Mobile Phone News 13th September

At the end of another busy week, it’s time to cast a leisurely look back over the last seven days, as we review the news and handsets that made the headlines.

The biggest news within the industry was the revelation that T-Mobile and Orange were looking to combine forces, set to become the largest network in the UK, subject to approval by the regulatory bodies. If the deal does go through, the combined customer base of T-Mobile and Orange would come in at around 28.5 million customers, a market busting 37% share of the total UK subscriber numbers. The network coverage should also improve as the two networks combine resources, ideally plugging gaps in current coverage either network may have. The plan is for the first 18 months or so, each brand would run as a separate entity, and during that period plans will be drawn to start marketing a combined image and new brand for the new network. Whilst there is a lot of mileage to go before and after this potential merger.

Of course, there is going to be some fallout from this deal. One of those is the impact it will have on retail staff, as it is likely some stores will close to eliminate unnecessary duplication, and the same will happen behind the scenes when the two main head office operations merge. There are also possible implications for the network sharing deal Three made with T-Mobile recently; it remains to be seen whether this will still go ahead as planned. There’s a lot of mileage left yet in this story, and we shall keep an eye on any future developments.

This week has also seen a few software updates hit the market, updating some key handsets. The software update that received the most attention was the release of software 3.1 for the Apple iPhone, bringing through some minor changes to the handset and covering a few bugs also. Some of the more notable changes include offering a ringtone store on the iTunes app, being able to save video from email and MMS into the camera Roll, as well as the option to be able to arrange content and applications on the iPhone via iTunes, making it much easier to move icons around and place them in a layout to your own preference. The update also brings improved synchronisation for music, movies, TV shows, podcasts and photos, as well as allowing users to redeem gift cards in the App store. A word of warning to the users of the iPhone who have their device unlocked via third party means, it is not recommended to perform the update to 3.1 as this software release also updates the modem software on the phone, effectively removing any option of providing an unlocking option, for now. It is suggested that iPhones which do upgrade to the 3.1 OS may even lose the possibility of being unlocked in the future.

The iPhone was not the only handset to have new firmware announced, though, as both the Samsung i8910 HD (or Omnia HD) and Nokia N97 are getting a new makeover. The Samsung setup is a little unusual, as it seems only Samsung Italia have been providing software updates for devices to date. What this means is to do an update you need a previous Italian firmware on your device, and once the device has been updated and reboots, it will reboot in Italian. Being a lover of all things Italian I wouldn’t mind this one bit, but this could catch the unwary user by surprise, and an understanding of Italian will be needed to get the phone changed over into your native language. The obvious solution, of course, would be for Samsung to provide a UK focussed software update. Updating the firmware on the i8910 HD completely resets the device to the way it was when you first took it out of the box, so do make sure you back up all important content before hand. Improvements include a fix for various bugs on the general operation of the device, particularly podcasting and web browsing, as well as some camera tweaks, amongst other things.

Meanwhile, on the Nokia N97, the big improvement with the forthcoming firmware 2.0 is the inclusion of system wide kinetic scrolling, as seen on the recently announced N97 mini. Kinetic scrolling is the scrolling method found on Android smartphones, the iPhone, and even the Samsung Jet, where a simple flick of the finger over the screen allows quick scrolling through menu items, a much more fluid and user friendly look. There are also tweaks to the QWERTY keyboard, along with some improvements to the music player. There will also be a wider range of widgets available, with content from CNN, MySpace, and ESPN available, amongst others. The firmware 2.0 was seen on devices at the Nokia World event last week, and should be released within the next few weeks.

There were also some new phones announced, with the Android operating system taking the starring role. A quick word to Android here, this operating system is set to be *the* big thing on the run up to Christmas. With multi manufacturer and network support for branded devices in place, the Android OS is going to appear on a whole host of devices over the coming months. The design innovation opportunities offer a wider scope than the standard block device offered by Apple, with Android devices offering a similar level of functionality with a stable OS and an ever increasing amount of applications in the Android Market.

The first device with the Android OS is the HTC Tattoo, a device aimed at the younger, more youthful market. The HTC Tattoo has the same Sense UI as found on the HTC Hero, and offers a 3.2 Megapixel camera, FM radio, 3.5mm audio jack, plus 3G, HSDPA, WiFi and GPS. We’ll be bringing a more in depth review of the HTC Tattoo in the next few days.

The next handset running on Android we saw this week brings a welcome return to the industry for Motorola. Almost dead on their feet just a while ago, Motorola have burst back onto the scene with the Motorola DEXT, which will be known as the CLIQ in the US. Forget everything you ever thought you knew about Motorola phones from the past, with their reputation for good looking phones which were low on features. With Android running on their new Devices, we can expect the same level of innovation on handset design, coupled with all the benefits running on Android brings. This first device is a strong messaging handset, with a smooth looking side-slide QWERTY keyboard, coupled with a large 3.1 inch capacitive touchscreen with a HVGA resolution, GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth and a 5.0 Megapixel camera equipped with HVGA video recording capability at 24fps. The Motorola DEXT has an amazing line-up of features, and is set to catapult Motorola back amongst the leading handset manufacturers.

Finally the Android devices set to be launched by INQ, famous for low cost, well featured handsets that offer tight integration with social networks such as Skype and Facebook. Set to launch early next year, INQ are suggesting that they are looking to do ‘something special’ with the Android OS on their devices; given what Android brings, a match up with the social networking experts at INQ is something to look forward to.