ReadWriteMobile

IBM is poised to unleash its revamped mobile strategy with a full suite of tools aimed at providing enterprise developers with an end-to-end system for collaboration, development and management for mobile applications. IBM is putting the full weight of its history, tools and computing clout behind its mobile strategy. The company's comprehensive framework has the potential to be one of the most powerful end-to-end development environments available.

We have been studying what IBM is doing in the mobile realm for the last week as the company readies the push of its IBM Mobile Technology Preview. IBM is not going to push its tools and frameworks onto developers in one large product vertical but rather is taking an iterative, pragmatic approach to solving many of the mobile dilemmas that face enterprise developers today. We also interviewed Leigh Williamson, a Distinguished Engineer at IBM and a member of the CTO Team for mobile software strategy development. Check out the transcript of our conversation below.

A temporary restraining order issued by a federal court in Albuquerque on behalf of a software company that produces a version of BASIC, has compelled Research In Motion to start calling the next version of its operating system for BlackBerry smartphones "BlackBerry 10." This according to a tweet from the company's official Twitter feed.

The name BBx (albeit with a small "x") is being used by Basis Software of Albuquerque as a trademark for its Business BASIC language interpreter, which is a classic language interpreter capable of extending business logic established over the previous decades to a platform that reaches smartphones, including BlackBerrys. Perhaps the most startling element of this case came from RIM, whose U.S.-based subsidiary had claimed in court, according to the judge's ruling, that the Singapore developers' conference to which the restraining order applies is not all that important to anyone in America.

Today IBM announced the availability of several new iOS, BlackBerry and Android apps for accessing its enterprise communications software products. The apps cover Connections, LotusLive Meeting, Samtime, and Lotus Notes Traveler, along with other tools. Most of the apps are free, but of course you have to be using the server versions that they correspond with in your company.

The threshold for creating mobile apps is as low as it is ever going to be. New services are being designed every day to give the average person the capability to create a mobile app, even if they do not know how to code. The problem is that many of these services create a cookie-cutter app that many fear will drive Web design back to the dark ages of the mid-to-late 1990s when static, uninspired websites ruled the land.

One company, Conduit, is both contributing to this phenomenon and trying to do something about it. Conduit is releasing a new suite of mobile app building tools for the programming-challenged designed to not only make it easy to create apps, but make then stylish and dynamic as well.

For the first time ever, Gingerbread is running on the majority of Android devices in the wild. Google released its December fragmentation numbers for the Android ecosystem and Gingerbread 2.3-2.3.7 grew from 43.9% a month ago to 50.6%. Gingerbread also took a double-digit lead over Android 2.2 for the first time, with Froyo dropping 5.4% to 35.3% of all Android devices.

The consolidation of the Android ecosystem is accelerating, as we noted when Gingerbread made big gains to overtake Froyo for the first time last month. For the first time in many months, there are only two flavors in double digits, with Éclair dropping below 10% for the first time in 2011. Where is Ice Cream Sandwich?

As part of its bid to acquire the assets of T-Mobile, AT&T made the case earlier this year that consolidation through mergers were the only way for nationwide carriers to inexpensively (the euphemism here being "horizontally") piece together a 4G network.

Today, Verizon Wireless demonstrated that is clearly not the case, in a deal which enables it to manage the block of spectrum that was the subject of the best-placed bid in the big FCC 700 MHz auction of 2008, even though VZW was already the clear winner of that auction already.

Almost every company in the mobile ecosystem that is in one way or another associated with Carrier IQ right now is in a world of hurt. Is the outrage over what the data that CIQ collects justified? What some call spying, others may call pertinent, actionable data designed to improve consumers' lives.

Is it spying or is it benign data collecting? We outline both sides below and it is the topic of this week's ReadWriteMobile poll.

The Android Ice Cream Sandwich source code for x86 systems-on-a-chip (SoC) to developers yesterday evening to give them a chance to put ICS onto devices running processors from Intel and AMD. It is not a complete release but is the first step in perhaps creating and actual market for smartphones running processors that use x86 architecture.

Intel has been floundering in the mobile space. To date, there are no significant smartphones or tablets running x86 processors (Windows 7 tablets not included because none fall into the category of "significant"). By extension, AMD suffers in this realm as well. Can Intel finally make a dent in the mobile market with Android?

Mobile game marketing platform PlayHaven is opening up its platform to allow third-party services to integrate into its real-time monetization and engagement dashboard. Essentially what PlayHaven is doing is making partnerships with several other mobile utility services to give a boost in functionality to its dashboard and the iOS game developers that use it.

The first round of partners includes Tap.me, Telesocial and PressOK PlacePlay. The PlayHaven Self-Serve Marketplace will allow iOS developers to use tools from these companies through the PlayHaven SDK, tied to the company's back-end development stack. It is an astute move by PlayHaven, enabling game developers to move more quickly and engage more users in meaningful ways.

Salesforce is entering the crowded market for enterprise app stores. The company has announced that it is releasing its popular AppExchange platform for mobile. The user interface for AppExchange has been modified for mobile. It now recognizes a user's smartphone or a tablet and allows access to almost 40 apps specifically tailored to the mobile experience, from Dragon for Salesforce to Concur to Chatter and more.