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It’s quarterly earnings season in the technology world, also known as the most breathlessly exciting time in a tech blogger’s existence. Amid reports of an $80 million loss that the company attributes to expenses for the upcoming Google acquisition, Motorola noted that they sold just 200,000 XOOM tablets in the fourth quarter of 2011. Combined with the first three quarters and (low) early sales of the DROID XYBOARD tablets on Verizon, that makes for a rough figure of about 1 million tablets shipped.

Let’s put a little perspective on that: sorry to go to the competition, but Apple sold 15 million iPads – and that’s just from October through December of 2011. Estimates put the Amazon Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet at between 1 and 3 million units each, and they only went on sale in November. All Android tablets combined were about 10.5 million in the fourth quarter, with perhaps 20-25 million selling over all of 2011. (My own estimate here.) That puts Motorola, the third-largest Android OEM and the seller of the original Honeycomb developer hardware, at about 4-6% of total Android sales.

There’s no two ways about it: that’s a pretty pathetic figure, especially for the company that’s expected to become Google’s unnoficial manufacturing arm in 2012. Motorola didn’t havy any new tablet hardware to show at CES earlier this month, and the WiFi versions of the XYBOARD (the XOOM 2 in Europe) are getting a lujewarm reception, thanks to decent but not spectacular specs combined with a high price tag. We haven’t heard of any new hardware coming in the next few months, either, while Lenovo, Acer, Samsung, Asus and just about everybody else are gearing up for big spring or summer releases.

Hello, Moto. Wake up and smell the roses. Consumers don’t want warmed-over hardware, and they sure don’t want to spend iPad-level money on it. Take a cue from the Asus MeMO 370T, the breakout tablet from CES: combine big specs with low price, and you’ll get people’s attention.

Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (or MMORPGs, to the cool kids) are some of the most popular interactive titles on the planet. And the king of the hill in that contested arena is Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, with millions of active players ponying up for access to the virtual fantasy world every month. There’s no real comparison on the mobile platform at the moment, but developer Veraxon Entertainment aims to change that. Their project World of Midgard aims to bring a “familiar” experience to Android phones and tablets, and it’s in a closed beta right now.

Students of mythology will recognize Midgard as the rough term for “Earth” in Norse lore, and World of Midgard uses the Viking pantheon to populate its levels and dungeons. There’s a surprising amount of story going on even this early in development – the 30-page lorebook is already available on the Kindle. Orcs, dwarves, elves and other playable races make various allusions to WoW, as do their classes and skills. At the moment the game is in a combat-only mode, with no crafting and very little loot. Kill monsters, get experience – that’s how it goes in the MMORPG world.

You’ll need to be approved for early access to the closed beta, but that doesn’t seem to be all that difficult. Support is fleeting for now – it’s entirely possible that your phone/tablet/ROM won’t be compatible with the online game at all, and there’s not a lot that can be done about it. iOS versions are also released, with cross-compatibility. The game has been in active development for most of last year, and Veraxon hopes to release a final version of World of Midgard… eventually. The third version of the beta was released yesterday to testers.

[via DroidGamers]

Rumors continue  to run wild about the Galaxy S III. The phone is inevitable – Samsung’s made no bones about the update in a general sense – but a few tight leaks and speculation is almost all we have for hard information so far. The latest trickle of information is a listing spotted on Samsung’s Global Download Center: an entry for the product model number “GT-I9300″ is seen chilling next to the other models in the support site. For refference, the GT-I9000 is the oriignal Galaxy S, while the Galaxy S II covers the 9100-9200 families.

Also spotted was the Gt-I9800, which we’re honestly kind of baffled about. The second device was seen in a filing for WiFi certification. There’s no context and no info available on this phone, if that’s what it is. The screenshot could be something as simple as a typo, for all we know – we’ve also seen the GSIII labelled as the GT-I9500. We could fill your head with dreams of a special ultra-powered Galaxy S II with a 4K screen, 5Ghz processor, 10GB of RAM and infinite holographic storage. But that would be incredibly irresponsible of us. Wouldn’t it. The truth is there’s just nothing to say about the GT-9800 – except that it’s probably got WiFi.

The Galaxy S III was expected to be unveiled at Mobile World Congress in February (where the Galaxy S II debuted last year), but lately rumors indicate that Samsung will wait until later in 2012 to do so. The reasoning could be twofold: one, to wait for US carriers to get a chance to catch up and release the phone closer to its international debut, and two, to have a more recent competitor when Apple releases its iPhone 5. Or possibly the iPhone 4S Pro. They’re not big on actually improving hardware in Cupertino. In any case, we’ll be on hand at MWC to catch any and all announcements that are actually made.

[via SamMobile]

We’ve seen ZTE next-generation 7-inch tablet before, but only as a rounded rectangle courtesy of the FCC. Now Unwired View spotted the ZTE V66 running through the certification gauntlet at Bluetooth SIG. There isn’t much more to report on the Verizon-bound device, except that it’s certainly got Bluetooth. But the spcial interest group was kind enough to throw up a thumbnail of the tablet’s front press shot, which you can see blown up below. While no dates are mentioned, the presence of a finished photo indicates that the tablet is ready for release soon – though not necessarily on Verizon.

The previous leak indicated that the ZTE V66 (likely a codename that will get changed later) will have a 1.2Ghz dual-core processor and a full gig of RAM, paired to an admirably high-res 1200×800 7-inch screen. Honeycomb will have to do as far as software goes, and the photo from Bluetooth SIG certainly reinforces that. Verizon’s 4G LTE connection is packed inside, making the V66 one of only two Verizon LTE 7-inchers we know of – the other being the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7.

There’s no word on price or availability but ZTE tends to try and undercut its competitors on the tablet side of things. That being the case, and with the Galaxy Tab 7.7 sure to pack a high MSRP thanks to its Super AMOLED display, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the V66 come in around the $300-350 mark. Since the ZTE hardware is also Bluetooth-certified for Europe, it’s likely we’ll get some hands-on time with it in Barcelona next month at Mobile World Congress.

If you’ve ever installed a custom Android ROM, odds are extremely good that you’ve used the popular ClockworkMod recovery to do so. The pre-boot environment works well for what it does, but the low-power resources necessitated that users control it with a series of button presses. Now that almost all physical buttons and trackballs have become passe for Android, and even capacative buttons are on their way out thanks to Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich, creator Koushik “Koush” Dutta is working on finally bringing touchscreen controls to ClockworkMod. He teased an early version of the new software on his Google+ account, but did not offer a download.

Koush isn’t the first to experiment with touchscreen-capable custom recoveries. Various lesser-known recoveries are touch-enabled, and there’s even a version of ClockworkMod modified with on-screen controls. But Koush controls the “official” release, and his versions of CWM stand as the most widely-used custom recovery on Android, and an official update would soon find its way onto hundreds of thousands of devices in the hands of eager modders.

The developer didn’t give a timeframe for when downloads would be made available. Then again, he’s a busy man: Koush is part of the CyanogenMod team, updates the core ClockworkMod Recovery and new ClockworkMod Tether apps, and is taking the lead on a possible CyanogenMod App Store for rooted and/or banned apps. If you’re desperate for more intuitive control of your recovery, you can try the above mod or an unnoficial touch version of TeamWin’s recovery. As always, mod at your own risk – no self-respecting Android power user has his or her warranty intact for more than a few hours.

On the off-chance that there are any RIM investors reading this story, hoping against hope that the company would try something drastic (like using Android) to reverse its worldwide downward slide… you might want to give your portfolio manager a call. After months of almost universally gloomy news for the Blackberry manufacturer, they installed a new CEO this week, Thorsten Heins. When asked by Crackberry if the company would consider switching to an Android-based software system and abandon their often delayed and underwhelming BlackBerry OS, Heins said ““there is just no room for differentiation because [Android phones] are all the same.”

For a little context: this comes from a company whose first touchscreen product (in 2008, no less) failed so miserably that its sequel abandoned its one unique feature. Whose Nokia-esque line of numbered families get incremental updates that are nigh indistinguishable from one another. Whose first radical change to their core hardware model, the Torch, adopted the portrait slider format that had been in wide use for the better part of a decade. Who can’t give away their sole tablet product (which still lacks a native email client, by the way) despite quasi-support for Android apps.

We usually don’t pay attention to Blackberry here at Android Community – just like the rest of the world as of late. But it seems like a no-brainer for them to dump their overloaded software framework and build on Android to come into this decade. As HTC, Samsung, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and others have proven, it’s entirely possible to create your own separate look and feel on Android, while still staying compatible with updates and hundreds of thousands of apps. RIM could easily integrate Blackberry’s legendary business-friendly encryption, email and messaging apps – heck, they’re probably doing the latter already.

Feel free to continue along your current path, RIM – it’s not like you’re trying to compete or anything.

Like it or not, custom manufacturer skins are here to stay. That said some are better than others, and HTC’s Sense UI has emerged as one of the more mature and usable options, even garnering its fair share of fans. HTC is expected to reveal the fourth version of Sense with new hardware at Mobile World Congress next month, but PocketNow allegedly got a look at the changes before prime time. They came away impressed, and noted some radical – and in many cases welcome – changes.

First and foremost: the homescreen can finally function in landscape mode without any hacking or tweaking. This is a feature that is bafflingly absent form almost all stock phones (save QWERTY sliders) and is often inserted by modders and aftermarket ROM developers.  Sliders and icons go with a slate gray look instead of the current glossy black, and the sometimes obtrusive icons are augmented and in some areas replaced with text. The task switcher is similar to the card system found on stock Ice Cream Sandwich, but uses a 3D effect like the current Sense carousel.

The lockscreen gets a makeover with a more straightforward notification system, reportedly aping the iPhone 4 and 4S. (Careful, HTC – Apple’s lawyers are running amok, and will certainly be looking for easy targets.) PocketNow reports that HTC plans for all of its devices to use capacitive physical buttons, not on-screen buttons as was assumed to be standard for Ice Cream Sandwich phones. Some hardware will move to a three-button layout even so. A new guest mode allows you to lock all private data and apps to allow a friend or acquaintance to borrow your phone for a quick call or search.

Sense’s other affected programs like email and the web browser get incremental updates, and the later notably has a reader mode saved page function. Beats will be a universal feature with support for plugins from third-party apps, and DropBox is included with some integration with the rest of Sense’s custom applications. Take all of this as rumor at the moment: none of it is official in any way. We should be able to confirm or deny all of the above information in Barcelona in late February.

Free phones, even free smartphones, are nothing new in contract-laden world of wireless providers. But a free tablet? Now that’s downright novel. Canadian cellular carrier Rogers just slashed the price down to nuthin, nil and nada for the LG Optimus Pad, the Honeycomb tablet first made available on Rogers in May of last year. If you buy the tablet ouutright it’ll still cost you $549.99 CAD, or $499.99/$449.99 for a month-to-month or one-year contract, respectively.

We’re no fans of locked-in wireless contracts, but I must admit, a free tablet with an always-on connection is tempting. While I wouldn’t dream of paying an extra $100 on top of a WiFi model and saddling myself with a two-year contract (not to mention pricey early termination fees) the Optimus Pad has some respectable specs even for a device of the previous generation. The 8.9-inch screen packs in a 720p display, and a Tegra 2 processor will handle HD video and all but the most demanding of modern games. 32GB of storage is double the standard (even for much, much more expensive competitors) though there’s no option for MicroSD cards. US readers: the Optimus Pad is almost identical to T-Mobile’s G-Slate.

Don’t get used to this kind of pricing – the freebie deal is almost certainly meant to clean out inventory before the arrival of the Optimus Pad LTE. The updated tablet is confirmed to come with an IPS screen, 8MP camera, a MicroSD card slot and a 1.5Ghz dual-core processor from Qualcomm. Of course it also supports LTE wireless networks. The Optimus Pad LTE will come equipped with Honeycomb 3.2 – the original’s still on 3.0 as far as we can tell – but since it’s a ways out from release, there’s no word on when or if it wil get Ice Cream Sandwich.

So, Canadian readers, does the low price on the LG Optimus Pad tempt you? If it does, don’t be a putz – go for the two-year contract, not the three-year one.

[via MobileSyrup]

If you’re anything like the writers and editors here at Android Community, you’re in no hurry to be saddled with yet another monthly contract – even for the luxury of an LTE-enabled tablet. That was one of the the things that made the quite solid Motorola DROID XYBOARD tablets on Verizon much less desirable than they might otherwise have been. After a few weeks of pre-orders, Motorola has made both the XYBOARD 10.1 and XYBOARD 8.2 available for purchase on their website in WiFi-only forms. They’re absent the DROID branding, which is an exclusive marketing tool for Verizon’s partner hardware.

The XYBOARD 8.2 starts at $399.99 and the 10.1 at $499,99, both for the 16GB versions. That’s a little more than we’d like to see them go for, but they compete directly with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1, respectively, while offering more expansion and hardware choices. Both use the same 1280×800 screen resolution, dual-core 1.2Ghz processors, 1GB of RAM each, 5MP cameras and (currently) Honeycomb 3.2. Moto is already promising an ICS update at an indeterminate time. The tablet software is customized by Motorola, but not to an excessive degree.

There are a couple of interesting extras that come on the XYBOARDs which you won’t find standard on competing models: both have an integrated infrared port and universal remote software, plus an HDMI port. Those who intend to stay mobile should probably opt for the 10.1, as its 7000mAh battery soundly beats the 3800mAh one in the 8.2. In our reviews, we concluded that both tablets were solid entrants from Motorola that were unfortunately saddled by wireless pricing. While the WiFi-only prices aren’t incredible (especially in the light of the $500 Transformer Prime) they’re a lot easier to swallow.

Citrix Systems (Nasdaq: CTXS) reported strong earnings this week, but the company plans to increase acquisitions in the coming year and to reorganize its sales force, which prompted the company to issue a lackluster forecast for the coming year.

Revenue across the board saw a steep increase, with the company reporting net revenues of $619.4 million in the quarter, a 17 percent increase from the $530 million it reported a year ago. GAAP net income was $108.7 million, 58 cent per share, up from $94.4 million, 49 cents per share, a year ago. The 66 cents quarterly adjusted EPS beat Wall Street estimated of 65 cents.

“Greater diversity in our products and channel, combined with a compelling vision, is driving more C-level engagement as well as more up-sell and cross-sell opportunities,” said Mark Templeton, president and chief executive officer for Citrix. “As a result, we are seeing more strategic deals, more use of our products as an end-to-end system, and deeper engagement with our customers through services.”

Citrix has worked to roll out more robust mobile, cloud and desktop solutions, and it has begun to pay off.

For the year, Citrix reported record revenue of $2.2 billion. Its desktop solution revenue accounted for $1.3 billion of that, 12.5 percent higher than a year ago, and included 14 percent y-o-y growth in the fourth quarter, with revenue of $369 million. Data center and cloud solutions revenue increased 29.1 percent to $385.5 million, online services revenue rose 18.6 percent to $427.7 million and revenue from other products increase 46.4 percent to $114.3 million.

Citrix said revenue increased in the America’s region by 16 percent, rose in the EMEA region by 12 percent and increased in the Pacific region by 37 percent.

For 2012, Citrix said revenue should be in the range of $2.49 billion to $2.51 billion; GAAP diluted earnings per share is targeted to be in the range of $1.88 to $1.97.

For the first quarter, expect revenue to be in the range of $555 million to $565 million with GAAP diluted earnings per share in the range of 30-31 cents.

The thin first quarter results, said CFO David Henshall, come from the company’s plans to look to make acquisitions, but those deals should become accretive later in the year.

For more:
– see this release
– see this Motley Fool article

Special Report: Enterprise Communications earnings in the fourth quarter 2011

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