Symbian just made itself open as it vies with the other mobile OSs in the market mainly eyeing the potential challenger Android. As the smartphone industry gets progressively competitive each day, Symbian is in no mood to stay behind. This seems quite evident as the Symbian Foundation has announced its plans to bring handful of cheap, Symbian smartphones by the end of 2010.

At the Mobile World Congress, Executive Director of Symbian Foundation, Lee Williams announced, “this year we will see a few products hitting that point.” We have no details of any features the handsets will carry except that they will be priced around the $140 (Rs. 6,500) mark. It is also being expected that the likes of Qualcomm and Infineon will play a key role by driving down costs through manufacturing scale and technical innovation. Again no news as to whether Nokia will be the manufacturer or not as, Sony Ericson and Samsung too use the Symbian platform in their handsets.

The move will be well acknowledged in the entry-level smartphone market and will also allow a broader section of the consumers to use smartphones that even today by far are associated to having expensive phones. And as Samsung too has big plans with its Bada platform, it will be interesting to watch them battle for supremacy. At the end we as consumers will be the real gainers.

Source: Reuters

Image source: mobileshop

The Mobile World Congress is steaming up with hot and trendy phones from the eminent mobile manufacturers and the audiences are having a gala time exploring new handsets and their nifty features. While we are missing Nokia at the event, there are others creating waves with their superior technology and enhanced applications. Bringing some scoops of mobile news from Barcelona, here is HTC with their all new much anticipated superphone, the Desire.

From the makers of the Google Nexus One, the new Desire shares pretty similar specs to the Nexus apart from the new Sense UI. IT uses an optical track pad unlike the trackball in the nexus one and also bosts of a new “friend stream” feature which keeps social-networking updates in one list. For a recap of its specifications, the Desire carries a GHz Snapdragon processor, 3.7-inch multi-touch AMOLED (480 x 800 WVGA) screen with pinch-to-zoom capability, 512 megabyte ROM and 576 megabyte RAM, 5 Mpixel color camera with face detection, auto-focus, flash and geo-tagging functions, and the most importantly the Android 2.1 operating system. Other features include Bluetooth 2.1 with Enhanced Data Rate connectivity, FM radio and Internal GPS antenna.

The handset will be available in Europe and Asia in early Q2 this year with no news for the U.S. market. Check out the phone in the video by Engadget.

Last year end Samsung had drawn a lot of attention when it unveiled its smartphone platform Bada. The open and configurable platform had given the developer society a new scope to experiment with applications. The first phone by Samsung with Bada platform, Samsung Wave was unveiled yesterday in Barcelona just a day before the Mobile World Congress starts.

Image Source: Engadget

The phone is all set to go on sale in April though the it is still unknown where the first launch would be. The touch screen phone that highly resembles an iPhone  features high-resolution screen usingorganic light emitting diodes, or OLEDs

Samsung so far had mobiles running on other operating system and most of its phone are backed by Nokia’ symbian. With its own smart phone platform, Samsung will be in the same league as Apple, RIM etc. Samsung is the largest phone maker in US but the smart phone market is still dominated by iPhone and Blackberry. The new move is sure to give Samsung an advantage and the TouchWiz system which is used on the touch screen of its regular phones will be used in the smartphone platform as well giving it an edge over its competitors.

The price of the phone remain unknown.

Owning a smartphone has been made lot more easier as companies roll out low end handsets for the common masses. Joining the league is UK-based mobile service provider, Synchronica with its all new $99 MessagePhone .

Synchronica along with the Korean manufacturer KC Mobile has today unveiled two models of the MessagePhone that provides smartphone like features at very low costs. “The new MessagePhones offer advanced features such as Push Email and Synchronization services, mobile Instant Messaging, a full HTML web browser and access to social networking sites,” according to the company.

The two models, QS150 and QS200, look very similar to the traditional BlackBerry handsets, that offer 2.2″ colour screen and full QWERTY keypad with dedicated ‘read’ and ‘compose’ buttons for emails, 1.3-megapixel camera, SB connection and optional Bluetooth radio  The QS150 supports tri-band GPRS-GSM, and has 10MB of user memory while the QS200 has a faster CPU, quadband GPRS/EDGE-GSM cellular, and 32MB of user memory. The internet browser is Bitstream’s BOLT that displays full PC-style web pages on all types of mobile devices. Also the handsets carry a MicroSD slot and promise 5.5 hours of talk time and 17 days standby time.

Well its not shaking Apple, RIM and other smartphone giants but is an amazing option and has great potential in the developing nations and the emerging markets.

We already know LG’s plans of rolling out 20 smartphones in 2010 and we can see the Korean manufacturer working really hard to achieve the goal. As it continue the journey towards attaining its set targets, the company has just announced a new smartphone, the LG GD880.

Touting its as the smallest and the thinnest smartphone ever, the  ‘LG Mini’, comes with a 3.2-inch touchscreen and a 5-megapixel camera without flash but with face detection. The device also supports 7.2 Mbps HSDPA and the connectivity options include WiFi, A-GPS and Bluetooth. The 99 grams of smartphone   is only 48mm wide by 11mm deep and stands at 102mm tall. A Social Network Connect tool , secondary front camera and microSD card are also on the list of features.

The real deal or more precisely a major drawback is the company’s decision to ship the device with its S-Class OS. This is a rather upsetting surprise as Android power phones are actually taking onto the market quite swiftly and lucratively. But LG has something else to say.

“We developed the LG Mini in response to specific requests from actual consumers who were unhappy with current full touchscreen phones that are too bulky, too clunky and too expensive,” said Dr. Skott Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company.

The LG GD880 Mini will arrive in Europe first next month and we hope it succeeds to entice the LG fans and the others with its slim profile.

Pictures of the upcoming HTC Incredible smartphone are wandering in the wild after the spy team at pocketnow managed to reveal them on their site. The new smarthphone from the eminent maker HTC, will be another model to ship with Android platform.

The Incredible will boast a Snapdragon processor inside, with an adequate 256MB of RAM and 512MB of flash storage, 3.5- to 3.7-inch AMOLED display, 5 megapixel camera at the rear with a dual LED flash, Bluetooth , WiFi connectivity , a microSD card slot and an optical mouse pointer towards the bottom . The device will run version 2.1 of Android, which is the same as on the Nexus One. The HTC Sense solution is also expected in the handset. The Incredible would be available on Verizon’s wireless network.

The model is very appealing and will help HTC boost its competition in the smartphone segment. While the other major details are still not officially released by the manufacturer, the phone is expected to unveil at the Mobile World Congress next month. Check out the video to have a closer look.

The wireless providers and the government in the U.S. have all come together to take care of the pregnant women and the new mothers. A free text messaging service for pregnant ladies and those with small children will provide relevant health information without any cost.

Voxiva, a vendor of consumer health applications for mobile computing devices, has developed a service called the text4baby which will be a first ever free mobile health service in the United States. The service has been launched by a alliance of mobile phone service providers, health professionals, and federal, state, and local agencies that include the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Department of Health and Human Services, CTIA – The Wireless Foundation and all major US wireless providers like the AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Alltel, Boost Mobile, Metro PCS, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile, Virgin Mobile USA, state and local health departments many national and community-level health organizations and more.

Aneesh Chopra, the federal chief technology officer and associate director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy announced the service saying, “Text4baby represents an extraordinary opportunity to expand the way we use our phones, to demonstrate the potential of mobile health technology, and make a real difference for moms and babies across the country.”

Women may sign up for the service by texting BABY (or BEBE for Spanish) to 511411. They will then receive free text messages each week, until their expected due date or baby’s date of birth. The messages will deal with a variety of topics critical to maternal and child health, that would include birth defects prevention, immunization, mental health, seasonal flu, nutrition, oral health and safe sleep.

More information is available at text4baby.org.

The open source Android finally made Symbian wrap off the cover from its codes and get into the Mobile OS war fully armed as the Symbian Foundation announced the much-awaited decision of making its code open source.

The move that had actually been taken in 2008 has finally reached its final destination and Symbian is now open for the developers to experiment. Symbian3, the new version of the OS, is now free and 100% open to all.  More than 330 million phones around the globe use Symbian but because of the new OSs launching in the market and falling market share of the Nokia handsets , Symbian had been losing its grounds in the industry.

“This is the largest open source migration effort ever,” Lee Williams executive director of the Symbian Foundation  told BBC News. “It will increase rate of evolution and increase the rate of innovation of the platform.”

“The dominant operating system provider out there is Symbian,” says Lee Williams , “and now we are offering developers the ability to do so much more.”

At present the Nokia primarily controls the development of Symbion but the Symbian foundation is now in plans to reduce Nokia’s input to “no more than 50%” by 2011.

The move will no doubt boost up the use of Symbian OS and it will yet again emerge as a potential opponent against the other mobile OSs.  2010 will be a very interesting and exciting year for mobile enthusiasts.

Image source: inf.u-szeged

Soon you will hear smokers say “Do you have mobile?” instead of the usual “Do you have a light?” as the lighter has made its way into the cellular phone. A new mobile called Machismo from China has is a boon for all the smokers. The “world’s hottest cigarette lighter mobile phone” as they call themselves is a triband with dual-SIM slots and has a 2.5 inch touchscreen.

The problem with modern life is you have to carry around too many things in your pockets. Wallet, keys, iPod, cellphone, and if you’re a smoker – a cigarette lighter too. Well here’s the perfect solution - The Machismo. Instead of carrying a phone AND a lighter, just turn this amazing phone around, slide open the safety latch, and the underlying heating element heats up in under 2 seconds. Place your cigarette on the glowing element and puff. Your cigarette is lit and you can enjoy your smoke. Super huh? Yes, Machismo!

Apart from the lighter, the phone comes loaded all major features such as 2GB TF MicroSD Card, 1.3 MP digital camera, video camcorder, a mp3 music player, dual SIM slots, an mp4 video player, PDA tools.

That certainly a HOT phone which can put other phones on fire!

Source: Cinavasion

Samsung has confirmed that it will include the latest version of its TouchWiz customizable user interface in its forthcoming bada smartphone. Acc to the Samsung bada blog, Samsung will unveil its first smartphone to run its new Bada platform at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona later this month.

The first device that will be based on the bada OS would be the bada S8200, which features  a 3.7 AMOLED screen, HSPA, Wi-Fi, GPS, and a 5MP autofocus camera  and will also be powered by the popular Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. Also sources reveal that bada-based S8200 will be priced at around $575 (Rs. 27,000 approx).

TouchWiz boasts specially designed widgets that enable one-touch access to the users’ favorite applications. According to the company, the updated TouchWiz for bada will bring new touch interaction features and components which have been created to further simplify the user experience.

“People’s expectations of the user experience (UX) are higher than ever before,” says the post. “Simply being new doesn’t cut it anymore. Quick acclimation and enjoyment are increasingly important.”

Bada is a very new player in the smartphone market having being launched in December. With competitors like Android and Symbian and others, it will be interesting to see how Samsung succeeds to hold itself firmly on the mobile OS arena. Its features are noteworthy and the platform is already receiving a good response from the global operators.

Image source: cellphones, mobileworld

If I am to mention about a mobile OS slowly taking onto the handsets of the major manufacturers, Android would be one word to echo in chorus. As the OS comes to blows with the others in the market, and as it may be seen assimilating a positive response on the web especially coz of its open nature, how much do we envy the owners of the expensive android handsets?  Quite a much. But lets give our jealousy some rest as a killer android phone for the lower end has just made its way to the mobile sphere.

Alcatel has just made a cool combination of Android and Palm pre in a single handset for the customers. With not so amazing but notable specifications under its hood, the phone carries 600Mhz CPU, 802.11 b/g, EDGE, 3G, GPS, Magnetometer (Compass), 2 megapixel camera, and an accelerometer. What is rather interesting is that the phone may be expected to roll out in a price lesser than the HTC Tattoo making it affordable to fit in many pockets. While that is all we know about the slider as of now, but you may take a closer look at the phone in the video down here by  Frandroid.

The smartphone market had been heating up with the latest high tech and most sophisticated technology and there were many players fighting to mark a niche with their innovation. But as Apple and RIM were seen taking a lead in the industry, Nokia was loosing onto its glorious market records. But the Finnish company is back in the race as it reports of 132 percent increase in operating profit year-on-year and a positive sign in its growth statistics.

Nokia’s revenues from smartphones increased 26% from the previous quarter to 3.9 billion euros and the major credit goes to the sales of high-end smartphones, the N-series and E-series,  that grew from 8.9 million to 10.7 million between the third and fourth quarters of 2009.

“We grew our market share in smartphones in the fourth quarter, driven by the successful launch of new touch and Qwerty models,” said Nokia’s chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo.

“Our performance in smartphones, combined with continuing success in the emerging markets, helped us increase sales in our devices & services unit, both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year.”

Nokia is well determined to win its shares back from its competitors and Apple takes the top spot in the list.

“Apple continues to be a great competitor, no doubt about that,” Mr. Kallasvuo said. “But we have our assets as well. Our strategy is in democratizing the smartphone in a massive way.”

Nokia reported a net profits of 882m euros for the last three months of 2009, a 53% increase on the 576m euros recorded a year earlier. However, Sony Ericsson and Motorola continued to struggle, selling 14.6 million and 12 million phones, respectively.

Image source: mobilestormer

Magnum RIM”s Blackberry is just trying hard to bridge the gap between its popular Bold QWERTY handsets and its Storm touchscreen device with its new Blackberry Magnum.

A new Research in Motion BlackBerry device has been spotted in the mobile world as The Cellular Guru reviews a Magnum prototype in a video. The first ever combination of touch screen and QWERTY keyboard by the Canadian wireless device company, is sure to place it well in the arena of full touch screen handsets. Other mentions include the larger keyboard, optical trackpad and micro USB port. For a closer look, check out the video .

Motorola Zeppelin, isn’t a new name we have heard as few of its pictures had already been leaked on the web. But we thought looking at the market trends and existing super Smartphone Motorola will dust off its old style and bring something innovative for the consumers. But seems Moto is just not serious about getting back on its foot and making a mark in the smartphone industry as yet again it is just about to bring a rather not too great phone to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month.

Not bad but neither impressive features, it boast of a touch-sensitive buttons below the display, a 5 megapixel camera, 3.2-inch 320×480 HVGA display, a built-in GPS sensor company’s MOTOBLUR interface and a 550 MHz processor. It is not known which Android build it will ship with, but it 2.0 or 2.1 are only the ones as an option.

We may not call it the highest-end phone on the block. As we see the handset doesn’t blow our mind away with its design that has a metal casing along with HTC type form factor. After Razr, the company hasn’t been able to create a stir in the market and this phone may line up as the next disaster spilling water over Motorola’s hopes of getting back its lost glory.

Nokia Corp, the world’s largest mobile phone maker has announced a latest  flavor of touchscreen Nokia handset, Nokia X6 16GB.

Nokia X6 was initially announced in September and finally landed in the market December and its 16 GB model is slimmed down and made cheaper. It longer carries  Nokia’s Comes With Music service but its sizable on board storage still boasts enough space for 5,500 tracks.. Quite apparent it has half the memory than its predecessor. It will be rolled out in four new finishes: black, white, white with pink highlights and white with yellow highlights. The 16G variant will sell for £299 SIM-free with contract prices expected to be as low as £25 a month.

“Whether you just call and text or want a device that gives you music, movies and games at the touch of a button, the X6 is where it’s at this spring,” proclaims Nokia UK’s General Manager Mark Loughran. “Why carry around a music player or handheld game, when one phone can give you all the entertainment you need at a touch?”

Loaded with myriad multimedia features, the new sibling of Nokia X6 supports Ovi Store connectivity, a capacitive screen and runs Symbian S60 5th Edition as an OS. The phone boasts up to 18 days standby time, 11.5 hours talktime (GSM), 4.5 hours of video playback and a whopping 35 hours of music playback. Other specifications include a 5-megapixel photo snapper with Carl Zeiss optics and dual LED flash, which also sports video recording capabilities, as well as TV-out functions. It also features video editing capabilities.

Gamers will be happy to have the pre-loaded games including Spore by EA, Asphalt4 and DJ Mix Tour by Gameloft. It is available from today from www.nokia.co.uk/shop. So all  Nokia fans needn’t wait too long to grab a piece of their own.

Japan’s largest mobile-phone company NTT DoCoMo Inc.  had released its first ever Android powered mobile phone HT-03A model in May an year ago. Marching ahead the company is now ready to release a new smartphone model, Xperia, as it aims to make a difference in the Smartphone market.

Xperia, created by Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB will run Google Inc.’s Android operating system and is scheduled to reach the Japanese market by April. The basic features include a four-inch screen with a touch-panel display, 7.2Mbps down/2.0Mbps up, Wi-Fi connectivity, an 8.1-megapixel camera and will roll out in “Sensuous Black” and “Luster White” colors The model is said to be priced between 35,000 yen to 40,000 yen with some discount offers for a 2 year usage period by the customer.

The move is said to be Docomo’s attempt to attack its rival, SoftBank Mobile Corp., the company which sells Apple Inc.’s iPhone in Japan and is currently a major leader in the smartphone business in the country. DoCoMo already offers RIM Ltd.’s BlackBerry and mobile devices using Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Mobile software.

At an event that was held to promote the new model, company President Ryuji Yamada said, “ This is a model that we can call the nouvelle entertainment machine. With this handset, you can handle such data as music, pictures and movies as you like…I’m confident that Xperia is superior to iPhone in terms of both hardware and software.”

Image source:  ubergizmo

The smartphone market is at present the fastest growing segment of the mobile industry and it will continue to outpace the overall handset market for the foreseeable future. Apple iPhone that now has overall market share leadership worldwide , overtook the former frontrunner Nokia, with Blackberry and Samsung also pacing on swiftly. But the Finnish company is trying to keep its customers happy and is working on strategies to boost the sales of its high-end devices.

Nokia has announced that the navigational services on its smartphones will now be offered free to the customers globally. The navigational services will be offered under its Ovi Maps offerings. Covering 74 countries and 46 languages, the company is making a direct attack on the Google and other similar service providers like Apple. The Google  Maps Navigation is although free but is only limited to the Android handsets and only in U.S. while Apple’s iPhone users need to pay around $70 to download a similar application. Also Nokia’s navigation service is 10 times more efficient that Google Maps that counts for less network congestion, thus keeping it a level above the rest.

“This is a game changing move. By leveraging our NAVTEQ acquisition, and our context sensitive service offering, we can now put a complete navigation system in the palm of your hand, wherever in the world you are, whenever you need it – and at no extra cost,”said Anssi Vanjoki, Vice Executive President Nokia.

The Finnish telco’s share in the smart phone space has slipped to 38% now from 53% two years earlier. The company is trying to regain the lost grounds and that is quite evident as Nokia spent $8.1bn buying Navteq whose revenue will be cannibalized by the company’s free offering. So will Nokia succeed in its efforts and will its strategy work well against Google and others? And how will the navigation service be enough for Nokia to gain its lost share? Nokia needs more potential  innovation to keep up with  the changing market trends and customer expectations.

Image source: navigadget

We all are eagerly waiting for the launch of Windows Mobile 7 and closely watching the web for any news leaks on the matter. While Microsoft isn’t ready yet to let us have a sneak peak into its new mobile OS, we already have the manufacturers unveiling their plans with the software.

Acc to WMExperts , HTC Obsession could be the first Windows phone which will ship with Windows Mobile 7 soon. The high-end HTC Obsession  is seen as  an upgraded version of HD2 that comes with more on-board memory, and an upgraded 5 Megapixel   camera that has 720p HD video recording capabilities. The phone is said to fully support the social networking such as Facebook, Twitter and Xbox Live. Other specs include:

• 3.7 inch capacitive AMOLED multitouch display
• HSDPA
• Wi-Fi
• Qualcomm CPU at 1GHz
• 512MB RAM, 512MB ROM
• 4GB of internal memory

Apart from HTC,  it is also stated that LG Apollo will be another WM7 phone that might be launched sometime in August or September this year.  Microsoft plans to launch two versions of Windows Mobile 7, that include  Windows Phone Seven Business Edition (BE) and Windows Phone Seven Media Edition (ME). Also as Microsoft is working on the cloud-based assisted GPS system called Orion, all Windows Phone Seven handsets will experience a much faster GPS performance.

Image source: Letsgodigital

Google and China strife isn’t seeing any chances of coming to some settlement and now this news should not come as surprise to anybody. Google has decided to postpone the launch of its phone in China as its dispute with Beijing over Internet censorship and e-mailing reaches no conclusion.

An anonymous company spokesman said   “ It would not be a good experience for consumers to receive a phone right now with its applications.” However Marsha Wang, a spokeswoman for Google Inc., only stated that the planned Wednesday ceremony with local carrier China Unicom Ltd. was delayed for some time in future.

China has the world’s most-populous mobile phone market with more than 700 million accounts and increasingly affluent customers who are always ready to pay for the latest technology and services. For Google who has just stepped into the smartphone industry, the current situation may pose a serious threat to its business in the country. Also under adverse circumstances, Google search which has a potential market share at present, will loose on to world’s biggest Internet market by users.

So what will be the final effect? Android that was launched a year ago has already been adopted by China Mobile’s OPhone and Dell’s Mini 3. But will the open mobile OS hold on its place in the Chinese market? The story has real interesting twists and turns and the final result will be surprising and divisive.

Image source: csmonitor

Motorola, the largest cell phone manufacturer in the United States, has finally unveiled Motoroi, its first ever Android 2.0  powered smartphone in the South Korean market.

MOTOROI offers an array of user applications that will be powered by SK Telecom Co.  These include  effortless pinch-and-zoom browsing to cinematic navigation through music, videos and maps of the world. Motoroi features a full touch screen with a 3.7 inch, high-definition WVGA (480X854) display, 8 megapixel camera with Xenon flash that also functions as a 720p HD camcorder. The phone offers 8GB of storage and up to 32 GB of microSD support and allows 8 open browser windows at a time. The phone is said to have better specifications and higher resolution than Droid.

“MOTOROI is a smartphone without compromise, delivering a wiser, richer web and messaging experience with the most delightful touch-interface you have ever experienced, all made possible through the combination of Motorola’s expertise in design, a truly differentiated Android experience, and the power of SK Telecom’s network,” said Sanjay Jha, chief executive officer of Motorola Mobile Devices.

The phone is said to hit the stores across Korea by next month.  The penetration rate of the smartphone in Korea records only 1.2% of the total mobile phone market as of June 2009 and the telecom regulator KCC  is working to  expand its market expecting  the rate to reach 20 percent of total mobile users, or 4 million units of sales in 2013. Android  has well attracted the interest of almost every smartphone maker and Korea is just flowing with the new wave.

Image source: TheHindu

After Google Nexus One made its way into the smartphone industry, the rumors for the Nexus Two too started blooming in the mobile forums. As spies continue their hunt for the hidden models, here is a new smartphone that all are speculating to be the next Android powered Nexus Two by Motorola.

Motorola Shadow, that’s what the net is gossiping about and while no details are available from any side, all we have is a snapshot of the new Android superphone. Having some resemblance to the Motorola Droid, the phone features a slide out QWERTY keyboard and a large screen. It also has a wrist strap that I presume to be helpful for the forgetful people but for a future smartphone , its just little immature.

Well its just some news churned out from the rumor mill so none of us are really sure as to what this rendered image points to. But Andy Rubin, overseer of the Android platform, had hinted that the next Nexus smartphone, that will be an enterprise edition, might have a hardware keyboard. So whether it’s a Moto’s sequel to the Droid or it’s the Nexus Two, that is still a mystery and we got to wait to know the real stuff under the cover.

Sony Ericsson is now set to release another Windows Mobile device which will join its line of GreenHeart range of handsets.

Faith, as dubbed by the manufacturer is a QWERTY keyboard and  touchscreen candybar phone. The spy shots of the new phone were recently revealed by the  Daily iPhone Blog. According to the revealed specs the phone is said to be sporting the latest version of Windows Mobile – 6.5.3 that will run on a Qualcomm MSM7227 processor at 600MHz.  HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, a 2.4-inch TFT LCD with a 320 x 240 pixel resolution, a microSD memory card slot for additional storage space, and panels for 24 hours life, are some of the other attractive features. Faith is expected to have a 3.2 megapixel camera.

The price and release date are yet undercover. As for the color, the handset will be available in two versions: Black & Silver. Check out the new handset in the pictures below. Courtesy: Daily iPhone Blog.

Image source: mobile-daily

LG had just launched its second Android powered smartphone at CES 2010 but its not keeping quite after this. Infact the third largest mobile maker has really planned big for next 2 years to give its rivals some bumping as it aims to flood the global smartphone industry with its handsets very soon.

LG Electronics is aiming high as it plans to sell 140 million mobile phones in 2010 that would count to a 20% increase of sales in comparison to last year.  While 20 smartphones are lined up for this year, majority will feature on Google’s Mobile OS Android with WinMob and Linux for rest.

“We are facing another revolutionary change in the mobile industry, thanks to the rapid growth of smartphones and demand for more content and better services,” Skott Ahn, president of LG’s mobile communications division, told reporters.

An year back, LG had signed a deal with Microsoft of having Windows Mobile as the primary operating system for its smartphones. But it seems LG has too caught on with the Android fever and is pretty focused targeting a double digit share of smartphone market by 2012. LG already enjoys the third place after Nokia and Samsung in mobile phones but the plans clearly reveal manufacturer’s reluctance in staying behind anymore. It will be really interesting to watch the South Korean Company rolling out new and diverse handsets as it marches towards its goal.

Image source: farm4

LG’s first android phone  GW620 could not create much waves in the smartphone market and made few hits and misses, but that could not stop the handset maker from taking another dive into the Android pool. LG is now ready with its second Android powered handset , the LG GT540 Swift , with an officially unveiling at CES 2010.

Available in various color ranges that include white, pink, dark gray, and black,  the phone is simple and yet nice with rounded edges and wavy ridges at the back. As for the front it features a 320 x 480 pixel resistive touchscreen and a 3-megapixel autofocus camera on the back. Other features include a 3.5mm jack, Wi-Fi, 3G, GPS, Bluetooth, a microSD card slot that can accommodate 32GB memory card and a host of handy applications. The phone focuses majorly on the social media and networking and may be an ideal choice for the first time smartphone buyers.

LG plans to launch the phone globally in April 2010 and most probably will be powered by the Android 2.0 according to few sources. As for the price,  the smartphone is expected to be pretty affordable.

CES is drawing to a close and there had been a lot of unveiling of new and futuristic mobile phones from various manufacturing companies. While there were new players like Lenovo and interesting Intel and LG partnerships,  Microsoft’s new Windows Mobile operating system, 6.5.3 could not escape the sight of sharp eyes as  handsets like  Toshiba TG01 and Pharos Traveller loaded with the long-rumored OS showcased at Las Vegas show.

We already know the bunch of enhancements that the new OS would bring to its users. The biggest and the most required change to WInMo would include a better user interface to make it more finger friendly providing improved menus and visual enhancements. For more deep insight, you may check out the video at the end.

Microsoft isn’t doing quite well with its mobile OS as Symbian, Apple, RIM’s Blackberry and the Android continue to capture a potential market share. In such a situation a rather quite unveiling by the Redmond company, is little indigestible. Apart from this while many speculated to hear about the Windows Mobile 7 at CES, its been now revealed that the software giant plans to debut the OS at the next big event,  Mobile World Congress scheduled in February. So will WinMob 7 be a tough competitor or shall struggle yet again against the existing market leaders? We’ll have to wait to know that. But until then, take a sneak peak at the  Windows Mobile 6.5.3 in the video here.

The touch screen technology created a revolution in the tech industry and housed itself well in the gadget world of mobiles, TVs , gaming consoles and so on. Now imagine controlling them by just blowing on the device! Well, it will be possible soon.

A technology called Sensawaft, developed by an American company , Zyxio wiil enable answering your phone call by just blowing on the handset. The breath controlled technology will soon aid complete hands-free mobile phones. Sensawaft is powered by micro-electromechanical systems, tiny chips that can be embedded in other device, the Telegraph reported.

The technology will also be used in other devices focusing a good deal over the video games and promises to provide absolute accuracy  as Celine Vignal, the co-founder of the company was found stating “You can move a cursor or character around a screen with as much accuracy as a finger moving a mouse.” The technology was revealed at the CES in Las Vegas, where it was shown how the users could move the cursor on the screen by breathing into a headset. “We think the possibilities are endless. It even has potential for the military and factory assembly workers, who need to use both their hands continually, but would benefit from another functionality.”

Well the idea is novel and very interesting, but still, I fail to find the technology taking over the touch screen style soon. However its potential may not be overlooked and it will be so exciting to just breathe into the headset and watch your inbox swap messages one after the other( if they make that possible). For a more closer look, check out the videos here:

News source: Telegraph

CES is getting more interesting day after day as companies uncover their secrets and reveal new technology for patrons. While consumer electronics continue to ensnare quite much attraction from masses, there are many old players now trying their hand in the smartphone industry as well. After Lenovo, now the world’s largest chipmaker Intel has made a surprise entry or rather a re-entry after 4 years , with both LG Electronics and Nokia to bring out smartphones  based on its Moorestown platform for mobile devices.

Chipzilla CEO Paul Otellini revealed the GW990 smartphone that would be made by LG Electronics and ship during the second half of the year. The phone comes with the new generation of lower-power Atom processors codenamed Moorestown , 16GB of built in flash memory , 512MB RAMand would provide its users a 3D interface, display HD video, has a five inch screen and includes cameras on both front and back. The smartphone will run on Intel’s Moblin Operating System.

Image source: Eeepc

HTC Smart is finally unveiled but I fear its really not living upto its name. But yes if that’s a low budget affordable phone by Taiwan-based smartphone maker,  you may agree to ignore few missing bells and whistles.

To start with whats under the hood, you will have no Android or Windows operating system running on the phone. Instead the Qualcomm’s Brew mobile platform takes the center stage with HTC’s Sense user interface. A 300MHz processor,  256MB RAM , a 2.8 inch touch-screen, 3-megapixel camera with flash, stereo Bluetooth, a 3.5mm headset jack and a microSD card slot and no physical keyboard include the other basic features.

The phone will debut only in European and Asian markets but may be rolled to other parts in some time. So there isn’t actually much to explore in the HTC’s Smart phone but still here is a video by Engadget that may help you decide whether the phone fits in your requirement or not. Check it out.

While Acer and Dell had already stepped into the smartphone industry, how could Lenovo ignore the rising demand of the technology in today’s world? So after Skylight smartbook, IdeaPad S10-3t tablet, S10-3 netbook and IdeaPad U1 Hybrid laptop/tablet, Lenovo is finally making its entry with its first smartphone called LePhone, as it revealed at Lenovo CES press conference recently.

Aiming to make its debut in the Chinese market around May, the phone is pretty good package powered by Android 1.6 that includes vibrant 3.7-inch 800×480 capacitive touchscreen, 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon, an extra battery, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Also the 12 millimeters thick phone has cameras on both the sides with 3 megapixels for the main. There are no buttons on the front and the handset features gesture support. The price still remains under cover.

For a closer look check out the video here as Engadget folks get their hands on the new device:

Image source: engadget

The leaked images of a new Sony Ericsson Qwerty phone wandered unnamed in the wild with much guesswork evolving out from the rather blur picture. As many related the handset to the previously leaked Sony Ericsson handset called the Kurara the picture also revealed that the phone was running on Symbian S60 5th Edition.

Finally SEMC sources scraped out the truth about the mystery phone and revealed that handset we’re looking at is called the Kanna. The Sony Ericsson Kurara and this phone will be pretty much similar except the qwerty keyboard. The new Kanna which is scheduled to be announced on February 14^th 2010 at Mobile World Congress features a 3.2″ 360×640 display, flashes 8.1 megapixel camera with autofocus and supports 720p HD video recording.

News & image source: techtree