Mobile phone trends
This week saw the start of the GSMA Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona. The Mobile World Congress is typically the next best thing to heaven for gadget fans. Here we look at some of the products making headlines on the first day of the show.
Multi-megapixel phones are big news at this year’s show with most makers announcing new camera lineups. Leading out the pack is Sony Ericsson with its 12-megapixel, touch-screen phone running Symbian S60 software. Called the Idou, the phone features an interface not unlike the iPhone on top of the hefty camera.
Also making a run of it is Nokia with its N86 phone which features an 8-megapixel camera. The phone also sports 8MB onboard memory, a micro-USB connector and a microSD slot.
Android, Google’s open source phone operating system, has been largely absent from the show to date. Huawei announced its plans to release an Android phone but the phone will be branded with someone else’s name. Huawei says that it hasn’t decided who it will be partnering with yet.
Samsung also repeated its plans for an Android phone but the company wasn’t able to preview a model at the show.
Microsoft
On the other end of the operating system spectrum, Microsoft showed off Windows Mobile 6.5 and gave some more details on its My Phone and Marketplace services.
CEO Steve Ballmer said that the new OS included a richer web browsing experience and a new interface. The new Windows Mobile 6.5 home screen acts a dashboard with notifications of new emails, text messages, calendar and call details.
Mobile 6.5 also includes an improved touch-screen interface as well as the latest version of the Internet Explorer Mobile web browser.
Ballmer also offered more information on the My Phone service that was first announced last week. My Phone will have the ability to sync text messages, photos, video, contacts and more to the Web. Contacts are backed up with My Phone so users don’t have to worry about losing contacts.
The other new service announced was Windows Marketplace for Mobile, a new marketplace that will provide users with applications for their mobile phones in much the same way that Apple’s iPhone AppStore does.
The My Phone service will be free for users wanting to backup their phone data. The Marketplace for Mobile will be accessible to users through a mobile phone or PC browser, though they will require a Windows Live ID.
Nokia, the world’s most popular mobile phone maker, also announced its plan to enter the "mobile-app" store market. Along with Microsoft Nokia is hoping to rival Apple’s AppStore with its own Ovi Store.
Acer gets smartphones
One of the much-anticipated moves at this year’s congress was Acer’s rumoured entry into the smartphone market.
The company yesterday unveiled eight of its planned ten new smartphones at the show. The lineup of smartphones will go under the name Tempo and extends the company’s strong netbook and mobile PC markets, Acer said.
Mobile phone trends – give your views
Loading ...