Verizon: Our 3G Network Can Handle Large Droid Demand

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Certain smartphones have become so popular in the US that the large amount of demand was too much for the data network supporting it, thus causing slower internet downloads and dropped calls. Verizon has made it perfectly clear that it is fully prepared for whatever strain its new Motorola Droid will inflict upon its network.

Considering the general public’s concern on the drain the iPhone’s demand has been on AT&T’s 3G network, Verizon Director of data services for the Illinois-Wisconsin region Arvin Singh is attempting to put those concerns to rest.

He says Verizon expects heavy demand of the Motorola Droid, and it has long architected its EV-DO Revision A network to handle these kinds of capacities.

“We’re anticipating the Droid will be a blockbuster, but we’re not adding any new backhaul or new EV-DO carriers for the launch. We’re not anticipating the network will take a hit on this.”

Obviously Verizon is rather confident in its network. So the big test is coming. They expect a blockbuster phone, and there is a very good chance the Droid will live up to the expectations. Now we sit back and see how right or wrong Verizon was in making those claims.

We know it would be difficult to be any worse than the iPhone’s strain on AT&T’s current data network, but will Verizon be any better off? VZW is almost cocky about its network, but AT&T is usually just as confident about its data capabilities.

via TelephonyOnline

290.5 million phones sold in Q3 2009, Samsung and LG break new records

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The mobile phone market showed slight signs of recovery in Q3 2009, as 290.5 million cell phones were sold during the quarter – a 5.6% increase when compared to Q2 2009.

All five major handset vendors sold more phones in Q3 than in Q2, save for Motorola, which slipped to fifth place, previously occupied by Sony Ericsson.

Samsung and LG, the two South Korean giants, both broke new records. Samsung shipped more than 60 million phones in a quarter for the first time, so it now controls more than 20% of the market, as expected. LG shipped only 31.6 million units, but it is its highest number to date.

Here’s the top five handset vendors for Q3 2009:

* Nokia – 108.5 million units, 37.3% market share
* Samsung – 60.2 million units, 20.7%
* LG – 31.6 million units, 10.9%
* Sony Ericsson – 14.1 million units, 4.9%
* Motorola – 13.6 million units, 4.7%
* Others – 60.1 million units, 21.5%

Expectations for the fourth quarter of the year are high:

“We forecast 300 million handsets to be shipped worldwide in Q4 2009, growing 3% from 294 million units in Q4 2008. We believe this will be the first time the industry has returned to positive growth since Q3 2008, signaling an end to the handset recession after 4 quarters of decline. Consumers and handset vendors are gradually regaining a little confidence,” declared Neil Mawston, Director at Strategy Analytics.

Via Press release

Bell’s Samsung Omnia II is the Official Mobile Device of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games

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Bell Canada announced the upcoming availability of Samsung Omnia II, which will hit the shelves in November, after the carrier launches its brand new HSPA network.

The Omnia II was designated the Official Mobile Device of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games (held in Vancouver between 12 and 28 February next year), and Bell will offer it with exclusive 2010 Winter Games content.

Customers who buy the Samsung Omnia II from Bell will be able to download the Wireless Olympic Works communications platform (aka WOW), which is offered for free and provides real-time information about the Olympic Winter Games.

Already available in many markets around the world (like China and Australia), Samsung Omnia II features Windows Mobile 6.5, a 3.7 inches WVGA AMOLED touchscreen display, TouchWiz 2.0 UI, Wi-Fi, GPS, 3.5mm headset jack, 5MP autofocus camera, and up to 48GB of storage space.

Bell didn’t announce the price of its Omnia II.

Via Press release

New Sony Ericsson Rachael UI video hits, still looks nothing like Android

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Calling this Rachael UI an Android "skin" is like calling Windows 95 a "DOS skin," but that's not to say there's nothing to love about it. In fact, we're rather relieved that Sony Ericsson seems to be addressing Android's incredibly lackluster media playback interface, the SE "mediascape" version of which dominates this particular video -- a sequel to the first Rachael UI tease we got back in July. You know what else is great? The video title name drops the same lucious screen resolution as the DROID, 480 x 854, which spells all sorts of good things for SE's first Android entry. Video is after the break, and if that doesn't do the trick for you, the Rachael hardware is being teased over on this end of the internet.

Via Engadgetmobile

iPhone and Windows 7 don't play nice, Intel P55 chipset to blame

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The iPhone is one of the most wildly popular phones the world has ever seen, while Windows 7 is well on its way to becoming the globe's most ubiquitous OS. So compatibility between the two would be kinda sorta important, right? Tell that to Intel's quality control team who seem to have somehow missed an issue between Apple's app carrier deluxe and the P55 Express chipset's USB controller. Consistent (and persistent) syncing issues have been reported on Apple's support forums, wherein iTunes on Windows 7 machines recognizes the iPhone, but spits out an "error 0xE8000065" message whenever the user attempts to sync. While some have found limited success with using PCI-based USB cards (and bypassing the chipset), this is clearly a major issue and something Apple would expect to be fixed before shipping its Core i5 / i7 iMacs, which are likely to sport the chipset. Hit the read link for the original thread of sorrow and regret, and do chime in with your own experience in the comments.

Via The Register

Nokia Sports Tracker becomes a startup – Sports Tracking Technologies

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The creators of Sports Tracker, one of Nokia’s most successful mobile applications, have decided to form a company of their own, called Sports Tracking Technologies Ltd.

Sports Tracking Technologies Ltd was announced as part of the Nokia Technopolis Innovation program, which has the purpose of converting “Nokia’s unused ideas and innovations into growth businesses through both founding new companies and by licensing them to selected Finnish ICT companies for further development and exploitation”.

Jussi Kaasinen and Ykä Huhtala are the core developers behind Sports Tracker. While Nokia isn’t directly involved in their new startup, the Finnish giant will be a client of Sports Tracking Technologies. The STT team is reportedly growing and working to bring enhanced features and “compatibility refinements for products and services which promise to remain wholly sports-centric.”

The official Sports Tracking Technologies website can be accessed at this address. Anyway, at the moment, the Sports Tracker app can still be downloaded from Nokia’s website.

Via The Symbian Blog

Samsung launches mobile app contest for the Omnia II

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Samsung has kicked off a new Mobile App Contest targeted at global developers and looking to generate new applications for the Omnia II Windows Mobile smartphone.

Samsung will offer up to $330,000 in prize money. Two top winners will receive $100,000 in cash, each. There will also be smaller prizes: $10,000, $5,000 and $2,000.

All winning applications will be distributed via the Samsung Application Store.

To enter the competition, you must be registered to sell paid apps at the Samsung Application Store Seller Office.

The competition will be open until December 10. For addition information, visit the Samsung seller website.

Via NewsWire

Verizon’s HTC Desire shows up in the… dark

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When Verizon and Google announced that they would launch several Android phones, they presented the Motorola Droid and an unnamed HTC handset. Well, this HTC handset seems to be the HTC Desire, which has just appeared in a leaked photo.

Details are scarce at the moment, but the Desire is probably similar in features with Sprint’s HTC Hero, which is already available (for $179.99 on contract).

It’s said that the Desire is “extremely fast” and it uses HTC’s Sense UI (on top of Android, of course). No word yet on when Verizon will announce the handset, but this should happen pretty soon. Until then, here’s the HTC Desire in all its (darkened) glory:

Together with the Motorola Droid (confirmed by Moto) and Motorola Calgary, Verizon will soon have three brand new Android phones – and that’s great news.

Via UV

Official Disney iPhone app available now

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An official Disney iPhone app was released today by Walt Disney Co. and is available to all iPhone and iPod touch users, via iTunes.

The Disney app is free and comes with a feature called ”Click2Life” – this offers bonus animations and wallpapers to users who visit Disney’s official website and take photos of famous characters from movies like ‘Ratatouille,” ”Wall-E”, ”G-Force” and ”Up”.

The new app also includes other 17 Disney-related applications.

Disney plans to allow bonus content to be provided based on the users’ location (using GPS coordinates, of course).

According to Jason Davis, vice president of Disney.com, “the main purpose of the app was to deepen fan relationships with Disney characters, rather than just drive traffic to stores, theaters and online.”

Disney said that the new iPhone app has nothing to do with its ”Keychest” technology that’s currently being developed with the purpose of providing “access to movies across multiple devices with one purchase.”

Via NY Times

Orange signs partnership with Google to offer Google Mobile App

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Orange announced that it has signed a multi-year strategic partnership with Google in order to provide customers with one-click access to Google Mobile App via various mobile platforms.

Google Mobile App will be launched by Orange across many Orange Signature handsets, including phones running Symbian S60, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry OS. The app will include links to Google News, Google Mail, Google Maps, the Orange mobile portal, and other services.

Orange will also launch a Google Search widget for its Android Signature phones. Moreover, starting this month, Android phones like HTC Tattoo (UK, France, Spain), HTC Hero (France) and LG Eve (France, Spain) get to have specially created services like Orange Email Wizard.

Orange is the first global mobile operator to offer Google Search App on different mobile platform. The company said that internet search on phones increased by 120% over the last year.

Via Press Release

Qualcomm and Fujitsu join the Symbian Foundation board

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The Symbian Foundation announced the addition of two new (and important) members to its board of directors: Qualcomm and Fujitsu.

Qualcomm joined the Symbian Foundation through its wholly owned subsidiary Qualcomm Innovation Center (QuIC), which will have the role of “optimizing open source software for use with Qualcomm technology.”

Fujitsu, which sold more than 40 million Symbian-based phones in Japan (1.2 million in Q2 2009 only), “will work with foundation members to contribute to the development of the Symbian platform and is committed to Symbian’s continued commercial success.”

Over the years, Fujitsu came with important Symbian handsets, like:

* F2051 – the first 3G phone for NTT DOCOMO’s FOMA 3G network (in 2002); * F2102 V – the first videophone (in 2003); * F900i – the first Flash-based Symbian OS phone (in 2004).

“We believe Fujitsu will continue to bring a wealth of experience in making consumer focused multimedia handsets with new user experience to the Symbian Foundation drawing on the successes of the innovative firsts Fujitsu has offered on Symbian,” declared Lee Williams, executive director of the Symbian Foundation.

“The Symbian Foundation welcomes QuIC, whose membership and board participation brings us significant wireless technology expertise and whose leadership will act as an important catalyst for the growth of the Symbian ecosystem,” also said Lee Williams.

Qualcomm and Fujitsu will collaborate with the other Symbian Foundation board members, like Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Vodafone, AT&T, NTT DoCoMo, Texas Instruments and ST Microelectronics NV.

Via Press release

Sprint Plans New App Store on its Smartphones

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Sometime early next year, Sprint/Nextel plans to scrap its current Sprint Store and trade up to a new App Store that, according to claims, will be more open and managed by a third party.

When the change happens, Sprint will stop shipping smartphones with pre-installed apps already on them, which would be a huge move for any carrier in the US; every mobile provider typically likes to throw in several of its own apps on branded handsets.

It will be interesting to see if Sprint’s new app store will complement the already-existing marketplaces on Android and WebOS. Will they help each other, or cannibalize one another?

Currently Sprint is promising a turnaround time of one week to review and approve apps that have been submitted to the store, which would be a huge difference from Apple’s App Store that typically takes 10-14 days, if not longer.

Does this new app store stand a chance?

via AppAdvice