Mobility Watch

…stylish? Fun? Sporty?

You see, according to a research study done by the Nielsen Media Research, your mobile phone choice actually has got a lot to say about you. And Jody Loughlin, the associate director of Nielsen, does continue to explain that “all makes of mobile phone had a wide spread of customer types, but some customers were more attracted to certain brands than others.�

Loughlin also does continue, “It’s clear that many Australians chose a phone that says something about them, and that the type of mobile you’re seen with could even be more important than whether you’re with Telstra, Optus, Vodafone or one of the other major carriers.â€?

And as Nielsen does some categorizing and classifications, here is the list of the top five mobile phone brands and what they tell about its owner:

[Via Cellular-News]

[Image from The Bumble Bee]

Looking for some of the newest mobile phones in the market? Here are some very interesting updates:

Nokia N95

Yes, the much popularized Nokia N95 mobile phone would already be released and available in the UK market. But not starting tomorrow though. It would be arriving sometime in March but at least that’s something to look forward to.

Motorola’s Line Up

Rumors are going on in the industry that Motorola is going to send out a new range of mobile phone handsets this 2007. According to the source, the list of new mobile phones would include the Moto KRZR K3, Moto Q GSM/EDGE, Moto RIZR Z8, and the Moto Q2 HSDPA. There would also be another set of not-so-expensive mobile phones that would bear these names: W205, W360, W395, and W510. Another thing to look forward to, right?

And last on my list…

Vodafone’s Speedy Line

Sure, these phones are going to zoom through sales. After all, these special edition Vodafone units have been created with McLaren Mercedes in mind. There’s the McLaren Mercedes GX29, the 770SH, and the SGH-Z729M.

[Via Dial A Phone Blog]

[Image from Gizmodo]

Craving for more speed?

If you have been a follower of the Ferrari F1 vehicle, you might as well be very attracted to buy this new mobile phone from Motorola. Yes, Motorola has got a special edition mobile phone and it names it the RAZRmaxx V6 Ferrari mobile phone.

So what can you find as part of the Motorola RAZRmaxx V6 Ferrari mobile phone package?

Well, according to its creator, once you get ahold of the phone, you would be able to listen to sounds and audio files that seem to have been made by a real Ferrari F1 racing vehicle. You would also be browsing through special photos of the vehicles which you can set as wallpaper for the phone.

Other than that, you would have the usual set of features like a VGA camera, another camera that has got two megapixels, and an HSDPA.

How much, you’re asking?

Uh… $635. Too pricey if you ask me, though.

[Via Esato]

[Image from auto]

3500 mainly middle-management jobs are being eliminated at Motorola after its 4th quarter profit figures came out about 48 percent behind last year’s.

As cruel as layoffs are, when Wall Street looks at the big picture for Motorola these layoffs are window dressing.  Success in the handset industry is all about products.

The RAZR is yesterday’s profitable handset.  The RAZR is now a low-end device.  Motorola needs to sell $200+ (after incentives) handsets, and lots of them, to keep the profits rolling in.

What have you got for us today, Motorola?

The KRZR line (in both CDMA and GSM versions) is a sharp-looking handset with solid phone capabilities.  The versions for Verizon and Sprint let you do something you can’t even do with an iPhone - download a song directly to your handset, without a PC (or Mac) involved.  But it’s not all perfection - this reviewer gripes about the 1.3 megapixel camera (anything under 2 megapixels is sooo 20 minutes ago) and the not-ready-for-prime-time streaming video quality.

And the MOTORIZR release touted at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show was, how shall we put it?  Underwhelming?  Although its Linux-based platform may have a bright future, the phone’s apparent lack of 3G cutting-edge data speed is a disappointment.

Moto certainly has interesting things up its sleeve, such as the talk of adding Sling-type mobile TV-watching capabilities to its cable boxes.  But most of Motorola’s profits come from wireless handsets.  And right now, just the threat of the iPhone is casting a shadow over other handset makers’ high-end offerings. 

It’s one thing to sell free-after-rebate handsets by the millions.  Motorola can do that.  But can it get back in the game when it comes to big bucks gotta-have phones of the future?

Motorola, profits, RAZR, KRZR, Linux, Apple, iPhone

[via Baltimore Sun]

Many people own mobile phones. There are plenty of expenses connected to owning and using mobile phones and Motorola, Inc. wants to help out Third World owners lessen such expenses. This is through the newly released cellphone charger which is powered by a bicycle.

Ed Zander, chief of Motorola, says, “For people living in emerging markets, energy is a scarcity. In Southeast Asia, rural China and Latin America, we can actually put this in, hook it up, and charge this device while we are riding a bike.� Zander shared this during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

The head honchoe of Motorola also did express that they are offering such a kind of alternative means of charging up mobile phones to help out owners. After all, with the new kind of charger being, people at Motorola do think that this kind of gadget could really help mobile phone manufacturers’ and companies’ sales.

[Via The Gazette]

[Image from eBay.at]

O.K., I promise I’ll try to sound just as excited about the MOTOKRZR K1 rollout on Cingular as I was about the iPhone.  Although even the Cingular Wireless people haven’t bothered to put out a news release on this.  (I guess they’re worn out from all the press hubbub that Steve Jobs’ little announcement caused for them.)

But if you head for Cingular’s website it’s there, all right.  It’s the official replacement for the V3 and it’s already appeared in a CDMA version for Verizon Wireless and Sprint.

When you get past the flashy, glossy front and dig into the phone you’ll find: 

 

The GSM version does NOT include 3G capability, but Motorola promises that this puppy is about as video-friendly as a non-3G phone can be.  It’s really all about multimedia capabilities.  And its slinky appearance, of course.  It may not be slinky enough to satisfy Steve Jobs, but then, what is?

Expect to spend $200 on this one after the usual incentives and 2-year commitment to Cingular.

Motorola, KRZR K1, Cingular Wireless, AT&T, iPhone, Steve Jobs, Verizon Wireless, Sprint

[via Motorola]

It’s incredible.  All Steve Jobs has to do is get up on stage, dangle a phone in his hand with Apple’s name on it, and by the end of the day stock in the parent company of BlackBerry drops almost 8 percent.

The iPhone may be one very cool product, but it can’t and certainly won’t replace BlackBerry.  Analysts like Michael Gartenberg at Jupiter Research are grousing about iPhone’s shortcomings, which include no 3G (third generation high speed data) capability, no third-party software capability (no Slingplayer!), and no support for Microsoft Office attachments.  And why didn’t Apple include wireless download capability from iTunes?

Then there’s Larry Dignan of ZDNet, who says his own Motorola Q handset feels like an Edsel next to iPhone.  Dignan predicts doom not only for Motorola, but for LG and Samsung to boot.  And as for Sprint, Dignan says Cingular’s marriage to Apple is the next to last nail in Sprint’s coffin.  (Yes, I’ve read the reports about Sprint’s layoffs and gloomy outlook for 2007.  iPhone is not Sprint’s biggest problem.  Not even close.)

Jeez, remember how expensive the iPhone is, and all the things it doesn’t do.  Dignan seems to think phones like BlackBerry’s Pearl will be relegated to the trash heap by Apple’s iPhone.  I think the opposite:  People who wander into a Cingular store to see the iPhone might just fall in love with the Pearl and everything it can do.  Especially when they realize they can buy three Pearls for the price of one iPhone.

Don’t get me wrong.  iPhone is a game-changing product for wireless manufacturers and service providers.  It’s liable to be the new phone of choice for the likes of Paris Hilton.  But it offers no serious advantages for business people, who will remain attached to their BlackBerrys or Palm Treos.  And for non-business users, any phone over $200 is a tough sell.  Never mind $500 or $600.

Eventually I believe Apple will extend its product line (just as it extended its line of iPods) to include lower-cost handsets, that appeal to “the rest of us”.  But by then, the other manufacturers will have developed handsets to compete with the iPhone’s heightened coolness factor.  The game may be changed by Apple’s iPhone, but the game is by no means over.

Apple, iPhone, Cingular Wireless, AT&T, Sprint, Palm Treo, Motorola Q, LG, Samsung, BlackBerry Pearl

During Motorola’s humdinger of a presentation at the Consumer Electronics Show, the company’s Ed Zander announced they’re working on coming up with set top boxes that have the ability to beam television programming on your cell phone.

Like, that’s sooooo 20 minutes ago.  Isn’t that what Sling Mobile is for?

The fact that an upstart company like Sling Media was able to come along and create TV place shifting technology ahead of the gigantic Motorola is amusing to us, and has to be frustrating for Motorola.  Why didn’t they think of that?  Is it possible that they did think of that, but that the cable companies they work with didn’t want to see it happen?

There is another way of looking at it:  It’s a TiVo-type situation.  When TiVo came along the cable companies sat back for a while - and then, once TiVo established itself as a desirable product, the cable & satellite TV companies (and cable set top box manufacturers like Motorola) added video recording capabilities to their boxes, and charged hefty monthly rental fees for them. 

With an established subscriber base, the cable companies could now come along and package Sling-type place shifting capabilities into their Motorola-made set top boxes and make plenty of money.  Who needs to innovate?  Easier to wait for technology to prove itself, then make it your own.  That strategy has prevented TiVo from being wildly profitable - which is why TiVo has fought so hard in court to protect its patents. 

Speaking of which - we noticed that Comcast is going to allow you to download TiVo software to its digital video recorders (made by Motorola) to give you TiVo features, at an undisclosed extra charge.  Couldn’t the cable companies come up with a similar licensing deal with Sling for its technology?  Or maybe Motorola could just buy Sling and be done with it.

Motorola, Ed Zander, Consumer Electronics Show, place shifting, Sling Media, Sling Box, Sling Mobile, Comcast, TiVo 

[via SFGate]

 

 

It was only a matter of time before Nokia felt compelled to put its handsets on the same weight loss plan that brought Motorola’s RAZR handsets to life.

Nokia’s new N76 is just a tad thinner than your typical RAZR and adds UMTS 2100 to its quad-band GSM/EDGE data capabilities, along with a 2 megapixel camera with external controls, MicroSD card slot and Bluetooth.  Nokia’s position:  A lot more content and features than Motorola has, in the same ultra-thin profile.

We might as well point out that the N76 is based on Nokia’s not-so-slender N75 which still hasn’t officially rolled out yet for Cingular.  So we’re getting way ahead of ourselves here.  But during Consumer Electronics Show season, that’s par for the course.  And we’re also informed that there will be a non-UMTS version of the slinky new N76 that will get along without ultra-high-speed broadband capabilities.

So Nokia’s doing its best to close the barn door on sleek-and-stylish cell phone design, long after Motorola and Samsung opened it and let all the horses out.

Enough of the semi-clever metaphors - the N76 should be ready to market before the end of March.  We’re told it will retail for around $500 US dollars, not including discounts that wireless carriers (probably Cingular or T-Mobile) will offer in exchange for a long term contract.

Motorola, RAZR, Nokia, N75, N76, UMTS, Consumer Electronics Show

[via Nokia]

 

If Steve Jobs doesn’t announce iPhone tomorrow, the Wall Street Journal will be hung out to dry.

The Journal is all but predicting that Jobs, Apple’s CEO, will unveil Apple’s new combination iPod/phone and an outline of the service plan during his address to the MacWorld conference in San Francisco Tuesday.  “As early as tomorrow” is how the Journal report couches it.  The report cites “unnamed people familiar with the situation”. 

Who would the “unnnamed people” be?  Could be anyone from Jobs himself, all the way down to his cleaning lady.

The Journal also reports that Cingular will be the service provider, but it doesn’t offer further details on the potential relationship.  (The fact that Cingular partnered with Apple on the introduction of the MOTO ROKR handset back in 2005 has fueled rumors that the two would get together on the iPhone venture.)

Is Apple just going to make iPhones and let Cingular handle the marketing and the customer service like any other handset?  Or does Jobs intend to resell Cingular’s service under Apple’s name and reinvent the wireless phone and the service?

Wireless executives (some of whom are in Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show) may get a little less sleep than usual tonight.

Apple, Steve Jobs, iPhone, Cingular, Motorola, ROKR, Consumer Electronics Show, MacWorld

 

Yahoo’s been searching (Ha!  Searching!  Get it?) for ways to regain lost ground in its battle with Google.

Here’s one of Yahoo’s strategies, announced today at the Consumer Electronics Show:  A new downloadable app for wireless handsets, Yahoo! Go for Mobile 2.0.  At the same time, Yahoo is giving mobile users a new “experience” it calls oneSearch.

The idea behind oneSearch is to anticipate what a searcher is looking for, and provide the most likely results immediately.  For instance:  a Yahoo mobile searcher enters the name of his favorite sports team.  Yahoo’s oneSearch will respond by giving the final score of the team’s most recent contest, and the schedule for its next matchup.  Type in a movie name, and immediately get reviews and a list of local theaters where it’s playing.  Not a bad idea, since mobile searchers often don’t have QWERTY keyboards to help refine their searches.

Yahoo is making its new software available right away for a handful of Motorola, BlackBerry, Samsung and other manufacturers’ devices.  Go here to find out if yours is included.  Yahoo will also become the default search engine for Opera’s mobile browsers.

Interestingly, Google issued a release today announcing a deal with Samsung promising easier access to Google’s maps, mail and search apps for its handset users.  So using your Samsung handset you’ll easily be able to Google Yahoo.  Or Yahoo Google.

Yahoo, oneSearch, Go For Mobile 2.0, Samsung, Motorola, BlackBerry, Google, Opera, Consumer Electronics Show

[via Wireless Week]

 

 

When a Motorola press release promises something “wickedly cool”, I take a deep breath and remind myself that this is the same Motorola that created the fabulous brick phones of the ’90s which, although certainly a breakthrough, could hardly be called “wicked”.

But it’s 2007, it’s the Consumer Electronics Show, and Motorola’s been a style leader in wireless technology for months now.  Answering the “what’s new?” question, Motorola has a pair of Linux-based handsets including the one you see here, the MOTORIZR Z6.

It’s not the first MOTORIZR we’ve heard about - the MOTORIZR Z3 has popped up here and there, although not in the United States with any major carriers.  This one comes touted with a new battery of “MOTOMUSIC” capabilities including a seamless (we hope) marriage with Windows Media Player and its associated music subscriptions for both your PC and your phone.  And although there’s no mention of 3G (third-generation) high speed data capabilities, there will be microSD memory, dedicated music controls, stereo Bluetooth and 2 megapixel camera.

The other new offering, MOTOMING with EDGE, is an update to the A1200 MOTOMING which goes the RealAudio music route, plus FM radio, stereo Bluetooth and microSD memory for music storage.

No U.S. carriers or pricing announced for either of these new handsets as yet.

Motorola, MOTORIZR, Z6, Z3, MOTOMING, A1200, Windows Media Player, RealAudio, MOTOMUSIC, Consumer Electronics Show 

[via Motorola]

A Mobility Watch reader named Wes wondered why he couldn’t locate the Motorola SLVR L7c phone, which had been announced by Sprint as coming soon, back in November.  He’d gone to the Sprint website, and his local Sprint store, and saw nothing.

He was going to the wrong place.

Everybody knows that if you want a Sprint phone, you don’t go to Sprint.  You go to Best Buy.

Huh?

It turns out that the MOTOSLVR L7c is a Best Buy exclusive.  It is unavailable from Sprint stores or Sprint’s own website. 

Here’s the deal.  It would seem that Best Buy is so big, so important to Sprint’s marketing strategy, that Best Buy is able to convince Sprint to make certain handset models available at Best Buy exclusively.  These models won’t even be available at Sprint stores.  Probably not ever.

If you’re working for Sprint and being judged on how many cell phones you can sell, this ought to make you crazy.  Why should the big retailer down the street get an offering from your own company, that you yourself can’t offer?

Then again - Sprint needs to have a presence in the big retail stores, because its competitors are there.  Sprint has had more of a business-focused client base and it especially needs to reach out to Joe Consumer, who shops at Best Buy, Circuit City, etc.  Sprint probably has no choice but to offer exclusives like the MOTOSLVR to Best Buy in order to keep that relationship and get shelf space, alongside Verizon and Cingular.

And Sprint may make more money in the long run letting other retailers sell its phones, than it makes selling them in its own stores.

This is the “Wal-Mart” effect:  Give in to the demands of the mega-retailers, because in the end you can’t survive without them.

Whatever the case, it’s confusing for customers who don’t get to see a cellular provider’s entire product line without having to go to multiple websites or several different stores.

But once you find the product, the good news is, the price is often lower at the big retailer than it would have been at the company store.  The $59.99 deal Best Buy is offering for the MOTOSLVR from Sprint beats the heck out of the $99.99 price Cingular charges for its MOTOSLVR on Cingular’s own website.

Sprint, Best Buy, Cingular Wireless, Verizon Wireless, Motorola, MOTOSLVR L7c, Wal-Mart 

When we last spoke about Sprint’s impending Motorola Q handset rollout, we said it might happen in December, or it might happen in January.

Update:  Forget about December.  Think January.  Sprint now says its Motorola Q will be available online and through its business channels later this month.  If you want to see it in a Sprint retail store, think February.

Sprint’s version offers NFL Mobile capability, the Sprint Powerdeck and its On Demand web content services.  It’ll also have the same Microsoft push email, Windows Mobile features and EV-DO third-generation broadband capabilities as the Verizon Wireless Q has.

LAPTOP Magazine got a review version of the Sprint Moto Q and gripes that it runs a tad slower than Verizon’s, and that it’s not quite as snazzy as Cingular Wireless’ Samsung Blackjack.  But - and this is a big but - Sprint’s unlimited monthly data package at $15 is way cheaper than Cingular’s $39 or Verizon’s $40.  For Sprint customers looking for a smartphone, Laptop says it’s the ”best option for the money”. 

According to Laptop Sprint will sell the Q for about $200 with incentives and 2-year commitment, which is $50 more than Verizon wants for a similar Black Motorola Q, and $100 more than Verizon’s original silver Motorola Q. 

But with much-cheaper unlimited data prices, you’ll save big bucks in the long run with Sprint’s version.

Motorola Q, Sprint, Verizon Wireless

[via Sprint, Brighthand, Laptop]

With the new year, lawmakers are coming back to work.  Passing laws, all over the place.  Including the ever-more-popular no-holding-a-cell-phone-in-your-hand-while-driving laws.  The Texas legislature may go in that direction this year.  This will cause more cell phone owners to scramble for hands-free devices. 

So here comes this press release about “free” hands-free headsets for your cell phone.  Free, not counting the $3.94 “shipping and handling” charge.

An offer to get something “free, just pay shipping and handling” always makes me wonder what’s going on.  Usually it’s an offer for a second free Ginsu carving knife, to slice tomatoes razor-thin.  Or for a free sample of, what do you call them?  Memory pills!  That’s it.

The “free” headset deal is from freeheadsets.org.  In spite of the .org on the website, this is NOT a non-profit organization.  It’s owned by a company called Casslin Data Systems based in San Diego.  So we figure Matt MacAdams, the owner, is making a little something on each headset.  

Most cell phones these days come with hands-free devices included by the manufacturer.  But a lot of people toss them in the trash along with the box and the packing material and the owner’s manual.  So when a law gets passed requiring hands-free cell phone use while driving, these folks have to go buy one. 

And $3.94 is probably not a bad deal for a wired headset.  The website makes it easy for technophobes to figure out which headset they need for their particular phone.

(But you won’t catch me ordering one.  I got one of those Motorola $9.95-after-rebate Bluetooth specials at Radio Shack on Black Friday.  And there is no freebluetooth.org - I checked.)

freeheadset.org, Casslin Data Systems, Matt MacAdams, hands-free cell phone use, Bluetooth, Motorola, Radio Shack

[via Fast Pitch]