China Mobile to launch HTC Android phone

China Mobile will launch the HTC Magic next month becoming the first Chinese operator to launch a handset based on Google's mobile platform.

According to an HTC official quoted by IDG News Service, the phone features a Chinese-language version of Android developed by HTC. The Wall Street Journal reported that the phone will run a customized version of Android called Open Mobile System developed by China Mobile, and that the operator will call its Android phones oPhones to reflect the customized platform.

HTC will beat Huawei to market in China with Android; Huawei will reportedly offer an Android phone in China in the third quarter. HTC is hoping that the Android model will help double its sales in China from 800,000 units last year.

MIIT Announces April 2009 Telecom Statistics

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has released its April 2009 telecom industry statistics. The figures for the month were as follows:

Telecom revenues were RMB 71.1 billion (USD 10.4 billion), bringing the cumulative year-to-date total to RMB 273.5 billion (USD 40.0 billion), up 2.0% over the same 4-month period of 2008. 

Mobile subscribers grew by 8.5 million in April to over 678.8 million. A total of nearly 255 billion SMS messages were sent during the first four months of 2009, an 11.4% increase YoY.

Huawei and ZTE increases market share

China's Huawei and ZTE experienced the greatest rate of vendor growth in the mobile network equipment market during the first quarter of 2009 according to research firm Dell'Oro Group, almost doubling their combined share of the total infrastructure market to over 20 percent compared to the same quarter last year. Huawei in particular had an extremely strong quarter, roughly doubling its market share to 15 percent, making it the third-largest mobile network vendor in the quarter. 

Market-leader Ericsson continued its dominance, expanding its share slightly to 33 percent of the market in January-March, while closest rival Nokia Siemens Networks saw its share drop to 21 percent from 24 percent a year ago. 

Alcatel-Lucent lost third place to Huawei, with a 2 percent fall in market share, to 14 percent. Beleaguered vendor Nortel Networks saw its market share halve, to 4 percent. 

The 3G growth was mainly due to China's long-awaited network deployment of the technology. China Unicom's WCDMA deployment is shaping up to be the single largest 3G deployment in history and was the primary contributor to the most ever - 100,000 - Node B shipments in the quarter. 

Ovi Store launches today

Nokia's Ovi Store is available globally to an estimated 50 million Nokia device owners across more than 50 Nokia devices including the forthcoming flagship device, the Nokia N97. Customers can visit store.ovi.com through their Nokia device browser to immediately begin downloading, personalizing and making their devices smarter and more fun with applications, games, videos, podcasts, productivity tools, web and location-based services and much more.

Ovi Store is an evolving media service that consolidates Nokia’s existing content services into a one-stop-shop for free and paid content. Thousands of the content industry’s biggest names along with independent application developers are distributing their media, applications and games through Ovi Store. Content providers and application developers can continue to sign up to distribute their content through Ovi Store.

The Worst Job Ever

The Worst Job Ever - Watch more Funny Videos

This day and age, everyone’s affected by the global recession. And you have to take the jobs you can get. But this Brazilian dude has it really rough. Day in and day out, he slaves through the grueling work of – wait a minute, he’s a masseuse for supermodels! Well, in that case, you wanna trade?

Bontrust Finance: Increase In Currency (Money love)

Gartner: Global Handset sales down by 9.4%, Smartphones rise

But 1Q09 figures from Gartner also show smartphone demand up 12.7 per cent. A mixed bag of numbers have come out of Gartner today, with global mobile phone sales in 1Q09 pegged at 269.1 million units - down 9.4 per cent from 12 months earlier.

This is despite what Gartner calls 'signs of recovery' in North America and China, with the company point out that the figures equate to the biggest quarter-on-quarter contraction of the market since 2001 and the first time it has fallen year-on-year.

However, the good news is that smartphone sales hit 36.4 million units, representing a 12.7 per cent increase from 1Q08.

In fact, smartphone sales accounted for 13.5 per cent of all mobile device sales in 1Q09, compared with 11 per cent in 1Q08. Gartner attributes the trend to good sales at Research In Motion and Apple.

Nokia continued to lead the mobile phone market in 1Q09, but its share dropped to 36.2 per cent from 39.1 per cent a year earlier.

Samsung retained second place and improved its market share as sales totalled 51.4 million units. Motorola overtook Sony Ericsson to regain fourth place.

A Newer Version Of Android Is Spotted

Not quite sure whether this is the new version of Android, or a skin that HTC, a Taiwanese handset-maker, has developed and laid over the top of an existing version of the Google operating system.

Courtesy of PhoneDog.com

Palm Pre coming out on June 6

The release date and pricing for the new Palm Pre was recently announced. Available June 6th, the new Palm is a product of collaboration between Sprint Nextel and Palm, that will be selling for $199 unfortunately only in the US at Sprint stores nationwide, as well as at Best Buy, Radio Shack, and some Wal-Mart stores.

One controversy with the June 6 release date is that it is two days before Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, where the announcement for the new iPhone will likely be made. Who do you think will come out on top? Check out the video below.

Air New Zealand Has 'Nothing to Hide' in New Ad Campaign

Air New Zealand has ‘Nothing to Hide’ in their new cheeky new ad campaign, which features staff members in little more than body paint. Airline attendants, baggage handlers and even the pilots are seen in this cute video with their painted-on uniforms.

The employee’s uniforms do look remarkably realistic, but as you can see by the travelers’ grinning reactions, there are details that cannot be hidden underneath a mere coat of paint.

Time to Upgrade your Camera

New classy E-Class Coupe Benz website

Check out the new Mercedes-Benz E-Class Coupe website, presented as an "object of desire". I very much like the creative idea of seeing the car through 30 different points of view even though I must say my eyes were focused on those 30 gorgeous beauties. The background music is nice and cool. 

Vodafone launching mobile app store

Vodafone announced it will launch its own mobile application storefront, promising developers and web companies a single point of access to its 289 million worldwide subscribers. The app store, scheduled to go live later this year, will extend across Vodafone's device portfolio; the operator will bill premium downloads directly to subscribers' existing prepaid and postpaid accounts, claiming 30 percent of revenues in the process.

Vodafone will provide partners and developers with customer-controlled access to network capabilities like location awareness in an effort to nurture new services and applications, and will create a set of network APIs to ensure new applications work across its entire footprint. 

Its a good attempt from the world largest mobile operator by sales but i m not too sure whether Vodafone will be able to create a sexy store like the Apple's App Store. The App Store nailed the user experience which had made them so successful. Consumers want to buy the iPhone and they want to download the apps and developers don’t mind giving up a cut of their sales to build for the platform. Lets not forget the App Store only needed to support 1 single minded iPhone whereas developers for Vodafone will need to figure how to tackle the various different mobile phones.

Velti acquires Ad Infuse

Velti (a company that is employing yours truly) had just announced its acquisition of rival mobile advertising services provider Ad Infuse. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The Ad Infuse purchase will enable Velti to gain and strengthen its position in the U.S. market. Velti will integrate Ad Infuse's personalization and ad routing/serving technology within its own Mobile Marketing Platform, promising advertising agencies an end-to-end solution for mobile media planning, campaign management, optimization, execution, analytics and hosting. 

Velti will integrate Ad Infuse's management team and customer base, with Ad Infuse CEO Brian Cowley assuming the position of general manager at Velti North America. The integrated company will comprise more than 400 people across operations in the U.S., Europe, China, India and the Middle East. Customers include Microsoft, Disney, Unilever, Orange, MasterCard and CBS. 

Velti can now do pretty much anything now. Integrated display, search and SMS advertising campaigns, run across both Europe and the US, with advanced metrics covering all continents. Velti provide end-to-end campaign management as well, from inception and creation through to delivery and measurement. I m sure with this acquisition Velti can now claim to be the largest mobile marketing company in the world. 

Slovenia airport sends tourist info via Bluetooth

At the baggage claim area of Jože Pučnik Airport in Ljubljana, Slovenia, travellers can pick up more than just their luggage. Using the Bluetooth feature on their mobile phones, they can download tourist information and coupons for their stay in Slovenia.

Through a campaign devised by the Slovenian Tourist Board in cooperation with Aerodrom Ljubljana and Creativ Interaktiv, arriving passengers riding on the airport's buses from plane to terminal are invited to turn on the Bluetooth feature on their mobile phones. That invitation is repeated as they pass through customs to the baggage retrieval area. Within baggage claim is the so-called Bluetooth Zone, where users who have turned on Bluetooth are asked if they want to receive information about Slovenia. Users who say yes receive a free SMS text message with instructions on downloading the information, which is presented in both Slovene and English and includes tips for a hassle-free stay in Slovenia, recommended tourist attractions and events, and mobile coupons from partner organizations. Following the positive response to a test in December and January, the Bluetooth service is in place at least through the end of this month.

While Bluetooth proximity-marketing efforts elsewhere have met with mixed success so far, the fact that travellers are already accustomed to receiving text messages from local phone providers when they land at a foreign airport makes this one seem like more of a natural fit. Tourist destinations and other airports should consider doing this campaign. 

Happy Mother's Day

"Whatever you give a woman, she will make greater. If you give her sperm, she'll give you a baby. If you give her a house, she'll give you a home. If you give her groceries, she'll give you a meal. If you give her a smile, she'll give you her heart. She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her.
So, if you give her any crap, be ready to receive a ton of shit." 

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers in the world.

Shii - The Wii for Women

EMBED-Shii - The Wii For Women - Watch more free videos

The Steamy Room

An amusing website to promote Pearle contact lenses. The message is simple and pretty straightforward: sometimes it is better to wear contact lenses rather than glasses! Choose the character you prefer (I recommend going for the opposite sex), and enjoy an amusing experience that will make you understand the meaning of the campaign message. 

There is also an e-card that you can sent out to your friends too. 

NY Times - In China, Knockoff Cellphones Are a Hit

The New York Times has published an interesting article about the “fake mobile” industry in china! Take a look at the article here.

“Chinese grass-roots companies are actually very innovative,” says Yu Zhou, a professor at Vassar College. “It’s not so much technology as how they form supply chains and how rapidly they react to new trends.”

While the phones may look like famous brands, companies actually add special features like bigger screens, dual-mode SIM cards (which allow two phone numbers) and even a telescopic lens attachment for the phone’s camera.

Palm Pre vs iPhone 5 Revenge (I'm a Mac style)

Just a little light-hearted sketch to welcome the new Palm Pre. Done in the style of the popular "I'm a Mac" adverts.

Rolls Royce Made in China rolls out at the Shanghai Auto Show 2009

Rich Chinese love big cars just like everybody else, so why shouldn’t its own local giant car manufacturers offer one to the Chinese and the world at an unbelievable attractive low price but still carry the elegant Rolls Royce's image. 

This is exactly what Geely, a local car manufacturer did by offering an obvious knock-off of the Rolls Royce, called the Geely Excellence (GE) Limousine at the Shanghai Auto Show. Check out the front grill, the winged hood ornament, the wool carpets, all marks of the famous Rolls Royce. 

Spotted the difference?

Unveiling the "Sixth Sense"

This demo by Pattie Maes' lab at MIT, spearheaded by Pranav Mistry was the buzz of TED. It's a wearable device with a projector that paves the way for profound interaction with our environment. Imagine "Minority Report"!