Panasonic says it will start selling Android-based smartphones in Japan next year, overseas in 2012
Panasonic may not be new to cellphones, but it has sat out of the smartphone explosion of recent years -- an oversight that it's now apparently looking to correct. Speaking at a news conference today, the head of Panasonic's mobile division, Osamu Waki, said flatly that the compmany " misjudged the speed at which smartphones would be taken up in the Japanese market," and that "with the rapid shift to Android, we want to catch up quickly." Exact details on how it plans to catch up are expectedly still a bit light, but Panasonic's phones will indeed be based on Android, and it apparently hopes to differentiate them by emphasizing their networking capabilities with other Panasonic products. As for when the first ones will roll out, Panasonic plans to kick off sales in Japan sometime next year, with overseas markets set to follow in 2012.
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone, Other Tags: engadget, entry, explosion, japan, japanese, kick-off-sales, markets, news-conference, panasonic, Rapid, result, shift, smartphone, smartphones, the-smartphone
IDC: Apple passes RIM to become fourth largest mobile phone vendor globally as Nokia, LG, and Sony Ericsson struggle
Can you remember the day when Apple's audacious plan to sell 10 million iPhones in its first year was greeted with extreme skepticism within the cellphone industry. Now the computer company is shipping 14.1 million handsets every three months according to the latest IDC numbers, moving Apple into fourth place on its Top 5 list of mobile phone vendors worldwide.
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone Tags: after-the-break, cellphone, earnings, emerging, gaining, leader, markets, momentum, rim, since-the-same, sonyericsson, strongholds
LG Optimus One and Optimus Chic eyes-on
That "leaked" low-end LG Android device from a few days back? Turns out it was nothing more than the Optimus Chic, one of two Google-powered phones that the company announced back in early July. They're still not ready to let us touch the damned things here at IFA -- apparently on account of the fact that they're not commercially available yet -- but we got close enough to conclude that you definitely won't be fooling anyone into thinking that you've dropped many hundreds of euros on your phone.
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone, Other Tags: emerging, ifa 2010, markets, mobile-presence, nokia, optimus, p500, phone, smartphone
Dual SIM iPhone 4 case gives your multiple personality disorder a new lease on life
Sure, there are any number of phones with dual SIM card slots , most of them built for Asian markets, but the iPhone 4 is about the furthest thing from dual SIM: in fact, it doesn't even have one Big Person SIM to call its own. Luckily, USBFever has a hacktastic solution to this problem (a followup to their iPhone 3G version ), with a new $30 case that can host dual full size SIM cards on the back of an iPhone 4 (entombed in some classy clear plastic, naturally), while running an adapter to the iPhone 4's micro SIM slot. You can then switch between the two SIMs from the iPhone's own settings menu, though unfortunately you can't rock both SIMs simultaneously.
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: approach, between-the-two, cards, clear-plastic, dualsimcards, from-the-iphone, iphone, iphone4, life, markets, problem, settings, switch-between
Samsung Galaxy Teos and Naos rush in to relieve aging Spica
Actually, calling the i5700 Galaxy Spica from Samsung "aging" isn't entirely fair -- the Android-powered handset was only introduced in November of last year.
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone, Other Tags: entry, galaxy, galaxy 3, galaxyapollo, galaxynaos, i5801, markets, only-introduced, result, robot, surprise, teos
AT&T seals deal on Verizon’s divested Alltel markets
It took a good, long while, but AT&T has finally closed on its acquisition of the markets Verizon was required to divest in order to get the government to agree to its purchase of Alltel early last year. For most customers, the move has no practical impact -- the markets are mostly rural -- but for affected folks, it means that they'll be able to "select a device comparable to their existing device at no additional cost" as markets get upgraded over the course of the next 12 months. Interestingly, all of the markets will be getting the 3G treatment, a sharp departure from AT&T's typical strategy of keeping unpopulated areas on EDGE -- but it probably makes sense to get them up and running on 3G since the network's got to be built up from scratch anyhow
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: acquisition, affected-folks, Alltel, deal-on-verizon, entry, existing, government, markets, network, rural cellular, verizonwireless
EPI Life phone sports ECG function, can let doctors know if you’re not gonna make it
It seems like the promise of connected, doctor-monitored mobile and at-home health services has been a little slow on the uptake, but here's a promising step: a new phone from Singaporean firm Ephone that can run an ECG on you and send off the results for analysis.
Categories: Mobile Phone, Other Tags: communicasia2010, companies, doctors, ephone, epi, markets, phone, Promising, promising-step, singaporean, track-glucose
Palm Pixi Plus hits Vodafone Spain on May 10, Pre Plus conspicuously missing
Wherever the Pre goes, the Pixi typically likes to follow, which makes it pretty interesting to see that Vodafone Spain will be launching Palm's new GSM flavor of the Pixi Plus on the 10th of this month without any sign of its Pre Plus sibling. That's a marked departure from the line Vodafone and O2 have both been taking in other markets , so it makes you wonder: does Vodafone think that the Pre Plus won't sell well here (it already offers the Pre), is there some firmware issue holding back the localized version, or is there some other mysterious conspiracy brewing altogether?
Categories: Mobile Phone, Other Tags: already-offers, markets, mysterious, offers-the-pre, pixi plus, reading, vodafone, vodafone es, vodafone-spain
Garmin-Asus A10 brings pedestrian-optimized GPS to European and Asian Android lovers
You ain't nobody if you don't have an Android handset ( or two ) these days, and Garmin-Asus has just added the A10 to its own stable of devices . It's a pretty humble 3.2-inch HVGA communicator, but it has a healthy 1,500mAh battery, a multitouch-friendly WebKit browser, and an autofocusing 5 megapixel camera with automatic geotagging.
Categories: Android, htc, Mobile Phone Tags: after-the-break, european, from-the-public, garmin asus a10, garminasusa10, geotagging, gps, handset, markets, pedestrian, public, the-pedestrian, voice, web
Nokia’s all you can download Comes with Music service is finally DRM free… in China
We've been browbeating Nokia for using DRM to "protect" its Comes with Music offering ever since the service launched back in December of 2007 -- a time when the industry was just beginning to shed its DRM shackles . Now get this, the idle talk is over , Nokia just launched its all-you-can-eat (for 12, 18, or 24 months, typically) Comes with Music service in China without any DRM at all
Categories: Mobile Phone, Other Tags: 5230, 6700, china, comeswithmusic, consumers, downloaded, drm, markets, nokia, result, strip-the-drm, yuesuixiang