Not Another Mobile Phone Blog

When launched for the first time, the iPhone created a storm in the world of touch screen smartphones and people got up and noticed what an extraordinary touchscreen OS can do to the entire ecosystem of touch screen based smart phones. In the same way, when T-Mobile launched G1, the first phone that ran on Android OS, open source OSs on mobile phones had a new meaning and from that moment, we have seen tons of Android phones being launched by companies like HTC, Samsung and Google themselves. May be not popular as the iPhone, Android as an OS was noticed and it is here to stay. Its been two years that T-Mobile launched the first Android based phone G1, with Google and now the company is all set to launch the next version of the same phone, the G2. This time, G2 will have tight integration with Google's own services. Actually you can read for yourself what the T-Mobile site has to say about G2, "The T-Mobile G2 will deliver tight integration with Google services and break new ground as the first smartphone designed to run at 4G speeds on our new HSPA+ network. In the coming weeks, we’ll share more details about the G2 and offer exclusive first access to current T-Mobile customers." Exciting piece of info is that the phone is 4G ready with HSPA network compatibility, which I think is damn cool!! Head over to the Official G2 page and keep yourself in the loop to know more about the G2. I am waiting!!

Nokia has come up with Nokia X3 Touch, which surprisingly has a 2.4 inch touch screen as well as a standard mobile phone keyboard. The phone has been released in Europe and looks good. However it is for people for whom touch is not supposed to be fundamental navigation paradigm as they can also use the keyboard. Though the phone looks pretty simple it packs Quad band, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 3G, 5 MP snapper, 17 day stand by time and also a microUSB port. The phone has been priced at 125 Euros and will be available this quarter in European countries. I am sure, if Nokia launches the phone in India, it will do good as the phone is bit different from most of the phones available today inj the market and for its price tag it packs a lot of features.

Canalys Research has published some great insights on the Worldwide smartphone market. According to their research, Android based smartphone rocked 2009 and the shipments have increased by a whooping 886% year on year from Q2 2009. This is indeed a great number and shows that Android as a smart phone OS is delivering what it promised when it was launched. Guys at Google must be really happy. Samsung, Motorola and HTC are some of the smartphone companies that have embraced Android OS for some of their smart phones, which are doing really well in the market. The over all smartphone sector grew by 64% from Q2 2009 to Q2 2010. Apple showed the second largest growth with 61.4%. In terms of market share, Symbian is still the leader in Q2 2010. But its market share has come down from 50.3% to 44% in Q2 2010. That must be hurting for Nokia. RIM is the second largest in terms of market share. Microsoft, which stands 5th in terms of market share showed negative growth..Oouch!! With 2010 coming in and new platforms like Bada, MeeGo, Maemo coming on smartphones. Lets see how this market looks in 2010. But these numbers have take aways for each and every smartphone vendor out their, especially Nokia and Microsoft. [Via]

In its quest to find the perfect mobile phone OS that will revamp its whole smartphone strategy, Nokia developed MeeGo. MeeGo, which is based on the Linux platform is the upcoming new OS that will be available through some of Nokia's new smart phones. MeeGo was announced at the Mobile World Congress by Nokia and Intel. Its the integration of Intel's Moblin and Nokia's Maemo. Apart from MeeGo, Nokia is also working on Symbian^3 and Symbian^4. So they have three smartphones OSs to tackle and position in the market in such a way that these OSs don't cannibalize each other. Anyway, screenshots of the MeeGo OS got leaked yesterday and after looking at the video I must say that, MeeGo as an OS looks impressive.The video shows the OS running in a Nokia phone emulator. After some initial clippings, it just hit me that the OS looks more like Android. I still feel that, Nokia should incorporate Android OS in its phones. This integration will really do wonders for this Finnish giant who is just living in its past glories, completely ignoring the future. Check out the video. [Via]

India is a huge mobile market and the numbers speak for themselves. According to a latest research publication from Gartner, Indian mobile handset sales will reach 139 million units by the end of 2010. This number was 117 million units in 2009.And almost 19% is a healthy growth shown by the Indian mobile handset market.Gartner has also said that the growth will be steady with number of units reaching to 206 million in 2014. India, as a mobile market is very lucrative for mobile operators as well as mobile OEMs. Recently a lot of new companies like Micromax, Lava, Lemon, Videocon etc have jumped into the mobile handset war where big wigs like Nokia, Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson have been fighting from a long time. Fierce competition among existing and new entrants has led to low call rates and also the proliferation of low cost devices. Companies like Nokia, focus more on dropping the prices of their already launched phones in India. This in turn boosts sales. India is a very important contributor to global mobile phones/services related numbers and no wonder that every mobile OEM or a mobile service operator wants to be here.