Following Nokia's lead, Sony Ericsson plans to open a London showcase store next month, the first of several in major cities across the world. The full press release follows.
Nokia has launched Wibree, a new (open) initiative to get smartphones connected to tiny toys, watches and sensors. There's also the possibility of lower-power wireless connection to desktop computers, as an alternative to Bluetooth. Full press release follows.
David Wood's latest Insight article on symbian.com looks at the weird and wonderful uses people are putting smartphones to. Golf swing improvement is just the start - washine machine cycle notifications, anybody?
Thanks to this week's Carnival for pointing me towards one of the best articles on smartphone convergence I've read for ages, posted by Tomi in "The year the i-Pod died". Highly recommended reading.
Interesting to see a final speaker line-up, with pictures, on the Smartphone Show web site. Note that there's a more varied array than in previous years, including speakers from Google, Sony and RIM, and that there are catchy titles for each talk that will hopefully mean more interesting content...
DVB-H, perhaps already the worldwide front running candidate technology for mobile TV, has received a huge boost with the news that Nokia and Motorola have announced that they will 'work to achieve interoperability among their DVB-H-enabled mobile devices and network services'. Full press release follows...
Moconews has a great interview with one of the VP's from Gameloft, and it touches on a lot of the issues we all know are in the mobile space - advertising and promotion, gaining new customers, the cost of mobile games and a lot more. Worth checking out.
Nokia has agreed to buy out gate5, a leading supplier of mapping, routing and navigation software and services. Nokia will then be able to offer consumers maps, routing, navigation and other location based applications on its smartphones. The navigation genre for S60 3rd Edition was already busy, but an official Nokia solution, perhaps built into many devices, would be more than welcome. Press release follows...
BBC's Newsnight programme at 10.30pm last night (Wed) celebrated the 15th anniversary of GSM with a special focus on the future of mobile, including some coverage of Symbian's labs and footage of David Wood and Nigel Clifford, with the P990i video calling and the N93 comparing a golf swing. You can watch the programme online - available for 24 hours after broadcast.
No, I haven't 'defected', but I do believe in giving credit where credit's due. My Smartphones Show 14 video podcast is now out and has a review of the impressive Windows Mobile-powered HTC TyTN; on the Symbian front, I look forward to the Smartphone Show next month.
Symbian has released Q2 2006 sales figures, showing the usual robust growth. Highlights include 23 new Symbian OS-powered models introduced in Q2, ownership of 92% of the worldwide 3G market, 12 million smartphones shipped in Q2, bringing cumulative total to 83 million worldwide. Full press release follows...
In an innovative push, top developer SmartphoneWare has made available a special 'extranet' for local mobile phone store owners to be able to sell on third party software at the point of sale of the hardware. More details here.
Symbian's David Wood has published his latest Insight article. Number 11 develops a theme that's close to Rafe's heart: the killer app in the smartphone world is choice. I'm not too sure about the 'Generation S' pronouncement though...
Presenting the latest Q2 smart mobile device figures from analysts Canalys: Smartphone sales up 75% year on year; Symbian OS powers 67% of units worldwide, Windows Mobile second on 15%; standalone handheld sales down 33% year on year; Nokia sell almost six times the number of smartphones as their nearest competitor. Read on for the full Canalys press release.
