The Samsung Omnia is rumored to be a pretty hot phone, and is not available across much of the US yet. That deficit will be corrected on December 8, and as extra good news, Verizon Wireless has already decided to reduce its price from $249.99 retail to $199.99 (with a 2-year agreement).

Two factors at work here: the crummy economy pretty much worldwide (especially in the US), and compeition from other phone companies and carriers pretty much forcing their hand. More than likely, it was a reluctant price cut, but in these times, price is a prime motivator, not necessarily coolness (unless you’re Apple, who seems to be immune to this basic market principle for some reason). 

If you don’t get a contract, the price will stay $439.99, so if you don’t need a new Verizon agreement but want an Omnia, you’ll still have to pay a hefty premium. I imagine very few will do this.

With 8GB memory, a 5MP camera, their TouchWiz UI, a huge 3.2″ screen and Bluetooth, this will no doubt be one of the top Windows Mobile phones on the market, and will be worth a look at this price point.

Tagged as: omnia, Samsung

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Sony Ericsson and Motorola aren’t the only ones having issues with their upcoming products, and chopping models right before they ship. While Motorola cancelled the RAZR3, Sony Ericsson has axed Paris and BeiBei models that were coming soon, Nokia has also axed an unannounced model that could’ve been one of the most unique designs we’ve seen out of them yet. It seems phone companies are going to a consolidation period, which I can’t say is a bad thing. Model glut can make choosing a phone confusing and frustrating.

Nokia’s unnamed handset (pictured) is colored purple and looks like it was carved of a chunk of crystal. The problem is (and probably why it got canned), it looks a lot like those handsets from Nokia’s Prism line, and would have featured a 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics.

Why Nokia cancelled such an unique looking and feature-filled product is fairly clear: model clutter. It practically duplicates a lot of the same functionality found on Nokia’s other current phone lines, and it would follow that demand for it might not have been very high. There are only so many “fashion-conscious” cell phone users to go around. Odds are its the last we’ll hear of this model.

Tagged as: Nokia

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LG aren’t exactly new to this whole cellphone thing, yet the South Korean company wants to reach all types of markets with their products, it seems. The company has just become a Global (and Techology) Partner of Formula 1 racing. Seems like an odd combo, but bear with us here.

Starting in 2009, the partnership between LG and Formula 1 gives the company (and we quote) “exclusive designations and marketing rights as the official Consumer Electronics, Mobile Phone and Data Processor of Formula 1.”

Needless to say, the F1 designation will help attract the attention of millions of fans, and those will have LG in their minds as the coolest game in town. Will this help the company’s market share, or even make a dent in their bottom line? 2009 will bring the results in, and it’s a safe bet that they’ll gain something out of this move, though personally, i’m not sure how much.

Yes, I know i’m blanket-characterizing a bit, but…the demographics of F1 racing don’t always slant towards the techiest of folks, by traditional thought processes, but then again, we could always be surprised.

Tagged as: LG

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Apparently, the cellphone market in Japan is rough these days, with the market quite oversaturated and competition really rough, and Nokia agrees, it seems, based on their recent business move.

Nokia has just announced that it will stop selling phones in Japan altogether, effective immediately. That includes any and all marketing, which will cease. It marks one of the first times ever a major cellphone company has pulled out of a major market.

The reason, according to Nokia top brass, is because continued investment in custom Japanese handsets is “no longer sustainable” and plans on continuing with global R&D before investing in any other markets. Sounds smart with the economic climate as unstable as it is, actually.

Despite pulling out of the local cellphone business, however, Nokia’s global R&D and sourcing operations in Japan will continue, for some reason. And what about Vertu? Fans of Nokia’s mobile phone brand won’t be facing any problems, as it will remain alive and functioning.

This is bad news for Nokia, but it’s even worse for its competitor, many of who have a smaller market share than Nokia does. If Nokia can’t make it there, then who can really? Apple maybe? That’s about all I can think of who could eke out a really good niche there. Stay tuned, as this news could have ripples in the phone market all over Japan.

Tagged as: Nokia

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Most industry pundits claim that people don’t use their cell phones for pictures very often. Don’t tell Samsung and their customers that, as their high-res camera phones sales continue to climb and do surprisingly well.

In fact, according to recent industry reports, Samsung has claimed that global sales of its high megapixel cameraphones (considered 5MP or higher for phones) have topped 10 million units this year, and that’s a notable achievement indeed, as most consider cameras in phones strictly a throw-in for the most part.

It wasn’t specified how many units were sold exactly (5MP vs. 8MP, etc), but it’s a safe bet that 5MP units have sold more than the new 8MP ones, due to their lower price tag. The thought is if you want sharper 8MP images, you generally just buy a digital camera (whose prices are also plummeting rapidly).

Industry wise, this is a huge accomplishment, as many makers of phones these days aren’t touting their cameras as a big feature, and the phone market in general is suffering a downturn with the softening of the economic climate in most parts of the world right now.

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Samsung is starting to develop an interest in the business side of phones, and more proof of that arrived in the form of an announcement that they are to launch a new line of business oriented smartphones called BizBee. And while the name doesn’t exactly conjure up visions of a busy CEO (think more Sesame Street), Samsung is targeting the new line at (quoted from the company) “busy executives, who require a business mobile that offers optimum performance, 24/7, from any location.”

A rather different focus from Samsung, but then again, more and more companies are getting into the full QWERTY parade these days.

All the devices from the BizBee family of phones will feature: all-in-one connectivity, a full QWERTY keyboard, built-in easy access to email and other business capabilities. It sounds like they mean business (pun intended) but in this case, it may pay to wait a bit and see what they come up with.

The BizBee range will debut with a handset that isn’t new at all: The i780. So why did Samsung include it in the new line of phones? Well, because it will come with Windows Mobile 6.1, instead of the old 6.0 plaform.

The line will initially be launched in the UK, Spain, Netherlands, and assuming it goes well, other countries may follow. As for the other upcoming smartphone models from the BizBee family, Samsung gave no further details, and the same goes for pricing; no details given. It’s assumed it won’t be too far off from the $200 mark or so, given pricing patterns on similar phones with similar feature sets.

Tagged as: Samsung

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Nokia offered 264 million Euros to buy out Symbian, and it appears this deal is on track, says chief development officer Mary McDowell, and should be just about a done deal by mid-December. This could be a potentially huge move in the mobile OS environment by Nokia.

The offer to acquire the last remaining unowned shares of Symbian was made by Nokia in June. Since then, a bunch of other companies have joined the original 10-member org to form the Symbian Foundation, which could turn into a powerful new force in the open source mobile OS universe.

For Nokia, members of the Symbian Foundation, and the open-source community, this is a victory and a huge development in the history of open source. Indeed, since Nokia plans to roll out new phone based on the Symbian technology as early as 2010 (or maybe even sooner), the deal should speed up even more.

McDowell also hints that Nokia may add to their service line in the near future, with possibly high-end internet services involved, involving the newly formed Symbian Foundation. It’s safe to say that Nokia could be a high-roller in the future of open source development for mobile phones. We’ll keep you updated.

Tagged as: Nokia, symbian

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The beta has only been out a few week, but now Opera has released the final edition of Opera Mini 4.2, and it’s ready for the masses, or so they say.

Besides bringing performance and feature improvements, the release also marks the browser’s availability for Google’s Android platform and Samsung Instinct touchscreen phone; it should be compatible with both.

Opera claims that Opera 4.2 is about 30% faster than the last version (pretty significant jump!), supports more than 90 languages, better support for streaming media, along with new skins built in. This sounds like a definite new contender in the mobile browser world.

You can go here to download the new browser: Link

Tagged as: Android, opera

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There have been many rumors floating about regarding a odd-looking Motorola phone, called the MOTO QA30 and coming as the first QWERTY slider built by Motorola. With sales of their top RAZR line sagging badly, they need to branch out a bit, needless to say.

Today, the phone became official, under the tag Motorola Hint QA30. The handset is presented as a full social messaging phone, and planned to be marketed that way. And it seems its engineered to be just that: full keyboard, one-touch SMS access, threaded messaging with storage for up to 300 messages, quick access to email and Instant Messaging programs at the touch of a button. It sounds pretty solid.

Specs include: CDMA EV-DO network support, Bluetooth, 2MP camera, 128MB RAM, and 4.5 hour talk time. Not earth-shattering, but solid enough for its intended purpose.

Reports have this coming out by the end of the year, and prices were not disclosed. US Cellular and Alltel will be the early adopters of the phone. It’ll be interesting to see if this props up Motorola in the long run.

Press release is here: Link

Tagged as: Motorola

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Unwiredview.com has posted their early review of the Samsung Eternity phone from AT&T, and the review is mostly good with a few small caveats.

The screen, the UI (the bright, crisp screen is mentioned) and almost everything about the phone received raves in the write-up. Follow the link above to read more about the phone and the review.

Overall reviews for the phone have been excellent. It appears Samsung may have a real media darling on their hands.

Tagged as: Eternity, Samsung

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Finally, Motorola is starting to realize that the glory days of the RAZR are fading like an aging, once great athlete and looks ready to try a fresh approach to things. Or maybe not THAT new; witness a possible prototype spotted in the wild, the Motorola Attila, which looks eerily similar to a certain Apple smartphone.

If these leaked Motorola Attila pictures turn out to be the real thing, it appears to be an iPhone clone handheld device, right down to a very similar iPhone icon interface (could just be placeholder, we guess). It appears Motorola has been studying their competition carefully, and they need to, in order to catch up in the handset popularity race.

The company has been mired in financial problems for a few years now, and their sales have plummeted with recent competition from Samsung, Apple and LG.

This photo has shown up on a few websites, sent in by a “mystery” tester. It seems this device is something they may announce very soon. Hopefully, they slim down the design a tad (if the RAZR taught them anything) and give it an identity of its own.

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If you follow the wireless world, you’ll recall many sites reporting the Samsung Omnia that was spotted with Verizon’s logo on it about a month or so ago, but it’s still not officially released and available for sale.

However, BoyGeniusReport has come up with some live shots of the Windows Mobile 6.1 handset, with the picture set in a Verizon retail store, which in the mobile world generally means a mass release is imminent. Commence drooling.

It’s likely as far as feature set to be very similar to the GSM version of the device, which has been for sale in European territories for quite awhile now.

Those features include: a solid 5MP camera, a good sized 240X400 pixels touchscreen display, GPS, Wi-Fi, the latest slick Windows Mobile and other nice stuff. This one has been awaited for a long time now, so expect demands to be high and supplies to possibly be low early on.

No word on pricing, but a $70 rebate has been rumored, so that should help even more people get some Omnia love (and possibly estimate the price around the $200-300 level, minus contract incentives).

Tagged as: omnia, Samsung

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Verizon Wireless, the #2 mobile phone company in North America, has issued a press release (which is short and to the point, and with good reason) which announces that a personal cell phone account of Barack Obama, USA’s soon-to-be new President, has been accessed and looked at by several Verizon employees, without consent. Doesn’t speak much for Verizon’s security, does it? It’s sort of a surprise that Verizon even bothered to announce a major security loophole like this.

The account is for a simple flip phone (not a smartphone, thankfully) and, it has been inactive for more than a month. Luckily for those people’s jobs. Maybe.

Lowell McAdam, CEO of the company, says that all the employees who committed the infraction on Obama’s account were “put on leave” (usually short for “good luck getting your job back”). However, those of them who prove they had legitimate reasons to take a peek at the account will be reinstated. More than likely, those people are history.

Hopefully, Verizon will shore up their security as a result of this incident. The public apology (which is what this amounts to) is a good thing, but this sets a potentially dangerous precident for all Verizon customers if not addressed.

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Since the iPhone was launched last year, all we’ve heard about was how great the iPhone is. For a while, it seemed as though the whole world was caught up in iPhone insanity, and it looked like the iPhone is going to be the big-time handset for everyone just like how the iPod is currently king of the hill where portable media players are concerned.

The Storm may change the landscape as far as smartphones are concerned, and that the recently released BlackBerry Storm over Verizon Wireless could be the one that gives the iPhone some real competition.

This world phone is able to connect globally in over 200 countries for voice, and 150 countries where data is concerned. US customers will be able to take full advantage of the reliable high-speed 3G Evolution-Data Optimized Revision A network from Verizon Wireless, and it will come with a whole host of tools to get you started right out of the box.

The BlackBerry Storm can be grabbed up for $199.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement, so it’s fairly reasonable in price.

Tagged as: Blackberry, Storm

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