A recent WSJ article states that they have heard from people associated with Dell that Dell is developing cell phones based on the Android OS and Microsoft Mobile OS. Rumors also have it that the phones may be available as early as the next month or two.
I don’t think this should surprise anyone. One of the largest computer manufacturers in the world should surely be able to develop cell phones. Stay tuned for more developments.
Nokia is looking to give their maps application a huge boost by acquiring bit-side GmbH. Nokia says that by acquiring bit-side Nokia will strengthen and accelerate its mobile development for Nokia Maps.
“Acquiring bit-side enables Nokia to offer consumers the world-leading mobile location applications, such as Maps, along with routing and navigation at an accelerated speed” said Michael Halbherr, vice president and head of social location, Nokia. “Nokia has been working with bit-side since 2007, and bit-side has become a strategic development partner to Nokia.”
“Nokia believes that context plays a pivotal role in the evolution of the Internet. To make the Internet truly personal, Nokia is building the ability for people to always know where they are and what is around them. Moreover, to know where their friends are and what they are doing and how they are feeling. Nokia calls this social location,” said Michael Halbherr, vice president and head of social location, Nokia.
Virgin Mobile has released a pink version of the popular LG Flare to help fight breast cancer. The pink Flare will only be available for sale at BestBuy stores. Five dollars from the purchase of every pink Flare, each priced at $29.99, will benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure®, the world’s largest breast cancer organization.
In a recent WSJ article RIM’s co-Chief Executive Jim Balsillie told a reporter that the Blackberry Storm was released with known bugs.
“He said the companies made the crucial Black Friday deadline “by the skin of their teeth,” after missing a planned October debut. Mr. Balsillie said such scrambles — and the subsequent software glitches that need to be fixed — are part of the “new reality” of making complex cellphones in large volumes.”
This may surprise some, but it really doesn’t surprise me at all. With all the hype around cutting edge cell phone releases, the big manufacturers and carriers know that bugs aren’t going to slow down sales. The theory in most technology companies is to get the product out to the public and make fixes later. Since the window for opportunity is so short most companies will miss that small window if they wait for the technology to be perfect. As a result you can surely expect future smartphones to have bugs and glitches when released. Don’t worry though, you can bet that the manufacturers are already working on the software releases for the bug fixes even before the phone hits store shelves. As Mr. Balsillie said it is a new reality.
New MetroPCS cell phones will have a new service installed called myMetro. myMetro will give MetroPCS users the ability to check your account balance, pay bills, add money to the MetroPCS pre-pay bucket (Metro-Connect), change rate plans and features, and modify myMetro settings. In theory myMetro will allow consumers to take customer service responsibilities in their own hands. No need to call MetroPCS customer support and wait on the phone and answer time consuming questions. Now you can do all the same tasks in a few minutes while riding the train or sitting at the dinner table.
“myMetro provides an excellent complement to MetroPCS’ customer service,” said Tom Keys, chief operating officer of MetroPCS. “Offering our subscribers another alternative to customer service by allowing them to manage their account on-the-go and in real time, without speaking to a representative, furthers our commitment to saving consumers time and money.”
If this service takes off expect other carriers to follow the lead.
Last week Nokia announced that it has shipped over 1 million units of its first touchscreen phone, the 5800 XpressMusic. Here is an excerpt from the announcement:
“Following its introduction in October 2008, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic has seen successful sales starts in a number of markets, including Hong Kong and Moscow where the device sold out within hours of the sales start. Earlier today at the official sales start of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic in the UK, more than 150 customers queued outside the Nokia Flagship Store on London’s Regent Street to be among the first to own the device.
Sprint announced today a plan to cut costs by $1.2 Billion. Can anyone guess how they plan on accomplishing this? You guessed it, layoffs. The time for cutting costs by decreasing travel and corporate dinners is over. Next is the good ole work force. Sprint’s plan is to cut 8,000 jobs by the end of March which will include all levels of the company.
HTC is coming out with a new phone and it’s called the HTC Touch Cruise. At this point you’re probably thinking to yourself, “isn’t there a Touch Cruise already”. The answer is yes. Why did HTC do this, I have no idea! For the sake of this post and the site I’m going to call the phone the HTC Touch Cruise (09). Once you quickly get past the name you’re going to love this phone. In true HTC style the phone has a sleek look and feel. The Touch Cruise (09) is a quad-band GSM phone with a 3.2 megapixel camera for taking photos and recording video. The phone runs on the Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional OS. The phone’s interface is the popular TouchFLO 3D which we’ve come to expect on HTC cell phones.
A new feature has been added to the Touch Cruise (09) which is very apparent on the front of the phone. You’ll notice a footprint button on the bottom right side of the phone. HTC is calling this new feature Footprints. Footprints automatically stores the location of where you take photos. It also allows you to write comments about the photo. The idea is that you can keep a running journal of your travels or easily pull up places you want to revisit.
“The new HTC Touch Cruise is the first mobile phone to offer HTC Footprints, an application experience that enables people to permanently chronicle their special moments by capturing a digital postcard on their phone. Once captured, Footprints provides the ability to take notes and an audio clip of that favourite restaurant or special place while identifying its specific geographical location. In addition to identifying each postcard with its specific GPS co-ordinates, Footprints also auto-names each postcard with its general location or area.”
The phone is set to release across select markets in the Spring. Currently there is no pricing. You can find more photos and features at HTC Touch Cruise (09).
You’re looking at what may very well be the T-Mobile G2. With the release of these spy photos, rumors are now swarming. The T-Mobile G2 is expected to be thinner and come without a slide out keyboard. According to the Gizmodo source the device may hit T-Mobile shelves sometime in May. Keep your eyes out!
It’s taken a while to get on board, but it looks like Blackberry has final gotten its act together. Don’t get too excited Blackberry users, Blackberry does not yet have an app store, but they have created a web page where potential developers can sign-up. The site doesn’t mention when the app store will be available for end user use, but at least we know it’s on the way! If I had to guess I would say look for a launch date of sometime this summer.
