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Here’s a tech stock pop quiz: Who has had a better quarter on the stock market? Apple? Or Research in Motion? The answer may surprise you. Apple’s stock, which peaked at more than $700 per share in September, has lost nearly 25 percent of its value. But Research in Motion, due to report earnings Thursday afternoon, has seen its stock more than double its abysmal September price of $6.30 per share. On Thursday morning, the stock was trading at $13.63 a share.

Repairs to Android phones cost wireless operators billions, revealing a potential downside to the rapid expansion of Google's mobile operating system. A study by wireless services firm Wireless Dat Service, or WDS, found hardware failures are more common on Android devices than on Apple's iPhone or Research in Motion's BlackBerry.

The BlackBerry has left a bitter taste in the mouths of its users. Trying to make amends for massive outages last week, Research In Motion on Monday promised BlackBerry users free premium apps and a month of technical support. But the apology is unlikely to placate miffed customers, many of whom are considering whether to part with the tarnished brand in favor of more popular devices such as Apple's newest iPhone.

With many wireless carriers feeling threatened by the growing prominence of Apple and Google, those companies’ success could provide the foundation of Research in Motion’s recovery.

Research In Motion shares were sharply lower Friday, after the company issued a steep first-quarter earnings warning late Thursday, heightening fears that the BlackBerry maker is buckling amid competition from Apple and Google.

Apple will remain firmly in control of the tablet market through 2015, according to market research by Gartner, which also shows Google’s Android will take the baton from Nokia’s Symbian to dominate the smartphone market through the same time period. Experts agree, though, that it will be strong ecosystems, allowing for tablets and smartphones to deliver a combined experience, which will take the day, possibly weakening Research in Motion’s capacity to deliver in a new environment.

Apple's competitors are displeased at having their products singled out by Steve Jobs during Friday's press conference.

Apple Inc appears to be deliberately distorting the issues surrounding the iPhone 4's antenna design by asserting that Research In Motion's BlackBerry has similar reception problems, RIM said.

Google's mobile platform has a ways to go before it can even think of surpassing the smartphone market share of RIM or Apple, but Android's been buoyed by a flurry of good news that points to greener pastures — although a recent hiccup with Google's would-be flagship phone, the Nexus One, should give the big brains in Mountain View a moment of pause.

The photography company hopes to expose patent-infringing smart phone makers.