Hardly a week goes by when I haven’t had a piece of news in from the nice ladies at Shine Communications telling me about yet another flippin’ cool handset launching on Big Red.

This morning they’ve announced the HTC Legend is heading their way. Here it is:

It’s a mighty nice looking Android device and it’ll be free on £25/month (on a 24/month contract). Order now and you’ll get it around April 6th — i.e. next Tuesday.

If you’re thinking of going Android, you might also check out the HTC Desire — another one heading to Vodafone in the coming weeks. And of course you’ve got the Vodafone Nexus One in the background too.

Or if you’d like a little more familiarity, check out the Sony Ericsson X10 — also running Android — sporting Sony’s excellent 8 megapixel camera. That’ll need £35/month on a 24-month deal but might be worth taking a look at if you’re been a long Sony Ericsson fan:

Lots of choice on Vodafone at the moment. Good work!

‘Bout time.

The actual quote:

Motorola will use Google’s Android operating system for many of its new handsets although they will not go on sale until the fourth quarter of this year.

‘Many of it’s new handsets’? Good news.

It’s an illuminating and rather direct interview. Check out this quote:

Mr Brown told the Financial Times that Motorola “didn’t see the trends coming in smartphone and 3G with the kind of foresight and customer attention that it should have”.

He goes on to describe Motorola’s failure to anticipate the growing importance of mobile software rather than handset design.

You have to wonder what sort of people were running Motorola during this time. Everybody else saw the trends coming.

Anyway. I think Motorola could do some really good work if they can focus. I await news with interest…

Are there any MIR readers who actually *like* using handsets with a stylus?

Komarom, Hungary – Earlier today, Nokia celebrated an industry milestone at its mobile phone manufacturing facility in Komarom, Hungary – the production of its 500 millionth phone from a single factory.

In his address to Komarom employees, Nokia Chief Executive Officer Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, praised staff on their achievement and dedication to quality.

Established in 1999, the Komarom facility manufactures mobile phones for the European, Middle East and African markets. During the past 10 years the Komarom factory has produced many of Nokia’s most popular models including the best selling Nokia 2760, the highly popular Nokia 6300 as well as Nokia’s latest music device the Nokia 5800 ExpressMusic.

The 500 millionth device produced in Komarom was the Nokia N79 in silver.

This is no doubt an achievement and — half a billion handsets from one factory alone? Fascinating stuff.

Alas my mother still doesn’t understand Nokia or it’s inebriated user interface. 10 years ago it was a piece of brilliance. Nowadays it simply doesn’t cut the mustard.

I keep on having to tell people that whilst it’s easy to think that the future is mobile applications and self-configured mobile experience, it’s ..er.. going to be QUITE a long time before your average normob hits the figures and starts paying for anything other than ringtones via their Nokia handset.

Working on the basis that every one of the 50 million devices knocked out by the Komarom factory this year is carrying the dull-as-ditchwater Nokia UI, and on the basis of a usable life of 3 years, we’re going to have to wait until 2012/2013 before those 50 million customers come back on to the marketplace and get to play with something a little more exciting.

That said, there’s a reason why I’ve standardised on a Nokia N95 8GB as my ‘telephone’. It works.

India, one of the largest telecom industries in the world with almost 300 million mobile users is reported to be housing as many as 25 million mobile phones with an IMEI number. The IMEI number, a unique 15-digit code for every mobile manufactured, is an integral part of any mobile handset as it is used to monitor the activities from the phone.

The department gave the operators 3 months to arrange for the equipments if the hardware wasn’t in place. In a letter to all the mobile service providers in the country, DoT said

In the interest of national security, all cellular mobile service providers in unified access service licences (UASL) are hereby directed to make provisions for EIR so that calls without IMEI or with IMEI consisting of all zeroes are not processed or rejected,

India is a tremendously huge marker for grey market phones, most of which originate in China. Lately, there has been a surge in the demand for ‘almost-real’ fake phones in the marker, with the introduction of many high-end phones from companies such as Apple, Nokia and HTC.

The department, today, announced that it has extended the deadline to April 15th after the previous deadline of January 6th was blatantly ignored by the telecom companies. However, DoT this time has put its foot down and made it very clear that if the telcos fail to comply with these guidelines will not be allowed to take on any new subscribers after the expiry of the deadline. The telcos are already paying a daily fine to DoT.

The fate of these 25 million handset users now clearly lies on the livewire, as the very reason most of these handsets were purchased because their original counterparts were too expensive for them, or there was a lack of awareness in the market. Eventually, the Chinese handsets still serve as a very cheap alternative and you can grab a very basic color – screen handset with a decent 3 mega pixel camera for as Rs. 3000.

In the post I speculated that it must be the Nokia N95 on top of the list, followed by maybe a few other Nokias. I very much agreed with reader Mack005′s comment — he reckoned it would be the N95 and then the N82.

Well I talked to ShoZu and the list is quite surprising.

Here are the top phones that ShoZu tracks using their service:

1: iPhone
2: Nokia N95 and N95 8GB
3: Nokia N73
4: Nokia N70
5: Nokia N82
6: Nokia 7610
7: SE P1i
8: Nokia 3250
9: Nokia 6120
10: Nokia E51

Goodness me!

iPhone is right there at the top.

I wouldn’t have predicted that — at all. I reckon that’s got to be down to the stunning success of the iTunes App Store. It’s so EASY to setup an account on the iPhone — download the app. Run it. You’re live and ready to configure destinations. There’s no ‘Are you sure’, ‘Are you REALLY sure’ Nokia-nonsense prompts to worry about.

It’s no surprise to see Nokia handsets dominating the list. I reckoned the N95/8GB would be right up there. The N73 at number 3 makes sense since it’s one of the most populous handsets. But the N70??

And the Nokia E51?? Interesting.

But what about the Sony Ericsson P1i? That surprised the hell out of me…

I’ve dipped in and out of various apps but nothing has caught my attention, apart from Nokia Email or Nokia Messaging as it’s now called. That worked well on my E51 and gave me a view of my email inbox on my home screen.  Unfortunately I made the mistake of assuming that installing the new version, now it’s out of beta, would be a good idea. Having installed the software the setup returns the error ‘Unable to connect with the information provided. Please try again’. I’ve been trying for over a week! There’s no option for a manual setup so that’s that. Disappointment has changed to complete frustration. I guess it’s time to consign it to the dustbin of failed software apps.

I hope Nokia can bring some co-ordination to their software in 2009 and if they can help me sort out my email that would be good too. Nokia, if you’re listening, do get in touch via jonathan ‘at’ mobileindustryreview.com.

It’s been something that’s been nagging away in my mind. WHAT is the most popular handset?

What does the top-5 or top-10 look like?

I’m thinking, off the top of my head, that the Nokia N95 will be number one. Followed by an array of other Nokias and one or two Sony Ericssons. What d’ya reckon?

When I get the data back from ShoZu, I’ll post the results…

Mr O’Donnell over at The Hot Aisle has supervised some of the planet’s largest data centres and reckons mobile handsets should be allowed — if only to get hold of the data centre operator who’s hiding on the floor.

Good news!

With the likes of Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson all having an 8 megapixel offering in the normal and touch screen varieties, we’re wondering when the Finnish phone makers will be coming into the picture.

Whilst at Nokia World we thought we’d get an answer to our recent ponderings, seeing as everyone we needed to speak to were all on hand and available to help.

We discovered although they were not averse to the idea of an 8MP camera phone, there are some factors to be considered.

A spokesperson from Nokia laid out the following to us in a rather agreeable manner, which made a lot of sense. It also showed that many others seem to have jumped on the high-end megapixel band wagon without taking serious consideration.

There are three areas of focus on how well a camera on a mobile operates: image quality, lens and processing software. The latter makes the biggest impact on how well the image quality taken really is at the end of the day.

The lens can obviously make a difference, which is why everyone always mentions the maker as soon as possible in their press release. All to endorse whom they’ve partnered with, hoping the name will stand out and win them favour over others.

The compression software is also key too, on how the photo is reduced and stored in its jpeg format.

Nokia put it to us there wasn’t much difference in the 5MP and 8MP image quality, and on some systems the image can be much worse than a 5MP version.

They gave us an example to test out, one of the ones actually applied in buying a real camera. Try taking three types of photographs. Take one in low light, one when it’s dark and another when it’s bright – and then match up the picture quality.

They believe from what we will gather their images will stand out over the 8MPs around today, we’ll put this to the test at a later date. Faults we’ve been told to look out for are artificial casting amongst others.

In terms of storage size between the two variants, the difference is vast. Try sending 5 and 8 megapixel images over 2G and watch the weeks fall off the calendar, it’s really not fun.

We’re sure we’ll see a Nokia 8MP handset within time, but they seem quite confident in their 5MP camera performance for the time being.

The weapon, which is black with a dummy screen, was discovered by Italian police during a raid on a mafia gang.

It can hold four .22 calibre rounds, contained beneath the display.

The phone is transformed into a gun by sliding the keypad section.

It might fool some folk, but it definitely wouldn’t fool any Mobile Industry Review readers, right?

News has come to us this week that IBM has now enabled support for Nokia S60 based mobile phones, on its popular to some email software.

Many will say ‘So?’ and ‘Huh?’ followed by ‘What does that mean?’. Well, we’re led to believe that more than 80 million handsets will now have access to IBM’s email solution, firmly sticking the middle finger up at RIM and their BlackBerry’s. Or at the very least it’s given them something to think about.

Not as popular in numbers as the likes of Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Notes still has 140 million licensed users worldwide. With support now reaching out to Nokia, plus gaining more interest in the long term with prospective users and customers the future looks bright.

Come December this year Nokia S60 3rd edition phones can have real time email, calendar and other functions. This is all via Lotus Notes Traveler (yes, one L), this essentially facilitates the mobile access to their Lotus Notes and Web Access servers.

We’ve seen a list of phones that will be supported. At the time of gong to press, below are the ones that will be compatible.

Nokia E71, Nokia E66, Nokia E90 Communicator, Nokia E70, Nokia E65, Nokia E63, Nokia E62, Nokia E61i, Nokia E61, Nokia E60, Nokia E51, Nokia E50, Nokia N96, Nokia N85, Nokia N79, Nokia N95 8GB, Nokia N95, Nokia N82, Nokia N81 8GB, Nokia N81, Nokia N78, Nokia N77, Nokia N76, Nokia N75, Nokia N73, Nokia N93, Nokia N93i, Nokia N80, Nokia N91, Nokia N92, Nokia N71, Nokia 3250, Nokia 5500, Nokia 6290, Nokia 6110 Navigator, Nokia 6120 Classic, Nokia 6121 Classic, Nokia 6122 Classic, Nokia 6124, Nokia 6650 Fold, Nokia 5320 XpressMusic, Nokia 5700, Nokia 6210 Navigator, Nokia 6220 Classic

For more on the Traveler see here

A brilliant piece of news from Will at Sharpcards. I’ve been trying to get him on the podcast (or the MIR Show itself) for a while but he’s been rather busy. No wonder.

Sharpcards have a wicked model. They actually embed the functionality to send happy birthday greetings (for example) directly into operator-branded devices. In fact, Will describes the process far more eloquently in his update:

- – - – -

Hi Ewan

Hope you’re well. Here’s a quick update as to where we are:

We’ve just signed a 3 year agreement with T-Mobile UK to have EMMA (that’s our Enhanced Mobile Messaging Application – i.e the application that allows customers to send ecards) embedded on some of their devices. The idea being that our application will sit in the messaging menu of specific handsets, alongside SMS and MMS, making it simple for T-Mobile customers to send high quality ecards to their friends. Launch likely to happen in Q1 09. It’s been a long time in the coming, but it’s very very exciting!

You’ll remember that EMMA comes in both Java and Symbian and as it’s embedded on the handset, it doesn’t require any installation from the users point of view. Not only is it ready to use straight out of the box, the content is continually updated and the customer won’t pay a data fee to access the ecards.

The ecard is sent via MMS for which users are charged their normal MMS rate of 20p. Each ecard costs a one off fee of 75p, and once the card is sent, it can be used again and again without paying that 75p fee again.

I’ll keep you in the loop on our news and nearer Christmas I’ll be happy to do that podcast!

Very best

Will

- – - – -

Will, congratulations — that’s super, super news. I look forward to seeing that in the wild on T-Mobile!

There’s a girl in the flat above with a Prada handset.

How do I know this? Well, I was just trying to send myself the HappyWakeUp S60 application via Bluetooth and discovered a PRADA device nearby, thus:

At least I’m assuming it’s a girl. It could be a guy with a Prada handset.

Or a total arse with a cheap-as-chips Christmas Cracker handset that’s had it’s default bluetooth device ID changed by it’s Burberry-Shell-Suit-Clad owner.

I’m a mobile industry blogger. Get me out of here.

Three different operators in the country, China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom (Yeah, keep up with the names please) are planning to use three different 3G standards for their respective subscriber base. Although China Mobile has planned to implement the Chinese developed 3G standard TD-SCDMA, Chila Telecom has picked CDMA2000 while China Unicom has shown its love towards WCDMA standard. 

In an effort to maintain its numero uno position in the Chinese market, Nokia is planning to launch handsets supporting all of these standards. David Tang, VP of Greater China Sales, while speaking to the South China Morning Post, said:

Nokia supports the development of TD-SCDMA. We will have the handsets in the market when the service becomes active,

It is interesting to note that China Mobile, which has a market share of nearly 70%, has plans to use the TD-SCDMA 3G standard. However, Nokia currently does not have any TD-SCDMA handsets in the market.