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Nokia launching Sea Ray?

prasoon-kumar
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Nokia may soon launch its first Windows Phone 7 based smartphone, according to a report on TheUnwired.

The website has received an invitation from Nokia and Microsoft, to be held on August 17, and at this forum the Finnish handset company is expected to make an announcement in this regard.

There are speculations in the blogosphere that a smartphone, codenamed ‘Sea Ray’, which was showed off by the Nokia chief executive officer Stephen Elop to his employees is the same phone which will be launched on the event.

Currently, Nokia phones are not doing really well in the market, while and iPhone are racing away with a huge lead in the smartphone segment.

The invitation, however, is not clear about the date of launch of new Nokia’s Windows Phone 7 phones. It just talks about a Nokia and Microsoft party which will have a raffle too and one of the prizes is Nokia Windows Phone when it becomes available.

Almost half of smartphones sold worldwide have Android: Research

anil-satapathy
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Almost 50 per cent of smartphones globally have operating system in them, according to a research report of Canalys.

Of the 56 countries Canalys tracks around the world, Android in 35 of them and achieved a global market share of 48 per cent. Android, the number one platform by shipments since Q4 2010, was also the strongest growth driver this quarter, with Android-based smart phone shipments up 379 per cent over a year ago to 51.9 million units.

Growth was bolstered by strong Android product performances from a number of vendors, including Samsung, HTC, LG, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, ZTE and Huawei.

With shipments of 20.3 million iPhones and a market share of 19 per cent, overtook Nokia’s Symbian platform during the quarter to take second place worldwide. In doing so, Apple also became the world’s leading individual smartphone vendor, stripping Nokia of its long-held leadership position.

“The iPhone has been a phenomenal success story for Apple and a watershed product for the market,” said Canalys vice president and principal analyst, Chris Jones.

Samsung, with its flagship Galaxy S II product performing well, but its overall performance was underwhelming, considering the opportunities offered by the upheaval at Nokia.

“Samsung has failed to fully capitalise on Nokia’s weakened state around the world, as the Finnish company rides out a challenging transitional period,” said Jones.

Samsung was the largest Android device vendor and the number two vendor overall in the market with shipments of its own-branded devices at 17.0 million units. Its year-on-year growth of 421 per cent was helped by significant growth of 355 per cent in its bada smart phone shipments. Samsung also acts as an ODM for the Google Nexus S and T-Mobile Sidekick 4G, collectively estimated to have shipped 0.7 million units.

Nokia’s leadership position has proved most resilient in key emerging markets, and it still leads in the BRIC countries: Brazil, Russia, India and China. ‘The problem for Nokia is that demand for its Symbian-based smart phones has dissipated very rapidly, particularly in operator-led markets, such as Western Europe, where it’s been strong in the past,’ said Canalys principal analyst Pete Cunningham. ‘It badly needs the first of its Windows Phone devices to launch as soon as possible to arrest a decline and, hopefully, silence its critics.’

Microsoft is also eager to see Nokia’s first Windows Phone products, along with those from its other partners, ship with its Mango update. Fewer than 1.5 million Microsoft-based smart phones shipped during the quarter, equating to a mere 1 per cent share of the global market, down 52 per cent against shipments a year ago.

Windows Phone OEM partner HTC saw Android driving the vast majority of its portfolio, but Canalys expects it to continue to be a leading provider of Windows Phone products.
RIM had a challenging quarter in North America, with its market share slipping to 12 per cent, down from 33 per cent a year ago, leading to negative press coverage in the United States. But RIM’s global shipments grew 11 per cent year on year, keeping it the number one vendor in Latin America with a 28 per cent share.

“It’s easy to be negative about BlackBerry in the US, but it’s important to remember that in other markets, particularly emerging markets, it continues to see significant interest and uptake of its devices, for example in Indonesia and South Africa where it is the leading smart phone vendor,” said Jones.

“Nonetheless, it must continue to innovative and recapture lost momentum. It’s critical that the next-generation 7-based products launch ahead of the upcoming holiday season to compete in the market,” Jones added.

Avendus launches app for iPad and iPhone users in India

The Mobile Indian Network
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Avendus Securities, a financial services firm headquartered in India, has launched a research for iPhone and iPad users in the country.

The app is designed for investors keen at tapping the opportunities offered by the Indian economy and capital markets.

The application developed by Avendus Securities allows investors to access institutional research covering companies across a comprehensive range of industries including automobiles, banks, cement, construction, consumer, engineering, financial services, IT services, metals & mining, oil & gas, pharmaceuticals, retail, telecom and utilities.

Commenting on this new development, Kaushal Aggarwal, managing director, Avendus Capital said, “Reaching out to clients through channels preferred by them is a critical factor in the success of any business and goes a long way in providing value. This application will help clients and investors access incisive economic and sectoral research, investment ideas and company specific research based on empirical data.”

The application called ‘Avendus’- among the first by an Indian brokerage- is available for free on the Apps store and once downloaded will help investors take investment decisions anytime and anywhere.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro launched in India

prasoon-kumar
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Sony Ericsson has officially launched the Xperia Mini Pro in India and is now available at retail outlets. It was first launched for UK market in June.

While talking to The Mobile Indian on the same, a spokesperson of Sony Ericsson said, “Indian mobile consumers who plan to buy Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro will be able to purchase it from retail outlets from this week.”

This light and compact handset is especially good for those who prefer to make quick inputs through keypads. The Xperia Mini Pro has a bright and vivid 3 inch HVGA (half size video graphics array) display based on Sony Bravia engine.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro runs on Gingerbread operating system and boasts a 1 GHz processor. The provision of 512 allows better multitasking on it. The multi touch feature allows users to enjoy their apps to the fullest extent.

The 5 camera of Xperia Mini Pro can take pictures at 16x zoom whereas the secondary (video graphics array) camera can be used for video calling. Other features available in the phone include Geo-tagging, document readers, Timescape, face detection and recognition and Mediascape.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro is available in different colours such as black, pink and red and is integrated with audio and video player as well. The phone is available at the price of Rs 15,399.

Top five Android handsets under Rs 20,000 for July – August

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Top five Android handsets under Rs 20,000 for July – August

Android phones rank high on the wish list of most of the users who are looking for feature rich phones. What’s more, the prices are coming down, so what the users desired some months ago and couldn’t buy, now they can.

Every month, new phones are being launched in the market, so one cannot be sure what was once the most desirable phone will retain the same status in future also, that’s the reason we keep updating you about the changing smartphone scene.

LG Optimus Black (Rs 19,500)

This one is a thin, elegant and clean design, and comes armed with 5 camera, 4 inch in-plane switching display, and with capability to record 720p (p stands for pixels) video as well.

Then there is Gyroscope key so the users can enjoy motion control and WiFi direct to enable the different devices to talk to each other, without the need to connect to WiFi hotspots.

LG Optimus Black comes armed with 1 GHz OMAP 3630 and the design of the LG Optimus Black has been kept minimal, which explains why it’s so light at 109 grams.

The phone is extremely sophisticated and doesn’t talk about it from the rooftops. Its light and proximity are close to visible, so they work but remain in the background &#151 the only thing visible easily is the front facing camera.

Overall, why it’s at the top is because it handles almost any task thrown at it, though this phone is not for the hardcore gamers. The speaker phone volume and clarity is good and sound quality also remains good on both ends. The does what it says, though battery life is good but not excellent.

Samsung Nexus S (Rs 19,999)

To some extent, the Samsung Nexus S resembles the Galaxy S series of Samsung, but it differs with the front facing camera and contour display. The display itself is not curved, just the glass layer placed over it &#151 which makes it easier for the users to hold it while they talk on the phone. It has a glossy plastic body, and it runs on vanilla Android in its purest form.

It’s a first because other companies which make Android phones make some changes in the interface to give it a unique look.

The Android version that runs on Samsung Nexus S is just the way Google has made it and it works on 1 Ghz Hummingbird single-core processor. Since it runs on Gingerbread, it’s easier for the users to copy and paste text. The text can be selected by dragging bouding arrows to the desired portion of the screen.

The Samsung Nexus S doesn’t have many buttons, the users just get power button on the upper right side of device and volume control on the left side. There is no slot for cards, which disappoints some users who don’t believe in the cloud.

The device would be appreciated by those who hate waiting for apps to launch, because this is a very responsive phone, and a good camera only adds to the fun. Overall, the users would enjoy a glitch free experience &#151 minus some minor hiccups here and there.

HTC Desire Z (Rs 19,499)

It’s the way the world of technology evolves, even when the older Desire was still doing fine, the new Desire Z arrived with and Froyo. The looks were completely different, which is justified since the specs have been improved. It seems more closely related to Google Nexus S, and the phone has been built with strong and quality materials – most of the surface area has a rubber feel and is pleasant.

The updated HTC Sense user interface is unique to it, and so is the fast boot which is only apt as the handset runs on a 800 Qualcomm MSM7230 processor.

Priced at Rs 19,499, the phone is not cheap but does give good value for money. The phone performs well in almost all areas, but it is not great at any one thing &#151 which means it fails to make the users excited about something. But then, you are not buying an iPhone.

Acer Liquid E (Rs 12,000)

Acer Liquid E runs on Froyo and a 786 MHz processor, which is good, considering the price. It has a 3.5 inches capacitive touchscreen which supports multi touch input. The phone comes armed with 5 mega pixel camera, multi format music player, Geo tagging and 3.5 mm audio jack. The connectivity options include GPRS, Bluetooth, microUSB 2.0, and WAP2.0. Battery allows the users five hours of and 17 days standby time.

Spice MI 410 (Rs 13,999)

This is a bulky and sturdy phone which provides awesome features at a good price, Rs 15,000 – users can’t expect a better phone at this price as it comes with 1 GHz processors.

Curves are almost absent, which make it slightly difficult to hold the phone but the Gorilla glass gives added confidence to the users. The speakers are on the sides and the dedicated camera button is lacking. On paper, it has great specs for the price but some glitches here and there make the experience less than pleasant. Official Gingerbread update will be available soon for the device.

Idea Mall: An app store with a difference

Sandeep Budki
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Idea Mall: An app store with a difference

In recent times, mobile consumers across the globe have shown interest in smartphones and they have a variety of choices too. This is reflected in global smartphone shipments which have increased from 58 million in the first quarter of 2010 to more than 100 million units in the first quarter of 2011, according to a research report.

But now the question arises that are the users content just with their devices? The answer is perhaps no. They want something more and apps just provide that.

In the current scenario, mobile consumers can get free and paid applications from stores of handset manufactures, service providers, platform based app stores and third party stores.

In India, service providers like Airtel, Vodafone, Aircel, Reliance Communication and Idea have App Stores which offer both free and paid apps across different platform like Android, Java, Windows and iOS.

These app stores have an advantage over others as they provide the users an option of operator billing &#151 where users can buy apps and pay for them thorough their postpaid bills or get the amount deducted from prepaid balance. On the contrary, a user must have a credit card if he or she wishes to purchase any application from usual app stores.

Hence in Indian context, operator billing is a very useful feature as still the use of credit cards is still not popular in India.

Idea Mall

Among the service providers, Idea had some time back launched its app store, the Idea Mall, for over 95 million subscribers across the country. The store is based on Ericsson’s eStore solution and currently offers 30,000 applications, mainly Java apps.

It will interesting to know that this was not the first attempt by Idea to launch an app store as it had previously partnered with Spice Digital to launch MobStore which was a hybrid between an apps and services.

Idea’s App Store, Idea Mall, currently has over 50,000 games and applications which work on different platforms and many of these applications are free for users. Also, Idea Mall is supported on over 2,000 different handsets with a spread of thousands of unique applications.

Currently, 19 categories of applications and games respectively are available at Idea mall. Some of these categories are Education, Finance, Health, Books, Travel and Utility.

During the launch of Idea Mall, Ambrish Jain, director, operations, Idea Cellular, had said, “The application store will offer a rich mobile experience through a combination of both web and mobile platforms and the store will also offer applications when we launch our 3G services.”

True to Jain’s word, the Idea Mall indeed provides a rich experience compared to the app stores of other operators like Airtel, Vodafone on web in terms of their look and feel.

The most striking difference is that any web users can view all the apps that are listed on Idea Mall which is not the case with other app stores of other service providers.

If a user want to see all the apps in app stores of the other service providers they must have their handset and that too if they are the subscribers of that particular operator.

According to an Idea’s spokesperson, “Idea Mall currently supports all major in the Indian handset ecosystem. Majority of apps present in are supported on JAVA based feature phones to service the demand of a larger user base.”

What do consumers get?

To make app experience even better for the users, Idea has developed a unique trial system for their users to experience apps. Before they download the chosen application, Idea allows the users to test a particular app for a small duration by paying an amount as low as Rs 2.

Idea provides a long description of the app, its ratings, and screenshots before a user purchases the app. For users uncomfortable with surfing on their mobiles, the same feature is provided on Idea’s website for the user to experience.

Another interesting proposition of Idea Mall is the power given to the customers to choose the pricing mechanism that suits them the best. Users, with low usage, can choose from four different subscription options varying from a low of Rs 2 for one day to up to Rs 199 for a special plan, titled ‘Forever purchase’ which is available for high end users who are avid users and gamers.

On the future course of action, the Idea spokesperson said, “We are constantly updating our catalogue with rich domestic and international content and the endeavour is to provide a fresh and highly intuitive user interface to the users. We closely track the traffic pattern on our site to forecast the users’ preferred app and provide it to them in an easy and convenient way. “

Yahoo backed Alibaba’s mobile OS to reach other markets too

nilabh-jha
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Yahoo backed Alibaba’s mobile OS to reach other markets too

Alibaba Cloud Computing, developer of advanced data centric cloud computing services and a subsidiary of Alibaba Group which is 40 per cent owned by Yahoo, has unveiled its internally developed cloud-based mobile device operating system, “Aliyun OS.”

While the has been launched for the Chinese market right now, the company is looking to launch it in other markets as well.

“We do not rule out the possibility of the OS making its way to customers outside of China in the future,” An Alibaba spokesperson told The Mobile Indian when asked about the same.

Yahoo, the search engine giant, which has large stake in Alibaba would love to extend this OS to other markets so that it can rival its arch rival Google’s mobile OS offering ‘Android’.

The other very important stakeholder in Alibaba is SoftBank, which is a major mobile operator in Japan, and it might also tempted to use this operating system to challenge the dominance of Docomo, which is the biggest mobile operator in the Japanese market.

AliCloud also plans to integrate the OS with other devices including mobile phones with larger screens and tablet computers in the coming months.

Another important plus point of the OS is its support for apps, which means all the apps developed for Android platform will work on the phones based on ALiyun.

“Mobile users want a more open and convenient mobile OS, one that allows them to truly enjoy all that the Internet has to offer right in the palm of their hand, and the cloud OS, with its use of cloud based applications, will provide that,” said Wang Jian, president of Alibaba Cloud Computing.

He added, “Introducing cloud apps to mobile devices not only brings a whole new user experience, but also greater ease for third-party mobile software developers who will be able to use Internet technology such as HTML5 and JavaScript to reduce the complexity in the development process.”

The cloud OS will feature cloud services including e-mail, Internet search, weather updates and mapping and navigation tools. A distinguishing feature of the cloud OS is its support for web-based apps.

These offer users an Internet-like experience and do not require the user to download or install application software on their mobile devices. Cloud OS users can seamlessly synchronise, store and back-up data such as contact information, call logs, text messages, notes and photos to AliCloud’s remote data center, and can also access and update this data across all their PC and mobile devices.

AliCloud will provide each cloud OS user with a total of 100 gigabytes of data storage initially, with plans to expand according to user needs.

Third-party developers can opt to either develop cloud apps over their own servers or choose to use AliCloud’s infrastructure and open platform services at a low cost and quickly develop their businesses.

The cloud OS is the result of three years of development and uses AliCloud’s self developed distributed file system and virtual machine.

Telecom sector consolidation likely to have no impact on tariff

nilabh-jha
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There will be lesser number of telecom operators in India in future that would lead to tariff reduction and better mobile telephony services, according to a research report of CRISIL.

The research firm said that new operators are losing money as they are not able to cope with the competition. Moreover, spectrum is now only with the established players. This situation will result in consolidation and only 6-8 operators will remain while the rest will merge within the established player.

While there is no denying that consolidation will happen, in fact it has not happened only because rules do not allow it right now. But rules are set to be relaxed.

There will be lower capital expenditure by operator per subscribers because each tower will be fully utilised, all though right now also most of the towers are shared between the operators. But since it is only the tower which is being shared, each operator has deploy separate set of radio equipment which in most cases goes under utilised, meaning higher cost per subscriber.

Moreover, other costs like marketing, sales and maintenance will also get reduced substantially thereby reducing the overall cost of service and therefore the tariffs.

Apart from the tariff reduction, other benefits could be in terms of reduced network congestion. Consolidation of spectrum available with the operators will help in reducing congestion in the network as currently some bands lie unused parked with operators with very few subscribers while the available with an operator with huge subscriber base remains congested. This will also free up more space for internet services through mobile providing better speeds even with 2G network.

White Samsung Galaxy S II i9100 surfaces at Online Retailers

samir-makwana
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Samsung will soon introduce its successful Galaxy II smartphone in full white colour and not just the back panel.

This new Samsung Galaxy S II i9100 model in full white has been listed on Expansys as EU model and also by another website, Clove, as UK model. Apparently Clove has pulled down the listing.

This new Samsung Galaxy S II appears to be an exclusive edition and will cost bit higher than the regular Galaxy S II model. The white Galaxy S II appears more chic and trendy.
Quite possible that the device is a limited edition meant for the western countries only.

While the legal tension between Samsung and Apple over iPhone devices continue, a teaser in the form of white Galaxy S II handset adds more fuel to the fire. Apple has been in the troubled waters over the delay of white iPhone 4 due to the colour issues on the glass panels as the colour hampering the output of front panel camera.

The Galaxy S II currently includes 4.3-inch Plus display, dual-core 1.2GHz Samsung Exynos processor, 1GB RAM, and 8-megapixel camera. The new Galaxy S II may also come fitted with Near Field Communication chip, a latest FCC filing of Samsung has hinted.

We checked with Samsung India and expecting a response on whether the white edition of Samsung Galaxy S II will retail in India or not. So we’ll update this space as soon as we hear from them.

HTC to launch two WP7.5 Mango based smartphones – Ignite, Prime

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HTC will be rolling out slew of Windows Phone 7.5 Mango running handsets of which two new ones include HTC Ignite and HTC Prime.

These two handsets showed up at a Dutch retailer’s, Phone House, website but the links and information were pulled down. The two HTC handsets &#151 Ignite and Prime, will carry Windows Phone 7 keys on the front panels. These new phones can be expected once Microsoft officially releases Windows Phone 7.5 Mango update.

HTC could be looking to introduce number of Windows Phone 7.5 Mango based devices just like the company did at the launch of Windows Phone 7.

The new HTC Ignite handset appears to be an improved version of HTC Mozart and will come with 3.7-inch WVGA (480×800) display. This handset is likely to carry 1GHz with three capacitive buttons at the front panel and 5-megapixel camera at the back. Based on the specifications, this handset seems to be the new entry level Windows Phone 7.5 device.

Whereas the slide out full keyboard bearing HTC Prime will sport 3.7-inch WVGA (480×800) display. Bearing similarity with the HTC 7 Pro, the Prime handset has 5 camera with autofocus.

We have already reported about the HTC Eternity handset which appears as the Desire look-alike. The Eternity will have 4.7-inch WSVGA display with 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM 8255 processor coupled with Adreno 205 graphics chip. Featuring 8-megapixel camera with autofocus, the phone is capable of recording 720p HD video and has a 1.3 megapixel camera in the front.

These new Windows Phone 7.5 Mango loaded devices can be expected by the end of this year. HTC aims to offer variety of handsets with distinct features and at different price points. Let’s hope that the Indian pricing of the WP 7.5 Mango based handset is not as shocking as that of the Windows Phone 7 devices.

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