Now if you are a blogger or a website owner then you need to follow some steps to make Google find your Website. For this Google provides Various tools to make our websites SEO Friendly.

Here I am going to share some of my learning which might help you understand some basic concept as How Google can find your website easily? How Google Crawls your site? How to create a SEO Friendly Sitemap? What are Meta Tags and how it plays vital role in SEO? What are Tags? and many more questions.

I would request you all to post your comments or queries if any.

Traffic – building tips, straight from Google

How to Make youur site Accessible

How Google “discovers” your site

How Google “ranks” your site

Google’s advice on why and how to create good meta tags

How google works

How Google rates from sites like Twitter and Facebook

In Today’s world when ever you have any question or any query, the first thing which comes to your Mind is Google Search.
Imagine if you did not had this option then where would you have gone to look for the answer to your queries. Google is like a God which have all the answer to your queries. And the best part here is it show the results for what you are looking in seconds. Did you ever had a thought as how google acts when you click on search button. For this you can refer to one of the Expert comments from Google.

Now if you are a blogger or a website owner then you need to follow some steps to make Google find your Website. For this Google provides Various tools to make our websites SEO Friendly.

Here I am going to share some of my learning which might help you understand some basic concept as How Google can find your website easily? How Google Crawls your site? How to create a SEO Friendly Sitemap? What are Meta Tags and how it plays vital role in SEO? What are Tags? and many more questions.

I would request you all to post your comments or queries if any.

Traffic – building tips, straight from Google

How to Make youur site Accessible

How Google “discovers” your site

How Google “ranks” your site

Google’s advice on why and how to create good meta tags

How google works

How Google rates from sites like Twitter and Facebook

1. Manage Authors And Change Admin Password

To start with WordPress will assign a password to your admin user which will be a auto generated password of random numbers and letters, so the first thing you should do is change the password for your admin user to something easier to remember. While you are changing your admin user you can also make changes to add other authors to your blog. This will allow users to login to your blog to post content. You can set this up to not publish the post straight away but set it to pending review before it goes live, which means the admin user will login to approve the post.

2. Manage Your Blog Categories

When you first install WordPress it will setup a default category called Uncategorized. You should delete this category and create your own. Adding your own Categories will automatically add category links to your navigation. To create new categories go to Posts > Categories and fill in the form.

3. Change The Default Theme

You want your blog to look professional, to do this you need a good theme. There are many choices of themes out there some are free and some are premium. If you can’t afford to have your own custom made theme it is always better to have a premium theme over a free theme, this is because they are easier to customise and have better inbuilt SEO.

There is a good WordPress theme marketplace called ThemeForest which gives you the choice of 100s of high quality themes with well written documentation and user guides.

From CodeCanyon you can also get some premium WordPress plugins to add that little bit of extra functionality to make your blog even more unique.

4. Edit Your Permalinks

The WordPress default URL for your posts is not very user friendly or SEO friendly, your first post URL will look like http://www.xcellextech.com/Blog/index.php?p=1. This needs to be changed to something which is more descriptive, there are many different options you can choose from so you need to decide on which one you will use.

Other combinations are category/post-title or what I use on this blog data/blog-title. The only reason I have my URLs like this is because I like having the date in the URL so visitors will know how old and how relevant the content is. If I write an SEO post which is over 5 years old they will know that it won’t be very relevant now.

To change the permalinks go to Settings > Permalinks and select which format you want as your new links. You can also change how your tags and categories URLs are shown.

5. Install Analytics Plugin

Now that you have the basics of your blog setup you need to start installing some WordPress plugins to add some additional functionality that is essential to any website.

First of all you will need a good Analytics system to keep track of your visitors. The best free analytics system is Google Analytics, they provide lots of reports and give you the ability to create your own reports to capture exactly what your visitors are doing. You need to know where your visitors are coming from and what marketing is working and what isn’t.

If you don’t want to go around playing with the blog theme then here are some good analytics plugins.

1. Google Analytics for WordPress
2. Simple Google Analytics
3. Web Ninja Google Analytics
4. Google Analyticator

6. Install Spam Filter Plugin

The good thing about WordPress is that it is very popular so if you need support with any problem then you know there is always going to be help.

But the problem with WordPress being so popular and that it is open source software means it’s an easy target for spam comments, you will find that when your blog starts getting traffic you will get spam comments. These are comments from bots which only objective is to get a comment on your blog so they can link back to their own site. Spam comments can be annoying for the site owner and can look unprofessional on your blog.

It is essential that you have a good spam comment filter, the best one you can get is the Akisment plugin. This plugin will catch all spam comments so you don’t have to deal with them. You will need to go to akismet.com to get your private key to use the plugin, but when you do no more annoying spam.

7. Install Feedburner Plugin

Feedburner is a FREE service from Google which will keep track of your RSS feed, it will let you know how many people have subscribed to your RSS feed and who many people have viewed the posts on your RSS feed. The Feedburner plugin will automatically redirect all the default WordPress RSS feeds to Feedburner to keep track of your subscribers. All you have to do is sign up to Feedburner and then install the Feedburner plugin.

8. Install XML Sitemap Plugin

XML Sitemaps are used to let the search engines know what pages are on your site and what pages they need to crawl. It is best to have a manually made sitemap but for blogs there can be 100s of pages so this just isn’t practical, so get yourself a good Sitemap plugin to do the job for you. The plugin I use is Google XML Sitemaps, which will crawl my posts and automatically generate an XML file, compress it using gzip and ping the search engines about the sitemap.

9. Install Database Backup Plugin

Install a backup Database plugin to automatically make backups of your database, you don’t want something to go wrong with your web hosting and you lose all your hard work of generating content. The plugin I recommend for this is the originally named plugin WordPress Database Backup. It allows you to automatically make a backup of your database which can be stored on your server somewhere or emailed directly to your mailbox.

10. Change Blog General Settings

Make sure that you have changed the default settings under the general tab to make the theme act just how you want. This is where you will control the blog title, tagline, Website URL, the admin email address and the timezone. Make sure that the timezone is set to the timezone you expect this is so your scheduled posts are published at the correct time.

What are some of the first things you do when you install WordPress? Comment below and let us know! Please don’t forget to subscribe to the RSS-feed and follow Inspirationfeed on Twitter + Facebook (100% Spam Free!) If you enjoyed the following article we humbly ask you to comment, and help us spread the word with your peers!

WordPress is a massive blogging platform that is used by 14.7% of the top million websites in the world. It has got so popular because of it is easy to customise, expandable with plugin’s and applies good SEO standards. On the WordPress website they have a tutorial which you can learn exactly how to install WordPress on your site. Now you have installed WordPress on your website, what do you do now? How do you get the most out of this blogging platform? Here is a valuable list of things you should do after you have installed WordPress on your website.

1. Manage Authors And Change Admin Password

To start with WordPress will assign a password to your admin user which will be a auto generated password of random numbers and letters, so the first thing you should do is change the password for your admin user to something easier to remember. While you are changing your admin user you can also make changes to add other authors to your blog. This will allow users to login to your blog to post content. You can set this up to not publish the post straight away but set it to pending review before it goes live, which means the admin user will login to approve the post.

2. Manage Your Blog Categories

When you first install WordPress it will setup a default category called Uncategorized. You should delete this category and create your own. Adding your own Categories will automatically add category links to your navigation. To create new categories go to Posts > Categories and fill in the form.

3. Change The Default Theme

You want your blog to look professional, to do this you need a good theme. There are many choices of themes out there some are free and some are premium. If you can’t afford to have your own custom made theme it is always better to have a premium theme over a free theme, this is because they are easier to customise and have better inbuilt SEO.

There is a good WordPress theme marketplace called ThemeForest which gives you the choice of 100s of high quality themes with well written documentation and user guides.

From CodeCanyon you can also get some premium WordPress plugins to add that little bit of extra functionality to make your blog even more unique.

4. Edit Your Permalinks

The WordPress default URL for your posts is not very user friendly or SEO friendly, your first post URL will look like http://www.xcellextech.com/Blog/index.php?p=1. This needs to be changed to something which is more descriptive, there are many different options you can choose from so you need to decide on which one you will use.

Other combinations are category/post-title or what I use on this blog data/blog-title. The only reason I have my URLs like this is because I like having the date in the URL so visitors will know how old and how relevant the content is. If I write an SEO post which is over 5 years old they will know that it won’t be very relevant now.

To change the permalinks go to Settings > Permalinks and select which format you want as your new links. You can also change how your tags and categories URLs are shown.

5. Install Analytics Plugin

Now that you have the basics of your blog setup you need to start installing some WordPress plugins to add some additional functionality that is essential to any website.

First of all you will need a good Analytics system to keep track of your visitors. The best free analytics system is Google Analytics, they provide lots of reports and give you the ability to create your own reports to capture exactly what your visitors are doing. You need to know where your visitors are coming from and what marketing is working and what isn’t.

If you don’t want to go around playing with the blog theme then here are some good analytics plugins.

1. Google Analytics for WordPress
2. Simple Google Analytics
3. Web Ninja Google Analytics
4. Google Analyticator

6. Install Spam Filter Plugin

The good thing about WordPress is that it is very popular so if you need support with any problem then you know there is always going to be help.

But the problem with WordPress being so popular and that it is open source software means it’s an easy target for spam comments, you will find that when your blog starts getting traffic you will get spam comments. These are comments from bots which only objective is to get a comment on your blog so they can link back to their own site. Spam comments can be annoying for the site owner and can look unprofessional on your blog.

It is essential that you have a good spam comment filter, the best one you can get is the Akisment plugin. This plugin will catch all spam comments so you don’t have to deal with them. You will need to go to akismet.com to get your private key to use the plugin, but when you do no more annoying spam.

7. Install Feedburner Plugin

Feedburner is a FREE service from Google which will keep track of your RSS feed, it will let you know how many people have subscribed to your RSS feed and who many people have viewed the posts on your RSS feed. The Feedburner plugin will automatically redirect all the default WordPress RSS feeds to Feedburner to keep track of your subscribers. All you have to do is sign up to Feedburner and then install the Feedburner plugin.

8. Install XML Sitemap Plugin

XML Sitemaps are used to let the search engines know what pages are on your site and what pages they need to crawl. It is best to have a manually made sitemap but for blogs there can be 100s of pages so this just isn’t practical, so get yourself a good Sitemap plugin to do the job for you. The plugin I use is Google XML Sitemaps, which will crawl my posts and automatically generate an XML file, compress it using gzip and ping the search engines about the sitemap.

9. Install Database Backup Plugin

Install a backup Database plugin to automatically make backups of your database, you don’t want something to go wrong with your web hosting and you lose all your hard work of generating content. The plugin I recommend for this is the originally named plugin WordPress Database Backup. It allows you to automatically make a backup of your database which can be stored on your server somewhere or emailed directly to your mailbox.

10. Change Blog General Settings

Make sure that you have changed the default settings under the general tab to make the theme act just how you want. This is where you will control the blog title, tagline, Website URL, the admin email address and the timezone. Make sure that the timezone is set to the timezone you expect this is so your scheduled posts are published at the correct time.

What are some of the first things you do when you install WordPress? Comment below and let us know! Please don’t forget to subscribe to the RSS-feed and follow Inspirationfeed on Twitter + Facebook (100% Spam Free!) If you enjoyed the following article we humbly ask you to comment, and help us spread the word with your peers!

16^th – 17^th centuries Giovanni Battista della Porta describes in his 1558 book, Natural Magic, the use of a lens instead of a pinhole in the camera obscura to make images appear sharper. Many artists use the camera obscura as an aid to accurately portray perspective in their work.

Cameras have come a long way since they were first invented in 1827. During 1827, Joseph Nicephore obtained the first fixed image which led to hundreds of years of ever-changing cameras and photos. There are many types of cameras currently on the market, but there wasn’t always a number of cameras to choose from. Below you will find a timeline of specific events, which have occurred throughout the years, which have contributed to the evolution of cameras and photography.

1840 Charles Chevalier constructs the first folding camera, with a sleeker and more portable design than the camera obscura. Its side panels can be unhinged from the body to fold flat and it is a daguerreotype camera, meaning it houses a film process in which highly polished silver-plated copper sheets are treated with light-sensitive silver-iodide.

1851 The wet collodion film process becomes very influential in camera design. Since the film needs to stay moist while making the exposure, the camera has to be fitted with draining channels for the negative material.

Mid 1850s Bellowed cameras are introduced to allow for movement and flexibility that the rigid designs did not allow. Advancements in the construction of the bellows allow for lenses with greater focal length and the ability for close-up photography, since the bellows adds distance to the camera.

1860 Thomas Sutton, a University of London photography lecturer, designs the first single lens reflex (SLR) camera. Through the use of mirrors inside the camera, the photographer can now get an accurate view of what will appear in the photograph.

1880-1900 As the construction of film evolves, dry-plate and roll-film versions of the SLR camera are created. Around this time, detective cameras, designed to be hidden in hats, watches and books, become popular but the fad doesn’t last long since the small photos are not practical and the image quality is very poor.

1881 Thomas Bolas constructs of one of the earliest twin lens reflex cameras. The camera uses one lens for the viewfinder and the other for taking the photograph. Similar to the SLR, the twin lens reflex uses mirrors for both lenses.

1888 The Eastman Company manufactures the Kodak, the first built-in roll-film box camera, ushering in the era of modern photography. This camera is lighter and easier to use than it predecessors, helping to make the art of photography more readily available to the masses. The company’s slogan is, “You press the button, we do the rest.”

1913 Oskar Barnack invents the UR- Leica, the prototype of the first 35-mm Leica camera. This is one of the earliest cameras to take 35-mm film and uses the 24x36mm standard image size.

1914 The George Eastman Company produces the first autographic roll-film camera. Autographic film has two layers, the front layer for recording the image and the back layer for writing information about the photo. Photographers write on the back of the film by opening a small door in the back of the camera. This is the first form of photographic data collecting.

1925 The Leica A is introduced and is the first 35-mm camera to gain commercial success because of its portability, superior construction and advanced lens quality.

1930 Johannes Ostermeier patents the first commercially available flashbulb, called Vacublitz. Around this time, General Electric makes its own version of the flashbulb, called Sashalite.

1936 Kine introduces the Exakta, the world’s first 35 mm SLR. Its small design remains almost unchanged until 1949.

1947 Edwin H. Land creates the Polaroid camera. It is the first camera to deliver instant results, producing a positive image in 60 seconds.

1959 The Nikon F, a 35-mm SLR camera, is introduced. Although many cameras come close, the Nikon F is said to be the first real professional 35-mm SLR and is used by photojournalists.

1963 Kodak announces the Kodak Instamatic, a camera that is fully automatic. All the user has to do is load the film cartridges. The camera is a mass-produced success.

1981 Although the technology is already being used for government purposes, Sony introduces the Mavica, the first commercially available electronic still camera. This camera does not use film. Instead, it records images onto a minidisk, which can then be connected to a computer for viewing. While this camera is not digital, its technology is the precursor to the digital revolution.

1985 Konica Minolta releases the Maxxum 700 AF SLR, the world’s first true autofocus SLR. A variety of autofocus lenses are built for the camera.

1986 Fuji introduces the first disposable camera. The camera, called the Quicksnap, is box-shaped and can take about 20 pictures on 35-mm film.

1987 The first camera of the popular Canon EOS series is developed. The camera includes full electronic control throughout as well as an all-electronic lens mount.

1991 Kodak introduces the first digital camera. It is an updated version of the Nikon F-3 with a Kodak 1.3-megapixel image sensor. This camera is targeted at photojournalists, not mass-market consumers.

1994 The first digital camera for consumer use is the Apple QuickTake 100. This camera can be connected to a computer using a serial cable.

Present Digital cameras continue to increase in quality and capacity as technology advances. A range of professional digital SLRs, like the 50-megapixel Hasselblad H3D11- 50, point-and-shoot digital cameras, like the Sony DSCW300 Cyber-shot, and models in between, like the Nikon D-40, are being produced.

15^th century Although the concept is expressed much earlier, Leonardo da Vinci gives the first detailed description of the camera obscura, a dark box with a pinhole at one end and a glass screen at the other. When light shines through the pinhole an image appears on the screen.

16^th – 17^th centuries Giovanni Battista della Porta describes in his 1558 book, Natural Magic, the use of a lens instead of a pinhole in the camera obscura to make images appear sharper. Many artists use the camera obscura as an aid to accurately portray perspective in their work.

Cameras have come a long way since they were first invented in 1827. During 1827, Joseph Nicephore obtained the first fixed image which led to hundreds of years of ever-changing cameras and photos. There are many types of cameras currently on the market, but there wasn’t always a number of cameras to choose from. Below you will find a timeline of specific events, which have occurred throughout the years, which have contributed to the evolution of cameras and photography.

1840 Charles Chevalier constructs the first folding camera, with a sleeker and more portable design than the camera obscura. Its side panels can be unhinged from the body to fold flat and it is a daguerreotype camera, meaning it houses a film process in which highly polished silver-plated copper sheets are treated with light-sensitive silver-iodide.

1851 The wet collodion film process becomes very influential in camera design. Since the film needs to stay moist while making the exposure, the camera has to be fitted with draining channels for the negative material.

Mid 1850s Bellowed cameras are introduced to allow for movement and flexibility that the rigid designs did not allow. Advancements in the construction of the bellows allow for lenses with greater focal length and the ability for close-up photography, since the bellows adds distance to the camera.

1860 Thomas Sutton, a University of London photography lecturer, designs the first single lens reflex (SLR) camera. Through the use of mirrors inside the camera, the photographer can now get an accurate view of what will appear in the photograph.

1880-1900 As the construction of film evolves, dry-plate and roll-film versions of the SLR camera are created. Around this time, detective cameras, designed to be hidden in hats, watches and books, become popular but the fad doesn’t last long since the small photos are not practical and the image quality is very poor.

1881 Thomas Bolas constructs of one of the earliest twin lens reflex cameras. The camera uses one lens for the viewfinder and the other for taking the photograph. Similar to the SLR, the twin lens reflex uses mirrors for both lenses.

1888 The Eastman Company manufactures the Kodak, the first built-in roll-film box camera, ushering in the era of modern photography. This camera is lighter and easier to use than it predecessors, helping to make the art of photography more readily available to the masses. The company’s slogan is, “You press the button, we do the rest.”

1913 Oskar Barnack invents the UR- Leica, the prototype of the first 35-mm Leica camera. This is one of the earliest cameras to take 35-mm film and uses the 24x36mm standard image size.

1914 The George Eastman Company produces the first autographic roll-film camera. Autographic film has two layers, the front layer for recording the image and the back layer for writing information about the photo. Photographers write on the back of the film by opening a small door in the back of the camera. This is the first form of photographic data collecting.

1925 The Leica A is introduced and is the first 35-mm camera to gain commercial success because of its portability, superior construction and advanced lens quality.

1930 Johannes Ostermeier patents the first commercially available flashbulb, called Vacublitz. Around this time, General Electric makes its own version of the flashbulb, called Sashalite.

1936 Kine introduces the Exakta, the world’s first 35 mm SLR. Its small design remains almost unchanged until 1949.

1947 Edwin H. Land creates the Polaroid camera. It is the first camera to deliver instant results, producing a positive image in 60 seconds.

1959 The Nikon F, a 35-mm SLR camera, is introduced. Although many cameras come close, the Nikon F is said to be the first real professional 35-mm SLR and is used by photojournalists.

1963 Kodak announces the Kodak Instamatic, a camera that is fully automatic. All the user has to do is load the film cartridges. The camera is a mass-produced success.

1981 Although the technology is already being used for government purposes, Sony introduces the Mavica, the first commercially available electronic still camera. This camera does not use film. Instead, it records images onto a minidisk, which can then be connected to a computer for viewing. While this camera is not digital, its technology is the precursor to the digital revolution.

1985 Konica Minolta releases the Maxxum 700 AF SLR, the world’s first true autofocus SLR. A variety of autofocus lenses are built for the camera.

1986 Fuji introduces the first disposable camera. The camera, called the Quicksnap, is box-shaped and can take about 20 pictures on 35-mm film.

1987 The first camera of the popular Canon EOS series is developed. The camera includes full electronic control throughout as well as an all-electronic lens mount.

1991 Kodak introduces the first digital camera. It is an updated version of the Nikon F-3 with a Kodak 1.3-megapixel image sensor. This camera is targeted at photojournalists, not mass-market consumers.

1994 The first digital camera for consumer use is the Apple QuickTake 100. This camera can be connected to a computer using a serial cable.

Present Digital cameras continue to increase in quality and capacity as technology advances. A range of professional digital SLRs, like the 50-megapixel Hasselblad H3D11- 50, point-and-shoot digital cameras, like the Sony DSCW300 Cyber-shot, and models in between, like the Nikon D-40, are being produced.

I am not a Market expert…I am writing this with minimum knowledge as what layman thinks of current market situations and what impacts our daily lives…???

The simple Bull and Bear phase means – Bull-pushes market ahead and Bear-Drags…pulls back and we all know currently Bear phase as our market is sinking. Let’s see who is going to be dominant and till when…

Whenever people have started losing their hopes on market…gold & silver prices have shooted up as they start investing more into such metals.

To give you some stats Today 27th Aug, The Nifty(NSE slipped to an 18-month low 4728 before closing at 4747 down 91 points. Meanwhile, the Sensex dived 297 points to close below the 16000 support at 15848.

As the market falls below, the companies got less money to run their business. Less Money means there might be salary cut or workforce reduction to run the business. Workforce reductions means in simple terms another Recession!! Everyone know what recession is, we have experienced this recently and expecting yet another one. Hoping we don’t see such bad phase again. Cant again see our loved ones ending their life or going to struggle phase again.

We might think this is because of S&P downgrading America’s credit rating from AAA to AA+. This in simple terms means their spending is more than their earnings…In Hindi language we say…”aamdani aathanni…and kharcha rupaiyya…” which means earning is 50 paise and expenses are 1 rupee. Everyone was aware that they were in Big debt and with S&P’s certification it because evident. Americans were always a super power and they will get it back soon. But the big problem which we have not seen is bail out of European Union…they too are in Big debt.

We are seeing the FIIs who matter the most for Indian market are pulling out their money during hard times. European Union problem is continuing but a lot will depend on how RBI reacts to these situations. Next RBI meet is on 15th Sep.

In my personal opinion this is just a temporary phase and things will go normal in few days…so stay invested…don’t pull out your money….let it be under suspense account… No one has been able to challenge the market. If experts knew it all why didn’t they advice us yesterday. Going back to the history the Market has behaved similar many times over last 100 years and no one has been able to challenge this and told what should be right or wrong. Let’s all hope things would go Normal sooner.

Please give us your feedback and thoughts as what you think about the current market situation….any kind of thoughts are accepted….

I am not a Market expert…I am writing this with minimum knowledge as what layman thinks of current market situations and what impacts our daily lives…???

The simple Bull and Bear phase means – Bull-pushes market ahead and Bear-Drags…pulls back and we all know currently Bear phase as our market is sinking. Let’s see who is going to be dominant and till when…

Whenever people have started losing their hopes on market…gold & silver prices have shooted up as they start investing more into such metals.

To give you some stats Today 27th Aug, The Nifty(NSE slipped to an 18-month low 4728 before closing at 4747 down 91 points. Meanwhile, the Sensex dived 297 points to close below the 16000 support at 15848.

As the market falls below, the companies got less money to run their business. Less Money means there might be salary cut or workforce reduction to run the business. Workforce reductions means in simple terms another Recession!! Everyone know what recession is, we have experienced this recently and expecting yet another one. Hoping we don’t see such bad phase again. Cant again see our loved ones ending their life or going to struggle phase again.

We might think this is because of S&P downgrading America’s credit rating from AAA to AA+. This in simple terms means their spending is more than their earnings…In Hindi language we say…”aamdani aathanni…and kharcha rupaiyya…” which means earning is 50 paise and expenses are 1 rupee. Everyone was aware that they were in Big debt and with S&P’s certification it because evident. Americans were always a super power and they will get it back soon. But the big problem which we have not seen is bail out of European Union…they too are in Big debt.

We are seeing the FIIs who matter the most for Indian market are pulling out their money during hard times. European Union problem is continuing but a lot will depend on how RBI reacts to these situations. Next RBI meet is on 15th Sep.

In my personal opinion this is just a temporary phase and things will go normal in few days…so stay invested…don’t pull out your money….let it be under suspense account… No one has been able to challenge the market. If experts knew it all why didn’t they advice us yesterday. Going back to the history the Market has behaved similar many times over last 100 years and no one has been able to challenge this and told what should be right or wrong. Let’s all hope things would go Normal sooner.

Please give us your feedback and thoughts as what you think about the current market situation….any kind of thoughts are accepted….

For months before I upgrade my mobile phone, I will sit and research all the current phones and phones due for release. Firstly, there is no doubt that it will be a smart-phone. According to Gartner, smart-phones accounted for 23.6% of all mobile phones sales in the first quarter of 2011, an increase of 85.6% year-on-year. Then it comes down to which of the major smart-phone OSes you support: Android, iOS, Blackberry OS, Windows Mobile, Palm or Symbian?

In the last two years or so, a lot has changed in the world of smart-phones as can be seen by the data available from Comscore and Gartner. If you analyse worldwide smart-phone sales from 2009 to present, things are very interesting indeed. In the days before Cupcake (version 1.5) and Donut (version 1.6), when the only Android phone was the HTC Dream (G1), in the first quarter of 2009, Android only had 1.6% of the world smart-phone market. By quarter one, a year later, in 2010, they were close to 10%, and had climbed above Microsoft and all the other OSes. Symbian, iOS and RIM were still the dominant players though. At this stage, Android phones coming out were on the Eclair (version 2.1) release of their OS and Froyo (2.2) was expected by quarter two of 2010. The only significant jump for the iOS was in quarter three of 2009 shortly after version 3.x of it’s OS was released in June 2009. By quarter three of 2010 though, there were two major changes visible in the sales of mobile phones, as both Android and iOS jumping above RIM and Android showing them both the way of things to come by jumping to the second spot, a massive 15.9% climb over 6 months. By the first quarter of this year, Android would be on it’s latest versions of OS, Gingerbread (version 2.3) for mobile phones and Honeycomb (3.0) for tablet devices.

Things aren’t much different if we look at the US smart-phone OS market. For some reason Comscore, who supply the data, don’t seem to consider Symbian to a smart-phone, not that I completely disagree, especially since Nokia have started going to Microsoft for their OS and Sony-Ericcson have been using Android for a while now on their smart-phones, but it would have been interesting to see nonetheless. Shortly after the first Android phones hit the market in 2009, the Android OS only had a market share of 2.5%. RIM was smiling with a market share of over 40%. I’m pretty sure they had no idea how things would change. Fast forward to May 2010 and Android had overtaken (or almost) the previous number three, Microsoft, and number four, Palm, who were losing market share quite consistently. They weren’t the only ones affected either, while Apple were idling along at around the 25% mark, RIM were just starting to lose grip. The trend continued for Android until sometime around November last year, when they overtook Apple for second place.

By January this year, Microsoft and Palm were choking on their competitor’s fumes at 8% and 3.2% respectively. More importantly though, in less than two years, Android had grown to the point where it was the number one smart-phone OS in the US. I’m not the biggest fan of Blackberry or Symbian phones admittedly, so it’s no big loss, but with Android and Apple controlling close to two thirds of the smart-phone market in the US and dominating smart-phone sales worldwide (close to 60%), it’s going to take something drastic to change the way things are currently going. Maybe Nokia’s move from their now-archaic Symbian OS to the Windows 7 phone OS could do that? But then what about the rumours of the new iPhone 5/4S or even talk of the iPhone 6. You also cant ignore the fact that all-unifying version 4 of Android’s OS due out by the end of the year.

For months before I upgrade my mobile phone, I will sit and research all the current phones and phones due for release. Firstly, there is no doubt that it will be a smart-phone. According to Gartner, smart-phones accounted for 23.6% of all mobile phones sales in the first quarter of 2011, an increase of 85.6% year-on-year. Then it comes down to which of the major smart-phone OSes you support: Android, iOS, Blackberry OS, Windows Mobile, Palm or Symbian?

In the last two years or so, a lot has changed in the world of smart-phones as can be seen by the data available from Comscore and Gartner. If you analyse worldwide smart-phone sales from 2009 to present, things are very interesting indeed. In the days before Cupcake (version 1.5) and Donut (version 1.6), when the only Android phone was the HTC Dream (G1), in the first quarter of 2009, Android only had 1.6% of the world smart-phone market. By quarter one, a year later, in 2010, they were close to 10%, and had climbed above Microsoft and all the other OSes. Symbian, iOS and RIM were still the dominant players though. At this stage, Android phones coming out were on the Eclair (version 2.1) release of their OS and Froyo (2.2) was expected by quarter two of 2010. The only significant jump for the iOS was in quarter three of 2009 shortly after version 3.x of it’s OS was released in June 2009. By quarter three of 2010 though, there were two major changes visible in the sales of mobile phones, as both Android and iOS jumping above RIM and Android showing them both the way of things to come by jumping to the second spot, a massive 15.9% climb over 6 months. By the first quarter of this year, Android would be on it’s latest versions of OS, Gingerbread (version 2.3) for mobile phones and Honeycomb (3.0) for tablet devices.

Things aren’t much different if we look at the US smart-phone OS market. For some reason Comscore, who supply the data, don’t seem to consider Symbian to a smart-phone, not that I completely disagree, especially since Nokia have started going to Microsoft for their OS and Sony-Ericcson have been using Android for a while now on their smart-phones, but it would have been interesting to see nonetheless. Shortly after the first Android phones hit the market in 2009, the Android OS only had a market share of 2.5%. RIM was smiling with a market share of over 40%. I’m pretty sure they had no idea how things would change. Fast forward to May 2010 and Android had overtaken (or almost) the previous number three, Microsoft, and number four, Palm, who were losing market share quite consistently. They weren’t the only ones affected either, while Apple were idling along at around the 25% mark, RIM were just starting to lose grip. The trend continued for Android until sometime around November last year, when they overtook Apple for second place.

By January this year, Microsoft and Palm were choking on their competitor’s fumes at 8% and 3.2% respectively. More importantly though, in less than two years, Android had grown to the point where it was the number one smart-phone OS in the US. I’m not the biggest fan of Blackberry or Symbian phones admittedly, so it’s no big loss, but with Android and Apple controlling close to two thirds of the smart-phone market in the US and dominating smart-phone sales worldwide (close to 60%), it’s going to take something drastic to change the way things are currently going. Maybe Nokia’s move from their now-archaic Symbian OS to the Windows 7 phone OS could do that? But then what about the rumours of the new iPhone 5/4S or even talk of the iPhone 6. You also cant ignore the fact that all-unifying version 4 of Android’s OS due out by the end of the year.