HTC Play : exclusive store for games

The recent patent indicates HTC's interest towards making an exclusive store just for games that too not just for different smartphones but for multiple OS's also

Taiwan based handset maker, HTC Corporation may soon come out with an exclusive game store for users. HTC has filed a trademark with the US patent and trademark office on May 24 relating to a service known as the HTC Play. Although no official comment has come from HTC yet but it is expected that HTC Play will be a unique, one of a kind service related to video games or gaming.

HTC in the past has also revealed some information about its services related to a dedicated audio service.

Huawei eyes Windows Phone 7 smartphones

Huawei would be the eighth original equipment manufacturer to join the WP7 league, besides HTC, LG, Nokia, Samsung, Acer, Fujitsu and ZTE.

In yet another boost for Windows Phone 7, Chinese smartphone maker Huawei has expressed its interest in the operating system.

"We are in discussions with Microsoft and will probably bring a Windows Phone to market next year," chief strategy and marketing officer of Huawei, Victor Xu was quoted as saying by a UK website.

Hardware buttons missing from next Google phone

The next Google phone is being tested on both CDMA and HSPA+, and it appears to have the front facing camera on the top left.

Google's upcoming Nexus 3 smartphone will have no physical buttons on it and will just have a touchscreen in the front, a technology website has revealed.

The phone will use Android Honeycomb operating system, which is meant for tablet PCs. Honeycomb will enable the phone to work smoothly even without physical buttons.

This plan seems very much in line with Google's vision to combine the tablet and smartphone operating systems in a single device. Users won't need hardware buttons simply because all they need will be available on the screen itself.

India registers triple-digit smart phone growth

A Canalys report revealed that Asia Pacific (APAC) became the largest smart phone market region, with y-o-y growth of 98 per cent to 3.73 crore units, putting it ahead of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) for the first time since Q3 2007. On a country basis, mainland China, South Korea, and India delivered strong volumes and registered triple-digit growth.

Also, according to Canalys' worldwide country-level smart phone market data for Q1 2011, Android led the market for the second quarter running, and, with 3.57 crore units shipped, increased its share to 35 per cent.

Overall, worldwide smart phone shipments grew 83 per cent to 10.10 crore units. Though its market share shrank from 39 per cent a year ago to 24 per cent in Q1 2011, Nokia held onto its worldwide leadership position with 2.42 crore units shipped—a 13 per cent year-on-year rise—despite the current realignment of its platform strategy, staying ahead of RIM in EMEA and Apple in APAC. APAC became the largest region for Nokia, accounting for 53 per cent of its overall shipments, overtaking EMEA by more than 30 lakh units.

Nokia is no more No 1 in Europe

The mobile phone giant which has been losing market share for past couple of years on account of lack of smartphone success has finally been relegated to number two position in Western Europe, Samsung is the new number one.

Nokia, which ruled the mobile phone market for over a decade, has now lost its position to Samsung in Western Europe. Nokia shipments dropped 10.3 per cent year-on-year to 12.6 million units and is now the second player with 27.9 per cent market share, according to IDC's European Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker report.

While, Samsung shipments increased 5.3 per cent year-on-year to 13.2 million units and the Korean giant became the biggest mobile phone maker in the region with 29.3 per cent market share. 

In the smartphone space, Apple became the biggest player with 20.8 per cent market share with its shipments increased 48.9 per cent year-on-year to 4.4 million units. Nokia comes second with 19.6 per cent market share. 

"Samsung and Apple achieved outstanding milestones this quarter in the region. Samsung became the biggest mobile phone vendor in Western Europe and Apple the biggest smartphone vendor. These results show how volatile this market is and how important it is not to underestimate the trends. Companies like Nokia (and Ericsson in the past) may have strong brands and big market shares as Nokia always had, but can be overtaken by their competitors on a blink of an eye," said Francisco Jeronimo, European mobile devices research manager, IDC.

Upcoming Android Phones in India

If you are looking to buy a new Android phone, May and June have some goodies in store for you. From Samsung Galaxy S II to HTC Sensation, we are going to see some impressive Android smartphones reaching Indian shores in the next sixty days. Don’t worry, action is not limited to only high-end devices, some budget devices will as well grace the markets.

Upcoming Android Smartphones:


1. Samsung Galaxy S II:
Features: 1.2 Ghz Dual Core Exynos Processor, 4.27 inch Super AMOLED Plus Display, 8MP camera and Android 2.3 with TouchWiz 4.0.
Expected Availability: Third Week of May for around INR 32K

2. LG Optimus 2X:
Features: 1 Ghz Dual Core nVIDIA Tegra 2 Processor, 4 inch display, 8MP camera and Android 2.2 with LG UI
Expected Availability: Third Week of May for INR 30K

HTC Chacha, Salsa FB phones get June 26 shipping date on Amazon

Amazon UK today started taking preorders for HTC’s Chacha and Salsa Android phones, which come with dedicated Facebook Button. Seller has listed a June 26 delivery date for both the devices.

Made for Facebook junkies, these smartphones were announced at Mobile World Congress earlier this year. While Chacha sports a portrait QWERTY keyboard, Salsa will have full touchscreen display.

Amazon UK has priced HTC Salsa at GBP 320 [INR 23,385], while Chacha is being sold for GBP 250 [INR 18,270].

HTC Chacha Features:

• Physical QWERTY keyboard
• Dual cameras including a 5-megapixel color camera with auto focus and LED flash and a VGA front-facing camera
• 2.6-inch display with 480 x 320 resolution
• Android 2.3 with HTC Sense

HTC Salsa Features:

• 5-megapixel rear camera with VGA forward-facing camera
• 3.4-inch display with 480 x 320 resolution
• Android 2.3 with HTC Sense

HTC Desire smartphones to get Gingerbread update

But, HTC Wildfire owners will not be so fortunate as the company has no plans for the Gingerbread update for the smartphone for now.

In yet another reason for the HTC Desire owners to rejoice, the handset maker has decided to give a Gingerbread update to its Desire HD and the recently launched Desire Z smartphone. However, these updates will only be available only sometime before the end of June this year. 

Notably, both the smartphones, HTC Desire and Desire Z, still runs on the older Android 2.2 Froyo operating system.

When asked by 'The Mobile Indian' about the reasons for the delay, HTC said, "We optimise the experience for each handset separately. For example, HTC Desire HD and Desire Z have different screen sizes. Hence, the delay in rolling out updated for both the devices." 

It is also expected that HTC is looking for a multi device update roll out during the given time period. 

But, HTC Wildfire owners will not be so fortunate as the company has no plans for the Gingerbread update for the smartphone for now.

Meanwhile, the updates for the Desire smartphones will start rolling out in the UK first. All other countries, including India, are expected to get the updates in June or in July.

Can ZTE become a Top 5 Smartphone Manufacturer by year end?

That sounds pretty optimistic to me. Being in competition with the likes of HTC, Motorola, Samsung, Sony, LG, and Erricson, I say they have a long hard road ahead of them. Either way, why not shoot for the stars right? They take on this challenge, by showing their first quarter sales being up 51% over this time last year. And i like their new term “smart terminals”. Which would seem to refer to all devices, be it a smartphone, or a tablet. Hit the source for more on the story.

Top five music phones in India

Music phones are becoming more relevant with increasing digital options including app stores, streaming websites and more.

Many people would not buy a phone unless it had FM or an MP3 player as these users are not satisfied with just the ability to make calls. If you are one of them, here are a few phones that will keep you humming all the time.

Nokia N8 (Rs 22,699)

Nokia N8 makes a great music player, especially since it organises tracks efficiently. Scrolling is smooth and the user interface is visually attractive.

Music lovers want a loud speaker and it's there in the Nokia N8, so users can enjoy music even if they don't have a headphone handy.

It is possible to use either Bluetooth stereo headphones or wired 3.5 mm jack headphones with this Nokia device, which even has an FM player. One great feature of the phone is that it has an FM transmitter with which users can transmit songs loaded on the phone to an FM radio nearby, such as the one in a car audio system.