14 DAY TRIAL // Another week, another series of news, rumors and updates on handsets, operating systems and applications for mobile phones passed by. This is the last week of January, and most of you are certainly looking forward for February to arrive, as the Mobile World Congress 2010 is set to kick off in the middle of that month in Barcelona, Spain. There are high hopes that most enthusiasts have regarding this year's event, and Windows Mobile fans are those to wait for it most, as Microsoft should unveil the next-generation WM7 there.
This week's news were dominated by new rumors on Microsoft's mobile client, which culminated with the confirmation of plans to unveil Windows Mobile 7 at MWC. Last week, we spotted a Windows Mobile 6.5 SDK on the company's website, accidentally released, it seems, and which was said to include the long rumored WM 6.5.3. In addition, there is a new Windows Live client available for Windows Phones, we learned that WM7 might indeed arrive on the market in 2010, that Microsoft has scheduled two WM-related events for February, and that the Pure and Turtle Pink phones are mentioned in a recent Zune software update.
[admark=1]Also related to Windows Mobile, we learned that Toshiba's TG02 has cleared FCC, that HTC has released new software updates for its HD2 and Touch2 phones, and that it is also working on a new WM 7 phone, other than the previously leaked Obsession. HTC is also known to be working on new Android phones, such as the myTouch Slide for T-Mobile, or the Supersonic and Bravo that were spotted in leaked photos, two sets for the former. The company delivers Sense to Magic via a ROM upgrade, was rumored to be leaking false info on its devices on purpose, and might deliver an HD3 phone to the market before the end of this year, not to mention that the HD2 it will launch via T-Mobile packs boosted hardware specs.
RIM's BlackBerry phones made it to the headlines too, with Bold 9700 being launched in Spain via Orange and in India via a great deal of carriers, with a video of BlackBerry Magnum available, a confirmation from RIM that BlackBerry Tour 9650 is nearing its launch date, BlackBerry Curve 8330 available for Boost Mobile's users, and with lower prices for Bold 2 and Storm (and Palm Pre) at Bell Canada. Palm Pre is now available free of contract from its maker, along with Pixi and the Plus versions, which also landed at the beginning of the week at Verizon.
Motorola confirmed during this week that it would release a phone via Google's web store in the future, and the company's MOTOROI handset, which already sees strong demand in South Korea, was spotted at FCC with T-Mobile connectivity. Motorola DROID's processor has been overclocked at 1.1GHz, and even higher, some say, and the phone's carrier, Verizon, recommends a series of new apps for DROID users to try out. The company launched Motorola A45 Eco in North America, might bring a Zeppelin handset at MWC, and announced that it managed to ship 12 million phones during the fourth quarter of the last year.
Other mobile industry players also posted their financial results for Q4 2009 and for the entire last year, including AT&T, Verizon, LG Electronics or Nokia, which also announced executives changes, and we spotted a great deal of reports on the mobile phone market as well, coming from IDC or Strategy Analytics. 3G has managed to pass over the 500 million users mark, 13.25 million of which live in China, Windows Mobile was said to be adopted by businesses more than BlackBerry, and we also learned that UK users send 11 million text messages each and every hour. And the number increases continuously.
Among the other important news, we can mention the 911 fix Rogers delivered to Dream and Magic users, the comparison between Nexus One and DROID in sunlight, a Nokia X6 16GB model that was officially launched, the Sanyo Incognito by Kyocera available for Boost Mobile's users, or that Android 2.1 update that HTC Hero will receive in March (Sprint also said that it was moving closer to release it). Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 for Rogers emerged in a video and was announced to arrive at T-Mobile Germany in April, Samsung was said to be working on a Galaxy 2, while owners of a Maemo-based Nokia N900 can now enjoy Firefox for Mobile on their handsets, which should arrive on Android too in the following several months.