Google's Nexus 7 is inching its way into Web-traffic stats

The Nexus 7, center, is starting to register as a source of web traffic -- but Android tablets still trail the iPad. 

In the first three months since it was introduced, Google's Nexus 7 tablet has begun making a dent in web traffic, according to new data.
Compared to the iPad, which accounted for 91 percent of all tablet traffic in the latest Chitika tablet market share report, the Nexus 7 is just a blip. But Google has to start somewhere, and so it may be heartened to see that the tablet's share of traffic jumped 135 percent from July.

Of course, it was basically starting from zero, and still represents only 0.33 percent of Web traffic. The heaviest hitter among Android tablets -- which, again, is not all that heavy -- is Samsung, whose Galaxy Tab pulls in about 2.5 percent of tablet web traffic. Chitika reports that combined traffic from Samsung's 7- and 10-inch tablets is double that of any other Android tablet.

Still, it's remarkable the degree to which the iPad accounts for tablet web traffic. "In order to make the graph readable, we had to measure other tablets on a 'per 100 iPad impressions' scale," a spokesman told us. Two and a half years after the iPad's debut, Web surfing on Android tablets still barely registers.

Now Samsung Is Suing Apple Over the iPhone 5

The patent brawl between Samsung and Apple marches on. Samsung on Tuesday filed amendment documents requesting to add the iPhone 5 to its existing suit against the Cupertino company.
Samsung accuses Apple’s latest smartphone of infringing eight of its patents, the same ones it claims Apple’s new iPad, iPad 2, iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, and iPod touch also infringe. In its filing, Samsung states, “The iPhone 5 has the same accused functionality as the previously accused versions of the iPhone, so the proof of infringement of the patents-in-suit by the iPhone 5 is the same as for other Apple devices already accused of infringement in this litigation.”
To justify adding the iPhone 5 to the previous filing, Samsung states in its amendment that it “could not have known whether the rumored iPhone 5 would practice its patented technologies when it filed its infringement contentions on June 15. The product was not on the market at that time and could not have been included in the contentions.”
Nonetheless, Samsung had already threatened to sue Apple over the iPhone 5 this month. And earlier reports indicated that Samsung had planned to add the iPhone 5 to its list of infringing Apple devices once it confirmed that the smartphone had 4G LTE capability.
The news comes just over month after a U.S. jury found Samsung guilty of violating many of Apple’s design patents. The jury decided Samsung owed Apple close to $1.05 billion in damages.

Google withdraws patent complaint against Apple

Google subsidiary Motorola Mobility has dropped a complaint of patent infringement against Apple without explanation.
In a brief filing with the International Trade Commission made on Monday, Motorola Mobility said it was dropping without prejudice a complaint that Apple had infringed on seven Motorola patents.
Reuters had reported in August that the two companies were in settlement talks. Telephone calls to Google on the matter were not immediately returned. Apple did not return telephone calls seeking comment.
The complaint can be re-submitted. Google did say in its filing that "there are no agreements between Motorola and Apple, written or oral, express or implied, concerning the subject matter of this investigation."
The two companies have been locked in an international patent war since 2010, as Apple has sought to limit the growth of Google's Android system. The fight has embroiled Samsung, HTCand others that use Android.
The biggest victory in the fight so far belongs to Apple. On August 24, a jury in a California federal court ordered Samsung to pay $1.05 billion in damages after finding that Samsung had copied critical features of the iPhone and iPad and could face an outright sales ban on key products.
Samsung was the top-selling mobile-phone maker in the second quarter of 2012, with Apple in third place, according to data from Gartner Inc.

Google Wants To Make Your Site Faster With Its New Tag Manager

One counterpoint to all of Google’s spring cleaning: it’s also moving ahead with launching new features. Tag Manager, out today, is aimed at help websites speed up their load times and make modifying them a little more efficient to boot, with the introduction of all-in-one coding that links up with analytics and other advertising and marketing services.
The challenge that Google is trying to fix is this: there are a lot of analytics, marketing and advertising services that websites can use today to monitor how their content is used, and to better monetize that content. But with each service comes a bit of code that needs to be incorporated into the site. Each piece of code means speaking with different third-party services, and that can slow a site down to no end. (Just look at the bottom of your screen on a slow-loading site and you can often see the passage of these different services.)
On top of that, incorporating new code for each analytics, marketing or advertising service can take up to two weeks to do.
Tag Manager aims to solve that by creating single tags that link up with all of these services in one go, meaning quicker loading times, and quicker coding turnarounds. Google has preset some services for users — predictably, those of its own AdWords, DoubleClick and Google Analytics — but it also lets users add in their own selection. Google also has started a vendor program, from today, that also gives companies the chance to create their own templates.
Features in Google Tag Manager from today point to Google aiming this not just at single developers but much larger organizations, too. They include asynchronous tag loading for faster load times, “tags can fire faster without getting in each other’s way, and without slowing down the user-visible part of the page,” Laura Holmes, Product Manager, writes in a blog post; tag templates (which really are easy to use; I’ve tried it), aimed at marketers to add tags; preview mode to test out the tags; a debug console and a version history to track your changes and revert if necessary; user permissions and multi-account functionality “to make it easy for large teams and agencies and clients to work together with appropriate levels of access.” More features are coming online soon, Holmes writes.
The service is launching globally today in English, with local-language versions coming down the line soon.
Third-parties that offer a way for sites to manage and consolidate their tagging are not new. There have been companies around since about 2007 offering such services. In fact one of the earlier movers in this space, QuBit, was founded by ex-Googlers and now has some 1,200 enterprises using its own Open Tag service. Graham Cooke, the MD of QuBit, supports the idea of Google moving into this space. “When Google Analytics emerged as a free product, it didn’t kill that space. It made it,” he explains, and he believes that with tagging services still in a relatively nascent phase, the same could happen here. “This is a revolutionary way of viewing one’s data platform, because the more you can measure, the more value you can give to your customers,” he adds.
While Google offers its Tag Manager for free, those like QuBit who offer it as a paid service will include features like SLAs and other managed service elements.

Windows Phone challenging RIM for third place in Europe

Android and iOS still dominate the smartphone markets, sharing 93% of sales in the U.S. and 83% in Europe.

Apple's iOS, Google's Android Jelly Bean and Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 are vying to be the top smartphone operating systems.

Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system is gaining on Research in Motion, a new study says, but it still has a long way to go before catching Android and iOS.
Windows Phone is vying with RIM for third place in Europe as low-end devices -- like the Nokia 610 -- drive sales in key markets such as Italy and France, according to a global smartphone sales report from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.
But iOS and Android still make up the vast majority of sales in the region, sharing about 83% of the share in the big five European markets of Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, the report said. Their percentage is even higher in the U.S. at about 93%.
Google's Android operating system and Apple's iOS software have grabbed the lion's share of the smartphone market, but other players are vying to gain a piece as the smartphone market continues soaring. Microsoft has been pushing its Windows Phone operating system, but it hasn't gained much traction with users. However, that could change with the introduction of its revamped operating system later this month.
Dominic Sunnebo, Kantar global consumer insight director, said it's "highly likely" that Windows Phone will overtake RIM for the No. 3 spot in Europe before the end of the year due to "the momentum Windows 8 will bring towards the end of 2012."
In the third quarter, Windows Phone had 5% market share in the five big European markets. A year ago, its share was 3.8%. RIM, by comparison, saw its market share drop to 6.4% from 12% in the year-earlier period.
In the U.S., Windows Phone was 2.7% of the market, while RIM was 1.7%.
Android, meanwhile, saw the biggest jump in Europe in the period, with its hold on the region soaring 20% to 69%. iOS slid 4.3%. In the U.S., Android retained the top position with 60% of sales, with iOS following at 34%. However, Android's percentage was down 3.3% from the previous year while iOS climbed 9%.