Mobiles

Documentation for a new LG slider, the VX8610 Decoy, has appeared on the FCC website. The new LG VX8610 Decoy appears to be the successor to LG's Chocolate cell phone and features a 2 megapixel camera and a built-in Bluetooth headset that docks on the back.
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15,000 Tricked Out Cell Phones Are Music to Fans' Ears with Exclusive Access at Virgin Mobile Festival, Free Music Downloads and More
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Worldwide sales of mobile phones reached 294.3 million units in the first quarter of 2008, a 13.6 per cent increase over the first quarter of 2007, according to Gartner. Sales of mobile phones in Western Europe decreased 16.4 per cent from the first quarter of 2007, the first decline in this region since Gartner began tracking the mobile devices market in 2001.

Nokia sold 115.2 million mobile phones in the first quarter of 2008, as its market share slipped slightly to 39.1 per cent (see Table 1). Nokia was able to maintain market leadership thanks to the richness of its portfolio, which appeals to users in both emerging and mature markets. Sales in the ultra-low-cost segment remained strong due to Nokia’s distribution strategy, economies of scale and brand power. However, competition in this segment and at the high end is increasing. To stay ahead, Nokia will have to continue to integrate new technologies in its handsets and improve usability and design.

Samsung maintained its momentum in the first quarter of 2008 with sales reaching 42.4 million units. The South Korean vendor not only held on to its No. 2 position worldwide, but it also widened the gap from third-placed Motorola as its market share grew to 14.4 per cent. Samsung is reacting quickly to the focus on touch-screen devices. “Samsung’s choice to be a quick follower has paid off so far, but it needs to focus on diversifying its designs and strengthening its lower-end portfolio to increase sales in emerging markets,” said Ms Milanesi.

Motorola carried the problems it had in 2007 through to the first quarter of 2008 and sales fell to 29.9 million units. The US manufacturer continues to struggle in finding the successor to its popular Razr. Although it introduced new models, its portfolio is simply not competitive enough. Ms Milanesi said: “Motorola is unlikely to introduce many products in the second half of 2008, a time when most competitors will bring new additions to the market, so it stands little chance of winning back its No. 2 position. It may even have to watch out for a threat from current No. 4 player LG.”

LG had an excellent start to 2008 with sales reaching 23.6 million units and a market share of 8 per cent. As a result, LG overtook Sony Ericsson to become the No. 4 vendor worldwide. With a strengthened portfolio, LG capitalised on the attention the market has given to touch-screen devices since the launch of the Apple iPhone. Although the LG Prada, Shine and KF600 models have proved popular, LG must remember that touch-screen phones do not appeal to everyone. The South Korean vendor needs to build a stronger smartphone portfolio, as consumers and operators have started to place more emphasis on this market segment.

Sony Ericsson was another vendor that had a difficult start to 2008. Its sales reached 22.1 million units, but this was not enough to hold on to the No. 4 spot. Sony Ericsson attributed these weak results to the difficult conditions in the Western European market, which experienced some softness in the high-end segment. With new products for the second half of 2008 and with a stronger mid-tier portfolio, Sony Ericsson is in a good position to win back its fourth place in the market share rankings.

BoyGeniusReport has yet another exclusive leak on an unknown Motorola camera phone. The new camera phone is a slider phone, it has a 5 megapixel camera made by Kodak. This camera module do not support auto focus though.

The unknown slider phone is powered by the MOTOMAGX Linux platform, it supports GSM Quadband and EDGE network, has built in bluetooth, WiFi, 100MB internal memory, microSD card slot and a touch wheel for easy scrolling.

Source [BGR]

StyleTap today announced plans to bring to market a version of StyleTap CrossPlatform for the iPhone and the iPod touch, which will instantly allow over 20,000 mobile applications to run on these popular devices. Further information about the product, including how it will be marketed and sold, will be made available in early July 2008.

In addition, the company announced that StyleTap personnel will be at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, CA from June 9-13, 2008, and will be available to meet with mobile application developers interested in learning more about StyleTap CrossPlatform for the Apple devices.

According to a recent Businessweek article, when Americans use their mobile phones to go online, they visit different sites than when they surf from their computers.

The mobile web is fast becoming what the magazine has dubbed “the weekend web.” Over the weekend, mobile web traffic shoots up as more people turn to their phone to access information. They’re also surfing to much different sites, where the emphasis is on fun and planning around it, with weather, entertainment, games, and music emerging as the fastest-growing mobile web categories, according to comScore (NSDQ: SCOR).

M:Metrics (which comScore announced it was buying this week), reported in March that Craigslist, eBay, MySpace, Facebook, and Disney’s Go were the top 5 mobile web destinations. In comparison, the fastest growing PC web site categories are pharmacies, food, cosmetics, and job searches.

I'm not shocked by the fact that people use the "mobile web" more on the weekend but I do think that the difference in sites people are visiting is a temporary phenomenon. Over time, there will be less and less difference between website usage from the desktop and the mobile device.

What's my justification?

Browsing on most phones is still very clunky so most of the browsing being done on weekends is out of necessity because people are away from their PCs but they still need to get directions, check the weather, etc. But, I for one, don't visit different sites from my desktop on the weekend than I do during the week. I still have my 10-15 "go-to" sites that I visit every day, Monday-Sunday. I just don't see how that will be different once my primary access point to the Internet will be my mobile device.

It is about 18 days more you will see the G702 official announcement from Sony Ericsson but now you can watch a short promotional video on the touch screen phone.

 

The Sony Ericsson G702 has also got FCC approval last week

http://www.slashphone.com/sony-ericsson-g702-revealed-by-fcc-22517

Source [se-nse]

According to digitimes, HTC has shipped its first 10,000 HTC Touch Diamond smartphone to Hong Kong CSL. It will be on track for them to start selling the new smartphone with TouchFlo 3D next month. The company is also start to deliver the Touch Diamond to Europe.

Source [digitimes]

Mean while, you can check out the unboxing here

http://www.slashphone.com/htc-touch-diamond-unboxing-16485

or see a HTC Touch Diamond stress test video here

http://www.slashphone.com/video-htc-touch-diamond-stress-test-30572

More details of the Philips X800 touch screen phone is now available at FCC document list today. Early of this month the report said that this X800 will feature e2e design, meaning a full edge to edge touch screen design that will occupy the whole width on the front body. Though you can’t really see how they apply that to the phone in the FCC picture.

The Philips X800 features a full touch screen for you to navigate through lists and menus. The touch screen is operated with a stylus pen located at the side of the phone. Use the stylus pen to tap once or twice on any available screen zone to carry out the corresponding operations (such as menu page header, menu items, lists, softkeys, options menu, function keys, text input area, selection area, pull-down menu box, selection box, etc).

The user manual also reveals its battery life. As stated in the rumor, the X800 has a long battery life. You can make phone calls continuously for 10 hours, or have the phone in standby mode up to 1 month. The battery can be easily filled up in 2.5 hours time through a USB cable.

Other details include:

• microSD card slot (support up to 8GB)
• FM Radio
• Handwriting recognition
• Java
• Music Player
• 2 megapixel camera
• Video Recording up to 70 MB
• English - Chinese Dictionary
• txt, pdf, doc, ppt, xls reader
• Business card reader
• Bluetooth
• GPRS / EDGE

Source [FCC] via [mobileburn]

 

What do Virgin Mobile USA customers and Sir Richard Branson have in common? 15,000 customers who buy a Virgin Mobile Festival Special Edition Wild Card phone by Kyocera Wireless will all have special access to the Virgin Mobile Guest Lounge at the upcoming Virgin Mobile Festival on August 9-10 in Baltimore. Customers simply have to show their new handset for admittance to the special guest area at the Festival.

Available nationwide from May 25 through July 31 exclusively at Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile stores for $99.99, the Virgin Mobile Festival Special Edition Wild Card also comes with 50 music downloads from eMusic and a one-year subscription to SPIN Magazine. The Limited Edition handset has a slick white casing, blue keypad buttons, exclusive wallpapers, and graffiti-style Festival graphics around an internal screen that imitates a concert stage. All Wild Cards also include a 1.3 megapixel camera and support streaming music tracks.

via [intomobile]