Mobile Phones News Blog

Archive for September, 2009

Samsung is getting ready to introduce a new Windows Mobile smartphone in China, namely the Samsung i329.

Looking like a redesigned Samsung Omnia Lite B7300 (which also runs on Windows Mobile), the i329 features: a 3 inch touchscreen display with 240 x 400 pixels, TouchWiz UI, 512MB of internal memory, a Qualcomm QSC6975 chipset, and MicroSDHC card support, up to 32GB.

According to Telecoms Korea, the Samsung i329 will be soon launched by China Unicom on its new CDMA2000 1x EV-DO Rev.0 network. However, since China Unicom transferred its CDMA business to China Telecom, the smartphone will probably be launched by the latter carrier and not by Unicom.

Since it’s a CDMA smartphone, Samsung i329 may reach carriers outside of China – Verizon or Sprint, anyone?

Samsung revealed today in South Korea their new 3G phone, the Honey Bubble SPH-W8700. The phone will feature a 2 mega-pixel panoramic camera, along with video recording capabilities. Potential video calling is also mentioned.

The SPH-W8700 also features a DMB Digital TV tuner, Bluetooth, an MP3 player, a Subway Map, M-Commerce, GPS, dictionary, and SOS Siren Alarm.

No word on a release date for the new phone yet.

Good news for South Korean mobile users, who will soon be able to buy Apple’s iPhone 3G S via KTF, the country’s second largest carrier.

Kim Yeon-hak, KT Group’s CFO, has confirmed that they are bringing the highly popular smartphone to Korea, although without disclosing the exact release date.

The price of the iPhone from KTF was also not announced, but it will probably be similar to the one in the US – $200 for the 16GB version and $300 for the 32GB one (both available with a contract agreement, of course).

SK Telecom, South Korea’s largest mobile operator, is also in talks with Apple for the iPhone. However, they have not confirmed a deal yet.

Mobile VoIP provider offering free smartphone to every 2,000th new customer that opens an account

Mobile VoIP provider Vyke Mobile is giving away a Nokia E75 with £25 credit to every 2,000th new customer.

The Nokia E75 is fully compatible with Vyke Mobile. Vyke Mobile customers can send free calls and texts between each other when within a Wi-Fi zone. International calls and texts are said to be up to 95 per cent cheaper than that of a traditional mobile network.

Every 2,000th new customer who signs up for a Vyke Mobile will be sent the device free.

Right on schedule, the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic is now available for customers in the UK.

On Pay As You Go, the new music phone can be bought for £129.95 (if £20 Airtime from Vodafone is purchased), or for £139.95 with £10 Airtime from either T-Mobile or O2.

Vodafone and Orange are also offering the 5530 XM on contract: it’s free for those who choose an 18-month agreement of at least £25 per month.

The features of Nokia 5530 aren’t the ones of a high-end phone, but they’re still pretty attractive: 2.9 inch touchscreen display with 360 x 640 pixels, Symbian S60 5th Edition, Wi-Fi, quad-band GSM/EDGE connectivity, 3.5mm headset jack, 3.2MP camera, and a 4GB memory card in the box.

You can buy the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic via Carphone Warehouse. For the moment, the phone is available only in black.

This may or may not be a surprise, but, according to Strategy Analytics, almost one out of every two cell phones sold in North America in Q2 2009 are manufactured by either Samsung or LG.

Reportedly, Samsung’s market share in the US and Canada is currently of 24.7%, as the company sold 11.7 million handsets between April and June in the region.

In the same period, LG sold 10.7 million handsets, accounting for a market share of 22.6%.

In consequence, the two South Korean giants control 47.3% of the North American phone market.

LG is known for being a top supplier of messaging phones for the US – selling almost 12 million such devices in 2008.

As for Samsung, the company’s success probably relies on phones like Sprint’s Instinct series, AT&T’s Jack and Impression (pictured above), or Verizon’s Omnia and Glyde.

Rogers Wireless has introduced a new affordable messaging phone on the Canadian market – the Samsung Hype A256 (known in the US as Samsung Magnet and available through AT&T since May).

The Hype A256 is a simple candybar that features a full QWERTY keyboard and quad-band GSM/EDGE connectivity (850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz).

The phone also comes with Bluetooth, MMS, VGA camera, 16MB of internal memory, and MicroSD card support (up to 16GB). Its battery can last up to 5 hours in talk-time mode, or up to 12.5 days in stand-by.

Samsung Hype A256 is offered by Rogers only on Pay As You Go and costs $89.99 (without a contract agreement, of course). You can buy the phone online and probably also via Rogers’ retails stores.

Verizon Network have good deals of mobile phones that allows world travellers to talk no matter wherever they are. On tuesday,Verizon Wireless announced the release of their new USB wireless modem, the Verizon Wireless UMW190.The UMW190 modem comes with 3G connectivity, and is capable of delivering high-speed Internet. it will opertate on both international and domestic data networks. This wireless modem works on Dual Band CDMA Revision A (Rev. A) , Tri-Band UMTS/HSPA and Quad-Band GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks.

Verizon Wireless has stated that the new UMW190 modem is available to purchase through the company’s business sales channels and can also be purchased on their website. The price range for this gadget has been set at $49.99 with a two-year agreement, after a $50 mail-in rebate.

LG have announced the release of their upcoming mobile LG GM750 smartphone, which operates Windows Mobile 6.5 and is expected to become available in Europeon market in the first week of October. this mobile phone will be solely sold by Vodafone throughout 2009. it is basically an upgrade to LG GM730, LG GM750 offers fast internet browsing, calendar synchronisation, email access inside a sleek, slim-line exterior.

LG GM750 comes with a 3 inch touchscreen display, Wi-Fi, 3G, Windows Live, Microsoft My Phone, 5MP camera, and 5 megapixels camera along with specialised LG software which guarantees that photographs will appear impressive everytime you take a snapshot of your hectic lives and LG’s S-Class 3D userinterface to make windows mobile 6.5 look finer.

Initially, Vodafone is going to offer this gadget in seven countries: UK, Italy, Germany, Spain, Greece, Netherlands and France (via SFR). Other markets will have to wait for this phone till late this year.

Software giant Microsoft is thinking to jump into the cell phone Industry with the new range of mobile phones that will operate on Windows Mobile 6.5 and the HTC Touch Pro2 is one of the new mobile phones that are awaited to come with Windows Mobile 6.5.

According to reports, the Microsoft has declared that the new mobile phones operating Windows Mobile 6.5 will be available worldwide from 6th October and will be available from AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon Wireless.

The new range of mobile phones will also sell under the their own brand “Windows Phone”. With Windows Mobile 6.5, Microsoft is expecting to convince monile phone users that these new mobile phones are not just good for doing work only. Most of Microsoft’s mobile phones focus in recent times has been on improving the operating system’s consumer features in an attempt to recover ground lost to their rivals.

Stephanie Ferguson, general manager in the Windows Mobile unit said “We know people want a phone for their whole life. They just frankly want to do more. That’s why we’ve shifted.”

 Main features of Windows Mobile 6.5 includes conversation threaded e-mail and an improved Web browsing, along with a new Windows Marketplace application store.