The worldwide number of consumers using smartphone applications will grow from 102 Million (2009) to 974 Million in 2013, according to research2guidance. The new report focuses on the corporate perspective of app publishing for smartphone devices. Currently, only 10% of Fortune 2000 companies are targeting their customers with a smartphone application.
"Despite the hype around the iPhone and other cutting-edge devices, corporations are only just beginning to realize that smartphone applications offer a direct channel to their customers," explains Ralf-Gordon Jahns, Research Director at research2guidance.
Mercedes-Benz Financial is now the first automotive financial services company to expand personalized and convenient account management features to all of its customers using smartphones like BlackBerry, Droid , and other mobile devices with internet capability.
Mercedes-Benz Financial last Fall became the first auto finance company to offer account management features with the launch of its iPhone App free download.
Account holders must first register online at www.Mercedes-BenzFinancial.com to access secure account management features. Detailed instructions for smartphone users are available at www.Mercedes-BenzFinancial.com/mobile.
All smartphone users, even those who are not customers of Mercedes-Benz Financial, will be able to locate the nearest Mercedes-Benz authorized dealer, contact a customer service representative and see what’s new from Mercedes-Benz Financial.
Alpine Electronics, the leading automotive and systems and audio specialist, announced today together with Nokia and NAVTEQ a strategic partnership to bring a new connected technology called Terminal Mode to car infotainment systems. This technology will provide Nokia's Ovi services such as navigation, powered by NAVTEQ maps, through smartphones that are integrated into the car environment.
By integrating the smartphone handset seamlessly with in-car electronics, this technology is able to bring smartphone widget-based services like navigation, music, weather reports and application stores, in addition to the usual call and talk functions of a mobile phone into the car environment.
T-Mobile USA today announced the upcoming availability of the Nokia 5230 Nuron, a smartphone solution for the masses packed with applications, maps with turn-by-turn directions, and more.
Operating on T-Mobile's blazing-fast 3G network, the Nokia Nuron offers dynamic Web browsing and rich experiences on a 3.2" touch screen. The device is also the first pre-loaded with Ovi Maps, a free turn-by-turn navigation solution from Nokia, and the first to have the Ovi Store pre-loaded, giving consumers access to thousands of compelling applications and games. The Nokia Nuron is expected to be available in the coming weeks exclusively from T-Mobile.
The Nokia Nuron is a mobile solution that allows consumers to easily make their way around town, download content and applications to keep them entertained, or help to manage their busy lives. Consumers can keep up with friends and family via IM, text, personal or work e-mail, and offers the ability to easily surf the Web with a full HTML browser.
Nokia today unveiled the Nokia C5 and a new naming convention, Nokia Cseries. The C5 is a smartphone packed into a feature phone body, boasting S60 3rd edition and a host of messaging and social networking features built in.
It also features a bright 2.2-inch display and a 3.2-megapixel camera. It also comes packing free walk and drive navigation courtesy of Ovi Maps and is ready for messaging with Nokia Messaging built in.
The Nokia C5 features a cool new feature in its phone book, where you can see your friend’s status updates directly from Facebook. You can also update your Facebook status easily and share your location with Ovi Maps 3.0.
The home screen will shows your favorite three friends for easy access to calling and messaging whilst Nokia Messaging enables you to keep in touch on IM using Google Talk or Windows Live Messenger.
The Symbian Foundation today unveiled the Symbian^3 (S^3) platform, the first entirely open source release following the platform’s transition to an open source license on 4 February, 2010, which was the largest of its kind in history.
In a significant development in the convergence of communications and computing, Intel Corporation and Nokia are merging their popular Moblin and Maemo software platforms. This will create a unified Linux-based platform that will run on multiple hardware platforms across a wide range of computing devices, including pocketable mobile computers, netbooks, tablets, mediaphones, connected TVs and in-vehicle infotainment systems. Called MeeGo, the open software platform will accelerate industry innovation and time-to-market for a wealth of new Internet-based applications and services and exciting user experiences. MeeGo-based devices from Nokia and other manufacturers are expected to be launched later this year.
At the 2010 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Verizon Wireless and Skype today announced a strategic relationship that will bring Skype to Verizon Wireless smartphones in March.
The new Skype mobile product enhances Verizon Wireless’ smartphones for users who have data plans by offering a new way to call around the globe, while also giving hundreds of millions of Skype users around the world the opportunity to communicate with friends, family and business colleagues in the United States using Verizon Wireless.
Initially, Skype mobile will be available on millions of best-selling Verizon Wireless 3G smartphones with data plans, including the BlackBerry Storm 9530, Storm2 9550, Curve 8330, Curve 8530, 8830 World Edition and Tour 9630 smartphones, as well as DROID by Motorola, DROID ERIS by HTC and Motorola DEVOUR.
PUMA AG and Sagem Wireless unveiled today at the Mobile World Congress the much anticipated PUMA PHONE. The PUMA PHONE is not like all those other phones; its design, from on-board features and technology to unique user interface to connected services reflects the DNA of the PUMA's brand. Completely custom designed from the inside out, the PUMA PHONE is an uber friendly device engineered to facilitate and encourage an active way of life both digitally and physically.
The PUMA PHONE is an active smartphone. Beyond internet, messaging, and gps localization capabilities, solar charging, video calling and Bluetooth photo sharing are all designed to make the device engaging and responding to consumers requirements.
The spin and scratch music player and integrated radio make the device a connected companion. Designed around an active lifestyle, its sleek shape factor makes it a wearable fashion accessory.
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. today announced the launch of the Samsung Wave. This is the first mobile handset to be released on Samsung’s new, open mobile platform, Samsung bada, and the cornerstone of the company’s commitment to provide a smartphone for every lifestyle.
The Samsung Wave offers a Super AMOLED 3.3” display that makes the screen truly come alive, a Social Hub to bring you closer to your contacts and connections, and TouchWiz 3.0 for an intuitive and hugely customizable user interface. The Wave’s high-speed CPU ensures swift, smooth application experiences and multi-tasking, making the device an always-on mobile multimedia companion. The Samsung Wave has been built to offer users an unrivalled level of performance, customization and choice in how they connect with their world. The stunning full touch mobile will be available globally from April 2010.
Super AMOLED – Seeing is believing With the Samsung Wave, seeing really is believing as it features the world’s first Super AMOLED display; delivering an unrivalled screen experience on a smartphone. The Super AMOLED offers much brighter, clearer, and less reflective AMOLED OnCell display, featuring a high resolution WVGA (800x480 pixels) screen with mDNIe (mobile Digital Natural Image engine) technology.
Garmin-Asus, a co-branded alliance between Garmin Ltd., and ASUSTeK Computer Inc., today announced the Garmin-Asus nüvifone A50, a touchscreen Android-powered smartphone with multiple location technologies and apps. The A50 benefits from the personalization and enhanced features offered by the Android platform, and also includes Garmin navigation with turn-by-turn, voice prompted directions for use in a car or while walking. Location features are designed into virtually every function including email, text messaging, and photos. The A50 will be on display at the Garmin-Asus booth (Hall 8, #8B127) at Mobile World Congress, February 15-18, 2010.
The A50 brings premium navigation features to the Android operating system, offering users a seamless location based experience along with access to the wealth of applications that the platform affords.
The elegant and thin A50 has a 3.5-inch HVGA capacitive touchscreen display that incorporates a finger-friendly user interface. The QWERTY touchscreen keyboard makes it easy to send and receive messages, and predictive text helps customers type faster. It also comes with hardware features like 4GB internal storage, an expandable microSD card slot, and accelerometer so every screen can be viewed in portrait or landscape mode.
Garmin-Asus, a co-branded alliance between Garmin Ltd., and ASUSTeK Computer Inc., announced the Garmin-Asus M10, a full-touch, all-in-one smartphone powered by the latest version of Windows Mobile from Microsoft Corp. The M10 keeps professionals connected with business and personal contacts, email, calendar and IM, in addition to featuring preloaded mobile navigation from Garmin. The M10 is expected to be available through carrier and retail channels in Asia and Europe in the first half of 2010. The M10 will be on display at the Garmin-Asus exhibit (Hall 8, #8B127) at Mobile World Congress, February 15-18, 2010.
The M10 runs Windows Mobile, making it the ideal smartphone for business use, while its smart navigation capabilities, comprehensive social networking features and connected services enable users to lead a truly smart lifestyle.
The Garmin-Asus M10 runs the latest version of Windows Mobile. Windows Mobile 6.5.3 features upgrades that enhance user experience and provides access to Windows Marketplace for Mobile, which offers a vast number of Windows phone applications for download.
ST-Ericsson, a global leader in mobile platforms and semiconductors, has developed a platform that supports Android, which manufacturers could use to produce smartphones with a wholesale price of less than EUR100 (US$138), depending on the final device specification. A highly-integrated and very power-efficient platform, the U6715 promises to significantly broaden the smartphone segment, making these advanced and customizable handsets affordable for the mass-market.
ST-Ericsson anticipates manufacturers will launch the first commercial products based on the U6715 platform in the first half of 2010, meeting growing demand for compact and low-cost smartphones. These handsets will be capable of downloading and running a wide range of applications that enable consumers to customize their phones to access the services that fit their lifestyle.
AnyDATA Corporation, a global leader in the design and manufacture of wireless communications devices, announces two leading edge Windows smartphones for carrier distribution, the ASP-318 and the ASP-518. Both devices are loaded with multimedia features that provide consumers with a rich entertainment experience on AnyDATA smartphones.
The ASP-318 is a low cost and affordable Windows Mobile smartphone for cellular subscribers, such as students and enterprise workers who previously may have only considered a mid-tier feature phone. The AnyDATA smartphone utilizes the media-rich Mediatek MT6516 application processor that is designed for entry level smartphones. It provides a rich multimedia experience for cellular subscribers on existing 2G GSM networks.
Broadcom Corporation today announced a new single-chip HSPA (high-speed packet access) baseband processor and a radio frequency (RF) transceiver solution that integrates all of the key 3G (third generation) cellular and mobile technologies for powering the 3G smartphone and smart feature phone product segments.
The advanced baseband processor is the first to provide extremely high-speed cellular connectivity with advanced, built-in graphics capabilities, for HSUPA (high speed upstream packet access) applications. The RF transceiver solution complements the advanced HSUPA processor to provide support for all global frequency combinations covering the latest 3G-enabled devices.
Designed in Broadcom's proven 65 nanometer CMOS process, the new '3G phone-on-a-chip' and RF solution enables manufacturers to build low cost, low power, next generation 3G HSUPA phones with breakthrough features, sleek form factors and very long battery lives.
Alltel Wireless today announced the immediate availability of the BlackBerry Curve 8530 smartphone.
The BlackBerry Curve 8530 is a new addition to the popular BlackBerry Curve series and an incredibly approachable smartphone. For people who like to be connected, it provides easy mobile access to email, messaging (IM, SMS, MMS) and popular social networking sites (including Facebook and MySpace) and features a highly tactile full-QWERTY keyboard for comfortable, accurate typing.
It features rich multimedia capabilities and access to music, games and other mobile apps for entertainment on the go. The smartphone is also Wi-Fi enabled, giving customers two ways to connect to the Internet – through Alltel’s fast 3G wireless network or through any available Wi-Fi hotspot. When connected on Wi-Fi, multi-taskers can receive email and messages or browse the Internet while simultaneously speaking on the phone.
The BlackBerry Curve 8530 features a large full QWERTY keyboard, a trackpad for easy navigation and dedicated media keys that are smoothly integrated along the top of the handset, giving customers an easy, convenient way to control their music and videos.
Motorola, Inc. today inaugurated a new era in Korea’s mobile lifestyle with the introduction of MOTOROI, the first smart phone in Korea to be powered by Android version 2.0.
For people who want the ultimate smart phone experience, MOTOROI offers the ability to use multiple applications at the same time, effortless pinch-and-zoom browsing, and cinematic navigation through music, videos, and maps of the world.
Thousands of Android-Based Applications
Android is widely recognized as the most exciting mobile platform in part because of its unequalled openness. Anyone can develop Android applications and make them available through Android Market, and you can download them on MOTOROI.
Designed to take full advantage of the power of Android 2.0, MOTOROI gives you a full touch screen with a huge 3.7 inch, high-definition WVGA (480X854) display, making it easier than ever to view full page websites, videos, games, or photos. The display uses a powerful combination of Motorola’s touch user interface (UI) and a capacitive touch sensor for smooth screen flipping and scrolling, and five main displays let you customize your MOTOROI with various widgets with more freedom than ever before.
As anticipated, Google Inc. today unveiled a new way for consumers to purchase an Android mobile phone, a web store hosted by Google. The company is also launching the first phone offered through this new model, called the Nexus One, which combines the latest in hardware from HTC Corporation with the newest Android software.
The goal of Google's new consumer channel is to provide an efficient way to connect Google's online users with selected Android phones. The online experience of the web store has been designed with a focus on simplicity.
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