Today, Vodafone K.K. presented Vodafone 904SH, made by Sharp, the first GSM phone with VGA display (480×640 pixels).
The Sharp 904 clamshell device has an internal VGA resolution 262K colors display, which is four times better than the QVGA resolution. The 904SH also has Motion Control Sensor, wich enables measuring handset posture in all directions in 3D. It also has the first Face Recognition technology.

tags: Sharp 904

28 February 2006, London, Sony Ericsson launched the K800 and K790 phones, the first handsets of Cyber-shot™ new brand. Both are highly capable mobile phones with integrated 3.2 Megapixel digital cameras with Autofocus, Xenon flash and BestPic™. K800 and K790 combine advanced image capture capabilities with high speed data transfer. K800 is a dual-mode UMTS/GPRS phone and the K790 is a Tri Band EDGE phone. Both are expected to be available from Q2 2006.

tags: Sony Ericsson K800, Sony Ericsson k790

28 February 2006, London, Sony Ericsson announced today three quality handsets with good digital photography and simple operation to create albums, search for pictures by timeline and send them on by MMS. The phones are:

tags: Sony Ericsson k310, Sony Ericsson k510, Sony Ericsson z530

London, Sony Ericsson today announced new Walkman® phone - the W300, a quad band EDGE clamshell. Sony Ericsson has now seven Walkman® phones, targeted at different customer needs and life-style choices.

tags: Sony Ericsson W300, Walkman

Rumors have that Sony Ericsson will unveil a new Walkman handset, the W530, at the same time as the K800i. This clamshell unit is said to come with a Memory Stick Micro slot for memory expansion and dedicated music playback buttons.

tags: sony ericsson, sony ericsson w530, w530, walkman

Straight from a leak (the FCC database) we have a flip phone from Samsung - Samsung W399 which supports Tri-band GSM and CDMA networks. The device features 2 SIM card slots for this purpose is obviously aimed at the business user who is frequently traveling. It has Bluetooth, a 1.3MP camera and GPS.

tags: bluetooth, ffc, samsung, samsung w399, w399

Recent pictures of a Sony Ericsson phone posted on a German blog site have further added fuel to rumors that Sony Ericsson may be unveiling a K800i handset at its launch Tuesday. According to the specifications provided on several enthusiast sites, the supposed K800i phone, codenamed Wilma, will come with a 3.2-megapixel camera and sport a slide-down lens cover similar to the Cyber-shot T-series digital cameras. Other futures of the phone are rumored to be a QVGA (320 x 240 pixels) screen, FM tuner, 3G and Memory Stick Micro slot. Camera features such as 16x digital zoom, red-eye reduction and image stabilizer are said to be onboard the phone.

tags: k800, sony ericsson, sony ericsson k800

Another leak with new and improved shots of the Sony Ericsson Mulan turned up recently. First seen October 2005, these recent photos show supposedly a new model in the Walkman line likely to be named W530. It is going to be the first walkman phone in folder format. From the pictures it seems that this model has a large primary LCD screen and a smaller secondary external display, USB and VGA or better resolution camera and it has a Memory Stick M2 card slot.

tags: Mulan, Sony Ericsson, Sony Ericsson Mulan, Sony Ericsson w530

It is perhaps too early for a complete and conclusive analysis but there are several points to be mentioned out already.

1. there was not much of 3G on show, GSM is holding and it is not likely to surrender this year
2. not too many surprises - all major players are mainly concentrated on budget and middle segments
3. mobiles with HDD are not a joke any more, both Nokia and Samsung already have 3-4 GB HDD phones and larger disks are soon to follow
4. WI-FI - Nokia presented an interesting model but on the whole the wi-fi-sation of mobiles is short from expectations
5. no giant leaps on the camera front either, 1 megapixel is a standard, 3 is good but it is not likely that we will soon be seeing larger resolution in middle price segment
6. music phones is where the real fighting is and Sony Ericsson with their Walkman series is as always ahead
7. Mobile TV is likely to take off this year

On the whole, the picture shows steady development but nothing too exciting (which is a bit of a disappointment though).

tags: 3GSM congress, HDD phones, Nokia, Samsung, Wi-Fi

The 3GSM congress is opening tomorrow (the 3GSM Congress will also include a Mobile Entertainment Summit, from 14 - 16 February). For the first time the event will take place not in Cannes but in Barcelona, Spain. What to expect from this big event?

1. Phones with Wi-Fi (WLAN)
2. handsets capable of receiving broadcast TV signals. Mobile TV.
3. and plenty of new technologies, services and gadgets (probably useless)

Nokia is one of several vendors expected to unveil new dual-mode 3G and Wi-Fi phones.

Samsung will present their ultra-thin SGH-Z150 3G phone. The W-CDMA/UMTS device is only 9.8mm thick and supports Video On Demand (VOD) technology.

Open-source software, including the Linux operating system, is expected to surface in several new handsets targeting both the business and consumer markets.

Hot topic - VoIP (voice over IP) technology. Skype, a household word for fixed-line VoIP, has been reaching out to collaborate with mobile phone operators and handset manufacturers.

High-speed networking, especially for data services. Several vendors plan to use the Barcelona event to show their high-speed networking systems.

tags: 3gsm, 3gsm congress, handsets, mobile, mobile event, services, technology, vendors