SmartPhones

As Samsung comes out with its Android-based Galaxy Spica smartphone (aka the i5700) and then announces that it's not going to be available yet to U.S. consumers, and as Dell announces its entry into the smartphone market, but in China and Brazil, not the U.S., one of the world's premiere smarthone makers, Nokia, is finally bringing one of its most revered devices, the Nokia E72, to U.S. shores.

The Nokia E72, arguably Nokia's greatest stab at the Blackberry Curve, is now being sold to U.S. customers on Amazon.com for around $469 (a welcome step down in price from its price in Euros, equating to $525 U.S.). The E72 is primarily a messaging and email phone, with a built-in desktop email client and chat, and is being targeted at the business community.

Meanwhile, as Palm rolls out its Palm Pixi, analysts and prognosticators are buzzing about the rumors coming out late last week that Nokia might purchase the faltering Palm.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: Amazon, Android, Blackberry, Brazil, China, Curve, Dell, E72, Galaxy Spica, i5700, Nokia, Palm, Pixi, Samsung, U.S.

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Armani phone anyone? No, we're completely serious! Ask Steve Ballmer, Microsoft pres.

The unlikely newcomer on the high-tech scene is a high-fashion inspired Samsung smartphone called the Samsung B6720. Just announced last week, the Samsung B6720 will be running on the latest mobile OS from Microsoft, Windows Mobile 6.5 (or WinMo 6.5 for short). But that's not what's such a big deal about it.

The big deal is that there at the official unveiling was none other than world-renowned fashion designer Giorgio Armani whose name and stylistic seal of approval marks the B6720, a high-end smartphone for high-end Armani types. Thus $1,032 price tag.

So this is more an interest story than a practical product announcement for most people (as who can afford to spend over a grand on a phone: or 700 Euros?), but interesting it is indeed. What would an Armani phone look and feel like exactly?

Well, it looks like a slider phone, with a candybar 3.5" AMOLED touchscreen design and a slide-out tilt-screen QWERTY keyboard. It's got 8 gigs of internal memory (plus a microSD card slot for as much as 32 gigs of expandable memory), a video player, 5 megapixel digital camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth connectivity, TV-out, an FM radio, a built-in GPS...and of course the status symbol of the king fashion plate GIORGIO ARMANI name emblazoned on its crest.

At the unveiling, the smartphone was introduced as a high-class feature-filled business smartphone for today's business managers. Taking that into consideration, the photos of Steve Ballmer standing beside Giorgio Armani standing beside a Samsung B7620 may actually sell a few of these things after all.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: B6720, Giorgio Armani, Microsoft, Samsung, Windows Mobile, WinMo 6.5

The Director of the Microsoft Mobile Team Unit for the Greater China region announced the other day that 15 smartphone developers will be releasing over 30 new smartphones by the end of this year that will be running on the upcoming and long-await Windows Mobile OS upgrade - Windows Mobile 6.5.

Among those 15 develops that have Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphone launches on the near horizon are: Acer, HP, HTC, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, or Toshiba. Among the wireless service carriers that are on-board to carry many of these devices are the big 3 - Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile.

As we mentioned in an earlier post, among the first of these 30 new Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphones to come out will be several from HTC, including the HTC Touch 2 and HTC Tilt 2 (said to be the WinMo equivalent of the TouchPro 2), as well as the Sony Ericsson Xperia2. Following shortly on their heels will be 3 from LG and a WinMo revamped line of Samsung Omnia devices.

What is there to look forward to in the new WinMo update? Home screen widgets, Internet Explorer 6.5, Flash Lite support for IE 6.5, and My Phone, an online file synchronization service.

The official Windows Mobile 6.5 launch date is October 6. People who already have smartphones running Windows Mobile 6.1 will be able to update their OS to WinMo 6.5 at that time with a software patch. And WinMo 6.5 will also be available for sale at the Windows Marketplace app store.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: HTC, Microsoft, Omnia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Tilt 2, Touch 2, TouchPro 2, Windows Marketplace, Windows Mobile, WinMo 6.5, Xperia X2

Verizon is having a "fire sale" on its smartphones, slashing prices by as much as $100 and dropping prices on some of its devices to unbelievably lows in an obvious effort to push out old stocks before new holiday inventories come in (such as the HTC TouchPro 2 and the Blackberry Storm 2). This in an obvious effort to compete with AT&T's recently slashed prices on the iPhone and iPhone 3G.

Included in the bargains are several $99 deals (with 2-year contracts, of course) on smartphones like the HTC Touch Diamond, the Blackberry Storm, and the Samsung Omnia. The biggest price drop (also to $99.99) is for the HTC TouchPro which came down from a staggering $419.

The Blackberry Curve (recently revealed as the top selling smartphone of 2009 Q2) is getting a price cut down to an incredible $49.99.

Even the newer Verizon smartphone handsets are getting discounts (though not as heavy ones, of course) like the Blackberry Tour which will sell for $149, and the Samsung Saga, both carried by Verizon Wireless, are not discounted in this sale.

According to Boy Genius Report (which broke the story) the TouchPro2 should be out soon, while the Storm2 will probably not see the light of day until sometime in November. That gives smartphone users plenty of time to devour the good bargains available now.

Clearly whether they're doing it to compete with the iPhone's slash in prices (and particularly the $99 iPhone 3G 8 GB model) or in an effort to clear out TouchPro and Storm handsets to make way for their successors, one thing is for sure: Verizon Wireless is now deeply entrenched in the smartphone price wars.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: AT&T, Blackberry, Curve, HTC, iphone, iphone 3g, Omnia, Saga, Samsung, Storm, Storm 2, Touch Diamond, TouchPro, TouchPro 2, verizon

Last week was the 2009 GSMA Mobile World Congress, and here's the lowdown on its high points:

HTC Magic: The second Google Android powered smartphone from HTC and the first from Vodafone, the Magic is smaller than the inaugural Google Phone, the HTC T-Mobile G1 and will first be distributed into hands overseas (U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Spain). Downsides? It doesn't have a physical keyboard, nor does the touchscreen keyboard operate in landscape mode.

Also unveiled from HTC, the HTC Touch Diamond2, HTC Touch Pro2, and the T-Mobile G2.

Acer M900: The business set will like this latest Windows Mobile smartphone, with its large 3.8" touchscreen, vast messaging capabilities, and--get this!--fingerprint scanner for cutting-edge security.

LG Arena: It was only a matter of time before we saw a 3D interface, and here it is, looking like the onscreen Rubiks Cube of menus.

Nokia E55: With its own take-off of the BlackBerry Sure-Type keypad.

A common thread for a lot of the devices unveiled this year is the built-in 5-megapixel camera--though the ones in the new Nokia N86 and Samsung Omnia HD sport 8 megapixels, and the Sony Ericsson Idou, with its enhanced touchscreen, has 12.1 and a sliding lens cover. So there!

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: Acer, Acer M900, Android, Blackberry, Google Android, Google Phone, GSMA, HTC, HTC Magic, LG, LG Arena, Mobile World Congress, Nokia, Nokia E55, Nokia N86, Samsung, Samsung Omnia HD, Sony Ericsson, Sony Ericsson Idou, Sure Type, T-Mobile, T-Mobile G1, T-Mobile G2, Touch Diamond2, Touch Pro2, Vodafone

The first smartphone company to use the inaugural Google Android mobile operating system was HTC with their T-Mobile G1 which was released to predictably mixed reviews. Well, it's time for the G1's first (of imminently many) competitor to make its introduction, and it will come to us courtesy of Samsung.

It will be a touchscreen smartphone similar in many ways to both the Samsung Instinct and Samsung Omnia.

With an anticipated release date of June 2009, the company has announced that it's amping up production of the as-of-yet unnamed Samsung Google Phone in order to stay competitive. Whatever it'll be called, it'll be available on both T-Mobile and Sprint networks.

Chances are high that the Samsung Google Phone will be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain next month.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: Android, Barcelona, Google, HTC G1, Instinct, Mobile World Congress, Omnia, Samsung, Spain, T-Mobile

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

Despite all the iPhone 3G, the Samsung Blackjack II got the top rating in Consumer Reports’ 2009 issue which, among other features, looks back at the best smartphones of 2008.

The media-darling iPhone and the equally hype-laden T-Mobile G1 (the HTC Google Android smartphone) didn’t even make the Top 5, instead tying with one another for 6th.

The remaining Top 5 behind the Samsung Blackjack II were:
2.  T-Mobile Wing
1. Motorola Q9C
2. T-Mobile Shadow
3. BlackBerry Pearl Flip

There is, however, a HUGE caveat to this list, albeit not one that affects the iPhone’s status any (or the HTC G-1’s for that matter), that being that the following contenders were released too late in the year to be considered in the running:
• BlackBery Bold
• BlackBerry Storm
• HTC Touch Pro and all its variants

Surely, that would have made a big difference to the results.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: Android, BlackBerry Bold, Blackberry Pearl Flip, BlackBerry Storm, Blackjack, Blackjack II, Consumer Reports, G-1, G1, Google Phone, HTC, HTC Touch Pro, iphone, iphone 3g, Motorola, Q9C, Samsung, Shadow, T-Mobile, Wing

Last week we reviewed the new Palm Treo 800w and already, just a few days later, we catch wind of Palm's next Treo, not yet released but on the horizon. The Palm Treo Pro is its name - aka the Palm Treo 850w - and as its name implies, this upcoming Palm will be geared towards the business customer.

With a sleeker, slimmer, flashier, and more professional looking design than its predecessors (and consumer counterparts), the leaked photos and Flash vidoe demos show a Treo that may take Palm to the next level, on par with the BlackBerry Bold, Samsung Instinct, and - yes - the Apple iPhone.

But the latest Treo for enterprise customers has as many similarities to the Palm Treo 800w as it does differences, with:

• a touchscreen
• 320 x 320 resolution
• a microSD expansion slot
• a QWERTY keyboard
• Wi-Fi
• a 3.5 mm headphone jack
• etc.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: apple, Apple iPhone, Blackberry, BlackBerry Bold, Bold, Instinct, iphone, microSD, Palm, Palm Treo, Palm Treo 800w, Palm Treo 850w, Palm Treo Pro, QWERTY, Samsung, Samsung Instinct, touchscreen, Treo 800w, Treo 850w, Wi-Fi

In this face of broad-sweeping success with their HTC Touch Pro and HTC Touch Diamond series handsets, the smartphone maker has announced that they are still on course to release their first (and possibly the first) Google Android OS powered device by the fourth quarter of this year.

Expected to be called the HTC Dream, the new smartphone from HTC flies in the face of recent rumors about possible delays in the launching of any Google Android powered smartphone.

Promised to bear both a large touchscreen and a complete, slide-out or swivel-out QWERTY keyboard, the HTC Dream will be about 5” long and 3” wide with controls for online navigation placed on the handset itself, beneath the touchscreen.

The HTC Dream is readying to face its biggest competition, at least initially, from Samsung, which seems poised to put out the 2nd Google Android smartphone to be scheduled for release (with Motorola not far behind).

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: Google, Google Android, HTC, HTC Dream, HTC Touch Diamond, HTC Touch Pro, Motorola, QWERTY, Samsung, touchscreen