Joe Wilcox

AOL stock hit its lowest point since the company separated from Time Warner, after a 25.75 percent death-tumble. A last-minute rally pulled shares up, which earlier had fallen by more than 26 percent. AOL closed at $11.19, down from its $15.19 opening.

The disastrous day of trading followed another. Yesterday, on the first day following Standard & Poor's downgrade of the United States credit rating to AA+ from AAA, the Dow closed down a stunning 635 points and Nasdaq declined by 6.9 percent -- taking many tech stocks with it.

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Gasp. You read the headline right. Today, Apple won an injunction against major rival Samsung. A Dusseldorf court issued the injunction, which is preliminary.

Did I not write just a few hours ago claiming Apple is engaging in competition by litigation, rather than innovation? According to IDC, Samsung is Apple's biggest competitor in the tablet market. But rather than compete, the market leader has engaged in a campaign to block Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales just as the tablet launches in many countries around the world. What I find so surprising: How easily Apple is let off by bloggers and journalists for bullying behavior that would generate scathing headlines if Google or Microsoft was the protagonist.

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Apple's patent bullying continues -- competition by litigation rather than innovation. Today the US International Trade Commission agreed to investigate five patents Apple claims that HTC violates.

Perhaps Apple smells blood in the water, from an earlier, somewhat favorable ruling. The company sued HTC for patent infringement in March 2010; at the time, HTC was one of the largest -- if not the largest -- Android licensees. I called the lawsuit "competition by litigation" -- "where Apple hopes to scare off mobile manufacturers from licensing Android". Apple's lawsuit alleged HTC infringed 20 patents. It was really an attack on Google and Android and it seemed frivolous. Still, about a month ago, ITC ruled in Apple's favor on two of the 20 patents.

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US stock markets closed markedly down on Monday, following a massive but expected sell-off. Late Friday, Standard & Poor's downgraded the United States' coveted AAA rating to AA+. Even the sturdiest of tech stocks couldn't avoid being collateral damage that stripped billions from their valuations.

For example, Apple's market cap was $327.46 billion, down from  $337.04 billion during mid-day trading that already had sapped billions in valuation and reversed gains against Exxon Mobile. The energy giant is the most valuable company as measured by market cap of $345.76 billion. Still, it's likely that barring some utter catastrophe Apple's valuation could top Exxon's before iPhone 5 ships.

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The United States may have lost its coveted AAA credit rating with Standard & Poor's, but, hey, it's still higher than most tech companies -- but not as good as Microsoft's. That's right, Microsoft is rated AAA and one of the few tech stocks that is.

Friday's stunning downgrade rocked stock markets across the globe today, with tech stocks also taking a hit. But Moody's today reaffirmed the United States' AAA rating, offering relief that could help mollify investors' fears, which are exacerbated by continued debt crises in Europe.

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Friday's Standard & Poor's downgrade of the United States' crediting rating from coveted AAA to AA+ has set off a trading tsunami that is washing over tech stocks. Apple, Google and Microsoft are among the heavy-hitters taking a hit in early trading -- the first day since the shocking announcement.

"The downgrade reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the Administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government's medium-term debt dynamics", S&P says in the Friday statement. "More broadly, the downgrade reflects our view that the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges to a degree more than we envisioned when we assigned a negative outlook to the rating on April 18, 2011".

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I can't apply updates. C`mon, how hard must this be?

Generally, I prefer Galaxy Tab 10.1 to iPad 2. I like how the device feels in the hand, and I'm now accustomed to its longer, narrower shape when held in portrait mode. I find Tab to be generally faster and more responsive than iPad 2, and Android 3.1 is considerably more pleasing than iOS 4. I could go on -- and would -- in a full review, which I was saving for Samsung's TouchWiz UX user interface/skin that released Friday. I can't install it -- hell, I can't even come close.

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Well, so much for Facebook's 750 million active users as a competitive advantage.

IDC's quarterly survey of mobile developers couldn't have come at a better time for Google, soon after its Plus service opened on an invite-only beta basis. Developers -- 2,012 surveyed from July 20-22 -- are enthusiastic about Google+. "Two-thirds of respondents believe that Google can catch up to Facebook in social with Google+", according to the report.

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They don't have capacity to meet demand and likely can't build profitable infrastructure fast enough. New data from Gartner explains why.

The analyst firm predicts that the number of mobile connections will reach 5.6 billion this year, up from 5 billion in 2010. By 2015, Gartner expects the number will reach a stunning 7.4 billion. That's not as fast as global population growth -- reaching 7 billion people this year -- but it's plenty enough to generate big revenues and big headaches for carriers and their customers.

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I've got a puzzle for the oft-vocal Apple Fanclub of bloggers and reporters. In June, many of them claimed that Verizon iPhone had stalled Android's US growth and that the days of massive gains were over for Google's mobile platform. How does that reconcile with ComScore's newest smartphone data, released today?

At TechCrunch, MG Siegler led the charge in ridiculous late-June post: "The Verizon iPhone Halted Android's Surge. The iPhone 5 Could Reverse It". Other Fanclubbers followed his lead. I rebutted the lot with "Android is unstoppable". The available data didn't support Siegler's assertion then, and even less so today.

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"Patents were meant to encourage innovation, but lately they are being used as a weapon to stop it", David Drummond, Google chief legal officer, writes in a blog post late yesterday afternoon. He's absolutely right.

For weeks I've been thinking about writing a commentary about how Apple has become a patent bully -- that its behavior answers an ongoing question of discussion going on for years. Drummond's blog post tipped me to doing it.

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IDC jumps into the debate about Android and mobile developer priorities. Apple's iOS leads the pack, but Android is primed for gains -- even more, if only Google could sort out the messy tablet problem.

Assuming apps really matter -- and IDC's findings suggest perhaps not as much as technorati believe -- then which platforms developers prioritize are important, too. IDC surveyed more than 2,000 developers in late July, finding that 91 percent are "very interested" in iOS iPhone, followed by iPad (88 percent). Android for phone is 87 percent, while 74 percent for Honeycomb. Android interest increased on both phones and tablets -- by 2 and 3 percentage points, respectively, from three months earlier. By comparison, developer interest in iOS was flat for phones and up 2 points for tablets.

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Best Buy's deal of the day, August 3, is the Samsung-manufactured, Google-branded Nexus S for free with two-year activation. The handset normally sells for $99, with models for AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile to choose from.

I normally don't write about deals like this one, but Nexus S is unique for offering a so-called "pure Google" experience. Google pushes the new versions of Android 2.x as they become available. There's no waiting on carriers, and there's no crapware or special skins (e.g., user interfaces) slapped on top. If you want Android at its best, Nexus S is the only way to get it right now.

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Sync is the killer application for the connected world, an assertion I've been making for about six years now. With iCloud, Apple has the chance to catch up sync ground lost after becoming an early leader and falling away.

Late yesterday, iCloud launched in beta to developers. The service is slated to release this autumn, presumably concurrent with iPhone 5 and iOS 5.

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Canalys issued its final second-quarter smartphone shipments data today -- and, whoa, by that measure Android is doing exceptionally well. Worldwide, smartphone shipments grew 73 percent year over year, but Android grew much faster -- 379 percent year over year. The analyst firm tracks smartphones in 56 countries, and Android was tops in 35 of them. For the quarter, Android reached 48 percent global market share.

Android's share is greatest among Asia-Pacific countries, which is the largest regional market. In South Korea, for example, Android market share is 85 percent -- 71 percent in Taiwan. Manufacturers shipped 107.7 million smartphones during Q2, 51.9 million of them running Android. HTC, Huawei, LG, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and ZTE are among the manufacturers benefitting from Android's success and, of course, contributing to it.

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