Supreme Smartphones

The "Tech & Net" pages of yesterday's Sunday Times ingear supplement listed the handful of Smartphones that made the headlines at this year's Mobile World Congress.

Here's the list, with links to the manufacturers' own pages so you can decide:

Samsung Galaxy
INQ Cloud Touch (one of many Facebook phones)
LG Optimus
HTC Wildfire
Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY (PlayStation phone)
HP Veer

Interestingly, all but the HP (nee Palm) use the Android operating system, which is indicative of that platform's rise to prominence. The Veer uses HP's own webOS.

Nokia's MeeGo to go: enter Windows Phone 7

On Friday, Nokia annouced a deal with Microsoft over the operating system (OS) that the Finnish handset manufacturer will use in its future smartphones: Windows Phone 7.

Nokia's decision effectively puts the development of its own "MeeGo" OS - which it hoped would challenge Google's Android system and Apple's iOS - on hold, despite the best efforts of CEO Stephen Elop to say otherwise (as TechCrunch reported yesterday).

Most analysts agree that, while MeeGo was a 'no-no', a marriage with Microsoft is also a risk for the European mobiles-maker: yesterday's "Sunday Times" reported that Nokia shares "tumbled 14%" at the news of the deal.

If anything is clear, it's this. Nokia has taken too long to come to a decision on its future, while Google and Apple have moved with the times more adeptly and kept customers happy more successfully. It remains to be seen whether the deal with Microsoft will halt the inexorable slide of the company that still, currently, has the biggest share of the world market for mobile phones.

When progress provokes anger

According to an article in Mobile News, Apple iPhone customers with 3G phones are annoyed about the launch of iPhone4 (although the gripes don't relate to the technical glitches endured by Steve Jobs).

The report suggests that these owners "feel duped" by Apple and "angry at purchasing new devices just weeks before [the] iPhone 4 announcement." I was in a similar position when I bought my own iPhone 3G in Autumn 2009, cancelling my Vodafone contract because O2 was the only UK provider at that time. Just a couple of months later, Vodafone starting selling iPhones too!

While severing my contract with Vodafone proved long-winded and problematic, I wouldn't use the word 'duped' or even 'angry' to describe my reaction to the situation. I assume they couldn't mention their marketing plans at the time of my request to leave due to the need for commercial secrecy. Fair enough - and the same can be said for Apple's surprise announcement about iPhone4.

Most of the time, technical progress is achieved through stealth; the result of closely guarded R&D. As consumers, we just have to accept that sometimes we'll lose out... but in the long-term, we'll win because the technology's improving.

"Ferrari Fone" coming soon

Hardware manufacturer Acer is expanding its range of mobile devices and has also announced a March 2010 launch for its Ferrari smartphone.

Here's how the news has been covered by two of the leading online tech-sites:
Mobile Crunch
TechRadar

Should we expect to see "McLaren Mobiles", "Red Bull Receivers" or
"Williams WebPhones" flooding the mobile market soon?

Mobile devices & applications: the future

According to a press release from IDC (provider of market intelligence and other services to the IT, telecoms and consumer technology industries),
"the number of mobile devices accessing the Internet [will] surpass the one billion mark over the next four years."

This equates to an increase of more than 100%, since 450 million people around the world already access the internet via a mobile phone, SmartPhone or other device. With more and more users getting online this way, for both professional and personal reasons, there's likely to be a parallel upward shift in the number of applications being downloaded - either for free or at a price.

Mention applications, of course, and most people think about Apple's App Store - the phenomenally successful online marketplace for mobile software that's used by the 50m + iPhone and iPod Touch users. The store dominates because, as Apple announced in November, it has:

* Over 100,000 apps available, in 20 different categories
* 10,000 downloads every day
* Customers in 77 countries

Impressive stuff. But it's worth remembering that the other mobile device manufacturers are ramping up their efforts too. Nokia (with about 38% of the SmartPhone market compared to Apple's 17% according to IDC's November research) has its Ovi store, RIM's BlackBerry (19%) has App World and - perhaps most significantly - Google has Android Market. (The market share figure for Android is harder to calculate, as it is being adopted by several manufacturers including Motorola, Samsung LG, Sony Ericsson and HTC.)

In 2010 and beyond, these sites will undoubtedly grow and start challenging Apple's Apps Store in terms of public awareness, if not sales volume. It will be very interesting to keep an eye on these developments and determine the improvements they generate for users, hardware manufacturers and apps developers.

(Image courtesy of Orbital Joe on Flickr)