Google is taking steps to address customer support problems that cropped up soon after the release of its Nexus One, a phone that Google currently only sells online. On Feb. 8, Google began providing phone support in addition to existing efforts to solve problems through online forums.

Until recently, customers who had problems or questions -- and wanted to talk to a customer service representative -- had to call the phone’s maker, HTC, if their questions concerned the hardware. Or they had to call T-Mobile USA to inquire about service. Now, Google has begun also offering phone support for customers with questions on existing or pending orders, at 888-48-NEXUS (63987). It’s a small but important step toward making consumers comfortable with buying phones online vs. through carriers, as they normally do today.

Fewer people shopping for smartphones were interested in buying Apple's iPhone in December than in September, according to a new ChangeWave Research survey. Last month, 28% of more than 4,000 people surveyed were planning to buy an iPhone in the next three months. That's down from 32% in September.

What happened? Some of the decline in consumer interest could be due to the fact that the latest iPhone model, released over the summer, is getting older, and many people who wanted to buy it have already snapped it up. What's more, competitors such as Motorola, HTC and Research In Motion have come out with new, compelling smartphones in the last couple of months. Motorola's Droid in particular is gaining traction; the gadget is based on Android operating system that allows users to buys and use apps similarly to the iPhone. In December, some 21% of the survey respondents were planning to buy an Android-based smartphone in the next 90 days, according to ChangeWave. That's up from 6% in September.

It's not a big leap to assume that Android-based smartphones are starting to eat in a major way into iPhone's mindshare with consumers.

Jajah, a small Silicon Valley VOIP company, is being bought by Telefonica Europe for $207 million in an all-cash deal. Jajah's technology is designed to enable consumers and businesses to communicate over the Internet on any device and from any network. The company's voice-over-IP platform has made inroads into social networks, such as Twitter.
- After more than a week of speculation about its future including reports of interest from Cisco Systems and Microsoft VOIP vendor Jajah is being bought by Telefonica Europe. Telefonica, known better by the name O2, announced Dec. 23 that it is buying the smaller Silicon Valley company for $207 m...

More people are accessing Wi-Fi hotspots at cafes and airports via handheld devices, according to a new study from In-Stat. While, last year, devices like smartphones accounted for 20% of total connects to Wi-Fi hotspots, in 2009 that number jumped to 35%. And by 2011, smartphones should account for half of hotspot connects -- and challenge laptops' dominance of Wi-Fi hotspots, In-Stat estimates.

It's clear why this is happening: More smartphones feature built-in Wi-Fi capabilities. More carriers are promoting these features. More places, such as bookseller Borders, have recently made Wi-Fi access available for free. All that is contributing to increased use of hotspots with all devices. Hotspot usage has increased by 47%, to 1.2 billion connects in 2009, In-Stat estimates.

The findings may also indicate that people increasingly use their smartphones to do many of the things they used to reserve for their netbooks and laptops. The handsets are now larger than they were only several years ago, with easier-to-use keyboards and screens. So consumers increasingly find they can use them for everything from surfing the Web to typing e-mails to gaming. When tablets debut some time next year, they could further accelerate this shift from laptops and netbooks to handheld devices.

Consumer awareness of Android, an operating system for smartphones pushed by Google, is on a steep climb, which bodes well for vendors like Motorola and HTC. Of consumers expecting to shop for smartphones in the next three months, 17% are considering an Android-based device, according to comScore's new survey of 2,300 consumers. In fact, devices based on Android aren't far behind the iPhone. Some 20% of consumers are in the market for the Apple device.

The results represent a stark contrast to consumer sentiment of only a few months ago. In August, 7% of consumers were contemplating buying an Android device, while 21% of them were considering the iPhone.

The splash that Motorola's Droid phone, based on Android, has made recently is partly responsible for increased attention that Android is getting. "In August 2009, just 22 percent of mobile users had heard of the Android, while in November 2009 this figure had reached 37 percent, largely prompted by the Verizon Droid advertising campaign launched in the fall," according to the report. Android may get a further boost next year, when more Android devices should come onto the market. While the Android movement could still get derailed -- for instance, if Google decides to release Android phones under its own brand -- it certainly appears to be on the right track now, and rolling along with an ever-increasing speed.

While, initially, many consumers snapped up iPhones for their touch screens, that's changed. Nowadays, it's the apps that are the biggest driver of iPhone purchases, according to a new report from Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.

That should come as no surprise: Apple and its official U.S. carrier distributor, AT&T, have been touting apps such as Bump, which allows iPhones to exchange contacts and photos by bumping two phones against each other, in their TV commercials. Today, Apple is the mobile apps leader, with more than 100,000 apps offered through its iTunes store. And this could be just the beginning.

Apps currently available in the Apple App Store have "just scratched the surface of what the iPhone can do," Munster wrote in a Dec. 9 report. "With the addition of various accessories, or built-in features like RFID, the iPhone could become even more functional," he wrote in a Dec.9 report.

Mobile payment applications could represent one big future opportunity. "....Apple, with the iPhone, iPod touch and iTunes accounts that each have an associated credit card, is uniquely positioned to make mobile payment a reality in the U.S.," Munster writes. Related mobile apps may help people track their spending or transfer funds, for example.

Long talked about, smartphone pico projectors -- small accessories that allow phones to project video and photos onto 40- to 60-inch screens -- have finally begun to ship.

Later in December, AT&T will offer LG eXpo smartphone with an add-on pico projector that clips right onto the device. In November, Sparkz Products released its expensive pico projector for the iPhone; the device balances on a tripod stand. Microvision has recently announced that its pico projector design will soon debut in Asia. Indeed, 2010 just could be the year when such video accessories for smartphones will come out in droves, says Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis at NPD Group.

With the devices finally out, what remains to be seen is whether they catch consumers' eye. Consultant In-Stat recently forecasted that pico projectors will turn into a $1.1 billion market by 2014.

As holiday shopping ramps up, an increasing number of consumers are using their smartphones to locate stores, to get coupons and to make purchases. More than 40% of 173 iPhone users surveyed by Sanford C. Bernstein reported a substantial increase in their online shopping, the result of greater use of smartphones, according to a Dec. 1 report. Nearly 30% of 187 BlackBerry users surveyed had reported to have experienced the same effect.

Most of these consumers have likely simply used their phones to find stores, to compare prices and to research products, writes Bernstein analyst Jeffrey Lindsay. But chances are, some have actually purchased goods via their mobiles. Some 25% of nearly 11,000 consumers Deloitte recently surveyed had also made online purchases via their mobile phones.

As more people acquire smartphones in the coming years, and as their smartphones' usage increases, mobile commerce should flourish. Bernstein's survey showed that 46% of respondents have increased their smartphone usage in the past 12 months. Frequency of Web browsing has risen as well -- and so has mobile shopping.

Launched on Nov. 25, British wireless service provider Giffgaff is focused on costs, and it plans to use its customers to slash them. The company, which uses O2's network, awards customers points for answering customer service calls, suggesting ways to grow revenues, and creating marketing materials. Currently, the MVNO is searching for people to impersonate Humphrey Bogart and to shoot and upload the video ads promoting the service to YouTube, for example. The points can be used toward calls.

It remains to be seen whether this approach works; it just might. Customers who are that involved in a service are likely to be very loyal, and that's an asset in any business, and especially in pay-as-you-go wireless services.

Telcos like T-Mobile already use the approach, called crowd-sourcing. GetSatisfaction.com, for example, lets telcos connect with their consumers that are having problems with the service, or to get the customers' take on how to solve a particular problem. It also supports direct customer-to-customer help. So Giffgaff isn't exactly reinventing the wheel, it's just pushing it forward.

By 2013, carriers will sell 31% of all notebooks, according to a Nov. 18 report from consultant In-Stat. What this means is, in three years, nearly a third of new laptop buyers will be paying carriers like Verizon Wireless and AT&T a monthly laptop service fee, which stands at around $60 in the U.S. today. That fee would come in addition to what consumers pay for their mobile phone service.

For carriers, this additional fee spells a revenue bonanza. An average American pays $50 in wireless service fees today, according to industry association CTIA. As consumers tuck on additional data services, such as those for their new laptops, netbooks and smartphones, that amount could begin to climb, even if voice minute charges keep on shrinking. Average monthly bill amount has been essentially flat since 2003.

Money transfer will be the No. 1 consumer application in year 2012, according to Nov. 18 report from consultant Gartner. The app is expected to have more revenue potential than mobile search and browsing, mobile health monitoring and mobile music. In fact, mobile transfers are expected to be an even bigger business than various types of mobile payments, such as using cell phones to pay for produce at grocery stores.

Money transfers' popularity shouldn't come as a surprise. This is a huge business in the U.S. and around the world already. Today, most consumers have to come into, say, a Western Union location or use their PC to complete a transaction. It can be problematic and time-consuming for many people to get to either one; but most everyone carries a phone. Another consultant, Juniper Research, expects international mobile money transfers to top $65 billion by 2014.

For the top 10 features Gartner expects to be present on smartphones in 2012, check out this list.

Cell phones made by no-name manufacturers in China are "no longer just ultra-low cost models," according to a Nov. 12 report from consultant Gartner. "Gartner has torn down several gray-market products that showcase enhanced-phone features." Distributors report that gray-market shops are moving to incorporate 3G technology and high-resolution cameras into their devices, threatening businesses of everyone from Nokia to Apple.

Demand for gray-market phones is rising so rapidly, it's contributed to a slight uptick in third-quarter handset sales, according to Gartner. In that period, the world's manufacturers had shipped a total of 308.9 million units, up 0.1% year over year, the consultant reports. Recently, researcher iSuppli reported that gray-market handset sales are up nearly 44% this year over 2008, with shipments reaching 145 million units. The burgeoning market has contributed to the Apple iPhone's flop in China, where many consumers opt for gray-market iPhone clones, instead.

This morning, Verizon Wireless announced Droid Eris, a new phone from HTC. The announcement comes on the heels of another, of Motorola Droid, another smartphone device based on Android software developed by Google and its partners. So Verizon Wireless has decided to develop a single brand for all Android-based phones it puts out: Droid, a company spokesperson confirms.

This strategy is a smart one: Currently, very few consumers are even aware of Android, or know what it is. With the Droid brand, Verizon Wireless is likely hoping to change that, and to make Droid phones stand out in the consumers' minds in the same way the Apple iPhone does. Indeed, Android-based phones are highly differentiated products: They are the only phones that can connect to and download apps from the Android Market, an app store for mobile games, calendar and productivity applications. They also can access services such as Google Maps Navigation, which offers voice turn-by-turn directions. It's important to point out these differences to consumers, and a single Droid brand can help achieve just that.

Half of T-Mobile myTouch 3G users visit Android Market at least once a day, according to a Nov. 4 report from T-Mobile USA. As you'll recall, the carrier released the T-Mobile myTouch 3G device in August.

Here's why this is huge news: Until now, Android Market has not been as good at attracting smartphone users as the legendary Apple App Store, which now offers more than 100,000 apps to Android Market's 12,000. Most developers I've talked to say their Android Market sales have been tiny. The best apps have only sold thousands of copies in the Android Market vs. millions in the App Store. But all that well may be the thing of the past.

Devices that can tap into the Android Market have improved, and become easier to use: myTouch 3G represents only one of a bunch of new, compelling gadgets based on Android software developed by Google and its partners that are coming out en mass. What's more, Android Market's functionality has improved, and should evolve further in the next few months, making the store easier to use for both developers and consumers. Perhaps the Android Market will prove to be a Cinderella story yet.