Google (GOOG) and its Android operating system is giving Apple (AAPL) and its iconic iPhone a serious run for the money right now. Nearly twice as many consumers are using Android-based phones now compared with three months ago, according to a recent survey by ChangeWave Research.

That's no fun for Apple, of course, but survey results show that the tech giant is still holding its own with high customer satisfaction and a larger share of the market. AAPL isn't going down anytime soon -- but the real threat lies to BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIMM) that saw market of its smart phones share dip sharply in the survey and is seeing waning demand for its devices.

After reading this breakdown of Palm's (PALM) lethal combination of mistakes in the last year, one would wonder where the company is headed (except into the ground). Without following some sound advice from non-CEOs, the company -- which at one point was the premier smartphone company -- may be headed to shutterville faster than 2012. If the company is even worth anything by then, nobody will want to acquire it and investors in it will lose everything. That is, unless a product launch on AT&T (T) can save the company.

This little gem was perpetuated by tech guru and investor Roger McNamee. Of course, he is a member of the Palm (PALM) board of directors, and his firm is an investor in the company.

Did I mention that PALM shot up after his comment, before the mediocre and overpriced Pre hit the market? The company then issued shares a few days later? You and I would go to jail for doing this.

Palm Inc. (PALM) seemed like a company with a solid comeback plan last summer. After more than a year of downward spiraling, the company was on the verge of releasing its hottest product probably ever, the Palm Pre. This was supposed to be the wireless handset that would finally challenge the Apple (AAPL) iPhone with it's slick user interface and svelte design.

Sales of the Pre in recent quarters were indeed decent, although Palm's decision to choose Sprint Nextel (S) as its exclusive launch partner may have dampened things a bit. Although Sprint's network, at this time, fares way better than AT&T's (T) network that is constantly being made fun of, the Pre still didn't slow down iPhone purchases.

A day after Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) agreed to purchase 100% interest in prepaid wireless company Virgin Mobile, the third-largest wireless company in the U.S. reported that it lost almost a million valuable postpaid wireless customers in its most recent quarter.

Sprint, which has bled millions and millions of customers over the past two years, has managed to offset that blow in the past few quarters by signing up record customer numbers to its Boost Mobile prepaid unit, which shook the industry up at the start of the year with a $50 per month unlimited everything wireless plan.

Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) just keep volleying with each other with the duel between the iPhone and the Palm Pre, don't they? Accusations of an
"iPhone copycat" surfaced right after the Palm Pre was announced. After all, quite a bit of Apple design influence now works at Palm. But the war is not over yet, as one of the neater features of the Palm Pre has now been deactivated by Apple.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the U.S. Department of Justice has begun a preliminary review of potential anti-competitive practices among large telecom companies such as Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) and AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T).

One area the Justice Department may investigate is whether wireless providers are hurting small competitors by tying up popular phones with exclusive agreements. Think AT&T as the exclusive provider of service for Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone in the U.S.

Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) has been in deep trouble for a while now. For some untold reason, the company placed almost all its growth bets on its wireless division but has not produced a hit handset in years. Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) and Samsung Electronics have been producing and selling all kinds of cutting-edge wireless handsets to carriers all over the world. What has Motorola been up to?

It's still producing handsets, but so many of the designs and marketing strategies have been commodities lately. Meanwhile, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has taken the mobile crown with the iPhone, and even Palm Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) has risen from the dead with the new Palm Pre. Motorola was in such bad shape financially that it even suspended the spinoff of its mobile unit last year.

Normally we think of revolutionary products created by start-ups or entrepreneurial minds just out of college, but the most talked about new projects of 2009 are being produced by some of the best known companies in the world.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN): With its massive online presence and a truly efficient business model, Amazon has become the largest online retailer in the world. It is now taking on a new business, web services, namely cloud computing (learn more HERE), called the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). While hosting this infrastructure and presenting e-commerce with a reasonably affordable alternative with no up-front costs, Amazon has taken an early lead in this space, with some believing its cloud computing business will one day overtake retailing. "Amazon will be like a book store that sells cocaine out the back door. Books will be just a front to sell storage and cloud computing." says Larry Dignan, Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic.

A Buy rating has been issued in these circles for Palm Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM), but there are several qualifiers.

Palm left a great deal of market share gains behind, as a result of what looks like inadequate production of the Palm Pre, but the view from here argues that strong reviews from technology critics and a the slow-but-continual increase in applications, will enable the Pre to achieve good things for this device manufacturer.

Palm Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) is just under a week into the launch of its groundbreaking Pre smartphone, and so far the wireless handset is a great seller for exclusive partner Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S). Former Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) executive Jon Rubinstein, who was brought in to reinvigorate Palm and who is largely credited with the Pre, will now take over the Palm CEO spot from longtime CEO Ed Colligan.

As soon as Sprint Nextel Corp. (NASDAQ: S) and Palm Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) announced the Palm Pre back in January, Palm's stock has shot up from just over $3 to today's close of over $10. All this based on the announcement of an untested (albeit incredibly slick) new handset called the Pre. It debuts on Sprint's network on June 6 and is being billed by many as the "iPhone killer" that so many phones have tried to be but failed at.