Taking the smartphone market by storm since the beginning of the year, the money train is looking to keep on moving forward for HTC as they expect some records to be broken in Q2 2010. The room for growth continually looks to be sunny as HTC hopes to see record revenues in Q2 with a 50 percent increase on shipments which would tally in at 4.5 million for the quarter. In this quarter alone, the Taiwan based company released 6 devices – one of them being a Windows Mobile powered handset; the HTC HD mini. Joey Cheng Cheng, HTC’s director of investor relations, said that Europeans and Asians are still more familiar with their Windows Mobile phones despite US consumers adopting Google’s Android platform with open arms. The Windows Mobile scene for HTC isn’t looking to back down any time soon as they expect to launch two additional devices – the HTC Tera and the HTC Trophy before the end of June 2010. Looking past the horizon, they’ve reconfirmed the notion that they’ll have a Windows Phone 7 smartphone by the end of the year. Even though HP may have gotten a hold of Palm, they’re still looking to lead the market with their premier offerings.
via WMPoweruser

The Motorola i1 is the globe’s first Push-To-Talk Android phone. The handset has all of the great features you’ve seen from Android powered models, and also has the rugged  dependability of a device made for use at places like construction sites. With a background as a vendor to the Armed Forces (Motorola communications equipment has always been a mainstay of the military, seen in the hands of our brave soldiers going back decades), the phone was built to military specifications and is designed to withstand shock, dust, vibration and the driving rain. If you’re one of those cellphone users who is constantly bending over to pick up their dropped phone, or if you favor giving your device a frequent bath in the toilet, you might find the i1 to be a great choice. With Android 1.5 on board, the handset also is equipped with a 5MP camera with flash that also allows for video capture. You can watch the videos you take on the phone’s 3.1 inch display with 320 x 480 resolution. And to top it all off, the i1 is also equipped with the Swype keyboard which allows you to create words on your keyboard without typing and without lifting your finger from the glass.

The i1 will be launched in the second quarter of this year by SouthernLINC Wireless. Bob Dawson, president and CEO of the carrier gushes over the device when he says, “We are excited to offer our customers a modern, touch screen phone that marries our premier Push To Talk two-way radio service with highly-desirable multimedia features and thousands of available applications and widgets for personal and business use.” Although no pricing has been announced, the Motorola i1 will be available at SouthernLINC Wireless sales and service centers, authorized dealers, and online at www.southernlinc.com/phones.
source: Motorola

Sometimes the novice smartphone user can easily get confused with the in-depth features found on some popular GPS turn-by-turn navigation apps out there. That’s where Destinator 9 comes in to save the day by offering a rich experience to mobile users running either the iPhone, Android, or Windows Mobile platforms. Some of its features include Google Local Search, real-time traffic updates, sticky POIs, NavStrip, and on board NAVTEQ maps. Simplicity is the name of the game for Destinator 9 as it allows for easier ways to find what is required to get to your destination with the least amount of effort involved in executing it. Not ending right there, it’ll even integrate some of the popular social mapping aspects like being able to send a friend your exact location or favorite POI. Right now, Destinator 9 is being made available with a free 30-day trial service of the app so you can gauge its level of performance over current ones that are out there.
via ShowStoppers

Opera Software is a global leader in mobile browsing technologies and its products have been adopted by more than 50mln. users worldwide. One of the major reasons behind the growing popularity of the software is it´s easily available for virtually all platforms. Moreover, all Opera browser editions are extremely snappy and utilize algorithms that significantly decrease the amount of generated internet traffic.

Both applications spent quite a lot of time in beta stage, but the company has now announced that the development of Opera Mobile 10 and Opera Mini 5 has been completed and they are ready for the wide audience. Great news, right? Cool! Sadly, however… the final editions do not support all mobile platforms. Opera Mobile 10 is available for Windows Mobile and Symbian S60, while Opera Mini 5 will bring joy to owners of Java-based and BlackBerry cell phones. We remind you that Opera Mini 5 beta for Android rolled out last week (take a look at our hands-on with the application here), while a Java-free version of Opera for Windows Mobile had appeared earlier. The latter editions are not finalized yet, but we expect to see this happen soon.

The official versions of Opera Mobile 10 and Opera Mini 5 can be downloaded via this link.
source: Opera

As we’ve already heard how Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha recently made comments regarding the possibility to forging a new relationship with Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 Series, HTC looks to be in the same boat that Motorola once stood with the Redmond based company. It’s known that Motorola cut the product development for its Windows Mobile phones in favor of setting their attention on Android. During MWC, HTC unveiled a few new smartphones, but some may interpret it as a somewhat strained relationship considering all the recent Android handset announcements from HTC. When you look back at it, HTC has been a constant figure in the support and development of the Windows Mobile platform. Thankfully though there is no cause for alarm because HTC’s own CEO managed to settle things straight during a meeting at MWC. Chou said, “Our commitment to Microsoft has never changed. Of course, we are very committed to Android as well. We are very long-term committed to those two.” With that in mind, HTC plans to continue supporting those two platforms, as well as its own, in continuing its attack on the smartphone market. There’s no change of heart for this company – especially when their foundation was built to where it stands now thanks to its long time support for Microsoft’s platform.
source: Reuters via wmpoweruser

We’ll never forget how Motorola led the pack for Microsoft’s mobile platform with the release of the Motorola Q – it was sought to be the start of a long journey for the two. Even after what’s considered by many to be the golden years of Motorola, their relationship seemed to be strained as Motorola slowly lost its grasp in the industry. Now after sitting down and talking to the Wall Street Journal, Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha provided some interesting personal thoughts about recent events that have unfolded in the industry. For example, it looked like the partnership with Android seemingly brought them back into the spotlight with the Motorola DROID being such a big hit for them. Looking back when Windows Mobile ran into some delays, Jha severed the product development with the operating system to keep the company from going under during that time – at that point, they were open to aggressively focus on Android. Now that things are starting to look pretty green over at Motorola land, Jha has a lot of ideas such as using the Motoblur interface with some of their set-top boxes. Jha goes on to say, “If I had more money for R&D, I’d be developing an operating platform.” If they had the capital of what other companies like Samsung has, they too would be developing their own platform; much like what Samsung is doing with Bada. When it comes to Microsoft’s announcement about Windows Phone 7 Series platform, he goes on further to say, “I’m open to it…I think I need diversity in our portfolio.” So there you have it, Motorola’s recent successes have really made them open to ideas that they couldn’t execute back then – we’ll see how things pan out for them.
source: The Wall Street Journal via Gizmodo

Mozilla’s VP of Mobiles, Jay Sullivan, recently sat down with TechRadar and had some interesting things to say. Firefox for Android is likely to appear late in 2010 the executive said, and added that Android is a great fit for Firefox. He said, “It’s a modern OS, and it’s a great fit with us. It’s the type of platform that has a high affinity with the early adopter, and it’s seen a lot of uptake.” Part of the reason for the delay is that while Android OS built on Java code, Firefox mobile uses C and C++. It wasn’t until late last year that the Native Development Kit was released, which allowed Mozilla to write the program for Android.

Sullivan also spoke about Windows Mobile. There is an alpha version for the OS but now that Microsoft has announced the made from scratch Windows Phone 7, Mozilla needs to decide whether or not to target Windows Mobile 6.5 or 7. And while Sullivan did say that he didn’t know too much about the MeeGo joint venture between Nokia and Intel, he deemed it an exciting opportunity. “Nokia has been a great partner for us, helped Firefox Mobile to get better, and we hope that continues, he said. “Mozilla has also been in Moblin (Intel’s previous Linux-based platform) for a while, and that company has contributed a lot over the years.It all lines up pretty well, although I don’t know how it will all shake out.” For Android users, it shakes out to another browser choice. For Windows Mobile, it depends on what Sullivan decides to do.
source: TechRadar via BGR

Windows Mobile won’t be the only one supporting the SPB Mobile Shell app that’s popular among end users and OEMs. Now it’s branching out with support for the Android and Symbian platforms with SPB Mobile Shell 5.0 – it exudes a new eye catching 3D engine and a new “natural interaction engine” that’ll be able to support multi-touch. These new eye candy glazed effects are seen in the 3D Media Player, 3D Photo Viewer, 3D Weather, and dynamic 3D widgets. Other major updates found on it are improved social networking integration that involves contacts, messages, photos, and statuses to be sync with popular services like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Although most of its features have been made known, there is still a cloud surrounding its pricing, release date, or if there are going to be any phones down the road that will come pre-installed with it.
source: SPB Software via Engadget

Slowly and steadily more information about Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 7 platform is coming around, but it seems that it’s not generating the kind of wow factor that we saw previously when Android and WebOS were announced. In the past we’ve witnessed Motorola having a great relationship with Microsoft – and of course who can’t forget about the Motorola Q smartphone. We’re unsure as to what could’ve happened along the way to see Motorola alienate itself from Windows Mobile to only see it form an alliance with Android of late. There’s no question about how successful that partnership with Android has managed to bring Motorola back its former glory, but now it seems somewhat apparent that they’re distancing themselves from Microsoft. CNET Asia was able to speak with Spiros Nikolakopoulos, vice president and general manager for Asia Pacific and International Distribution of Motorola’s Mobile Devices business, where he mentioned information about smartphones that would be released in 2010. Spiros said “There will be between 20 and 30 smartphones globally and, at this moment, all of them will run Android. Naturally, not all will be available everywhere as it depends on the company’s partnership with the various telco operators in each country. For non-smartphone models, they will either run Brew or Motorola’s own operating system.” So there you have it – either Windows Mobile 7 doesn’t seem too compelling enough or that Android would seem more likely to return a financial gain for the company. The great thing about the mobile industry is that support for the development of future platforms won’t kick in too heavily until its introduced officially – let’s just hope that Microsoft does its part by really wowing everyone from the start; maybe then Motorola will have a change in heart down the road.
source: CNET Asia via wmpoweruser

Remember that allegiance that LG once mentioned they would have with Microsoft a year ago? Apparently that seemingly would never happen with LG’s commitment on introducing half of their smartphone lineup being powered by the Android platform. LG Mobile president and CEO, Skott Ahn, stated in a recent interview with the Korea Times that they plan on introducing 20 smartphones this year; with half of them running Android. This also looms badly for Microsoft; especially when they plan on unveiling the next version of their operating system at MWC. Ahn goes further on to say that “Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system is rather unqualified in mobile interfaces” and that they are in search of “a key flagship smartphone model that could sell over 10 million units.” With so many manufacturers already witnessing the financial successes with Android devices, LG’s change of heart may have some justification. Unfortunately for Microsoft, they will really need to impress everyone if they want to stay competitive and attractive in this market.
source: Korea Times via Unwired View