Author: Varun Krish

Varun Krish is a Mobile Technology Enthusiast and has been blogging about mobile phones since 2005. His current phones include the Apple iPhone 13 Pro and Google Pixel 6. You can follow him on Twitter @varunkrish and on Google+ You can also mail Varun Krish

Nokia opens its design studio in India

Nokia has partnered with Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore, India for the first of its kind design studio in India.Nokia has picked India as a starting point for a series of satellite design studios it plans to establish in design hot spots around the world, signaling the increasing impact the country is having on the development of mobile phones. Established via a two year partnership with the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology in Bangalore, it will give Nokia designers and India’s talented young designers the opportunity to work together on new design ideas for India and the global markets.

Alastair Curtis, Nokia’s Chief Designer and Ms. Geetha Narayanan, Founder & Director, Srishti has issued a joint press release today.

Looks like Nokia wants to do some serious research on designing handsets for the Indian user.

Feel happy the Indian Mobile User is given importance.

http://srishti.ac.in/

Sony Ericsson announces 8 new phones for India

Some great news for Sony Ericsson fans in India. Thanks to a market demands in India – product launch divides between rest of the world and India is getting shorter. Until a year back, new mobile handsets would atleast 2-3 months or even more to surface in India.

Last week Sony Ericsson announced 8 new phones for the Indian market

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P1i – the business smartphone

Walkman phones

W580i

W910i

W960i

Cybershot phones

K810i

k850i

and under the general category

S500i and the T650i

All the phones are expected to be available with all mobile retailers across the country immediately.

Sony Ericsson P1

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Sony Ericsson P1 is a revolutionary phone which tries to redefine the definition of a Business Class phone.

The P1 is a notworthy competitor for the Nokia E90 Communicator and Nokia N95 

Also the P1 will replace the P990 in the production line we suspect

Highlights

  • 25% reduction in size compared to P990i
  • Support for most mobile email protocols
  • 3G, Wi-fi, bluetooth(stereo) ,Infrared
  • 3.2 Megapixel Camera and a additional Video calling Camera
  • Dual function keyboard,Stylus,Touchscreen
  • Rich Media support
  • Memory Stick Micro Expansion upto 4gb with 512 in package

Price and Availability

Expected to be available in Q3 2007 which is the current quarter in selected markets.

The phone might hit Indian market soon.

Get more info about the specifications here Sony Ericsson P1

Nokia N81 looks likely

nokia_n81.jpgThe Device profile of yet another phone has been spotted on Nokia’s Developer forum. This time its the Nokia N81

Its a 8 GB slider phone  and is a sequel to the N91 8 Gb edition.

Specs

  • 8GB Internal Memory
  • Over 12 Hrs of Music Playback
  • 3G, Video Calling
  • Dual Camera
  • Slide form factor

The phone if not a rumor is expected to be launched in Q4 2007

UAProfile 

Samsung G600, 5 Megapixel phone comes to Europe

samsung_g600.jpgSamsung has debuted the G600 a 5 Megapixel , 3G slider phone in Europe

The Samsung G600 is a media centric phone and Slim and Sexy ! is the  name of the game.

Samsung  has stacked a lot of features into 15mm thickness phone. The phone sports a 5 Megapixel Camera , with flash and 5X digital Zoom.

There’s a secondary Video calling camera.

Other features include Bluetooth with A2DP(Stereo) , FM Radio, microSD expansion.

via [http://www.electronista.com/]

GPRS Tarrifs may come down, thanks to widespread usage

According to Informa’s World Cellular Data Metrics (WCDM) Global mobile data revenues from services other than SMS exceeded US$10 billion in 1Q07. Data Services are gaining acceptance.

Is SMS Dead 

Nope. SMS is still alive and clicking and  orldwide SMS traffic was up year-on-year by around 50% to more than 620 billion messages in 1Q07

SMS revenues were up nearly 25 % and total data revenues almost touched  US$34.3 billion.

Data Services are still not as popular as SMS

This is proven from the fact that in Egypt only 1% of revenue came from non-sms data services whereas in Korea it was 70%

Read

Hutch logo will be replaced by Vodafone soon

We had hinted earlier the Hutch might change colors again in What will Vodafone do with Hutch

Looks like Vodafone wants to spread its brand image in India soon. So its going to be the the Battle of the Reds (Vodafone vs Airtel) as Hutch and Airtel are the largest mobile operators in India. Hutch has always been seen as an elite brand in the country as it is present only in a few circles.  Vodafone is known for its Premium services around the world. Vodafone cannot use the same global pricing strategy in India for sure due to the nature of the market here. Lets wait and watch Till then it may may bid good bye to the Hutch Pug

Paypal brings Mobile Checkout

Can’t login to Paypal on your mobile ? Worrying about the loads of time their homepage takes to load on your mobile . There’s some relief.

Paypal has launched a new mobile checkout service that enables users to pay for services over paypal using a website interface tailor made for small screens. There’s verification by means of a Mobile PIN.

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Nice to see some activity on the mobile web arena.

More

Hello Moto becomes Hello Samsung as Motorola looses global market share

Samsung has raced past Motorola for the the 2nd spot in the global market share for mobile phones by shipping about  37 Million mobile phones this quarter.The growing list of handsets the Korean company has in its offering might be the reason.

Things are not so good for Motorola and have not managed something as spectacular since the RAZR about a couple of years back. Motorola’s top management might under go a change .It managed only about 35 Million shipments in the quarter  and is seeing huge losses.

Sony Ericsson is till behind with about 25 million shipments.

Samsung’s success can been attributed  to hits Ultra Line of handsets and also a lot of Entry level handsets for the emerging markets.(Both Moto and SE are trying to find an answer for this one )

Nokia is the market leader and is expected to announce its results for the quarter in a months time.

Nokia’s new N-gage gaming platform

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You might have seen the Nokia N-gage and the Ngage-QD . It was not a big hit but it defintely made the mobile gaming experience a enjoyable one.Nokia is currently working on a new N-Gage gaming platform. Details are expected to be announced any time. Unlike the previous version the new n-gage is expected to be compatible with at least all N-Series phones.

The Graphics looks really good.Will the 3D accelerator in the N95 be powerful enough for 3D Gaming ?

Lets wait and watch, for now enjoy the video.

check the video for a preview of what’s in store

Sony Ericsson W960

Sony Ericsson W960

The Sony Ericsson W960 is the successor to the W950i

Its the latest addition to the Walkman phones range  .

Its Sony’s competitor for the Apple Iphone for sure

Specifications

  • 8 GB Memory  for all you iPod fans
  • Wireless Wlan for business users and also Stereo Bluetooh
  • 3.2 Megapixel Camera
  • 2.6 Inch Touch sensitive display
  • TV out
  • Radio
  • SymbianOS

Camera Lens

Price and Availability

Expected to be available before end of 2007

Pricing : no official word  on the price . Expected to cost 750- 800 USD which in the Indian context means that the phone will set you back by

Rs.33000 approximately