During their surprisingly weak earnings call – falling short of the street’s expectations – Google revealed that Android’s unreal momentum is showing no signs of slowing any time soon. The company announced that the mobile OS platform has been activated on a quarter of a billion devices, with the number of applications downloaded soaring, too. Of those device activations, 3.7 million were activated on Christmas day alone.

On iOS’ heels

For perspective on how significant the Android device activation figure is – as if 250 million is not ridiculous in and of itself – in October 2011 Apple revealed they had activated 250 million iOS devices. This, of course, included iPhones, iPads, and iPods. Android was released some two-years after Apple and has closed the gap almost exclusively with smartphone sales, since Android tablet PC sales are still relatively insignificant.

Apps market exploding

During the earnings call, Google CEO Larry Page also announced that over 11 billions apps had been downloaded from the Android market. Bank of the napkin maths reveals an average of about 44 apps per Android smartphone across the platforms lifetime.

What’s more, that application download number only accounts for what is on Google’s official app store, and precludes download stats from the Amazon Appstore, GetJar, direct app sales by publishers like EA, and other third party application marketplaces. Basically, the official apps number is certainly higher than just 11 billion. Once again, for perspective, over 18 billion iOS apps had been downloaded by October last year.

Where the influence lies

2012 is a significant year for the mobile OS team at Google. Maintaining and growing Android device activation will be a priority, as will finally kicking on in the tablet PC market, where Apple is still king and Amazon with its Kindle Fire has managed to sneak in and wedge itself into second place behind pure Android tablets.

US retail group Target has revealed an initiative that will see mini-Apple stores popping up within several key Target stores over the next several months. The announcement comes after reports leaked that the mega retailer was looking for ways to position itself as a premium retailer of Apple’s high selling products.

“Shops at Target”

Target confirmed that they would have 25 stores that featured specialised displays for products designed by Apple, following speculation last week that a Target Apple relationship of this sort was in the works, reported Reuters.

The mini-Apple stores are part of a wider plan to launch what the group is calling ‘The Shops At Target’ concept. Unveiled in New York on Thursday, the initiative will also see specialised boutiques, candy stores, and the like fall under the designer shopping concept. Moreover, Target employees are reportedly flying around the world in search of unique shops that will be prepared to make products that are exclusively available through Target. It’s all part of a plan to differentiate the shopping experience in a highly homogenous marketplace.

The Apple effect

What’s of particular interest is that the mini-Apple stores in Target will reinforce Apple’s very strong retail position, which already trades heavily on the popularity of the many Apple stores around the world. Initiatives like this are always good signaling devices for which companies yield the biggest profits/profit margins for retailers, and given how well Apple has been doing financially in recent years, it’s no surprise they would be a consideration for this type of initiative.

How Target’s other electronics partners will respond to this will be interesting. The scope of the Target Apple partnership isn’t huge yet, but Apple’s competitors who happen to sell product through target, too – of which many do – will undoubtedly be unhappy about this.

Pareto’s 80/20 principle holds in many environments. Sometimes the effect is greatly exaggerated, as evidenced by the distribution of mobile data usage. A recent study found that the ‘1 percent’ on mobile carriers used 50 percent of data, leaving 50 percent of data to the remaining 99 percent.

An ever-widening gap

Arieso, an English company based on Newbury was commissioned by a European mobile carrier to track data traffic stats over a 24-hour period during November last year.  The company, which advises carriers in the US, Africa and Europe, found that the gap between heavy users and the remaining population was extremely wide and widening further still. In 2009, the top 3 percent generated around 40 percent of a network’s traffic. In 2011 the top 3 percent generate a top-heavy 70 percent of all the traffic on a network.

Occupy the Downlink

Speaking on the findings, Michael Flanagan, who is Arieso’s chief technology officer, said that: ‘Some people may draw the parallel to Occupy Wall Street, and I’ve already heard comments about ‘Occupy the Downlink.’ He added that ‘But the situations are very different, and the mobile situation doesn’t break down along socioeconomic lines.’

Flanagan explained that his study did not produce a precise profile of who these extreme mobile data users were, but he said he expected that they were made up of a mix of users, including business users that used their devices for Internet usage during their travels, and non-discretionary users with unlimited data packages that were users their devices to consume video. Video, like on the web, is the biggest culprit for heavy data use.

Increasing pressure on data usage

Device distribution for these extreme users on mobile data networks saw 64 percent using laptop, 33 percent using smartphones, and an impressive 3 percent on iPads. With ever more data hungry features released on mobile devices, like the Siri feature on Apple’s iPhone 4S, carriers have to constantly investigate mobile data usage trends to figure out how to price so as to maximise profits.

A few hours after the Facebook Messenger application for Windows leaked into the wild, the social network released the application officially. It’s yet another step in Facebook’s many initiatives to keep users constantly engaged with its platform.

So what’s in the box?

While Facebook Messenger for various mobile devices has been released, this is the first desktop client. Emil Protalinski over at Cnet reports that: ‘The application, which requires Windows 7, provides access to three main Facebook features: Facebook chat, the new Ticker feed, and notifications. In addition to Windows 7, Facebook Messenger is also already available for Android, iPhone and BlackBerry.’

Facebook has reportedly hinted at new Windows-specific features in the work, added Protalinski, including: ‘chatting with multiple friends, video calling, limiting chat availability, and editing settings. It’s not clear if the company will be making announcements for every new version or if they will be just quietly released like this first version.’

The new white pages

With over 800 million users, Facebook has a very large percentage of the internet using population on the social network. As such, the messaging component of its platform is, by extension, the biggest in the world. Way bigger than AIM, way bigger than MSN, and bigger than even Gmail.

While Facebook Messenger is far from the biggest component of the social network’s offering, the engineering team is increasingly leveraging its user base by offering them features they may use on different platforms. As such, this one component alone is competing with aforementioned desktop services like the ones mentioned above, as well as mobile messaging platforms like the WhatsApps and BBMs of the world.

The large userbase, coupled with the various engagement tools Facebook provides – both realtime and asynchronous – effectively makes the social network the new white pages. If anything, that’s an interesting way of thinking of how powerful the platform has become, and how it could claw its hooks into society deeper still.

IBM’s annual predictions for the future of technology includes mice sensors replacing brains, biometric security and an end to the divide between those online and offline.

Five trends, five years

IBM’s ‘5-in-5’ predictions for 2011 describe five technologies the company believes will be commonplace in five years. They include mind control of PCs, automatic scheduling and buying software, biometrics replacing passwords and personal power generation. ‘A lot can happen in five years, but a lot of this stuff is closer than you think,’ Bernie Meyerson, IBM Fellow and VP of innovation, told The Register. ‘A lot of this is either in development by IBM or by third parties already.’

Power up, stay safe

Power generation will be built into most everything by 2016, says IBM, including water pipes and running shoes. IBM predicts the use of battery chargers that clip onto your bicycle and charge as you cycle.

IBM also predicts that biometric technology, while it isn’t new, will be built into every kind of device from laptops to ATMs within five years. They think retinal prints and voice recognition are most likely to become widely adopted.

Mind control

Mind control of PCs is the most intriguing trend IBM nominated. There are non-intrusive headsets for online gamers out there already, but they’re pricey and not as effective as manual controllers. The increase in the sophistication of software and computational power is making mind control of devices really easy, said Meyerson.

‘This is as much a software issue as a hardware issue,’ he explained. ‘You need an algorithm that associates pattern with function and makes the correlation in terms of brain monitoring. The basic capabilities exist and they are coming on strong.’

Useful spam?

Possibly IBM’s most unlikely technology prediction is spam becoming useful. Devices will be programmed to sort through spam for pertinent information and then use the information to help you plan your life – by buying concert tickets to your favourite band, for example.

Finally, IBM predicts the end of the digital divide, too. By 2016 around 80 per cent of the world’s population will own a smartphone and have access to the signal to run it.

As the year winds down, and people around the world go on vacation over the holiday season, disconnecting is one of the biggest challenges heavy tech users have. If you’re reading this website, chances are you’re one of those people.  While we frequently discuss how to be more productive, below are a few tips for disconnecting completely – or partially – during your brief break this holiday season.

Tip 1: Leave the gadgets behind

If you’re going on vacation over the holiday period, the best way to completely disconnect is to leave your gadgets behind. If you have neither your laptop, tablet PC nor your smartphone on you, checking email and browsing the web might be inconvenient enough to not be worthwhile. This is the most ideal situation.

Tip 2: Regulate your usage time

If disconnecting from gadgets by leaving things behind is too extreme a solution, then regulate your usage time. You can either use tools and applications for that function, or you can make an agreement with someone strict to leave the gadgets in their possession during certain time.

Tip 3: Take up many activities

Another way of disconnecting from gadgets is by filling your holiday time with activities. Insofar as you do not have idle time, aimless web browsing, email checking, and the like will be eliminated.

Why you should take this seriously

Remember, incessant email checking, sneaking in brief patches of work, and constantly being available are not tantamount to being on holiday, and can be severe causes of stress. Furthermore, time spent obsessing over smartphones, tablet PCs, and laptops is time taken away from family time – which is what this time of year is about.

Granted, some of the tips here are easier to implement for some than they are for others, but it’s important enough that the pursuit is taken seriously. Try disconnecting from gadgets this holiday season.

Fast-growing streaming music service Spotify is expected to announce plans to allow third-party applications to offer Spotify service from within their apps. The service last week announced a press conference where it would detail what was coming up next.

Speaking on the announcement, AllThingsD’s Peter Kafka says the service is likely to announce ‘The ability to let third-party developers tap into Spotify’s music library and make it available to their own users – as long as those users are already paying Spotify for a premium account.’

Not-so-secret secret

Kafka says that Spotify has been in talks with developers for the last few months about integrating this feature. He and Wired’s Eliot Van Buskirk concluded that this was exactly what the service planned on announcing at its press conference tomorrow in New York.

Music everywhere

An intelligent way to think of the move streaming music service Spotify is making is to look at it as music everywhere. The major barriers to entry would be whether the record labels – hardly known for embracing change and contemporary distribution platforms – would even permit this.

An industry insider told AllThingsD that the major labels are ‘philosophically aligned with the idea of using Spotify as an “authentication layer,”’ and that ‘They see this as a value-add and they’re not worried about cannibalization.’

The Facebook of movement

If Spotify becomes an authentication layer for music, it would have effectively pulled off what Facebook has pulled off, in becoming an authentication layer for all services that have social features. The networks of scale that come with being, effectively, the plumbing that powers an entire category of applications are significant, and could well be the factor that propels streaming music service Spotify beyond its competitors’ offerings.

We’ll report back tomorrow once this new ‘direction’ has been revealed.

Comedian Louis C.K. told Forbes that the next technology pioneer would be female. While his reasoning is typical C.K. comedy, there is plenty of merit to the sentiment, and to be frank, it would be good for the technology industry.

Totally be a chick

Speaking to Fast Company’s Nancy Miller, Louis C.K. explained that the world is transforming, and that women have more opportunities than ever before, even though there are still challenges. He says: ‘The next Steve Jobs will totally be a chick, because girls are No. 2 – and No. 2 always wins in America. Apple was a No. 2 company for years, and Apple embodies a lot of what have been defined as feminine traits: an emphasis on intuitive design, intellect, a strong sense of creativity, and that striving to always make the greatest version of something.’

Men are like Microsoft

He prefaced that statement by saying that the world loves underdogs, and women are the underdog in this situation. Unsurprisingly, comedian Louis C.K. didn’t think as highly of men – and he clearly doesn’t think highly of the house Bill Gates built, neither. He says: ‘Traditionally, men are more like Microsoft, where they’ll just make a fake version of what that chick made, then beat the shit out of her and try to intimidate everybody into using their product.’ Ouch.

It’s time

Ironically, C.K.’s sentiment comes at a time when a massive debate has broken out in Silicon Valley – the epicentre of the tech world – about whether the Valley is a pure meritocracy or if minorities have a harder time making it there than the usual suspects, namely white males. Having said that, though, the CEO of HP and the CEO of IBM are both females, and these are two of the biggest technology companies in the world. Perhaps comedian Louis C.K. is not all that prophetic, and is just calling a trend that’s already in motion.

With the demand for renewable energy solutions growing and the prices for these energy options falling, many tech companies over the next few years are expected to make a slow transition to these more sustainable energy models. Motorola Mobility last week pledged to start using wind power as an energy solution for their business, with aims to attain 25 per cent of all its power from wind sources.

The company revealed this goal during an interview with Fox News. Bill Olsen, Motorola Mobility director for sustainability and stewardship, told the network [via BGR] that: ‘It is Motorola Mobility’s intent through our participation in the WindMade initiative to encourage greater use of renewable energy sources like wind and solar around the globe.’

Beyond just making claims

This is not as straightforward as a stated desire to use that much energy. Through the WindMade initiative, there is an onus on Motorola Mobility to prove that it actually uses that much wind-powered energy.

Bragi Fjalldal of Windmade explained that: ‘Any company that uses at least 25% of wind energy can adopt the “WindMade” label, a company that recognizes companies that focus on using wind as a renewable energy source.’ He continued, saying: ‘What’s unique about WindMade is it’s the first time that you have a truly global standard that is accepted across the landscape for how corporations should procure clean energy.’

Google connection makes sense

What’s interesting about adopting wind as a renewable energy source is that Google, who are in the process of acquiring Motorola Mobility, have also made numerous investments in wind power energy solutions.

Nevertheless, Motorola Mobility’s is being proactive, and this is beneficial for the industry as a whole. Technology companies have often come under criticism for not doing enough in terms of sustainable production and small initiatives like this are symbolic.

Google yesterday unveiled the new Google Music store. The experience is not dissimilar from what we’ve become accustomed to with iTunes and Amazon’s MP3 stores, but the service does have a few twists, including the ability to share music with your Google+ account, and how artists are able to upload and publish their music.

What is it?

As explained, the new Google Music store works much like iTunes does. Songs are purchased through the Android Marketplace and are automatically added to a user’s locker in the cloud. Users can download the songs to their computers through a dedicated application, if need be.

One of the new features is the ability to share the music with your Google+ circle of contacts, with the ability to play songs from major labels once, and multiple times for indie acts if they permit it.

A big victory for independents

Perhaps the biggest difference between Google Music and Apple and Amazon MP3’s retail models is that Google’s service lets artists upload music themselves and start selling them. With Apple and Amazon, artists go through a submission and approval system before they get any content up onto the store.

The search giant’s approach to retailing music will undoubtedly be beneficial to independent musicians, but the legal and copyrighting nightmare that might come with it could keep Google’s staff very busy.

A big issue for Google

The biggest issue Google Music is facing is publishing without Warner Music on board. Given that Warner is one of the big four record labels – the other three being EMI, Universal and Sony – that means a large catalogue of artists will not be available. Moreover, given that most listeners don’t know which artists are on which major labels, users may get extremely frustrated when they can’t find Green Day, or REM available for download.

We’ll see

Nevertheless, Google Music is slowly starting to take shape. It’ll be interesting to see how long Warner Music holds out for, and how popular the service becomes.