Photo: HTC

HTC is noted for having among the most gorgeous displays in all of the smartphone industry. That’s been partly attributed to the HTC OLED displays the company has used in its high-end phones. HTC has now had its hand forced by an OLED display shortage and will now make all its displays with an SLCD screen.

Why the  shortage?

The problem with OLED display is it is notably more expensive than LCD displays. And, more importantly, only Samsung, LG and CMEL supply it. Add this limited supply chain to the growing demand for this technology – spearheaded by Samsung growth and HTC’s unbelievable performance – HTC has been forced to search for alternate solutions.

What does this mean?

In short the incoming crop of HTC smartphones will use SLCD dispalys in lieu of the HTC OLED displays it has in its current crop of top-notch smartphones like the HTC Desire and the Google Nexus One. HTC puts the switch down to better battery life performance and more accurate contrast levels, but the company’s CEO makes it clear this has all got to do with product volume. In a press release,Peter Chou says that “HTC is experiencing high demand for many of our phones, specifically our phones with 3.7-inch displays,” before adding that “The new SLCD display technology enables us to ramp up our production capabilities quickly to meet the high demand.” High demand is certainly a nice problem to have.

What’s the difference?

The big question, of course, is whether there is a significant difference in display quality and imagery. In words, little is different if you aren’t searching for disparities. The differing screen types have strengths ands weaknesses, as is the case with anything, but the quality concession isn’t huge. The people over at Mobile Tech World have done a video comparison covering the various forms of display technology to show exactly.

In short, there’s nothing to see here, really. While the HTC OLED display is slightly superior to SLCD display, HTC fans have nothing to worry about.

Photo: Nokia

Struggling mobile phones maker Nokia has finally made its Nokia C6 slider phone available in the UK, providing buyers with the increasingly rare option of purchasing the phone SIM-free for a reasonable price.

Price and availability

The Nokia C6, which was actually revealed in the latter part of 2009, can be purchased from Nokia UK online store SIM-free for £289. This isn’t the cheapest you can get the phone for, though, with various outlets allowing you to buy the Nokia C6 for less than that.

Carriers Vodafone and T-Mobile as well as retailer Carphone Warehouse should get the phone before the end of this week, with Nokia promising a release before the end of July. Nokia has also indicated more carriers will be announced shortly.

Qwerty quirks

The phone sports an increasingly rare feature – a full Qwerty keyboard for rapid typing. Nokia is targeting the phone at people who are looking for a good, mobile email device. The handset promises simple access to multiple email accounts, with Nokia clearly targeting the long-term core user base of BlackBerry handsets.

Specs

The phone has a 3.2-inch TFT screen that has a 640×360 resolution. It also has A-GPS and built-in flash memory of 200MB, expandable to 16GB by using the microSD slot. In many ways, both in terms of aesthetics and feel, it reminds us of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, which isn’t at all a bad thing considering that that handset is one of the better phones the company has released in recent years.

Thoughts

Limited early use shows that the Nokia C6 has a lot going for it if you take it for what it is. It is not intended for the high-end smartphone market, and while the Qwerty keyboard took some getting used to, we found it to be highly responsive once adjusted. It was jarring coming from non-stop smartphone usage to something a level down, but the C6 did show why Nokia dominates everything but the lucrative smartphone sector in ways its high-end competitors could only wish they did.

Photo: Microsoft

Microsoft realises that its future lies in two key areas – cloud computing and smart devices, most urgently smartphones. As such the company is dedicating significant resources to both markets, with an internal email indicating every Microsoft employee will receive a Windows Phone 7 Series device.

Unprecedented

Naturally, this unprecedented move has garnered loads of attention for Microsoft, who really are throwing the kitchen sink at mobile and Windows Phone 7 Series. Andy Lees, mobile chief at Microsoft, wrote in an internal memo that he is ‘thrilled to announce that a new Windows Phone 7 will be made available to every Microsoft employee as we launch in each market around the world.’ Generous.

He continued, explaining the first thing he expected Microsoft employees to do upon receipt of the phone was to use it. ‘The experience of Windows Phone 7 is special and a big step toward our future in the mobile phone business. We’d love all of you to love it as much as we on the team love it. To do that we need to you to use your phone and find the things that make it personal and valuable to you,’ he continued.

But why? What’s your motivation?

Photo: Rebecca McAlpin / Microsoft

Before we credit Microsoft with undue benevolence, what is the true motivation behind this? Product evangelism and app development? Yes on both counts. Andy Lees encourages employees to ‘understand the unique value of Windows Phone 7 and evangelize to your customers, partners, friends and family! Windows Phone 7 is a different kind of phone, designed to bring together the things you care about most.’

He then encouraged MS employees to be Windows Phone 7 app developers, either in their personal capacity or on Microsoft’s time. He adds that ‘[they’ve] introduced a new employee developer program which makes it much easier for you to develop apps for Marketplace in your spare time.’

Whether this, like other MS initiatives, will drive Microsoft employees to become serious Windows Phone 7 app developers remains to be seen. And, more importantly, is whether this will help Microsoft achieve its mobile phone ambitions, because Google and Apple seem intent on running away with this generation’s smartphone spoils.

Photo: Stock.Xchng

We imagine those who are not financially inclined are getting tired of all these quarterly reports doing the rounds this week, but they’re incredibly important. They don’t only give an indication of a company’s financial health and relevance to consumers, but they also give clues on what the company’s future plans are. Nokia, for their part, are in bad shape, with the company banking on the Nokia N8 to spearhead a resurgence of sorts.

Tons of phones shipped, still not enough

In Q2 2010, Nokia shipped 111.1 million mobile phones. Smartphones accounted for 24 million of that total, representing a 12 per cent sales increase from the preceding quarter. These sales meant Nokia’s net sales were slightly above €10 billion.

The problems

The problems from those admittedly impressive phone shipment numbers are many-fold, though. Though revenue grew a measly 1 per cent, Nokia’s market share fell from 35 per cent to 33 per cent. Also, the average price per device fell. Furthermore, Nokia’s net profit derived from these sales plunged 40 per cent to €227 million from €380 million during the same period last year, with the company’s only savings grace with analysts being it forewarned everybody about this.

The smartphone conundrum comes right back

The problem for Nokia isn’t in selling mobile phones, if those numbers are anything to go by. The problem for the company is which mobile phones it is selling, or more specifically, which category of mobile phones it is selling.

Photo: Nokia

It is well known that smartphones have much higher margins and profit per unit than feature phones – particularly where a good app eco-system follows. Nokia’s Ovi store has comparatively little traction and its smartphones lineup is struggling against the competitors’ offerings.

CEO says N8 represents a new day

Nokia’s CEO, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo explained that this was the end of the bad, and the beginning of the good for Nokia, off the back of the Nokia N8. He said: ‘We are approaching the end of this painful product transition at the high end of our product portfolio’. He concluded by claiming that ‘The N8 will mark the beginning of our renewal. As we go forward I believe we will regain high-end leadership in our industry.’ Hmm, the Nokia N8, huh? Either he is blissfully unaware or he knows something that we don’t. Perhaps that’s why the rumours of an unceremonious exit have begun gathering steam.

Photo: Steve Rhodes / Flickr

It seems the continued poor performance of Nokia smartphones has driven the company’s board of directors to take action. The woes, poor performance, and seeming lack of direction of late have come to a crunch for Nokia’ leadership, with the company reportedly looking for a new CEO.

We know it all

The Wall Street Journal’s spy-like sources have sent the publication word that Nokia is in the preliminary stages of searching for a new CEO. Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, the current CEO, has been under a lot of pressure from investors and analysts alike due to his company’s sagging financial performance, coupled with an apparent lack of plans on how to remedy the problem. These same sources told the publication that two US execs have been interviewed for the position, with one rejecting it on the grounds of not being prepared to move to Finland for the opportunity.

Chronology of the problems

The Nokia CEO, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, isn’t the biggest problem. The biggest issue facing Nokia, as hinted at above, is its once dizzying financial performance softening rapidly. And the primary cause of that problem is Nokia’s seeming inability to come to grips with the current generation of smartphones.

Photo: Nokia

The company has seen relative industry newcomers Apple steal market share away from it with the insanely popular iPhone, while Google Android cemented itself as a legitimate contender for mobile OS dominance. As if the new kids on the block weren’t a headache enough, long-term competitor RIM, with its BlackBerry handsets, has continued to perform well throughout, making the transition seamless. Some Nokia smartphones have been close to perfect, while others have been way off the mark. Others, still, sit in the uncomfortable position of checking all the boxes, while doing nothing remarkable. Yep, hardly the product mix for this very competitive industry.

Then, recently, Nokia’s newly appointed head of Mobile Solutions, Anssi Vanjoki, wrote a blog post that confused us, due to key points on smartphone strategy differing from what others in the company were saying.

We’ve been quite critical of Nokia in the past, particularly on product strategy. We’d like to see them compete, at the very least, but we sort of feel like they’re missing it, and its unfortunate that the dirt rolls downhill onto the figurehead, Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, because the problem is far more entrenched than lying in just one man.

Perhaps this is the beginning of the slow recovery for Nokia. Or perhaps this is a band-aid solution to a far deeper problem.

Photo: Apple

Mobile phones, perhaps more than any other modern technology, have changed the world in immeasurable ways, having more market penetration than anything preceding them. So much so, that according to Wireless Intelligence, there are over 5 billion mobile phone connections worldwide.

One billion added in 18 months

With over 5 billion mobile phones sold through to homes in the last 15 years or so, one would think the industry would be approaching saturation. Not so, apparently, with Wireless Intelligence reporting one billion of these mobile phone connections have been established in the last 18 months alone. What’s more, Wireless Intelligence predicts worldwide connections will swell to six million by mid-2012. That’s enough mobile phones connections to cater to 6/7ths of the planet’s population. Mind blowing. What’s remarkable is that in many regions worldwide, penetration is at the maximum 100 per cent, with many mobile phones users having more than one connection simultaneously.

Emerging markets account for growth

Africa, which has historically suffered from a lack of technological proliferation, has seen mobile phones penetration reach 52 per cent across the continent. Stated differently, more than one in every two people on the continent has mobile connections of some form.

Photo: Sony Ericsson

But the bulk of the growth is down to the Asia-Pacific, most prominently China and India, who account for 47 per cent of worldwide mobile connections ending June 2010. This, admittedly, follows population trends, when considering the two aforementioned countries are home to over two billion people.

Smartphones grow, feature phones shrink

Another trend that has been identified and will likely only increase is the speed at which smartphones are replacing feature phones. While the late 90s and very early 2000s saw stalwarts like the Nokia 3310 and the Motorola Razr dominate their respective market places, phones like the iPhone 4, Blackberries and the HTCs dominate today’s news and mobile connections trends.

Either which way, mobile phones are big business, and with a reported 10 billion plus sold since 1994 (3.4 billion by Nokia alone, mind you), mobile phones may be the highest selling consumer electronics device category of all time.

Photo: Apple

We know, we know. We’re just courting trouble with this post. No area in electronics is more competitive than smartphones right now and to do a top three list will, for many people, be heresy, particularly if their device is left off the list. Nonetheless, some people still want snapshots, and this is what this is: a snapshot of the best mobile phones released in 2010.

iPhone 4

You knew the iPhone 4 would be here. And you either celebrated this, or lamented it. The truth is, as the software catalogue for iOS gets better, the better the devices inherently becomes. Outside of that, though, the much-debated retina display, improved form factor with glass at the front and back, a 5MP camera capable of 720p HD recording, as well as the inclusion of the new mobile OS makes this iPhone 4 a shoe-in on anybody’s list. Sure the antenna problems are a shocking oversight, but 1.7 million people in three days just can’t be wrong (or they’re all swimming in the Kool-aid, not just sipping it).

HTC Desire

Photo: HTC

If you have been reading this site for any continuous period, you would know we think highly of HTC as a mobile phones manufacturer. Their 2010 got off to an unbelievable start with the one-two punch combo of the HTC Desire and HTC Legend and though the US-only HTC EVO 4G hasn’t amounted to its promise, anyone’s allowed a misstep. It’s surprising, then, that this second of our top three mobile phones of 2010 was released at the tail-end of Q1, but the HTC Desire is still tops. You can read our full review here to see why we love it so.

Sony Xperia X10 mini

Photo: Sony Ericsson

We were caught in a bit of a quandary as to whether to award this position to the Sony Xperia X10 mini or to the surprisingly good Samsung Galaxy S. The Sony Xperia X10 Mini harkens back to the days of the Motorola Razr where small phones were all the rage, but the clever design, implemented with intelligent UI usage of Android gives this phone that little bit more than just aesthetics for size. And let’s be fair, Sony Ericsson need a major victory. It’s also pretty affordable, to boot, which helps a ton.

So which is it for you? The iPhone 4, HTC Desire, or the Sony Xperia X10 Mini? Or, if not these, which other phone would you have on this list instead?

Photo: Nokia

Though we would rather stop writing about Nokia’s woes – and this is likely to be our last post on the subject – nobody could ignore the recent passionate blog post by Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia’s Mobile Solutions bigwig, regarding Nokia ‘fighting back’ against the competition. In it he confirmed that there would be no Nokia Android device, Symbian^4 is likely for Nokia N-series devices, and that he aims to take a good swing at putting Nokia back at its rightful position – the very top.

Cross-wired? More Symbian on the way?

Though the Mobile Solution’s chief post reads like a rally call of the truest kind that Nokia fans (or any smartphone fans, for that matter) want to believe, there’s just a slight issue – his message and that of his colleagues is getting crossed.

You see, last week the company announced that moving forward, all their high-end smartphones – most notably Nokia N-series devices – would be powered by MeeGo exclusively. Thus the Nokia N8 would be the only N-series with Symbian^3, or any Symbian for that matter. Now, Anssi backtracks on that statement, reaffirming the Nokia N8 being the only Symbian^3 device, though adding, ‘Of course, we never comment on future products, but a Symbian^4 N-series device is a strong possibility. A very strong possibility.’

Not only does Nokia have a challenge from a PR perspective, but more importantly from a strategic perspective if, as in the case here, both hands aren’t speaking to each other.

Nokia fans unimpressed

Photo: Nokia

Taking a read through the comments section of Anssi’s post, it is clear even Nokia’s most impassioned fans are beginning to treat everything the company says with a pinch of salt. One commenter in particular, ajmqrst, had an interesting take on MeeGo and why he believes it could fail the same way Symbian has, saying Nokia and Intel are both great hardware companies trying to build great software – a feat the pair is incapable of. Though we tend to disagree about their capability to build great software based on what we’ve seen elsewhere, it’s an interesting perspective.

And, even if said commenter were correct, Nokia have made it absolutely clear they plan on building their own software, killing the rumours of aligning with third-party software vendors, saying: ‘Despite rumours to the contrary, there are no plans to introduce an Android device from Nokia.’ Done deal, then.

What do you make of this Symbian^3, MeeGo N-series and Symbian^4 N-series back and forth? Which strategy do you think the company should adopt, in general, and more specifically for its Nokia N-series devices? And, for Nokia N8 owners, how has your experience with your new handset been?

Photo: Apple

Smartphones seems to be all the craze these days, with the lost iPhone saga and RIM consistently releasing new phones to impress the masses. Well, it seems that the biggest winners in the smartphone market right now are Apple and Google, with their iPhone OS and Android OS being the only to increase and making up a combined market share of 25 per cent.

How they matched up

In terms of how the operating systems performed alone, Gartner estimated the iPhone OS to currently make up 15.6 per cent of the market while the Android OS came in at 9.6 per cent. Android’s market share increased faster than Apple’s OS and all the other smartphone OSes lost out on relative market share, even though the number of people who now use the iPhone OS has increased.

The most used mobile OS

A more insightful look at the data released by Gartner showed Symbian to be the most used OS currently, with Research In Motion’s OS coming in second, and the Apple iPhone OS third followed by Android and Windows Mobile at four and five respectively. However, we should see Android moving up a few places in the future as it continues its upward trend and more and more people move towards the Google-designed OS.

How smartphone sales turned out

Photo: Android

Looking at overall smartphone sales, it was a good quarter for all concerned, with sales increasing across the board. The strongest performer was RIM’s Blackberry who dominated sales, moving an outstanding 10.5 million smartphones in the first quarter. Noting the RIM only makes smartphones, they were also one of the top five best sellers of mobile devices. Samsung and LG came in second and third respectively in terms of smartphones sold.

This is all good news for smartphone makers who continue to dish out new devices. However, it seems that Apple and Google are definitely getting something right when it comes to the mobile devices UI which sets it apart from the competition.

Tesaer: The biggest winners in the smartphone market right now are Apple and Google, with their iPhone OS and Android OS being the only to increase and making up a combined market share of 25 per cent.

Photo: HTC

Google has announced that it will no longer sell Nexus Ones from its online store, yet will continue making the phone available to retail partners and carriers.

The misstep

A lot was made of Google deciding to sell Google Nexus one unlocked. The support for the move came as a result of users being able to use their phone on any network of their choosing, a trend negated by many of the big smartphone manufacturers but wanted by many users. However, the immediate question most asked was why Google was getting into the hardware sales business and how Google would fair.

The prediction was the move was both against Google’s strength and it would be a comparative failure. Both these predictions were true, and Google is abandoning its direct Nexus One Sales.

Stick to your job

Photo: Stock.Xchng

Google is, ultimately, a software company. And this is reflected well in the Google Nexus One’s life cycle. Google Android, the mobile OS that powers the Nexus one, has done gangbuster numbers, with a recent report indicating that for the first time in its history, partner phones powered by the mobile OS have outsold the iPhone in North America. On the hardware side, however, the Google Nexus One is widely considered a failure.

Google itself has said this, with Andy Rubin, the head of mobile, saying ‘the global adoption of the Android platform has exceeded our expectations, the web store has not’ in a blog post.

Now what?

With defeat admitted, Google has indicated it plans to push heavily into retail stores and to partner more aggressively with carriers. This strategy will let the software giant focus on its Google Android business, while those who know how to move consumer goods are allowed to move consumer goods. The Google Nexus One was a misstep, and all know this. At least something is being done to rectify this in future.