Nokia’s Asha line of less-expensive smartphones, not developed on Microsoft’s Windows Phone but Nokia’s own proprietary OS, is getting a new boost of attention today. The company is unveiling a new (and free) premium developer program for Asha developers. Modelled on a premium program started for Lumia developers last year, those participating will get extra developer resources, credits towards… → Read More
The smartphone boom is continuing apace, but with growth comes mutation: new figures out from Deloitte estimate that 2013 will be the first year that the industry collectively ships 1 billion smartphones worldwide, taking the total installed base of smartphones to nearly 2 billion. However, at the same time, the definition of “smartphone” is changing, perhaps in some surprising ways. → Read More
This morning, web browser maker Opera announced a new way for mobile operators to offer web access to subscribers who don’t have a data plan. The service, called “Opera Web Pass,” will instead allow subscribers to purchase temporary web access for an hour or a day, or even just purchase access to a particular online service like Facebook or Google+. → Read More
Twitter just announced an update to its mobile site that is meant to bring it up to par with the new version of Twitter the company introduced in December. According to Twitter, the idea behind this update is to “give every person on the planet a consistent Twitter experience.” Because of this, the company says, the new version of the mobile site now uses one-third less bandwidth than the previous… → Read More
Do women need special cell phones? Certain companies, such as Deutsche Telekom or Samsung, seem to think so. Now Fujitsu Japan is ready to roll out [JP] not one but two handsets specifically designed “for girls”, a feature phone and an Android model.
The Android phone, the so-called F-03D Girls’, has been developed in cooperation with popular teenage fashion magazine Popteen. → Read More
Japan’s second biggest carrier KDDI took the wraps off [JP] a total of eight new cell phones for the domestic market today. To be more concrete, the telco (which is likely to become the second in Japan to provide the iPhone 5) showed six Android handsets (the Arrows Z is the most impressive) and two feature phones.
Here are all models that KDDI showed today: → Read More
Japan’s mobile carriers are currently releasing a number of interesting handsets, which are all part of their summer 2011 line-up. While smartphones, the iPhone and Android in particular, are taking over the Japanese market, there are still some cool feature phones coming out, too. → Read More
Revolution in mobile-crazy Japan: Market research firm GFK Japan is reporting [JP, PDF] that more smartphones than feature phones have been sold in the country between March 28 and April 3. To be more concrete, 50.1% of all devices sold in Japan in that week were iOS, Android, Windows or BlackBerry phones (see chart). → Read More
KDDI, Japan’s second biggest mobile carrier, has today announced its cell phone line-up for the coming winter and spring. The company has shown not only three smartphones and two new iida “designer phones”, which we covered here, but also 14 new feature phones, some of which boast impressive specs. → Read More
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