Recently in smartphone apps Category

The T-Mobile Motorola CLIQ with MOTOBLUR, the first Android -powered device from Motorola and the only device to feature MOTOBLUR this holiday season goes on sale today.

To celebrate the CLIQ's arrival, also launched the T-Mobile Motorola CLIQ Challenge today, a nationwide contest to build the largest college fan club on Facebook.

The T-Mobile CLIQ delivers a powerful 3G mobile Web experience by harnessing the strength and speed of T-Mobile's 3G network and Wi-Fi. Available in two colors - Titanium and Winter White - the CLIQ features a full slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a 3.1-inch HVGA full touch-screen display, support for T-Mobile's high-speed 3G network and Wi-Fi, a 5 megapixel auto-focus camera with video capture, a 3.5mm headset jack, a music player with pre-loaded Amazon MP3 store application, Shazam, iMeem Mobile, AccuWeather, MySpace Mobile, Quickoffice and a pre-installed 2GB microSD memory.

With integrated Google technology, the CLIQ brings one-touch access to the popular Google mobile services millions use every day, including Google Search by voice, Google Maps with Street View, YouTube and Picasa. The CLIQ also provides easy access to both personal and corporate e-mail, calendars, and contacts supported by Exchange Server and Gmail. E-mail is also supported by Yahoo!, Windows Live Hotmail, and other POP3 and IMAP e-mail services.

Handangoannounced the results of its bi-annual Handango Yardstick for insight into the smartphone content industry. For the first time ever, BlackBerry displaced Windows Mobile to become the dominant platform within the Handango smartphone content catalog, constituting 44% of all apps sold in the first half of 2009, up from its 31% share in 2008.

HANDANGO'S TOP TEN - Best Sellers List (Across Platforms) January-June 2009

1. Spb Mobile Shell 3
2. MobiTV
3. Ringtone Megaplex
4. Aces Texas Hold'em
5. The Weather Channel
6. SPB Weather
7. Bejeweled
8. Alltel TV
9. Aces Solitaire Pack
10. SPB Backuup

Tellme will be vocalizing search and command in Windows Mobile phones this fall. Tellme claims to be is the first to allow people to press one button, say what they want and get it, whether that is to send a text, make a call or search for information.

The new service puts many of the most popular phone functions behind a single button. Windowsphone users just press the side button of their phone to do the following:

• Send a text by saying "text" to open a text box, then speak the text message and say "send" to send it to anyone in their contact list
•  Start a call simply by saying "call" and then the name of anyone in their contact list
•  Search the Web with Microsoft Live Search by speaking your request, such as "weather in San Francisco, California," "pizza in Kansas City," "movies" or "Mother's Day gift ideas.

We're still sorting through all the great things we saw at CTIA and realize that we were impressed with the Qik demo at the BlackBerry booth. Qik is a video sharing service that allows you to stream live video from your smartphone camera to the Qik website or other website.

Qik is today's free BlackBerry and Smartphone App of the Day for people who like to share through video.

Qik suggests you use the service to share family moments such as a new baby or birthday party which you can also share to MySpace or Orkut. They say you can broadcast events and news spontaneously and share the results live on any website. Qik allows you to broadcast to partner sites like Mogulus, Justin.tv, and Twitter. Qik can be used to record incidents for legal and insurance purposes or provide live customer support.

Qik has a chat feature so your friends can comment on the action as it happens. Mrs. Kutcher aka Demi Moore uses Qik to video blog her life and is very popular on Qik.

For BlackBerry users there is an alpa version of Qik, for BlackBerry Bold, BlackBerry Curve, BlackBerry Pearl and BlackBerry Storm available by browsing in your BlackBerry browser to d.qik.com.  Qik supports iPhone, HTC Windows Mobile Phones, Nokia phones, BlackJack, Motorola Q, AT&T Tilt and others.

The Samsung Impression is now being sold by AT&T. It has an AMOLED (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode). We saw the screen at CTIA and it is really impressive, because of the way it uses power and doesn't change appearance under different light, such as sunlight. The AMOLED uses less power and is stunning to look at, especially for photos and video. We say "Ole!" to AMOLED because colors are more vivid. "Viva OLED!"

The Samsung Impression, has a  slide-out keyboard underneath and is still slim. AT&T calls it a quick messaging phone that's all touchscreen on the outside, all buttons on the inside.

Other features of the Samsung Impression include a 3-megapixel camera a full HTML browser, Bluetooth, Samsung's TouchWiz interface, 3G support with access to Cellular Video and, a personal organizer, AT&T Navigator, and a speakerphone.
 
The retail price is 199.99, with of a 2-yr contract agreement and a $50 mail-in card rebate or $399.99 witthout a contract. The best deal discount on the Samsung Impression is by using the Wireless and Mobile News $50 off online only coupon-link with the purchase of the Samsung Impression with a plan. Free shipping is included with online activation.  The nice thing about this messaging phone is that you are not required to buy a data plan with the smartphone like you have to do with the iPhone.
     

Informa Telecoms & Media predict that in 2009, total new handset sales will fall 10.1% year on year. Smartphone sales will maintain robust growth, 35.3% year on year - Smartphone penetration will reach 13.5% of new handsets sold.

In 2013, Informa Telecoms & Media forecasts that smartphone penetration will treble to just over 38%

They also predict the move to adopt open source will help the Symbian Foundation maintain its leadership over Android, Linux and Microsoft.

“The smartphone segment is no longer as simple as it was a few years ago”, says Gavin Byrne, Research Analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media. “Since early 2007 Symbian, Microsoft, Linux and BlackBerry OS have been joined by Apple’s OS X iPhone, Android and recently Palm’s Web OS”.

Changing software platform strategies Openness is a key criterion, while all in the mobile telecoms space now see the revenue potential of applications and services.

Now more than ever, handset vendors must develop strategies to maximize these new revenue streams while reducing costs. Factors like these have led device vendors to alter their software platform strategies, like LG’s recent public declaration of its intention to launch 50 new mobile handsets using Microsoft Windows Mobile. In the past year Motorola, Sony Ericsson and HTC have also significantly modified their approach to the smartphone market. It has also become a growing focus for ODMs and for the operator focused strategies of ZTE and Huawei.

Wow, some smartphone users spent a lot of money on apps for their smartphones a whopping 16.5% spent between $100 and $499 .

The stats are from survey of 235 US smartphone users who installed applications on their devices in 2008, conducted by ABI Research in November. The level of spending is especially significant given the low cost of most mobile applications, ranging from as little as a dollar or two at Apple's iPhone App Store, to at most about $25.

Those low App Store prices are one of the contentious issues discussed in a new global ABI Research study of mobile application storefronts.

 

Windows Mobile now offers a mobile application for Netflix. The new Netflix application for Windows Mobile phones allows customers  to manage  Netflix functions from a mobile device.

Users can search the entire Netflix library for the next film, get complete movie details, and even manage the DVD queue. The queue can be updated by moving films up, moving films down, or removing films from your queue.

A feature exclusive to Windows Mobile is the ability to play previews right on the Windows Mobile device. After watching a preview, user can then add the movie to your Instant Queue so you can instantly watch the movie on your Xbox 360.

Managing a Netflix account can be accessed with  Mobile Manager for Netflix and a Windows Mobile smartphone.

Handango announced the top sellers for Windows Mobile devices in their Yardstick.  As an added bonus to our readers if you click on the ad at the end of this article you'll get 20% off!

Windows Mobile Professional (Formerly Pocket PC)
Windows Mobile Professsional had the most new content providers of any platform at 382 and remains the largest platform by units. Samsung's Omnia and the HTC Touch Diamond were two new devices in the list of top ten smartphones
adding content.

The top-five best-selling applications for WMP in 2008 were:
1. Spb Mobile Shell 2.1.4 (today screen plug-in)
2. MobiTV (streaming television)
3. Spb Backup 2.0.1 (file backup)
4. Spb Pocket Plus 4.0.2 (today screen plug-in)
5. Pocket Informant 8 (today screen plug-in)

Handango announced its 2008 Handango Yardstick, that measures apps for smartphones

In 2008, Handango added a 1,300 new content providers to its network with almost 10,000 new applications across all categories with an overall average purchase price of almost $20 per application.

HANDANGO’S TOP TEN - 2008 Best Sellers List (Across Platforms)
1. Spb Mobile Shell 2.1.4 (today screen plug-in) - $29.95.
2. MobiTV (streaming television) - $9.99/month.
3. Ringtone Megaplex (ringtones) - $19.95.
4. Spb Backup 2.0.1 (file backup) - $24.95.
5. Spb Pocket Plus 4.0.2 (today screen plug-in) - $29.95.
6. Pocket Informant 8 (today screen plug-in) - $29.95.
7. Spb Phone Suite 1.3 (phone features) - $19.95.
8. VoiceControl (voice command) - $6.00.
9. Colour Your Trackball (trackball customizer) - $4.95.
10. eWallet (Professional Edition) (PIM manager) - $29.95.

To save 20% on these titles and more, click on the ad at the end of this article.

Wirefly, to celebrate  MLK day and the inauguration, are offering some sales.  The most popular one appears to be a free Samsung Eternity touchscreen phone after instant discount with a new AT&T account. The offer ends 1/20 at midnight EST. Too get the offer you must use the links in this article or the ad on the right side of this page.

As part of the Inaugural sale customers get free FedEx shipping on all cell phones and accessories.

For people who need a handsfree headset, Wirefly is giving our readers a new coupon code for Wireless and Mobile News subscribers for a free Bluetooth headset with any cell phone purchase or upgrade. To receive the discount, you must click on the link in this paragraph and use the coupon code WIREFLYBT23 at checkout.

They also have a deal to save $250 on the BlackBerry Bold with a new account and contract with the smartphone costing $149.99 for new customers and $199.99 for renewing customers.

Wirefly is still offering one of the cheapest prices on the Verizon Berry Storm at $149.99 with rebates for new customers with a contract. Wireless and Mobile News named the BlackBerry Storm top Wireless and Mobile News Story of 2008.

Another smartphone that appeared in our top stories of 2008 was the T-Mobile G1. The Wirefly price is $179.99 for new accounts for the T-Mobile G1 with Google.

Windows has updated the Live Search Mobile app for Windows Mobile. They've added some features that make it easier to find local businesses and to get maps and directions on mobile phones.

For starters, there's no more fumbling around with your phone trying to enter your exact location. Location detection helps users automatically find their location even on phones without GPS.

They've also added predictive query input to help speed up searches. After entering a few letters, users can browse through previous searches as well as some suggested ones.

There's now an additional perspective to mapping called "Bird's Eye." This view gives a 3D-like view to help you identify places of interest.

The update supports versions of Windows mobile down to Windows Mobile 5. To download the application go to wls.live.com.

Scanbuy now offers a Google Android version of  its ScanLife multi-barcode reader that uses the camera in the smartphone to read the bar code and then execute functions.

With ScanLife users can scan all major 2D barcode formats (Datamatrix, EZcode, QR). Then information is automatically displayed about a website, a video can be launched or a phone number dialed. The app can also load contact information into compatible phone's address book or launch a Facebook page.

People can go to www.scanlife.com to create their own bar codes for free which link to their social networking sites or contact information. These codes can be placed on websites, business cards, and other printed or digital media.

Comment from Wireless and Mobile News, instead of saying "Google me, you can now say scan my barcode." If you scan the bar code in this article you will be taken to Wireless and Mobile News on the web.

Besides, Android, the ScanLife software is also compatible with BlackBerry, iPhone, Java, Symbian and Windows Mobile. This free app can be downloaded from Android Market or by going to www.getscanlife.com  through a mobile browser.