AT&T Welcomes Spring with New Smartphone Prices
AT&T* is putting an extra spring into the steps of customers this season with limited time pricing on five premier smartphones from its industry-leading portfolio. AT&T customers can now get the Samsung Captivateâ„¢ for $99.99, BlackBerry® Torch, Samsung Focus, LG Quantum for $49.99 and the BlackBerry® Curveâ„¢ 3G for$29.99 after a two-year commitment (no rebate required.) These offers are available in AT&T company-owned retail stores nationwide and online.
Samsung Captivateâ„¢ – $99.99
The Androidâ„¢ 2.2 powered Samsung Captivate with 4″ Super AMOLED display brings users a fully integrated entertainment, messaging and social networking experience packaged in a sleek, streamlined design.
BlackBerry® Torchâ„¢ 9800 smartphone – $49.99
This smartphone includes the BlackBerry® 6 OS with fast, rich browsing, integrated social feeds, universal search and BlackBerry App Worldâ„¢ with carrier billing support. Its all-in-one design combines the benefits of a hi-resolution touch screen, slide out QWERTY keyboard and an optical trackpad.
Samsung Focus – $49.99
The Focusâ„¢ debuted as AT&T’s thinnest Windows Phone and offers a visually stunning experience with a Super AMOLEDâ„¢ screen on a sleek 9.9 mm-thin touch screen phone. With the Focus’â„¢ amazingly crisp, brilliant display, photos, games and videos come alive.
LG Quantum – $49.99
A Windows Phone with a slide-out keyboard for quick use of Office Mobile®, users can stay active and up to date with work. The LG Quantum also features DLNA technology through a preloaded application called Play To, which allows users to wirelessly stream videos, music, and pictures from the phone to a DLNA-enabled TV, stereo, Windows 7 PC and other consumer electronics devices.
BlackBerry® Curveâ„¢ 3G smartphone – $29.99
This classic BlackBerry® smartphone features a full QWERTY keyboard, the signature BlackBerry messaging experience, powerful personal information management capabilities, BlackBerry App Worldâ„¢ with carrier billing support and much more. BlackBerry Curve 3G smartphone is BlackBerry® 6 OS ready.
For the complete array of AT&T offerings, visit http://www.att.com/.
New 2-year wireless service agreement with minimum $15/mo data plan required. Other charges, restrictions and conditions apply. See store for details.
*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.
3 Austria launches Nokia E7-00 Navi edition smartphone
Hutchison 3G Austria (3 Austria) has launched Nokia E7-00 Navi Edition on its network.
The Symbian handset has a 4-in touchscreen and slide-out QWERTY keyboard and is targeted at business users.
3 Austria is offering the handset with the free add-on packet ‘MoreEurope Plus’, which includes 200 minutes of calls to fixed and mobile networks within the EU, Turkey and other countries. In addition, it is waiving the US$68.90 connection fee for new subscribers.
Vodafone Australia to exclusively offer HTC Desire Z
Vodafone Australia will offer the HTC Desire Z smartphone exclusively.
The phone features a ‘pop hinge’ that opens to reveal a QWERTY keyboard. It also includes 720p HD video recording and a 5-megapixel camera with flash. It is powered by the 800 MHz Qualcomm 7230 processor and runs on Android 2.2 Froyo.
HTC Desire Z features a new improved version of HTC Sense and online services at HTCSense.com. It has a proximity sensor, a G-sensor and an ambient light sensor too. The Desire Z has HTC’s new “Fast Boot” feature, which is a type of sleep/hibernation mode instead of the traditional full power off; a full boot can only be accomplished by removing the battery.
Availability of HTC Desire Z is scheduled for mid March. Pricing will be announced shortly too.
HP boasts of two new Palm phones
HP now boasts of a range of new devices from a mobile phone, the size of a credit card to a new tablet device. The company, which brought Palm, last year, also restored the Palm Pre with its 3G model.
The small Palm Veer is a 3G smartphone that comes with a 2.6-inch multi-touch screen supporting 320×400 resolutions. In addition to the touchscreen, it also comes with a slide-out physical QWERTY keyboard. The operating system is based on the HP webOS.
According to Jon Rubinstein, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Palm Global Business Unit, HP, while much of the industry is trending toward larger and larger devices, the company believes there’s also a whole lot of room for thinking small. Veer bridges the gap for a new generation of smartphone users, proving they really can have it all without sacrificing the size they want.
At just 54.5 mm x 84.0 mm x 15.1 mm and only 103 grams, Veer flaunts an 800-MHz processor; 8 GB of internal user storage; a browser with full access to the web, including support for Adobe Flash Player 10.1 beta; Wi-Fi; integrated GPS; messaging support; and multimedia options, including music, photos, video recording and playback, and a 5-megapixel camera.
The HP Veer smartphone is scheduled to be available in the early spring. The exact prices and availability will be announced at a later date.
Building on the Pre platform, the Palm Pre3 increases keyboard size and the display resolution, adds video stabilization, a 1.4-GHz Qualcomm processor, and a forward-facing camera for video calling.
The company also introduced a HP webOS based TouchPad, a long rumored tablet device.
Nokia launches affordable mobile phone (India)
Nokia has launched its affordable range of QWERTY mobile phones in Gujarat.
According to Head service marketing, Nokia India, Jasmeet Gandhi, the Nokia X2-01 is competitively priced with colorful design and optimized for messaging performance. Among mobile phones, QWERTY category of phones is the fastest growing segment where messaging and accessing emails could be faster. The X2-01 is targeted at the youngsters who want to be connected with the internet and social networking sites, and want information on the go.
He added that it has been kept in the affordable range looking at the spending capacity of college goers and teenagers. With the new 3G spectrum coming in place, Nokia is also planning to add more 3G enabled phones to its portfolio.
He further stated that in the past few years the company has seen more business coming from the rural market rather than the urban centres. The main reason behind this growth from rural areas was because the mobile operators had now started exploring the rural markets.
Vodafone launches new smartphone – Motorola Flipout (Qatar)
Vodafone has launched the Motorola Flipout smartphone in Qatar. The new handset is equipped with 2.8 inch touch screen that rotates on a swivel hinge to expose a hidden 5-row QWERTY keyboard.
According to Vodafone, the phone is also highly customizable with six different interchangeable covers for added personalization. The other features include 3G, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth connectivity. With 2GB of included microSD memory (expandable up to 32GB), there is ample room to store photos and videos taken using the 3mp camera, with plenty of space left for audio files and other applications. The battery provides for almost six hours of continuous talk time.
The Motorola Flipout runs on the Android platform, which gives customers access to the suite of applications available on the Android market. The phone also includes Motorola’s trademarked MOTORBLUR software, which securely manages contacts and messages.
According to Daniel Horan, Vodafone Qatar’s Commercial Director, Vodafone is pleased to launch the creatively designed Motorola Flipout. With the introduction of this new smartphone, customers can be sure that Vodafone will continue to introduce new and innovative products to appeal to all the people of Qatar.
The phone is available at all Vodafone retail stores for US$373.05, which includes a welcome pack, Freedom 35 account and 300MB of free mobile Internet.
Samsung Mobile Announces Samsung Suedeâ„¢ For New Cricket Unlimited Muve Musicâ„¢ Service
Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile), the No.1 mobile phone provider in the United States, today announced the Samsung Suedeâ„¢ (SCH-r710). This handset will debut with the new Cricket Muve Musicâ„¢ service in January 2011. The new wireless rate plan, the first to include a music experience designed specifically for the mobile phone, gives Cricket customers unlimited access to millions of songs, ringtones and ringback tones, in addition to unlimited access to voice, Web, text, video and more across Cricket’s nationwide 3G network.
Samsung Mobile is excited to launch the first handset to integrate with the innovative new Cricket Muve Music serviceâ€
Samsung Mobile is excited to launch the first handset to integrate with the innovative new Cricket Muve Music service,†said Paul Golden, chief marketing officer for Samsung Mobile. When you combine the handset’s sleek design and impressive feature set, such as the dedicated Muve Music button, the Samsung Suede is a device poised to redefine how people engage with a mobile music service.â€
A slim, stylish full-featured messaging phone, the Suede is designed with a 3-inch touch screen display, virtual QWERTY keyboard and an easy-to-navigate user interface. The Suede features a dedicated Muve Music button, which provides Cricket customers with one-touch access to download music instantly over Cricket’s 3G network. Cricket customers do not need a computer to use the Muve Music service. The Suede’s user interface features with customizable widgets, for instant access to popular social networking sites such as Facebookâ„¢, MySpaceâ„¢ and Twitterâ„¢. In addition, the handset boasts an HTML web browser for fast downloads of music, video and news content, access to the Samsung Widget store and location-based services.
The Suede offers users a full messaging suite including SMS and MMS, along with a music player with microSDâ„¢ card support, accelerometer, 3.0 megapixel camera and camcorder and 135MB of internal memory with up to 16GB of expandable memory.
The Samsung Suede with the Cricket Muve Music service will be available at select Cricket Wireless stores beginning in January 2011. The Cricket unlimited plan including Muve Music is $55 per month while the Samsung Suede has a M.S.R.P. of $199.
For more information about the Samsung Suede, please visit www.samsung.com or the Samsung USA Newsroom at www.samsungusanews.com.
About Samsung Telecommunications America
Samsung Telecommunications America, LLC, a Dallas-based subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., researches, develops and markets wireless handsets and telecommunications products throughout North America. For more information, please visit www.samsungwireless.com.
About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2009 consolidated sales of US$116.8 billion. Employing approximately 174,000 people in 193 offices across 66 countries, the company consists of eight independently operated business units: Visual Display, Mobile Communications, Telecommunication Systems, Digital Appliances, IT Solutions, Digital Imaging, Semiconductor and LCD. 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.
MetroPCS begins Chinese Android Smartphone sale (USA)
MetroPCS has started selling a low-cost Android smartphone, supplied by China’s Huawei. The smartphone is powered by the Android 2.1 (Eclair) OS; the Huawei Ascend is aimed at consumers wanting to move from a feature phone to a smartphone.
The smartphone is being offered for US$179 with smartphone tariffs starting from US$50 per month.
The Huawei Ascend is equipped with a 3.5-inch HVGA auto-rotate touchscreen with onscreen QWERTY keyboard for text input, along with a 3.2 megapixel camera and supports Wi-Fi connectivity.
According to Tom Keys, Chief Operating Officer of MetroPCS, the company’s customers desire more choices and are looking for the latest handsets and services that fit their personalities, lifestyles and budgets. With the addition of this device, they are again expanding their portfolio to provide customers with a chance to experience the latest technology with the value of affordable, flexible and predictable no annual contract wireless services.
The New BlackBerry Torch 9800 enters the smartphone market
The BlackBerry Torch is the latest release from BlackBerry looking to penetrate the fiercely competitive touchscreen Smartphone market; a segment of the mobile phone market which has grown exponentially in the last twelve months, so much so that it is now recognized as a market of its own.
This is not the first time that BlackBerry have attempted to enter this market however, two previous models in the form of the Storm and Storm 2 looked to try and grab a piece of the market albeit quite unsuccessfully, largely due to their unique and quite unusual piezo ‘clickable’ touchscreens which received very mixed reviews.
The Torch on the other hand, really distances itself from the Storm; it is BlackBerry’s first slider incorporating both a touchscreen and a physical QWERTY keyboard, essentially ‘the best of both worlds’. It is a concept that puts the Torch in quite a large bit of ‘middle ground’ sitting between the iPhones/HTC Desire HDs of this world and BlackBerry’s own Curve/Bold series. It creates an interesting debate as to whether the need for such a device exists, but if early sales figures and reviews are any reflection on the future, then it certainly looks as though the Torch will be lighting the way.
The reason for the encouraging reviews is quite clear when you look in a bit more detail at the specifications of this device; a 3.2 inch capacitive touchscreen capable of displaying 16 million colours at a resolution of 360 x 480 pixels, a full BlackBerry QWERTY keyboard, 4GB of internal storage, microSD support, microUSB port, HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a 5 megapixel camera and of course, the latest iteration of BlackBerry software OS 6.0 which has been heavily optimised for touchscreen use.
Of course, as with any BlackBerry, the real attraction of the Torch is the exceptional push email services and BlackBerry Messenger; features which will essentially let you instantly message any other BlackBerry user, anywhere in the world. There is also access to third party applications thanks to BlackBerry Appworld, BlackBerry’s answer to the App Store in which you’ll find a huge selection of games and applications ranging from horoscopes to Sudoku and everything in between.
Aside from all of the features and specifications mentioned above, the Torch is quite possibly the best looking addition to the BlackBerry family with its compact looking design and sleek curves it really is a good looking phone from any angle and is a welcome break from the usual Smartphone form factor adopted by the likes of HTC, Apple, Samsung et al.
