Mobiles

Samsung today announced the launch of Samsung G400, the latest dual screen clamshell at CeBIT in Hanover, Germany. Samsung G400 inherits the look and feel of Samsung’s flagship product Soul with unique premium exterior and graphical user interface design identity.

So the rep from Meizu, much like the company as a whole, continues to profess their design didn’t come from the iPhone, that their design was completed some time towards the end of 2006, well before the iPhone was released. They still don’t mention anything about the software though, which is almost definitely stolen from Apple.

CSR today introduces its new BlueVox2 mono headset solution costing just $5; the world’s lowest cost advanced Bluetooth headset. BlueVox2 features extremely low power consumption and zero cost noise reduction.

Motricity, a heavily funded mobile content infrastructure company announced today that they are restructuring its business, laying off 250 people and moving its headquarters from Durham, N.C. to Seattle.

There have been lots of rumors about this news and the company made it official today.

The elimination of nearly half of its workforce will occur over the next nine months, with all affected workers getting an unspecified severance.

For those of you not familiar with Motricity, they provide the core technology platform that enables wireless carriers (AT&T, T-Mobile) to sell and distribute content from the device. If you've ever downloaded a ringtone or game from your phones store, it's likely that Motricity (or one of their few competitors) powered some or all of that transaction.

The Movaya team pays close attention to what Motricity does because we provide a similar set of technology to our customers who want to sell and distribute digital content for mobile devices. The difference is that Motricity's customers are wireless carriers and Movaya's customers are anyone with a website.

One of the announcements in the release that caught our eye, was that Motricity plans to retract from their non-carrier (or direct-to-consumer) business to focus on their carrier customers.

Now, one might hear that news and assume that if Motricity is getting out of the direct-to-consumer business that it must be a bad business to be in. Certainly the off-deck business is not growing as fast as some in the market had anticipated, but I think the real issue here is that Motricity needs to FOCUS on what they do well and what is paying the bills for them.

Talk to anyone in the mobile content space and you will quickly learn that the Motricity platform is far from perfect and they need to get their current house in order before they can extend their reach to new markets. Just as Movaya has chosen to focus on providing best of breed technology for off-deck mobile content sales, Motricity is best served focusing on their core business, which is providing best of breed services to wireless operators. You simply cannot be all things to all people.

But, if you are a portal or content provider that used to work with Motricity for off-deck purposes, the Movaya team would love to talk to you about how we can help. Give us a call, or drop us a line.

Boost Mobile has added the MOTOKRZR phone to its Unlimited by Boost service handset offering. The Boost-branded Motorola phone is available in black with a reflective finish, and includes the first month of service free of charge with new service activation on Unlimited by Boost.

Acer has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire E-TEN Information Systems Co., Ltd., the manufacturer of smart handheld devices.

Google has announced that it has brought Google Gears to the mobile arena, starting with Windows Mobile-powered devices. Google Gears allows users to run web-based applications even when they are not connected to the internet.
Read the full story here.

Sony Ericsson today unveiled the T303, a small compact slider phone with a mirrored screen, metal housing and chrome finish. The T303 comes with a built-in FM radio, meaning you can tune in, chill out, and let time just pass you by. It also has its own media player and comes preloaded with Sony Ericsson's TrackID feature. Record a clip of a song in a bar or café and find out instantly what track it is and who sings it.

T-Mobile Germany quietly announced its new MDA Compact IV smartphone at the CeBIT show in Hannover, Germany. The newest MDA family member sports a high resolution VGA display as well as a 3 megapixel camera with full auto-focusing capabilities.
Read the full story here.

CSR today announced its new BlueVox2 Bluetooth headset solution for OEM manufacturers. Costing a mere $5, the BlueVox2 headset solution features Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, as well as CSR's AuriStream technology for enhanced audio quality. Headsets using this design should be available in Q3 2008.
Read the full story here.