SmartPhones

This year's Consumer Electronics Show--not typically a place where mobile phones generally stand out--saw a smartphone, namely the new Palm Pre, win the CNET Best of CES Award.

And that was only 1 of 3 awards Palm's new iPhone-killer (the most promising looking contender for that position in 2009) which also won:

• the Best of CES Award in the Cellphone category
• the People's Voice Award

The LG Watch Phone, however, probably walked away with the Wow-Factor award of the year.

Meanwhile the Motorola Surf A3100 touchscreen smartphone earned itself a Best of CES nomination, at least. Motorola also rolled out its "Green" smartphone--in that it's built from recycled water bottles--the Renew W233 and it's rough-and-tumble AT&T Tundra A76r.

Other highlights of the introductions made at the 2009 CES include:

• RIM and T-Mobile's BlackBerry Curve 8900
• T-Mobile Shadow
• HTC S743
• as US version of the Nokia E63
• and the eagerly-anticipated Nokia N97

The quietest voice on the CES smartphone stage this year was no doubt Samsung, who barely had a thing to show but for the T-Mobile SGH-T119.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: AT&T, Best of CES Award, Blackberry, Blackberry Curve 8900, CES, CNET, Consumer Electronics Show, green smartphone, HTC S743, iphone, iPhone-killer, LG, Moto, Motorola, Nokia E63, Nokia N97, Palm Pre, People's Voice Award, recycled water bottles, Renew W233, RIM, Samsung, SGH-T119, Shadow, Surf A3100, T-Mobile, Tundra A76r, Watch Phone

Recently this blog reported on results of a study that showed the RIM Blackberry OS to be the "best" smartphone OS among industry analysts. However, according to an informal survey conducted by internet technology review stalwart CNet, the preferred smartphone operating system among consumers (or at least, CNet readers) is Windows Mobile.

Smartphones running Windows Mobile include the Samsung Blackjack, the Motorola Q (the top two tier-1 smartphones), as well as many manufactured by HTC, including the widely-popular HTC Tilt.

Based on pure market share alone, the study of 130 users showed Windows Mobile at 42.3%, RIM Blackberry at 19.2%, Apple OS X at 17.7%, and Symbian and Palm OS at 10%. Those are the stats for operating systems. As for smartphone manufacturers, RIM and HTC both took the lead, tying with a 19.2% market share each, Apple following close behind with 17.7%, Motorola at third with 11.5%, Palm at 10%, and all the rest (Nokia, Samsung, etc.) taking the remaining 22.3%.

Interestingly enough, the praise for Windows Mobile was balanced out (read: marred or tainted), however, by half of the respondents reporting complaints of the very same OS. Finally, a whopping 66% of CNet readers responding the survey said they would be likely to consider purchasing an Apple iPhone as their next smartphone, three times more than those who said they'd opt for the second place contender, the Blackberry.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: apple, Blackberry, CNET, HTC, HTC Tilt, iphone, Microsoft, Motorola, Motorola Q, Nokia, Palm, RIM, Samsung, Symbian, Windows Mobile

We're all used to the typical promotion where you get a free cell phone in exchange for signing up for a set period of service. So it should come as no surprise that the same phenomenon has begun with the product representing the evolution of the cell phone - the smartphone.

CNET reported today on the Samsung BlackJack II being offered for free on Buy.com for anyone signing up for a two-year AT&T contract. While not the fastest or easiest phone to use, the Samsung BlackJack II nonetheless has some impressive qualities, including:

• a GPS
• a 2- megapixel camera
• and AT&T HSPDA network support

Researching this phenomenon further, I found that Buy.com actually offers several smart phones for free with activation, including:

• Palm Centro
• RIM BlackBerry Pearl
• Motorola RAZR

From here, I checked into how commonly this phenomenon occurred at competing cell phone and smart phone vendors and found that everybody's doing it. In addition to more of the aforementioned brand names, I also found all sorts of other smartphones (such as Sony Ericsson, Nextel, and Nokia) offered for free by all the major carriers:

• AT&T (and the former Cingular)
• Verizon
• T-Mobile
• and Sprint

Now there's a way that people on a limited budget can still afford to get a smartphone of their own (though maybe not the latest and greatest model), just by signing up for the wireless service they're going to need to get anyway.

To boot, most of the participating smartphone vendors will even throw in free shipping with the deal.

With such great deals flooding the net, and every phone manufacturer and wireless carrier competing for your hard-earned dollar, we may soon see the day when you never have to pay to obtain a smartphone again.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: , AT&T, Blackberry, BlackBerry Pearl, camera, cell phone, CNET, GPS, HSPDA, Motorola, Motorola RAZR, Palm, Palm Centro, Palm Treo, Research in Motion, RIM, Samsung, Samsung BlackJack II, smart phone, smartphone, Sony, Sony Ericsson, Sprint, T-Mobile, verizon