smartphones

Report: Carriers 'pass' on forthcoming Dell handset

Whenever Dell does unveil its much-hinted-about new handset, it will apparently be taking a nontraditional route to the market, according to an analyst report Monday.

Dell has decided to sell its new product through retailers only, Ashok Kumar of Collins Stewart said. While that's certainly interesting, and in line with Dell's recent record of testing new ways of approaching the market with its products, the reason Kumar gives is far more tantalizing: he says U.S. and European carriers were none too impressed with Dell's effort when the company tried to sign up some wireless partners during a meeting at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last month.

"The carriers, who see products from all the leading handset vendors, have decided to pass on Dell's handset," he wrote in a research note Monday. "Some carriers are citing a noncompelling product with a road map that lags competition."

Dell hasn't responded to a request for comment. But if Kumar's claims are true, this presents serious problems for Dell. The company already has relationships with some of the major carriers, including AT&T and Verizon Wireless, to sell wireless-service plans for its notebooks and Netbooks in the United States and in Europe. Rejecting what will, by its very nature, be a high-profile product from a current business partner doesn't speak very well of the product's competitiveness.

Having been rejected from the major carriers will also handicap the device from the start, since U.S. consumers are conditioned to buying subsidized phones and may balk at paying a full price. But the bigger problem is that there's just not that much market share left to grab, especially without the marketing might of large carriers behind it.

"It's a crowded market. Two years ago, (Dell) may have had an opportunity, but (Research In Motion), Nokia, and Apple have been joined by HTC, Samsung, LG, Palm, Motorola, (and Acer)," Kumar said in an interview. "The market is extremely crowded just as it's slowing down." … Read more

Analyst: Apple placed chip order for 32GB iPhones

A correction was made to this story. See below for details.

Updated at 2:54 p.m. PDT with with additional information about the volume of NAND chips Apple is reportedly purchasing and its effect on the number of units the company could ship.

Apple has reportedly ordered 100 million units of 8-gigabit and 16-gigabit NAND flash chips, with the bulk of its order coming from its main iPhone chip supplier, Samsung, according to a research report released Monday by a Lazard Capital Markets analyst.

The majority of the sizable order is expected to be applied toward the 16-gigabit NAND, … Read more

HTC Touch Diamond gets repolished for Verizon

Better late than never? Well, we'll leave that up to you to decide, but any Verizon Wireless customers who have been lusting over the HTC Touch Diamond can finally get one of their own.

The carrier announced that the Touch Diamond will be available for purchase starting on Friday, through business channels and online. The unfortunate part? It's going to cost you $299.99 with a two-year contract. A little high, don't you think?

It just doesn't make sense considering 1) the smartphone is nearing its life cycle with the HTC Touch Diamond2 waiting in the … Read more

ZweiPhone stickers give iPhone a serious make-under

You know what I hate? When you bring out your iPhone to make a phone call or text somebody and the person you're with goes, "Ohhhhh look at THIS guy; Jimmy Fallon over here think he's cutting edge with his iPhone." I feel your pain, brothers and sisters, but our friends at ZweiPhone have a simple solution that'll fix our problem: a collection of stickers bearing an image of an obsolete phone designed to mask your embarrassingly commonplace iPhone.

ZweiPhone's motto is "Downgrade Today"--each sticker they sell is a convincing reproduction … Read more

Rumor: T-Mobile to get HTC Snap, Touch Pro2, and more

The HTC Snap made its debut at CTIA 2009, where we learned that the U.S. will get its own unlocked version of the QWERTY smartphone, called the HTC S522, this summer. However, some blogs are reporting that T-Mobile may just get a model of its own to replace the aging T-Mobile Dash.

According to WMExperts, T-Mobile will offer the Snap/S522, but the smartphone will be stripped of HTC's Inner Circle e-mail feature. This functionality bring e-mails from a preselected group of people to the top of your in-box so you can read and reply to them immediately … Read more

Why the Palm Pre must launch at $149

Ever since Palm trotted out the Pre at CES in January there's been a lot of speculation over what price tag Sprint would slap on its smartphone savior when it finally came out this spring. Initial reports pegged the Pre at $399. But that high price was quickly downplayed as a nonsubsidized, sans contract version. As we wait for official pricing--an announcement could come any day--the pundits seem to have settled on the $199 to $299 range as the likely number. But I'm here to tell you Sprint has to do better. It has to break $199 and … Read more

CTIA 2009 wrap-up

As CTIA 2009 closes, so does the busy cell phone trade show season that began three months ago at CES. And now that the CNET crew has left Las Vegas for San Francisco and New York City, we've had a chance to reflect on what CTIA gave us. I'll describe the highlights in detail below, but be sure to check out our CTIA videos and CTIA photo galleries. We also picked our favorite products for the Best of CTIA.

A snoozer of a show Though there were plenty of new phones to handle, CTIA was rather quiet. Sure, the torpid economy is a likely culprit, but CTIA has a bigger strike against it. Since it follows the two much bigger blowouts of CES and the GSMA World Congress, CTIA just can't offer the same level of news.

It's not really CTIA's fault--after all, a U.S.-focused show can't be expected to compete with global events--but I'm not the first to suggest that CTIA should switch its schedule to later in the year. But as I said, there was plenty to report.

Getting the message If there was one theme at CTIA 2009, it was the messaging phone. A total of five new models made their first appearance in Las Vegas, with Samsung and AT&T leading the way.

On the Monday before the show, Sammy and AT&T unveiled the Samsung Impression and the Samsung Magnet. Both offer full QWERTY keyboards on a different theme. While the Magnet offers minimal features and a simple design, the Impression has a comfortable slider design, a brilliant display, and mid-range multimedia. It made such an impression on us that we picked it as our top phone of the show. … Read more

Samsung to launch two Android devices in U.S.

During Samsung's press conference at CTIA 2009, company executives didn't have much to say about its Android plans, other than that it's on track to deliver devices during the second half of 2009.

However, Samsung Mobile's executive vice president of global product strategy, Won-Pyo Hong, was feeling a little more chatty and revealed some new details in a conversation with Forbes.

While Hong didn't get any more specific about release dates, he did say the United States will get two smartphones using Google's mobile operating system later this year and that they will be … Read more

FCC pressed on iPhone Skype, tethering apps

Correction 5:15 p.m. PDT: This story initially misstated the author of the letter where quoted. It is the Free Press.

An advocacy group on Friday called on the Federal Communications Commission to require wireless carriers to allow consumers access to Skype via smartphones, as well as the ability to connect their devices to the Internet through tethering applications on their cell phones.

The Free Press, in a letter to acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps, expressed concern that wireless carriers were not abiding by the FCC's Internet Policy Statement.

Earlier this week, eBay's Skype made a VoIP … Read more

The best of CTIA 2009

As CTIA comes to a close, we pause to select the best products from the show. The scene in Las Vegas was much quieter than in past years, and it lacked any high-profile announcements like the Palm Pre. But, there were a few products that deserve recognition as the Cream of the Crop from CTIA 2009.

Best phone: Samsung Impression

For the third year in a row, Samsung takes the title of the best phone in CTIA. While the Samsung Impression can't quite compete with the hype of last year's Instinct or 2007's Upstage, it is the most practical of the three. And in a year where messaging phones were all the rage, it stands out in a crowded field as the one of the best-designed messaging phones we've seen in a while.

The keyboard is spacious and tactile, and while the handset isn't quite sexy, it has a pleasant, minimalist shape that feels nice in the hand. Yet the Impression's biggest draw is its gorgeous active-matrix organic light-emitting diode display. As Samsung promised, the display is positively brilliant with bright colors and vibrant graphics. Features are decent, even if they're not groundbreaking.

Inside you'll find a 3-megapixel camera, a full HTML browser, Bluetooth, Samsung's TouchWiz interface, 3G support with access to Cellular Video and AT&T Music, a personal organizer, AT&T Navigator, and a speakerphone. No, that won't knock your socks off; in fact, you might even see it as somewhat boring. But as we said before, the Impression's story is more about functional features and an intuitive design rather than flash and glam. And at a very quiet show, it deserves its prize. The Impression will be out soon with AT&T; we should have a review shortly.

For more on the Impression, see our photo gallery and video.

Best smartphone: HTC Snap

Aside from rising importance of applications, the other theme of CTIA 2009 was messaging. We saw a slew of new messaging devices debut at the show, and it extended to smartphones. While the Nokia E71x and Samsung Propel Pro were nice additions to AT&T's lineup, the HTC Snap stood out for its Inner Circle feature.

With a simple press of a button, Inner Circle brings e-mails from a preselected group of people to the top of your in-box so you can read and reply to them immediately. The capability isn't the wave of the future, but it does help prioritize your e-mails based on your preferences.

In addition, HTC, once again did a nice job on the design. The Snap is a beautifully constructed and sleek smartphone. The QWERTY keyboard also features good-size buttons for easy messaging. Finally, don't be fooled by its diminutive size, as it's packed with features, including Windows Mobile 6.1, push e-mail, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G, and a 2-megapixel camera. We look forward to checking out the U.S. version of the Snap, the HTC S522, when it's released in the summer. … Read more