IDC has posted their latest figures for European smartphone sales and unsurprisingly Android has taken the top spot, with 31 percent share.
Overall smartphone sales increased 100 percent to 25.6 million in the Q4 2010, while feature phone sales dropped 25 percent. Combined, Western European phone sales grew 3.2 percent to 58.7 million units.
Android saw the highest growth, 1580 percent, to 8 million units sold. iOS saw its constant strong growth continue at 66 percent. Windows Phone 7 saw 18 percent growth but the number is artificially high because Windows Mobile sales were so low to begin with.
Result for: western europe
If you think you may have an STD (sexually-transmitted disease) but are too embarrassed to see a doctor about it, you may be in luck soon.
British health officials are currently developing a mobile phone app that will allow users to get diagnosed within minutes, and without needing to head to a clinic or a doctor’s office.
The impressive app would work as follows (via Guardian): “A user would put urine or saliva on a computer chip about the size of a USB chip and then plug it into their phone or computer. And voila, a diagnosis will appear right before their eyes.”
There have been over $6 million dollars invested into the project already by the U.K. Clinical Research Collaboration.
Lead researcher Dr. Tariq Sadiq, consultant physician in sexual health and HIV at St. George’s, University of London says: “Your mobile phone can be your mobile doctor. We need to tackle the rising epidemic of STIs, which have been going up and up and up. Britain is one of the worst [countries] in western Europe for teenage pregnancy and STIs.”
If the app confirms you have an STD, such as chlamydia, gonorrhea or herpes, the app “tells you where to go next to get treatment.”
Result for: western europe
Skype has announced today that it has started new subscription plans that will allow for cheaper calls to the United States from over 170 countries, with plans starting as low as $1.09 per month.
The expected most popular package is the one that includes unlimited calls to U.S. and Canadian mobile and landlines which costs $2.95 per month. U.S. buyers can get unlimited calls to landlines in 39 other countries for $6 a month. The most expensive package is $12.95 per month and gets you unlimited calls to 40 countries including the U.S.
To get the cheap $1.09 a month plans, users have to select packages that allow calls to only one country. Packages to allow calls to certain regions, like “Western Europe,” are also available.
Subscriptions can be purchased monthly, for three months, or for a year, with automatic renewals.
All subscriptions come with voicemail and call forwarding and can be purchased with credit cards, PayPal or bank transfers.
Although the packages say “unlimited,” there are some restrictions, as Skype allows only 10,000 minutes per month, or a maximum of six hours per day.
