All iPhone bashing aside, the HTC TouchPro2 is still one of the hottest smartphones on the market today. Two months ago, when it first came out, this slide-out keyboard, touchscreen smartphone was flying off the shelves so fast it had gone out of stock after even at Verizon's own online store. Then, when they refilled inventories, the device voted Hot for the Holidays at the last CTIA convention, only remained in stock for one day. A little less than one month ago, the TouchPro2 was sold out again.
But now, as of November 9, nearly two months after the TouchPro2's release, supplies have finally been restocked once more. How long will it last in stock, though?
Probably not long, even in the face of the Droid. The HTC TouchPro2 is a world phone, for one, and the Droid is not. Add to that a tilting touchscreen and one of the best keyboards for texting and you have a device that looks way more like a champ than a contender.
Research In Motion and Verizon Wireless just announced the impending release of the Blackberry Storm 2. A clear candidate for de-seating the title-wielding iPhone, this 3.25" touchscreen smartphone has a scant 4 buttons on the face, the rest of the controls left up to a cutting-edge touch screen technology called SurePress that gives the screen the same clickable functionality as a standard keypad.
Other nifty new bells & whistles promised are spin boxes, inertial scrolling, greater use of animation, and gradient shading on the buttons.
Eschewing the Storm's old chrome backing for a flashy new stainless steel one, the Storm 2 will have - its exclusive carrier Verizon promises us - data access in 185 countries and call in over 220.
Running for around $180, and running on the latest BB OS 5.0, the Blackberry 9550 (aka Storm2) will hit the shelves (and eShelves) this Wednesday, October 28.
In the meantime, users of the original Blackberry Storm can upgrade their OS to 5.0 for free.
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.
At Barcelona's recent Mobile World Congress, Verizon has just announced the upcoming release of the second generation of its version of the HTC Touch Diamond, to be better known as the HTC Touch Diamond 2.
The HTC Touch Diamond 2 now has a 3.2" widescreen VGA display screen with 480×800 pixel resolution and a 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus. The new device will also be sporting the latest version of the HTC TouchFLO 3D interface, customized for ultimate compatibility with the Windows Mobile 6.1 OS (not to mention large and clumsy fingers and thumbs).
The HTC Touch Diamond2 will be released sometime in the second quarter of this year (that's sometime between now and the end of June). The new Verizon version of the HTC Touch Diamond will cost around $299, about $50 more than the Sprint version cost when it was originally released last September 2008, and about $100 more than the Sprint HTC Touch Diamond2 costs today.
Finally, the smartphone maker whose devices were previously only available to US customers through Verizon Wireless is launching its first handset catered to the U.S. market - and it won't be running on the Verizon network.
Instead, the LG Incite, a 3G touch screen smartphone running Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, will be carried by none other than AT&T.
Equipped with WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, and support for Microsoft Office documents, the Incite also includes support for AT&T Video Share, which allows people to share live videos over their wireless handsets while they’re on a voice phone call.
It also comes with AT&T’s Xpress Mail Service and AT&T Mobile Music service, adding heaps of value to the premiere AT&T LG that the Verizon LG can’t claim.
This has the Korean smartphone maker joining AT&Ts lineup (that already includes the best that Apple, Samsung, HTC, and BlackBerry have to offer) just in time for the holidays.
Verizon Wireless has just announced that they will now be carrying their own version of the much-loved Palm Centro.
Previously only available on Sprint and AT&T networks, the Palm Centro will now be available on the Verizon network, finally giving users the mobile high-speed internet access they’ve been craving. Unlike the AT&T version, the Verizon Palm Centro is compatible with the EV-DO network, giving the device previously unheard-of web and email speeds. And all this at an appealing $99 price point.
The Verizon Palm Centro comes in one color – dark blue. Otherwise it’s the same BlackBerry look-alike as all the other Palm Centros.
The Palm Centro for Verizon Wireless includes a full QWERTY keyboard and a pre-installed GoogleMaps application that can pull up and research data directly from users’ Contacts. And in addition to all the usual email apps that normally come with the Centro, the Centro for Verizon also includes Wireless Sync, Verizon’s own proprietary emailing solution.
Unfortunately, the device will not, however, include support Verizon’s favored V-Cast multimedia solution. (At least not yet.)
Palm says that thanks to this new arrangement with Verizon, it now plans to ship out 2 million units by the end of the year.
No doubt in an effort to compete with the likes of AT&T and its unlimited data plan for web access, Verizon Wireless released today, April 14, 2008, a new unlimited web data plan of its own.
Called "Verizon Wireless E-Mail and Web for Smartphone", the plan includes an array of attractive features:
Unlimited data allowance for internet browsing and email access
Support for up to 10 email accounts (including Yahoo!, AOL, and Windows Live)
Familiar branded email interfaces
And all directly from your smartphone.
The plan may look familiar to BlackBerry users on the Verizon network, as it's already been available for them. But now users of other Verizon smartphone can enjoy the convenience as well, starting with:
Verizon Wireless SMT5800
Verizon Wireless XV6800
MOTO Q9m
In line with the service's top competitor's rate, Verizon Wireless will be offering unlimited web and email access for smartphones for $29.99 per month (on top of any existing voice plan)
I wonder if this means Verizon will be changing its slogan to: "Can you read me now?"
With smartphones rapidly overtaking cell phones in the mobile market, it's only logical that smartphone makers are looking ahead to what will keep consumers coming back for more. As such, Information Week recently published a stellar article on the subject, peeking into the innovations popular manufacturers of the devices already glued to our collective, cultural ears are planning for making their products even "stickier".
Technology advances fast, and that's why today's experts see many amazing advances in smartphone technology in store for us in just two years from now. A chief Motorola executive summarizes it this way, by pointing out the three key trends that will alter the very "role and nature" of mobile devices to come:
content digitization
ubiquitous, global broadband
PC miniaturization
This combination of elements will define what's to come in smartphone innovation in just a matter of 24 months or less, namely in the way of:
hardware
operating systems
the internet "ecosystem"
Already, in the way of global broadband, companies like Verizon and Sprint have spread their 3G networks across the whole of the United States, with T-Mobile and AT&T not far behind.
In terms of sheer processing power and the placing of the computing power of the PC into your pants pocket, industry leader Intel is readying the new Moorestown chip, promising smartphone users even greater access to the power these increasingly faster networks offer.
And as for the world of the worldwide web, already corporate giants in other areas of technology are seeing the value of getting into the smartphone game. Consider web search giant Google, whose upcoming mobile platform Andriod is poised to revolutionize the smartphone market, engendering the creation of whole new smartphone devices by all the major manufacturers.
There's much more ahead for smartphone users, and not very far ahead at that. Stay tuned, because it's all coming soon to a smartphone near you.
Demographics is big business in any industry and nowhere is that more apparent these days than in the smartphone market. The number of studies on what a person's choice of smartphone says about the person themselves is staggering.
A Verizon Wireless communications analyst released a report on what the type, style, preferred features, and common uses of smartphones says about the user, stating for example that a flip phone user likes being in control whereas a candy bar phone user likes to keep things simple.
Forbes, meanwhile, published a huge article on the personal significance of color choice in smartphones, noting that the most popular color for smartphones is blue, that red smartphones indicate outgoing, dramatic, and spontaneous personalities, whereas virtually nobody wants a yellow smartphone, though gold is another story altogether, suggesting a penchant for wealth, luxury, and prestige.
A story on MSNBC, meanwhile, looks at the correlation between brands of smartphone and personality types, noting for example that Blackberry users like staying in touch at all times, while Palm users enjoy multitasking, whereas iPhone users are avid multi-media hounds.
Pretty soon, it seems, a simple personality test will become the preferred method for shopping for one's next ideal smartphone. Ah progress!
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:
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.
