Phonesnews.com

“Palm’s annual report was just released late Friday. The report contains some hints as to what Palm is thinking in regards to the next version of the Palm OS. It also sheds some light on Palm’s current situation with PalmSource concerning what will happen with the next-generation Palm OS. In the risks related to Palm’s business section of the annual report 10-K on page 21 under the heading: Our product strategy is substantially dependent on the Palm OS, which is owned by PalmSource, a former subsidiary of Palm that was acquired by Access Co., Ltd. It states: We have a license agreement with PalmSource which extends through December 2, 2009. Our license of the Palm OS from PalmSource is critical to the operation of many of our products. We rely on PalmSource to provide the operating system for all of our handheld and a significant portion of our smartphone products.” Find out more at palminfocenter.com

“Technically speaking, it lays out of dimensions of 12.6 cm X 6.4 cm X 2.1 cm for a weight of 190 grams, of a system Windows Mobile 5 MSFK AKU 2.3, of a processor INTEL Xscale PXA270 given rhythm to 416 MHz, of a quantity of memory of 64MB of RAM and 128MB of ROMANIAN Flash, the whole with a layer of telephony GSM tribande (900/1800/1900 MHz) but also UMTS (2100 MHz), a first on the matter for PDAPhone GPS.” The review is in French here: and you can read it in English with the help of babelfish here: via pocketpcthoughts.com

“MSMobile site has published some non-official info on the upcoming communicator called ORSiO. It doesn’t have the support of 3G and Wi-Fi networks, but EDGE data transfer standard.The specs of ORSiO: Operating system Windows Mobile 5.0 GSM/GPRS/EDGE (900/1800/1900 MHz) 2.7” LCD, QVGA (240×320 pixels), 262K colors 2-megapixel camera Intel Bulverde 524 MHz processor 64 MB RAM and 128 MB flash ROM Slot for miniSD cards Li-Pol 1500 mAh battery Talk time – min. 6 hours Standby time – min. 250 hours” via mobile-review.com

“Motorola on Friday launched its first “online-game-playing mobile phone” in China.Working together with Shanda Interactive Entertainment, Motorola modified its E680 to E680G to fit the online gaming requirement. Shanda Interactive Entertainment will provide ‘World of Legend’ and ‘Magical Land’ online role playing games that can be installed on E680G. The D-pad at the bottom will act as the navigation pad, and the 2 buttons on top will be the game button. Unless the game support landscape mode, it iwll be quite strange to control with 2 buttons on top.”This is our first online game on a handset,” Ian Chapman-Banks, Motorola’s North Asia general manager of marketing and business development for mobile devices. While Motorola do not earn a penny from the monthly game access subscription, they will make the profit from the handset sales only. Shanda instead, will charge as low as $3.76 USD per month. This does not including the wireless data connection charge.’We don’t have a target because no one has ever done this before — we are hoping that we will give our users a better experience and we will gain customer loyalty,’ said Ian Chapman-Banks, Motorola vice president and general manager for Northeast Asia marketing. Motorola also launched a online gaming portal in China and hosted over 350 java games. ” via slashphone.com

“Seoul, Korea – July 27, 2006: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, announced today that it has developed the industry’s highest density MMC card (popular removable MultiMediaCard for portable electronics) based on its most advanced MLC (multi-level cell) NAND flash memory. It also has developed the highest performing MMC card, based on SLC (single-level cell) NAND flash, in rounding out its large portfolio of MMC memories. With added density and higher performance, the new Samsung MMCplusTM cards are designed to greatly enhance user convenience for a variety of mobile applications.Based on Samsung’s 8-gigabit (Gb) NAND flash memory, the MMCplus card will be introduced with an 8-gigabyte (GB) density, allowing it to store 2,000 MP3 music files or eight hours of DVD-quality movies. The 8GB card will be part of a full line up of MLC-based MMCplus cards that also will include 1GB, 2GB, and 4GB offerings.Samsung also is introducing a separate card advancement: a higher performance MMC that more than triples the performance of conventional small-form-factor memory cards. The higher performance version makes use of SLC NAND flash memory, providing a read-speed of 40Mbytes/s and a write-speed of 25Mbytes/s. The advanced MMCplus card can save six MP3 songs per second, or two hours of DVD-quality movies in less than a minute. The high-performance card will be available in two variations: a 1GB and a 2GB density. Samsung’s new high-density and high-performance MMCplus cards are expected to be available in the second half of this year. According to market research firm, Semico Research, the worldwide high-density memory card market is expected to show substantial growth from 115 million units in 2006 to 750 million units by 2009.About Samsung ElectronicsSamsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2005 parent company sales of US$56.7 billion and net income of US$7.5 billion. Employing approximately 128,000 people in over 120 offices in 57 countries, the company consists of five main business units: Digital Appliance Business, Digital Media Business, LCD Business, Semiconductor Business and Telecommunication Network Business. Recognized as one of the fastest growing global brands, Samsung Electronics is a leading producer of digital TVs, memory chips, mobile phones, and TFT-LCDs. For more information, please visit www.samsung.com
Reference
□ Digital Camera Market Forecast

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

DSC (in Mln units)

89

92

97

99

100

Percentage of DSLR

6.6%

7.9%

8.6%

9.3%

10%

Card unit (4GB eq.)

11.6M

14.6M

33.2M

36.8M

40M

(Source: Brain Child 2005)

□ High-density Memory Card Market Forecast

Year

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

CAGR

Memory Card Market Total

420

720

1031

1353

1717

42%

1GB and higher

19

78

241

621

1166

180%

512 and lower

401

642

790

732

551

8%

“NEC, Matsushita, and Panasonic Mobile Communications say they have signed a memorandum of understanding, and will establish a joint venture devoted to mobile phones. The as-yet-unnamed venture will launch in October, and offer contract mobile phone handset development, including software, and silicon known as “large-scale integrations” (LSIs), the companies say.NEC says it has collaborated with Panasonic on mobile phone technology since 2001. For example, along with DoCoMo, the partners in 2004 created a common Linux middleware platform subsequently used in three generations of NEC and Panasonic phones for DoCoMo’s 3G “FOMA” (freedom of mobile access) network.The new venture will offer 3.5G and 3.9G mobile handset development services on a contract basis, according to the companies. The venture’s handsets will be based on a common platform, including middleware, applications, and hardware, for “greater efficiency and less duplication of effort.”As reported earlier, the venture will be capitalized at 100 million yen (about $850,000), with equal ownership between NEC and Panasonic. NEC will supply the venture’s president, while Panasonic will lend the effort a vice-president. Two board members will also be appointed, from unnamed companies. NEC and Panasonic say the venture will create synergies between NEC’s communications and computing expertise, and Panasonic’s consumer electronics and audio-visual product experience. The venture will be based in Yokohama City, and employ 140. It is expected to launch in early October. Phones bearing the brand names “NEC” and “Panasonic” will continue to be planned, manufactured, and sold by NEC and Panasonic, the companies say. NEC says it employs more than 150,000 people worldwide and had net sales of approximately $41 billion in the fiscal year that ended March 31, 2006.” via linuxdevices.com

“Digital Foci has announced the shipments start of a compact digital photo album Picture Porter Elite, which was unveiled early in 2006. The device is equipped with a 3.6” LCD, 40 or 80 GB HDD and a card-reader for CF I, II, MD, MMC, SD, MS, MS PRO (xD, RS-MMC, miniSD, MS Duo and MS PRO Duo via adapter).It is meant to view video, digital photos and play music. It’s possible to magnify, rotate photos, view EXIF info and histograms and create slideshows. You can plug it to the TV set (it can record programs) and print photos directly (PictBridge technology). With the built-in microphone the Picture Porter Elite can be used as a voice recorder.The device is fed via a Li-Ion battery, which ensures up to 4 hours of video playback or 12 hours of music playback. The Picture Porter Elite will become available early in August. The recommended price makes up $499 (for the junior version).” via mobile-review.com

Reading, UK – Tuesday, 25 July 2006For immediate release Worldwide shipments of smart mobile devices rise 55% year-on-year in Q2 2006 Handheld segment plummets 33%, overtaken by wireless handhelds for the first time Smart phone shipments increase by 75% compared to one year ago Nokia retains overall market lead, Motorola leapfrogs RIM, Sharp, Palm to take second Symbian leads in OS share, with 67%, a year-on-year rise, but a sequential fall Microsoft in second with share at 15%, ahead of RIM on 6%Highlights from the Canalys Q2 2006 worldwide smart mobile device research The latest research from Canalys highlights the continuing shift from handhelds to converged devices. Overall year-on-year market growth of all smart mobile devices was largely unchanged from the previous two quarters at 55%, but converged device shipments (smart phones and wireless handhelds) rose 73%, while handhelds continued to slide, down 33% compared to the same period one year ago. Sharp posted the highest growth among the top five vendors, with shipments of more than a million Symbian FOMA smart phones in Japan during the quarter. “Symbian has performed well in what many find a difficult market to crack,” said Canalys analyst Nick Spencer, “Q2 saw it break the 10 million cumulative shipment barrier there, thanks to significant volumes from not only Sharp, but also vendors such as Fujitsu, Mitsubishi and Sony Ericsson.” Another vendor reaching a significant milestone in Q2 was second-placed, and second-fastest growing, Motorola, its position achieved primarily from shipments of more than a million Linux-based smart phones in China in the quarter, but helped also by the initial shipments of the long-awaited ‘Q’ Windows Mobile smart phone in the US as well as its continuing sales of Symbian/UIQ devices. “Motorola set itself some pretty ambitious targets for the Q,” added Spencer, “And it has done a good job on the supply side in its first quarter, especially when you consider the problems it has had bringing such devices to market in the past. But it now needs the kind of user pull that will sustain high shipment levels over the longer term. With RIM and Palm regularly shipping more than a million devices per quarter each, the stamina of the competition, and user acceptance of their devices, should not be underestimated.” All these vendors remain some way behind market leader Nokia, which shipped over 9 million Symbian smart phones during the quarter, a year-on-year rise of 35%. Canalys estimates that more than 95% of these were S60 models, which have recently branched out from their consumer-oriented, keypad-centric designs to include enterprise-focused models such as the keyboard-based E61. It is evident from these figures that converged devices have taken over from their standalone predecessors. To further illustrate this, Canalys estimates that Palm’s Treo smart phone shipments grew as a proportion of its total units sold to 58%, up from 41% a year earlier. Palm still leads the handheld segment, ahead of HP, Dell and Mio Technology, and actually increased its share in that category by 4% year-on-year, but total market shipments of handhelds fell 33% from over 2 million in Q2 2005, to just 1.4 million last quarter – the biggest percentage fall on record. “The handheld market in North America has been in decline for a while now, but it was a 42% year-on-year fall in EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa) that really hurt the numbers this quarter,” added Canalys principal analyst and director Chris Jones. “The GPS navigation demand that has served device vendors so well in Europe over the past couple of years has undergone a huge transformation. Dedicated portable navigation devices have the lion’s share now, and we are starting to see smart phones make an impact here too for certain types of user. The navigation sector is a superb example of how quickly a market, and the fortunes of the players in that market, can change.” Jones will be keynoting the Canalys Navigation Forum in Geneva in September, a unique event that will bring the vendors, channel partners, the media and the finance community together to discuss how the market will develop over the next few years. More information… About the Smart Mobile Device Analysis Worldwide service The shipment estimates discussed in this release come from the market-leading Canalys Smart Mobile Device Analysis Worldwide service. Canalys’ smart mobile device product segmentation and definitions are used by vendors the world over to provide a consistent view of the total market for handhelds, wireless handhelds and smart phones. Clients receive quarterly market updates, regular reports, trends presentations and forecasts, and direct access to Canalys analysts. Canalys also offers services looking specifically at the rapidly growing markets for mobile navigation and mobile e-mail. More information…

“You can use number sequences and voice commands for fast navigation. Recognition is available only for several preset functions; however no special training and voice tag recording are required. Just pronounce the name of a desired item and the device will bring it up. In general voice recognition is speaker independent, and the same goes for the phonebook. Although, when applied in the contact list, this function is not as simple for names uncustomary in Europe, for instance Finnish ones (however, it could seem there would be no problems). No issues appear when dealing with usual English names, which are recognized in a split second. However my name made the device think for some time, and only on rare occasions it offered me a correct result. Sometimes while listening to the recorded tag, you will surely smile, since the phone tends to mangle ordinary names in a very hilarious way. On frequent voice dialing usage you will see how the handset evolves, i.e. the recognition quality steadily increases. Nevertheless they are some drawbacks as well: considerable amount of errors when having a lengthy contacts list or mixed languages. The settings contain the option for changing recognition language regardless of active interface language.” Lean more here:

“Motorola today announced the MOTOFONE, a 9mm thin phone.The MOTOFONE offers a new interface built on icons and voice versus text. Featuring the new ClearVision display, MOTOFONE leverages Electrophoretic Display (EPD) technology to provide users with a large, high-contrast screen that is viewable even in bright sunlight. The ClearVision display combined with a flush-fitting keypad and dust-resistant design makes the MOTOFONE sleek yet durable in active everyday use.For pre-paid customers, the MOTOFONE automatically reports the status of their pre-paid account after each call or message, allowing consumers to stay in control of use and expense. According to Motorola, the device includes a very powerful loud volume to help ensure callers can hear phone conversations and will not miss calls even in a busy marketplace or crowded street. The MOTOFONE is expected to be available in the second half of 2006 in both GSM and CDMA models. Voice prompts in local languages Intuitive icon-based user interface Stylish thin design Extended battery life Durable housing for optimal performance despite dust and sun High-contrast screen using new ClearVision display Large font size for easy readability High-volume for call clarity in loud environments Automatic notification of current prepaid balance Embedded polyphonic ringtones in eight voices Ability to download ringtonesThe MOTOFONE is expected to be available in Q4 of 2006.” via slashphone.com