Free cross-platform messengers for smartphones

Sending text messages, sharing multimedia and staying connected with friends who use a different operating system from your own is easily done with the apps we've picked.

Research In Motion's BlackBerry smartphones have become quite popular in India in recent months. While the dispute between RIM and the Government of India persists, BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) has become a popular application that keeps the majority of BlackBerry owners busy, texting their contacts, friends and relatives.

The primary reason for BBM's popularity is that it is integrated with the BlackBerry operating system and is a light-weight app that is economical in its consumption of resources. Users can send and receive text, photos, audio and video, and can receive real-time delivery confirmations. BBM's chief purpose is that it enables people to converse with their contacts live at minimal cost.

iPad2 camera not popular, says Flickr

It could be due to the fact that tablets are not convenient while taking pictures, and probably Flickr numbers reflect that.

The iPad 2 camera is the most unused one, Flickr has said. The photo sharing website, which tracks the camera usage by users by detecting the devices used in clicking the photos, said the iPad2 camera is way too low on its list behind iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 4. 

The iPad2 comes with low resolution, and the pictures are especially bad when taken in low light conditions. Just after the launch, the iPad2 cameras quickly became famous for all the wrong reasons. 

Its picture quality was panned by several websites in the past as well.

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.

Too many operating systems? Innovation can come anytime

The mobile market is bursting with new operating systems, but like in any other business, the best ones will float while the ones that don't become popular will have no option but to go down.

There was a time when people used to perform simple functions such as making calls and sending SMSes with their mobile phones. Now people want their mobile phones to work like computers. They want to see and share photos with it, send email, browse the internet and more. That's why they need phones to have full fledged operating systems (just like computers do).

The arrival of smartphone operating systems started a long time ago. It was in 1996 that Palm OS was launched, and Pocket PC (Microsoft) arrived in 2000. 

Windows Mobile 5 and BlackBerry OS 4.1 came in 2005. Android was acquired by Google in the same year and iPhone was released in 2007. Android 1.0, BlackBerry OS 4.5, iPhone OS 2.0 and Windows Mobile 6.1—all came in 2008. Samsung bada was announced in 2009.

Despite the surfeit of smartphone operating systems, the market for them didn't really take off as Java based phones were popular at that time, and operating system-based phones barely had any applications, which meant that users had to manage with the apps their handset manufacturers gave them. If developers wanted to sell an app, they had to strike a deal directly with the manufacturer of the phone, which was very difficult.

Bing to sing in Blackberrys

Microsoft Corp’s Bing will be the default search engine and map application on Research In Motion Ltd’s BlackBerry smartphones, a boon for the software maker as it seeks expand in mobile devices and catch up with Google Inc.

Bing will be “deeply integrated” into the devices, creating “unique experiences for millions of BlackBerry customers,” Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said Monday in an unbilled appearance at the annual BlackBerry World trade show in Orlando, Florida. He said the partnership will be ready in time for the holiday shopping season later this year.

Microsoft is trying to challenge Google, whose share of the US search market is more than four times larger than that of Bing. The RIM partnership also advances Microsoft’s efforts to expand in mobile devices, a campaign that includes a pact with Nokia Oyj, the world’s largest mobile-phone maker by unit sales.

RIM Getting Gutsy With Two New Bolds

RIM has finally announced two new successors to its Bold series—9900 and 9930.

The two new models will be available in GSM (Bold 9900) & CDMA (Bold 9930)—a move welcomed by customers all over the world. Both models will debut with a brand new operating system, OS 7.

Along with the software changes, there have been hardware overhauls, as well. Both BBs will feature a 1.2 GHz processor, 768 MB of RAM,and 8 GB of in-built storage memory. RIM has also incorporated Near Field Communication (NFC) in both devices. The camera has also been beefed up to shoot High Definition video and capture High Definition images of up to 720p. The images will be 5 mega-pixel. The Wi-Fi chip will be able to operate on dual-band, i.e. 2.4 Ghz and 5 GHz, which means that the device will be able to operate without any interference from cordless devices.

Not to forget, the main attraction of this device is the touch-screen. RIM has added a 2.8 inch VGA screen which has a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels. The screen will be capable of swiping, pinching, and zooming. And yes, the new BBs will have that legendary keypad that BBM and email addicts are so fond of.

Along with these features, RIM has added the usual features such as an accelerometer, magnetometer, a proximity sensor and GPS/aGPS.

The new BlackBerry OS 7 promises a brand new, super-fast browser that will be capable of handling Javascript and HTML5 better. A cutting-edge feature in this OS is "BlackBerry Balance." It is a new technology that helps the user to conveniently use a single BlackBerry device for work use and personal use. This move will be welcomed by employees who receive BBs from their companies. Instead of carrying two different cell-phones, they can now carry one single phone to manage everything. The content stored on the phone will be protected by RIM's superb security system.

RIM Launches Blackberry Bold Touch 9900

Canadian handset manufacturer Research In Motion has announced two new handsets, the Blackberry Bold Touch 9900 and the 9930, the only difference between the two is that the first is aimed at the GSM market while the other will be sold for CDMA networks.

As its name implies, the Bold Touch 9900 has a capacitive touchscreen, in this case, a 2.8-inch VGA one that RIM calls "Liquid Graphics", which has up to four times more pixels than the previous generation.

The handset is powered by a 1.2GHz single core System on Chip, with 768MB RAM, Wi-Fi, Near Field Communications, a five megapixel camera with AF, flash and HD video recording capabilities, 8GB onboard storage and a microSD slot.

A new Blackberry OS, version 7, will drive the handset, which not only supports NFC natively but also allows custom options for the homescreen, as well as voice activated searches and a new feature called Balance which allows users to manage personal and business data separately.

At 130g and 10.5mm thick, the new Bold Touch 9900 is both slimmer and lighter than the last Touch but still manages to keep its signature keyboard layout and the five proprietary front buttons.

No UK mobile phone operators have announced yet when or whether they will stock the new Bold Touch 9900 and at what price; however given that it will be the top of the range model from RIM, one can expect it to sell on £35 monthly contracts or higher.