockade.

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Apple’s recent tech note regarding third parties using iTunes’ syncing has caused plenty of discussion. Should Apple “break” the Pre’s ability to sync as an iPod? Why would Cupertino do this? The comments across the web vary in their opinions, so I’ll throw mine in here as well.

First, it’s no secret what I think of Palm’s decision to hack its way into iTunes as an iPod. I also believe Apple should put a stop to it. But in a broader view, this isn’t just about Palm or the Pre.

Let’s look at the three most common positions in this debate.

Apple hates competition

There are those who think Apple “breaking” the Pre’s ability to sync is because Apple doesn’t want competition. This is the view I have the least patience with, and disagree with the most.

I have no idea how these people define “competition,” but I fail to see how any reasonable definition could possibly include not writing your own software, and instead hacking into someone else’s. The whole competition angle is a red herring, in my opinion. It has nothing to do with that.

Grin and bear it

There are those who think Apple doesn’t have to like it, but shouldn’t waste the time or resources to put a stop to it.

Fair enough, I suppose, and if a large effort were required, there may be some value in this. But the details I’ve read seem to indicate the time needed would be pretty small. Seems to me it could be easily rolled into the next iTunes update and, with a new OS and iPhone model coming out now, the next bug fix release is likely to be pretty soon.

Close the hole that’s being hacked

And there are those, like me, who think Apple should close the “loophole” that allows Palm to do this in the first place. I touched on why I think this before, but here’s a summary:

• While third-party players can use iTunes (as a mass storage device), and many of them do, the “sync” capability is a differentiating feature Apple wrote and provides to iPods only. Common sense would suggest it’s Apple’s to allow (or not) for other devices. Palm’s feigned surprise is disingenuous at best. Obviously Palm know it’s a great feature or it wouldn’t have hacked the software in the first place.
• The idea that someone can trick iTunes into being an iPod never came up before. One could argue it’s a hole in iTunes that needs to be closed.
• Apple will get calls for support if this is not stopped and there are issues with Pre syncing. I would argue that the release note was more a preventative measure (though futile) against that than it was any specific warning to Palm, because no such warning should be required when a third party hacks your software — it ought be understood.

But there is another reason, one even more important than the others. Until now, no one exploited the hole because they didn’t know about it. Palm had the advantage of lots of ex-Apple talent, so it knew just what to do. Good for Palm, but now that it’s shown the smartphone world how to pull this off, what’s to stop others from doing it as well?

In other words, forget the Pre, or even Palm. There’s an exposure for iTunes here that could have BlackBerrys, LGs, Nokias, etc. all passing themselves off as iPods. Again, the obvious question to me is that, having learned there’s this hole in iTunes, Apple should take steps to close it. An iPod can be an iPod, and the rest can be, well, the rest. If they want seamless syncing, they can write their own software to do it.

I have no idea what Apple will do here. I’ve already stated I think the tech note is less a warning and more a preemptive “CYA,” but a company that prides itself on customer service will not want to continually refer Pre owners to a tech note. To me, that’s a short-term thing. Ultimately Apple needs to close that iTunes hole.

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The Palm Pre is here, and while it hasn’t exactly felled the Goliath of Apple’s iPhone, it does have some features that are making iPhone users jealous. One is greater built-in social networking connectivity, including Facebook integration. The implementation of Facebook in Palm’s WebOS basically allows your Pre phone to store Facebook friend info in your address book, and then message those people directly from the phone.

Zynga wants Apple to make a similar move towards greater Facebook connectivity with the iPhone, but the game company has different motives, and very different integration goals as a result. Specifically, Zuora is looking for Apple to implement a platform-wide solution for a feature that it currently builds into each of its individual apps: Facebook Connect access.

Facebook Connect, for those who don’t know, allows users to enter their Facebook credentials to log into an app (web or otherwise) for a variety of purposes, including commenting on forums, and game score tracking and cross-platform integration. So, in Zynga’s case, for instance, it allows your Word Scramble scores on your iPhone and your Scramble scores on Facebook to be tracked across both.

Zynga clearly has a good reason, then, to want Apple to bake Facebook Connect right into the iPhone platform, since its users would then be saved the extra step of having to sign in every time they download and play a new Zynga game. It probably wouldn’t take much effort on Apple’s part to include the service, especially compared to the work required by game makers like Zynga to include it each and every time they produce a game. Including a Facebook Connect API would be much more efficient from a developer’s perspective.

While it makes lots of sense for companies in the social casual gaming sense like Zynga to push FB Connect integration, does it make sense from Apple’s perspective? If the benefits of inclusion only appeal to the relatively narrow audience of regular Zynga players who use both Facebook and iPhones, I doubt Apple will go out of its way to come up with a platform-wide solution on its side of things.

But the potential of Facebook Connect, or Google Friend Connect for that matter, could appeal to a much broader audience than just social game devs. Because FB Connect leverages the power of your social networking sites in the context of virtually any web-connected application, the possibilities that present themselves when you combine this tech with a device as prolific and app-oriented as the iPhone are endless. In theory, you could then have one cohesive identity for all web, phone, and app usage, all from your smartphone, where it makes sense, as opposed to on a computer, where that kind of access would present much more of a security concern.

Apple has to go somewhere from iPhone OS 3.0, and unlike the release of 2.0, user complaints and requests aren’t so deafening as to point the way (read the last paragraph, especially) for future feature inclusions. Facebook Connect integration is fertile ground, especially if one of Apple’s goals is to continue appealing to developers in new and interesting ways. Plus, Palm dropped the gauntlet on greater social network connectivity. Time to pick it up.

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Harry McCracken at Technologizer wrote a nice piece about the virtues of hardware keyboards on smartphones.

I think one reason a keyboard argument even exists is because when competing in a given market, you have to tag a competitor’s hot product with a “missing feature,” and then provide that feature. (How many manufacturers claimed FM radio and replaceable batteries were glaring omissions from the iPod, only to find adding it to their devices made no difference?) I think the Palm Pre — mentioned in the article — has a hardware keyboard partially to trumpet having something the iPhone lacks (and partially because it’s easier to implement than a software one).

McCracken lists four benefits he believes a hardware keyboard provides:

1) Familiarity and lack of learning curve. The iPhone’s on-screen keys and autocorrection can be utterly befuddling when you first encounter them…

True enough, but this is the result of two things, only one of which is tied to the software keyboard. The flat, smooth keys are definitely unlike any keyboard most people have typed on, and take getting used to. However, autocorrection is a function that exists in hardware keyboards as well. Even keypad devices used T9 (or similar) to help “guess” your words. If Apple introduced a hardware keyboard tomorrow, an autocorrection learning curve would still exist.

2) Tactile feedback.

McCracken discusses this at length, and I do not dispute it. I’m very proficient on the iPhone’s keyboard, but even after two years I can’t say I’m totally used to not getting that feedback. I would love to see this solved, but I think the RIM Storm’s simplistic (clumsy?) attempt at adding it is a failure. I’m not sure how this can be properly solved on a software keyboard, but I would welcome it.

3) Two-handed typing.

Here McCracken is referring to thumb-typing. He can thumb-type on any hardware keyboard, but not on the iPhone. I use my index finger on smartphones, so to be honest I can’t say this “benefit” of a hardware keyboard had occurred to me. I know that requests for a landscape keyboard on the iPhone were primarily by those who want to thumbtype. They’ll get their wish in iPhone 3.0. Will that do it?

4) No resolution penalty.

This one struck me the most because I see an alternate view as a disadvantage to hardware keyboards.

What McCracken refers to is the fact that when a software keyboard is present, it takes up a large chunk of the screen. There’s no denying this, and no question it’s a drawback of a software keyboard. Though I think the statement “[T]yping e-mails that are more than a couple of sentences long presents a challenge” is overstating it. I’ve written many emails, notes, and even blog entries a lot longer than a couple of sentences. Still, his point is well taken.

Now I’d like to provide a list of what I think are software keyboard benefits:

1. No device size penalty

This is the alternate view of #4 above. With a software keyboard, the screen gets smaller, but with a hardware keyboard the entire device gets bigger. It’s fine to say a device feels great in the hand, but then you flop out the keyboard and it becomes a bit clumsy. The balance is off. It sits in your hand differently. I think people thumb-type with these because once it’s opened you almost have to handle it with two hands. It’s not at all uncommon for me to type on the iPhone with one hand. I like the fact that the device doesn’t change physical dimensions on me.

2. Portrait and landscape

A software keyboard can change to suit the user or application. A great example of this is orientation. A hardware keyboard sits one way, and that’s it. The Pre’s, for example, is portrait. That may be my preference, but if you’re a landscape junkie, too bad.

3. Appears automatically

I don’t have to grab the thing and flip it out, or up, or over when I need it. The device knows when I need it and presents it to me. Again, this makes one-handed typing for short things a lot easier. I also don’t have to put the thing away when I’m done.

4. Can be changed with software updates

Adding new layouts for other countries is a relatively simple matter. In addition, modifying the properties is possible (for example, the systemwide availability of landscape mode for OS 3.0 mentioned above).

5. Allows specialty keys

For example, in Safari there’s a special key that enters “.com”. But it doesn’t stop there; if you press and hold that key a menu pops with other common URL endings (e.g., .net, .edu). Nice. Also, when typing regular text, press and hold the vowels to see a popup of accented characters.

I could also list no keys popping off, or getting mushy, or any other of the mechanical things that can go wrong with a hardware keyboard. I believe the inherent advantages and flexible nature of a software keyboard will eventually win out over the rigid inflexibility of the hardware variety, though I don’t claim this will happen anytime soon. Well, unless they get that tactile feedback thing solved; then I think hardware keyboards are toast.

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