Google Inc. sold about 80,000 units of its Nexus One phone during its first month, putting up figures one-eighth the number of Apple iPhones that company sold in its debut month.

Google is facing an uphill climb in terms of establishing themselves as a reliable brand in the mobile world, so the sluggish sales figures are kind of expected. The company is still looking for a new model for pricing, for example, and they also lack a streamlined distribution set-up that enables customers to purchase the product without much confusion.

Google broke with convention in setting up its sales model, launching the smartphone without the use of cell phone providers. The intention was to sell the Nexus One to consumers without a cell phone company contract.

Flurry Inc., an analytics group, has been watching the sales of the Nexus One and has been comparing those sales to Apple’s first run with the iPhone. While Nexus One’s sales have been steady out of the gate, iPhone sales exploded during the same time period. Apple sold 1 million iPhone products during the first 76 days of sales.

Some blame Google’s lack of advertising on the sluggish sales, noting that it almost seems arrogant for Google to suggest that the Google name itself would be enough to move some serious units. It’s turning out that Google’s refusal to move in with a service provider or cell phone company could be harming things, too. And the $529 price tag isn’t much of a help.

So where does Google go from here with the Nexus One? Will the sales be enough to have the company continuing in this fashion or will they cave and join forces to get some more publicity? Is Google experiencing, perhaps for the first time, a problem in name exposure?

It may not be one of the big news stories of the week and it may not even raise that many eyebrows, but the notion that the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is going to hear arguments on Thursday about the proper legal standards to apply when dealing with cell phone location data could be one of the most important privacy rights battles to occur this generation.

Cell phone location data is recorded every seven seconds or so when a cell phone is turned on. This data allows authorities to track the locations of just about every single cell phone user in the United States.

Lawyers for the Justice Department are arguing that they only need something known as “reasonable grounds” to apply for the release of this cell phone location data.

February 2008 saw a regional judge disagree with the Justice Department’s mandate, however. It was then argued, rightly, that the JD must meet the probably cause standards already in place.

“This court believes that citizens continue to hold a reasonable expectation of privacy in the information the government seeks regarding their physical movements/locations — even now that such information is routinely produced by their cell phones — and that, therefore, the government’s investigatory search of such information continues to be protected by the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisa Pupo Lenihan wrote at the time.

The 3rd Circuit is getting set to appeal the Lenihan ruling, which may make for some interesting legal interpretations here. Indeed, the 3rd Circuit will be the first federal appellate court to tackle this important question of privacy.

Lawyers from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Democracy & Technology and the American Civil Liberties Union will be taking on the Justice Department in the case.

Software engineer and security expert Nicolas Seriot, in a presentation at the Black Hat Conference in DC, laid into Apple’s iPhone and talked all kinds of smack about its security claims.

In his address, Seriot pointed to a number of security issues with the iPhone. While Apple does use “sandboxing” technology to restrict iPhone applications to operating system resources with a list of “apply/deny” type permissions, Seriot pointed out that the controls and permissions on the list were too loose.

“Apple should not claim that an application cannot access data from another application,” said Seriot.

Seriot’s inside track on the iPhone comes from the fact that he works as an iPhone programming trainer.

Seriot went on to explain that a number of apps for the iPhone made it into the blessed App Store, representing a serious lack of security and accountability. These apps floated into the Store before being de-listed for privacy violations that included the harvesting of emails.

According to Seriot’s findings, about 8% of iPhones today are believed to be “jailbroken.” Essentially an iPhone that has been jailbroken is an iPhone with disabled controls that can allow the user to run whatever software he or she wants. Malware aimed squarely at jailbroken phones is starting to grow, too, and that puts the whole operation at risk.

Another part of Seriot’s investigation into iPhone security discovered that sensitive personal data could be obtained by building an app using known iPhone APIs. This opens the door for a lot of potential damage and illustrates just how easy it can be for people to get their hands on private information like emails and search results.

So will Seriot’s findings be exposed to a broader world and will Apple get to work on fixing the problems he’s addressed? Or will they turn a blind eye to the obvious deficiencies in iPhone security while claiming that it boasts some of the tightest, safest options around?

Sony Ericsson is introducing yet another mobile device to their already impressive lineup. The Aspen is a new Windows Mobile phone and it’ll be making its debut for sales in the second quarter of this year.

The phone features a 2.4 inch (240×320, 65k color) TFT touchscreen and a QWERTY keyboard along with A-GPS, Wi-Fi, FM radio and Bluetooth. The phone doesn’t lack MicroSD compatibility, but the MicroSD card isn’t included with the purchase price of the phone so consumers will have to grab one on their own.

The Aspen features a 3.2 megapixel camera and 4x digital zoom, making it a pretty standard phone all things considered. The fact that this phone doesn’t feature an 9 megapixel camera is a bit surprising, especially considering industry standards these days.

There is a 3.5mm headphone jack and a stereo speaker included with the Aspen, however, which does make for a somewhat impressive audio setup. Overall, however, it’s hard to shake the notion that SE’s latest offering is little more than an average phone that doesn’t try to do much above and beyond the call of duty.

And perhaps that’s the problem for Sony Ericsson. We’ve already reported about the company lagging behind other industry power players like Apple and phones like the Aspen aren’t going to turn many heads, especially if they include subpar cameras and equipment setups.

Software is where Sony Ericsson hopes to make up for the lackluster design. It’s a pretty loaded phone in terms of goodies, I suppose, with access to the PlayNow store and a host of the usual applications included. There’s also a PDF reader and Microsoft mobile.

Even so, the phone still smacks of all things average. The appearance of Windows Mobile is going to be enough to turn some people off and SE’s experimenting with other operating systems isn’t endearing them to the cause of consistency. With Sony Ericsson already puttering around with Android and Symbian, one has to wonder what the customer base thinks of so much shifting.

So will the Aspen make a dent in sales for Sony Ericsson? It’s doubtful. Hardware-wise the phone just isn’t up to snuff and the software package, while impressive, doesn’t really put the phone above the norm. It’s just another ho-hum entry for Sony Ericsson and represents a further disappointment in a company that once seemed promising in the world of mobile devices.

It has begun, Canada. The police are out in force and are enforcing, at long last, the cell phone bans put in place. British Columbians are finding out the hard way that the grace period is over, as police officers are passing out fines across the province to drivers caught jabbering on their phones.

The fines kicked into gear in BC on Monday, with $167 being the average going rate. Those caught texting while driving faced three demerit points against their licenses.

New drivers find themselves under the tightest restrictions of all, with full bans from using any mobile devices in place. Hands-free devices are legal for everyone else, though.

The fines were being passed out in Ontario, too, where drivers faced similar police presence Monday. Fines in Ontario are slightly less than those in BC, with the price tag for driving while chatting on a cell phone coming in at $155.

Interestingly, the law in Ontario has actually been on the books since late October 2009 but the grace period has been extended so as to let drivers adjust to it. Police enforcement has focused largely on education and monitoring, with the fines not taking effect until Monday.

Whether the ban will have an impact remains to be seen, as studies coming out of the states appear to suggest that these legal actions aren’t particularly helping. Still, those studies are preliminary and many law enforcement experts suggest that the proof will be in the pudding on a long-term basis.

A rebound in cell phone sales in the fourth quarter of 2009 might indicate that the global recession is over or at least nearing its conclusion for the struggling mobile markets. According to figures compiled by global market research firms, global handset shipments were up 10%.

That brings the global handset shipments to a total of 324.4 million units shipped, up from the 293.8 million units shipped during the same quarter the previous year. Strategy Analytics notes that this marks the first period of growth in the industry since 2008’s third quarter.

ABI Research picked up on similar trends, noting that mobile shipments in the fourth quarter of 2009 grew about 15% from the third quarter of the same year.

The average price of the devices is falling, seemingly, with stiff competition creating a bit of a squeeze effect on the various mobile models. ABI Research noted that the average price of a cell phone dropped by about 2% to $117.55 during the fourth quarter of 2009.

Samsung and Nokia both saw significant improvements in overall market share, too, with Nokia getting a nice boost of 37.7% and Samsung seeing a jump of 20.5% in the fourth quarter of 2009. Other mobile makers were seeing similar jumps in the same quarter, with LG Electronics breaking old fourth quarter records and Apple nearly doubling shipments of its smartphones.

ABI Research did report on some companies that actually lost market share, however, with Motorola and Sony Ericsson actually seeing a bit of a drop off in overall sales during 2009’s fourth quarter.

Still, it was a good quarter overall for most of the mobile sector. It symbolizes that things may be on the rise again in the cell phone business and that, while there may be room for some improvement, things may be turning around on a global scale.

When Apple made AT&T the exclusive service provider of its brand spanking new iPad earlier this week, a lot of heads in the blogosphere were sent spinning. A considerable amount of the buzz over the iPad was based around which service provider it would take on, with many suggesting that it was long past time that Apple ditched its arrangement with AT&T and headed for other pastures - something in a light green Verizon, perhaps?

In any event, Steve Jobs seemed almost proud of the fact that he was selecting AT&T as the provider for the iPad and the games have begun.

AT&T is no stranger to complaints, with a slew of slow and poor data bandwidth complaints filling their phone lines for years. They especially get an earful in areas where iPhone use is particularly high, like in New York City and San Francisco.

It stands to reason, then, that AT&T would make the announcement it did during its earning call and claim that it was preparing to beef up its network and services for the iPad. *cue canned applause*

Interestingly, AT&T does have twice as many smartphones as its nearest competitor, Verizon, and it does actually boast a 5,000% spike in broadband data consumption since introducing the iPhone. This spike, a rather alarming one I might add, may in fact explain why AT&T has had the trouble it has over broadband access and network reliability.

Few other companies and/or service providers would have seen such a spike in consumption, so it does stand to reason that AT&T’s struggles would be enormous.

Over the earnings call, the president and CEO of AT&T Operations, John Stankey, was happy to talk about where AT&T was hoping to go with a host of network improvements. The call highlighted the addition of 1,900 new cell sites in 2009 and the expansion of 3G coverage to over 360 markets. There was also the addition of 850MHz 3G to get excited about.

So could it be possible that the iPad may not be in such bad hands after all? Is it at all possible that AT&T doesn’t just screw this one up royally?

Time will tell. But, at this point and time, it’s really difficult to blame consumers for being a little less than enthused about heading into the fold with AT&T.

A study by the Highway Loss Data Institute of four jurisdictions in the United States has revealed that the new laws to ban cell phones have not made any incremental change in the amount of accidents.

The Highway Loss Data Institute is an insurance industry group and their study “looked at accident rates before and after cell phone bans took effect in New York, the District of Columbia, Connecticut and California.”

According to the study, month-to-month fluctuations in accident claims did not change before or after the cell phone bans were implemented. Accident patterns also did not change.

So what does this all mean? Is this study enough to conclude that the cell phone ban actually isn’t reducing the number of accidents on the roads? Was it all a big mistake?

Not so fast, says the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

“It is irresponsible to suggest that laws banning cell phone use while driving have zero effect on the number of crashes on our nation’s roadways,” the NHTSA said in a statement. “A University of Utah study shows that using a cell phone while driving can be just as dangerous and deadly as driving drunk. We know that by enacting and enforcing tough laws, states have reduced the number of crashes leading to injuries and fatalities.”

The NHTSA also noted, rightly, that changes do not happen overnight. “It took strong laws, enforcement, education and personal responsibility to bring us where we are today, and still there is more work to do. When it comes to distracted driving, we are only at the starting gate,” the statement read.

The study, it would seem to be, is a kneejerk reaction (perhaps supported by industry execs) to reveal an apparent “lack of change” on a controversial topic that is in its preliminary stages. It is much too early to begin suggesting that the cell phone ban isn’t reducing accidents and it is irresponsible, in light off the masses of evidence, to suggest that the ban has no bearing on making drivers more attentive.

It probably shouldn’t surprise Steve Jobs to learn that people are a little less than happy with the selection of AT&T as the service provider for the iPad. Apple unveiled its long-awaited tablet device today to loads of publcity and hoopla, but it didn’t take long for the moaning and groaning to start. It seemed like there were YouTube clips and tweets within seconds, many of which centered around the obvious disdain felt over the AT&T announcement.

The whiners have a point. Those with iPhones know all about what it means to truly suffer, as AT&T hasn’t exactly been the best service provider.

But then again, the iPad isn’t exactly a phone. It is, to put it in the words of Apple’s PR crew, a data-driven, media-rich device that is designed for use in living rooms. The device, all 9.7 inches of it, comes in two types: a Wi-Fi only model and and unlocked Wi-Fi and 3G model usable on GSM networks.

Verizon will be unable to support the iPad, as it operates on a CDMA standard network.

Consumer expectations were that Apple would go with Verizon on this one, especially after a consumer-led protest threatened to take down the whole darn network with digital sabotage. Even so, Apple looks to be nothing if not absurdly loyal and they’re going with AT&T despite it all. Whether that will wind up costing Jobs and Co. anything remains to be seen, as it seems people will purchase Apple products regardless of the particulars.

Indeed, the whole unveiling of the iPad and the subsequent complaints and/or praise regarding the product stand as a testament to our mobile world. Our obsessions have turned from sports teams to gadgets and the transformation this style of thinking has on our society is unknown, but it sure does ensure that our expectations remain high and that our “needs” get met.

It wasn’t long ago that we were still discussing the speed of the internet and the way you could make a telephone call from outside your house by using a phone the size of a brick. But in today’s day and age, nothing but the best is acceptable. Apple is learning these lessons, as are all tech-oriented companies, and a spoiled-rotten consumer base is holding them accountable.

Ah, the beauty of capitalism.

So while there will be the inevitable pissing and moaning about AT&T’s relationship with Apple, the world will continue spinning just as it always has. AT&T has already made an announcement in response to the “anger,” stating that it plans to work to improve the quality of its network to ensure that Apple’s iPad gets the best possible bang for its buck and that consumers get the best possible support for their new toys. Anything less would, of course, be uncivilized.

Wal-Mart’s website may have happily proclaimed that Google’s Nexus One was headed their way, but Google says it has no plans to distribute their baby anywhere else but their own website.

“We currently have no plans to distribute the Nexus One through any channel other than our Google-hosted web store,” Google spokeswoman Katie Watson said via e-mail.

Wal-Mart claimed that the page was put up due to some sort of a technical error and that they, too, have no plans to carry the Nexus One as a part of their produce line-up. For the time being, the retail giant is blaming the gaffe on their retailing partner Let’s Talk because the partner operates Wal-Mart’s cell phone site.

It took quite a while for the Nexus One advertisements to get removed from the Wal-Mart site, however, as mid-day on the West Coast saw no improvements in the situation.

Still, it does mark an interesting entry in Google’s Nexus One promotion. While the company claims to only want to sell the device through their own means for the time being, how long will that last? How long will Google be able to insulate itself from the standard methods of retail?

Conversely, was this really just a mistake for the good folks at Wal-Mart? Or could it have been a carefully crafted scheme to generate publicity over the possibility of Google’s Nexus One making an appearance?

One doesn’t usually associate Wal-Mart with tech-savvy advertising and top-notch products, but that may be something we’ll all have to reconsider on our next trip to the retail giant. Maybe this move showcases a certain shrewdness to the whole business model that was otherwise reserved for denying employees the right to unionize.

Time will tell.