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Tag: mwc

  • BlackBerry Leap 5-inch Touchscreen Smartphone Released at MWC 2015

    BlackBerry Leap 5-inch Touchscreen Smartphone Released at MWC 2015

    blackberry_leap

    It is now clear that BlackBerry, the company that is synonymous with physical keyboard phones, has not completely trashed the idea of a full touchscreen phones.

    The new 5-inch BlackBerry Leap smartphone was announced at the Mobile World Congress on Tuesday.

    The Leap is BlackBerry’s first full touchscreen smartphone to be released this year. The last one to be released was the BlackBerry Z3 that was launched in February last year.

    Apart from the 5-inch display, this phone also boasts 16GB storage, 8MP camera, 2GB RAM, and a 1.5GHZ processor.

    Other impressive feature is the 2,800mAh battery that can power the phone for up to 25 hours and tight security features that include malware protection, encryption support, and the ability to wipe, back-up, and restore data.

    Even with this new release, BlackBerry’s list of smartphones and devices is a little thin and even the company President of Devices Ron Louks knows that and so they teased a few more phones that are not yet available for release.

    Among the most interesting is the unnamed slider phone that is said to be curved with a slide-out keyboard. Louks went ahead to say that the company is keen on launching 5 new devices this year.

    The BlackBerry Leap is set to go for $275.

    Also read: Australia’s smartwatch market to exceed $400M by 2018

  • MWC 2014: Nokia Doesn't Put All Eggs in One Basket – Android Handheld Launched


    Nokia astonished the mobile world (well, more or less since news of this had already been leaked) with its Nokia X1, an Android phone that makes Nokia probably the first mobile manufacturer to have 3 operating systems under control. X1 is a relatively heavy UI change on Android, but as a phone it felt relatively vulgar, indistinguishable from any other Android phone. Below you'll see a few pictures and a video.

    We also took some time to check the Nokia Asha, its low end mobile for kind-of developing markets, using the S40 operating system. It's not a full-fledged "smartphone," but it looks like a decent device. See a short video below:

    Finally, we played for a few minutes with a Nokia Windows tablet. The Metro UI actually looks very good in high definition screens, as you can see below. 

  • Mobile World Congress 2014: Jolla and Sailfish OS Bring a Breath of Fresh Air


    We've had the pleasure of checking out the fresh-from-the-oven Sailfish OS 1.0, living inside the new Jolla handset. Sailfish is a new mobile operating system, cross-compatible with Android (so you'll be getting Angry Birds, don't worry.) Sailfish feels snappy and fast, and its swipe around menu system is surprisingly smooth. You can see a few pictures and a video below.

    Sailfish for Android will be available "very soon," so you'll be able to install it on your own Android device. We've seen it live on several Samsung and HTC devices, and it works very, very well. Sailfish 1.0 will still be "beta" for Android, and probably require around 1GB RAM on your device (likely to go down in the future.)


    At the Jolla booth at the Mobile World Congress they were also giving away Angry Birds soda. Angry Birds branded Jolla phone is said to be available before summer. 

  • Nokia new Android smartphone to cost $110


    Word is out on price of the the eagerly awaited Nokia low-cost smart phone whose alias is Normandy. The phone was scheduled to launch in late February but a retail website in Vietnam already seems to have its price listed on its website.

    Very little is known about the expected price of the ‘Normandy’ but Nokia was said to be planning a launch of the affordable smart phone in late February. Nokia have not yet shared the official price of the device but the according to rumored leaks, the price seems to be $110 as WMPoweruser puts it.

    WMPoweruser is said to have spotted the Nokia X A110’s price on a Vietnamese online retail website which had indicated $110 as the price of the Nokia Normandy which also has Nokia X as its other alias. The website also put a $160 price on its Nokia Lumia 525.

    There have been many speculations on the price of this long awaited Android device on the internet for several months now. The Nokia smart phone which shall be using the open source Android OS is said to be mainly targeted for developing markets.

    Rumor has it that Google Play app store will be one feature absent in the Nokia Android device and the alternative for the app store will be Nokia and Microsoft operated services like Mix radio and here maps. That is not to say that users will not have an app store. The app store on the phone will be Nokia’s, providing popular applications like facebook and twitter to the phone’s users.

    We will all be looking forward to February 24th, which is the anticipated phone launch date, to listen to Nokia’s press conference at the MWC trade show, Barcelona, Catalonia. Maybe the rumored price may not be far from the truth.

  • Mobile World Congress 2013: The End of Apple Dominance Is Near

    The annual meeting Mobile World Congress, ongoing this week in Barcelona, seems to mark more than any other event the end of Apple dominance in the global market for smartphones and tablets and the rise of some rivals with more open operating systems.

    Mozilla has opened the event in Barcelona unofficially. The nonprofit organization, which used Firefox a decade ago to fight Microsoft control in the online search engine market, wants to change totally the smartphone market as well.

    The industry is currently unnaturally controlled by a few companies, said general manager of Mozilla, Gary Kovacs, during the presentation of the first generation of mobile devices with Firefox operating system.

    More than 20 telecom industry executives who brought their support to the launch of Firefox OS had similar views.

    “We change the industry for the common good,” said Cesar Alienta, general manager of Telefonica, one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world. Spanish company chief criticized the closed operating systems, such as iOS, and warned that “the smartphone market is making a step back from the internet’s opening feature”. Telefonica wants to introduce shortly Firefox OS devices in Spain, Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela.

    America Movil, controlled by Carlos Slim, the richest man in the world, committed to launch Firefox OS in Mexico “and in all possible markets” soon.

    The outgoing General Director of Deutsche Telekom, Rene Obermann, called the Firefox OS release “an important step towards more competition between different systems”. Deutsche Telekom will launch Firefox OS devices starting from this summer in Poland.

    Mozilla is not the only company that wants to change the market for smartphones and tablets. Samsung and Intel are also developing an operating system called Tizen, which would be even more open and will allow software developers more important changes compared to Apple's iOS and Google's Android.

    Mobile operators are strongly attracted by the prospect of being able to strongly change the operating systems, for an interaction as direct as possible with the user.

    The irony in this case is that the success of Samsung with Tizen would make the South Korean company less dependent on Google and stronger in the smartphones and tablets market.

    The rest of the world seems to recover the distance to Apple's platform for mobile devices, and the American company must innovate again or will be cannibalized by rivals with cheaper and more accessible devices. Smartphone market seems to have matured, so that real opportunities could be in the expansion in emerging markets.

  • Intivation Launches World's First Solar-powered Mobile Phone

    Intivation today launched the world’s first low-cost solar-powered mobile phone.

    The Dutch company uses an innovative converter that takes 0.5v from a solar cell and steps it up to the 3.7v needed for any lithium ion mobile phone battery.

    Intivation’s technology combines a single solar cell with its chip software. It can function on any handset.

    UPDATE: Intivation has just been announced as the winner of the GSMA’s 2009 Mobile Innovation Global Award competition’s EMEA tournament for the most innovative wireless device-centric technology.

    Paule Naastepad, Intivation’s CEO, told smartphone.biz-news it offered charging even in low-light conditions while also being effective in high temperatures.

    He said that in terms of performance the technology provided a 193 per cent improvement in average light, tilt, angle and shading.

    Intivation also announced a solar-powerd charging case for the iPhone, which it says more than doubles battery use. 

    The Intivation technology is being used in a ZTE-made handset, the Coral-200 Solar, which is being deployed by the Digicell Group from this June.

    It will be targeting emerging markets where there an estimated 640 million people with network coverage but without a reliable electricity supply.

    For operators, Naastepad said there was the potential to increase ARPU by more than 10 per cent, largely because if a mobile was constantly charged it was more likely to be used.

    Other advantages include: 

    • technology allows for a small cell
    • cheaper to manufacture
    • looks better
    • faster charging more reliable




  • Barcelona Mobile World Congress Live Coverage

    Smartphone.Biz-news.com Mobile World Congress 2009 live coverage feeds.


    We are covering the Mobile World Congress 2009 from Barcelona. We will be publishing photos, interviews and company profiles. Follow the event via Twitter, FriendFeed, Flickr, RSS and here on the web.

    If you are in the congress and you want to meet use – or you are not in the congress, but you want to get in touch with us – the easiest way will be a Twitter Direct Message (DM biznews_smartph) or post a comment into our Linkedin group


    The links to follow the event online are:

    All articles will have the tag "mobile world congress". Bookmark this link to get the latest updates.

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    you can follow the latest updates also via RSS

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