According to statistics firm Quantcast, Android devices now account for 25 percent of North America’s mobile Internet traffic. Traffic for Google’s Android OS increased 2 percent, while the market share for Apple’s iOS 4 and other mobile operating systems decreased.

In a previous post on its blog, Quantcast noted that web traffic for the iPad is not included in the figures for Apple’s iOS, which could significantly raise Apple’s market share if included. Quantcast did not specify if the iPad’s figures were included with the firm’s latest statistics.

Within the past year, Apple has lost 11 percent of its web market share to other operating systems, while Google has gained 17 percent. Steve Jobs & Co. still hold the most market share with 56 percent of all mobile Internet traffic coming from iOS 4.

AppleInsider points out that if Google can “maintain another year of comparable growth, Android will be nearly neck-and-neck with iOS.” Research in Motion, the makers of the BlackBerry devices, are steadily losing ground as its market share slips to 9 percent.

When Google announced that it would be no longer selling the Nexus One, the search company arranged that developers, who are registered through the Android Market, could be able to purchase the device as a development platform.

It was obvious that Google was about to cancel production on the phones, as the Nexus One only selling 80,000 devices in the same amount of time as the iPhone’s 1 million. The cease in production has almost been like a brilliant marketing plan, because Google has hit a shortage of AMOLED screens.

The Nexus One has sold out, and are currently on back-order with HTC. According to the Android Developers official blog:

“A couple of weeks ago, we arranged that registered developers could buy an unlocked Nexus One via their publisher page in Android Market. We think it’s a good development platform and a nice phone. Apparently, you agree. Somewhat too many of you, in fact; we blew through the (substantial) initial inventory in almost no time, and they’re back-ordered from HTC, who are doing a pretty good job of managing runaway success amid a worldwide AMOLED shortage. Everyone appreciates that it’s important to the platform to get phones in the hands of developers, so we’re working hard on re-stocking the shelves; stand by.”

During Hewlett-Packard’s earnings call today, the company confirmed that a webOS tablet is coming, and that it will release “a webOS-based product in early 2011.” This will be the third operating system that HP will support, the others being the Windows 7-based Slate and the Android-based Zeen e-reader.

HP has been in the news a lot lately, as the company has acquired Palm and forced its CEO to resign after the HP board found his business practices to be unethical.

The Palm acquisition caught everyone off guard, but made perfect sense as HP had been wanting to cash in on the smartphone craze. webOS is Palm’s flagship mobile operating system, and it had been intended to use in other larger scales, but Palm could not afford it.

It will be interesting to see what brand will be stamped on the tablet. There has been no confirmation on whether or not the Palm brand will exist under HP’s ownership.

eBay’s PayPal service is set to add its payment services to Android, Google’s mobile operating system, as a way for users to pay for applications, sources close to Bloomberg have said.

Google is currently using its Checkout service to allow users to pay for applications, but users of certain devices, may be able to use PayPal as early as this year, according to the sources who wish to remain unknown.

Google is using PayPal as a way to get developers to create more apps for the operating system, as it would be, yet, another way to get paid. There are currently 70,000 applications for Android devices, while Apple is largely dominating the market with 225,000 for its iPod Touch and iPhones.

Although Apple is dominating the market share with its iTunes App Store, Google’s Android devices are beginning to outsell the Californian company. Google is gaining an advantage by adopting PayPal has its new purchasing service. Google already as a rival service with similar features, but by dumping that for PayPal, it will gain 87 million active accounts.

iTunes users can buy apps with one touch because their payment information is already stored. All you have to do is enter your password. Google’s Checkout service is very similar, but it’s not popular, and creates a problem with new registrations.

Spokespersons from, both, Google and eBay declined to comment.

Google has released a new mobile application, for its Android mobile operating system, called Voice Actions. For the phones that come capabile of using Voice Actions (some phones can’t use the service), it will allow users to dictate e-mails and SMS text messages with just using your voice.

The phone will also dial contacts and specific locations without a click of a button. You can say, “Call Ridglea Theater, Fort Worth, Texas,” and the phone will start dialing. The service uses Google Maps to look up the location, and gets the phone number from there.

The service is only available on devices with the updated Android 2.2 software update. Currently, only the Motorola Droid 2 and the now discontinued Nexus One.

If you have one of these phones, then you can download the app for free.

Oracle announced on Thursday that the company has filed a lawsuit against Google, claiming that its flagship Android operating system infringes upon Oracle’s Java-related copyrights and patents.

A spokeswoman for Oracle said in a statement that Google knew about the Oracle patents before it finished developing Android. The Oracle lawsuit aims to seek “appropriate remedies” for Google’s repeated infringements.

The lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in San Francisco, seeks a jury trial, which comes as a surprising move. It is unknown whether or not Oracle came to Google before the company filed suit.

The lawsuit comes from the fact that Oracle bought Sun Microsystems, and its Java platform, in 2009. Java is a software platform that allows its applications to run on any computer as long as Java’s virtual machine is installed.

Google developed a similar service for its Android smart-phones called Dalvik. The service was developed as a “clean room” version of Java, meaning that it was developed from scratch without using any actual Sun technology, but Java was definitely used as a reference for Google.

Oracle views Dalvik as a competitor to Java and allegedly infringes on its patents, which was listed in the lawsuit, and the copyright for Java.

“You can’t just take a Java application from a Sun environment, where it’s licensed, and run it on Android. You have to recompile it to Dalvik,” Ken Dulaney, an analyst for Gartner, told Computerworld.

Oracle is, no doubt, wanting to receive royalties for the use of the patents, as Google’s entry into the smart-phone world, with Android, has been highly successful.

At the Microsoft Global Exchange 2010 conference, the software manufacturer announced that it would be giving all of its employees a Windows 7 phone. The corporation currently has over 90,000 employees around the world.

The move was predictable as Google and Apple, both, gave its employees Nexus Ones and iPhones, respectively. Palm has been the only other major smart-phone manufacturer that has not given its employees phones.

Andy Lees, Microsoft’s Senior VP of Mobile had this to say in an internal email, “With all the buzz, a lot of you are asking how you can get your hands on a phone and get more involved. So, I am thrilled to announce that a new Windows Phone 7 will be made available to every Microsoft employee as we launch in each market around the world. The process will vary based on your market, your carrier, and your launch date so stay tuned for more information closer to launch.”

Source: Gizmodo [via Neowin]

Nokia Corporation, which has been struggling in the smart-phone business, is reportedly looking for a new CEO to replace Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo.

The Wall Street Journal reported that “sources close to the situation” have said that the move is due to Nokia not being able to keep up in the smart-phone race and hold valid competition against Apple and Android-based phones. Even though the company still sells more mobile phones than any other manufacturer, the Finland-based company’s stock has dropped 42% since April.

The WSJ had trouble reaching Nokia spokespeople in Finland, however, a U.S.-based spokeswoman declined to comment on the speculation. One of the New York City-based newspaper’s sources said that Nokia’s board members are set to make a decision at the end of the month.

According to sources, Nokia has flown in, at least, two U.S.-based CEOs of major technology companies for interviews and neither were interested in moving to Espoo, Finland, the company’s international headquarters.

Analysts blame the Finnish company’s operating system and its applications to compete with Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android operating system, which has recently taken the world by storm in the Motorola Droid X.

After failing to meet expectations, Google is saying goodbye to its flagship phone, the HTC Nexus One. The phone will no longer be available on the search engine’s website reported ComputerWorld.

Customer support will still be available for the Android device in the United States and developers will still have access to it. Google also noted that the phone will still be sold through European and Asian carriers with the likelihood of being sold in other markets if the conditions are right.

Google only attempted to sell the Android smartphone for six months, which is about half of a smartphone’s lifespan. Usually after a year, smartphones end up being replaced by newer models since the technology is always being revamped and out-done by competitors.