Author: Surur

CNN have published this video from an interview with Steve Ballmer, talking about the real cost of Android. 

Is Steve right, or is he missing out on new forms of business models?  Let us know below.

With all Dell’s recent handsets running Android, many may wonder if the recent leaks of a Dell Windows Phone 7 handset will still come to fruition.

In a recent earnings conference call CEO Michael Dell re-affirmed the company’s commitment to Windows Phone 7.

"We’re very much working with Android and Windows Mobile 7, and we see those platforms as more attractive alternatives to other suggestions that you may have offered." he said.

The alternatives he referred to was Dell buying their own operating system, much like HP did.

The argument of owning vs licensing a mobile OS is currently being waged in the market, with companies which largely control their own OS appearing to be at a natural advantage at the moment. Dell has clearly chosen the later model, and will hopefully find success in the market due to this with some great Windows Phone 7 devices such as the rumoured Dell Lightening.

Read more at eweek.com here.

We don’t normally cover desktop Windows, but with all Microsoft’s OS’s now intermingling so much, this particular story did catch our eye.

According to Digitimes, the HP Slate, shown off at CES earlier this year, has not in fact been killed by HP’s purchase of Palm.

According to Monty Wong, vice president of personal computing systems group at HP Taiwan, who they interviewed, the TabletPC is still expected to hit the market before HP’s financial year ends in October this year. 

We went on to promise consumers could see a wide range of software and application support at launch for the mobile computing device.

Read more at Digitimes here.

Engadget reports a reliable tipster has leaked the code names of 3 new HTC devices.  The so called HTC LED, HTC Vision and HTC Glacier has shown up on an internal parts website are likely months away from release, and the Vision apparently targeted at T-Mobile.

Given HTC’s recent device balance it is likely most of the smartphones are Android, but possible one will run Windows Phone 7 – maybe the slow moving HTC Glacier?

Read more at Engadget here.

Adding somewhat to earlier speculation, Ashok Kumar, an analyst with Rodman & Renshaw, has suggested Nokia may have to turn to Windows Phone 7 as their next generation smartphone platform if their Symbian-based smartphones continue to fail to gain traction, claiming “the odds are stacked against the survival of Symbian.”

Speculation already exist for a Nokia Windows Phone 7 device, and like most of the older generation smartphone OS’s have seen a drop in market share recently, by as much as 4.5% between Q1 2009 and Q1 2010.

Calling Windows Phone 7 a “a wild card”, he still however went on to predict a mobile world dominated by iPhone and Android.

Does this analyst know any more or less than most of his rather inaccurate colleagues?  Let us know your opinion below.

More at Barrons here.

We joined the appeal yesterday to raise money for the purchase of essential equipment for XDA-Developers hacker and moderator Da_G to further his investigations and development of the HTC Mondrian ROM, and we are happy to report the community has responded tremendously to the request for donations.

In fact, in what is possibly the fastest fund raising event in Windows Mobile history ever, the whole amount of $14000 was raised in only 14 hours, meaning Da_G can now get on with purchasing the needed HTC HD2 and the Trace analyzer to get access to the JTAG (all of which is way over my head).

While this opens up the possibility of a Windows Phone 7 port to the HTC HD2, I am much more heartened by the response of the community itself to the challenge, which makes me proud to be a Windows Mobile user.

For the latest progress of the hacking event, follow this XDA-Developers thread here.

Just in time to try and distract us from the poor Windows Mobile showing in Q1 2010, Microsoft has shown off the LG Panther to the PocketLint crew in UK.

They report the handset worked smoothly, and that many of the major features were up and running, and that the handset will be one of the launch devices.  We have heard separately that September is still being mooted as a possible date for the Windows Phone 7 coming out party. The handset was at the stage that the Microsoft exec was using it as his main device.  ElectricPig, who also had a hands-on, report the device felt “finished, with a sturdy sliding mechanism and decent landscape keyboard”.

Alex Reeve, the organisation’s UK Mobile Business Group director, also confirmed the Zune Music Store will be available in UK before the release of Windows Phone 7 handsets.

One nice feature they also revealed is that the Zune app will add meta data, including album art, to mp3s which lack them.

See the gallery after the break.

Press Play to start the Gallery

Read more and see more pictures at PocketLint here and ElectricPig here.

Gartner have released their Q1 2010 figures for smartphone sales, and unsurprisingly Windows Mobile has continued to lose market share. What is surprising is how well the numbers have held up, with sales between Q1 2009 and Q1 2010 being virtually the same, despite the OS basically being end of life’d at Mobile World Congress  in February this year.

Of course the smartphone market did grow nearly 50% YoY, which may account for some of those Windows Mobile sales, and of course excellent flagship devices such as the HTC HD2 would have helped.

Windows Mobile market share now stands at 6.8%, well below Android, and there is a strong sense of the OS being phased out, despite Microsoft’s stated intent to keep it hanging around as an enterprise operating system. Windows Phone 7 is still around 3-6 months away, which means its pretty likely sales numbers will continue to tank.

Readers will therefore forgive us if we keep our eyes focussed on Windows Phone 7 and its fortunes, because it’s likely by Q1 2011 Windows Mobile sales will be measured in thousands rather than millions.

A little titbit of note is that Gartner claims HTC sales of 2.6 million, while Windows Mobile sales are 3.7 million.  I guess HTC does not sell 80% of Windows Mobile handsets after all…

Via Engadget.com

Japan’s DoCoMo network has announced the release of the 4.1 inch Toshiba K01 as the Dynapocket T-01B.

The handset runs Windows 6.5.3 Phone offers a 4.1” OLED capacitive touch screen with a 480×800 resolution, a 3.2Mpix Camera module with auto-focus, Wi-Fi B/G, 1GHz Snapdragon, GPS, HSPDA, HSUPA, Bluetooth.

Unfortunately this extremely attractive handset, which we saw announced at Mobile World Congress 2010 is still to make an appearance anywhere in the west.

See a video of the handset and a gallery of pictures after the break.

Via Akihabara.com

Mobileburn have published their detailed review of the Microsoft KIN Two. While the liked some features of the CDMA handset, such as the solid keyboard, 8 megapixel camera and Zune player, their objections mirror those of may other reviewers.

They found the inability to ad third party applications very limiting, and baulked at the cost of the data plan. They also complained of having no e-mail notifications, and found the user interface somewhat confusing.

See their video review and conclusion after the break.

Summary

The KIN TWO is the larger of Microsoft’s new KIN series of phones. The devices, to me, are Microsoft’s watered down version of Windows Phone 7. There are some similarities, after all, including the panel home screen and a focus on keeping you in touch with your friends – not only through calling and SMS, but also through social networking. There’s also the Zune media player available on the KIN phones, which you’ll find in Windows Phone 7 as well.

I found the KIN TWO to be enjoyable to use overall, but it wasn’t without its learning curves. As a new platform, its unlike anything else currently out there, and so it takes some digging and some exploring to really get used to it. As a phone buff, I enjoyed this, but newcomers might not.

As with the Microsoft KIN ONE, the TWO’s biggest problem isn’t the hardware of the device itself, or even the platform, it’s just what’s missing right now. There aren’t any chat applications, there isn’t a calendar, and some features don’t work as well as they should. I hope these, and more, can be added in the future, although I haven’t heard anything definite. Also, Verizon Wireless requires a $30 monthly data plan for the phone, which is more expensive than the other feature phones it offers and just as expensive as the data plan it requires with smartphones. What’s the trouble with that? The KIN TWO isn’t a smartphone.

Read their full 7 page review here.