All in all I like this device!

PS — the phone also works nice — however I find myself doing more texting, emailing than calling Microsoft Mobile Office comes preloaded.

Just getting back into the swing after a bit of a getaway. Now that summer is gone and fall is on the horizon, I am placing my focus on a release of the field service handheld tool.

Smartphone

According to a recent report from Aberdeen Group the increase in the number of mobile workers is now driving the adoption of unified communications. In the past, only a select few (e.g. high-level executives) carried mobile devices such as the BlackBerry and other types of smartphones (Torrieri, 2009).

Now however in a tighter marketplace, where getting more done with less still prevails the promise of (UC) Unified Communications is looking better and better. Being able to have workers not only mobile but able to communicate over not just their laptop/notebook platforms but with their smartphone is looking to be a way to ring more efficiency out of the work process while improving customer rapport, faster time-to-resolution for both customer and employee problem-solving and communications.

To me this means it’s time to get into the market!

If you are developing — these firms are going to need new applications or scaled down versions of their familiar desktop applications to blend into the UC environment.

If you are in sales, it’s time to raise the awareness of these organization regarding what applications are already available (and saleable for you!)

What do you think?

References

 Marisa Torrieri, TMCnet Editor, November 10, 2009, Report: Mobile Worker Growth Drives Unified Communications, Retrieved November 21, 2009 from http://www.tmcnet.com/channels/mobile-management/ 

Some interesting stats were revealed in the research:

• 1.1 billion mobile phones are forecast by the end of the year
• Smartphone are expected to generate the most mobile revenue in the coming years

Smartphone operating systems tracked include Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, Linux, Palm, Symbian, and Windows Mobile.

Companies tracked include Apple, Cisco, D-Link, HTC, Huawei, LG, Motorola, NETGEAR, Nokia, Polycom, RIM, Samsung, Sony-Ericsson, Vocera, ZTE and others.

Welcome to a world where you will have one device that will allow you to make a phone call, access the Internet and do you office applications on the go with a handheld device.

What are your thoughts on this topic!

Motorola's latest iPhone killer!

A major contractor of the Department of Defense (DOD), Raytheon, is using Android to develop an application for deployment in the field in Afghanistan and Pakistan (Woyke, E., 2009). The system called RATS, Raytheon Android Tactical System, is designed to allow a soldier to create a “buddy” list to keep track of his buddies by using GPS. Raytheon’s Vice President of Business Development Mark Bigham says the major reason for selecting the Android OS was, “Its open source made developing applications easy.” The RATS system,  built with the soldier in mind,  is tailored specifically for the battlefield. The RATS application also allows the soldier to use the Android’s camera to send streaming video to a “buddy,”  who can then watch the video — say, from an airplane! Very impressive!

References

Woyke, Elizabeth, Raytheon Sends Android to Battlefield, 10/09/2009, Retrieved 11/04/2009 from http://www.forbes.com/2009/10/19/android-google-military-technology-wireless-raytheon.html

The handset works on 2G network, on quad band GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 frequencies. On 3 G network, it works on dual band frequencies of 900 and 2100. There is an accelerometer sensor for auto rotating of the display. You can navigate swiftly with the help of the touch-sensitive zoom bar. It also supports handwriting recognition. The Qualcomm MSM7225A processor has a speed of 528 MHz. You can call your friends by browsing and selecting their photo clips only; there is no need to type their names. With Windows Mobile 6.5, you get the new version of Internet Explorer. The Flash Lite support allows you to play You Tube videos straight from the website. It supports Live Messenger for chatting, and Facebook too. You can easily set up your personal and work email accounts. This way you can easily keep a balance between your work and personal life.

Your handset comes with Windows Marketplace. Here you can browse applications and games, and can download them and upgrade your mobile so that it improves with time as your demands and needs grow. You can have weather reports on your home screen and news updates. The dual band HSPA that works on frequencies 900 and 2100 MHz gives you the up linking speed of 384 Kbps and down linking speed of 7.2 Kbps. It also runs on quad band GSM, GPRS and EDG, at the frequencies of 850/900/1800/1900 MHz. You can locally connect with Bluetooth 2.1 that comes  with Enhanced Data Rate. A Bluetooth headset gives you the ease of talking handsfree. You can also use a 3.5 mm audio jack. To transfer data, you can also use HTC ExtUSB.

The 3.2 mega pixel camera comes with fixed focus; you can click beautiful pictures and then upload your photos and videos on the web into your personal photo blog or websites like Facebook. The audio formats supported are AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, QCP, MP3, WMA, WAV, MIDI and M4A and video formats like WMV, ASF, MP4, 3GP, 3G2, M4V and AVI . The capacity of the battery is 1100 mAh. The talk time it delivers is 370 minutes on WCDMA and 440 minutes on GSM. The stand by time is 500 hours on WCDMA and 370 hours on GSM. You can expand its memory by using a microSD card.  HTC Touch 2 is a fabulous smartphone that comes with upgraded features of the new Windows OS. This makes it exceptional  andmeans it will never go out of date. It can be a perfect choice.

Motorola's latest iPhone killer!

While the DROID is a superior platform — open source  operating system, faster processor and so on, as always perception is generally more important, in the consumer cell phone market, than are the technical achievements under the hood.

TAOYUAN, TAIWAN -    
For more than six months, HTC enjoyed the privilege of being the only cellphone maker to have a handset running on Google’s mobile platform, Android.     

Several manufacturers, including Samsung, Motorola and LG have since crowded in. Motorola, which announced a new Android phone with Verizon Wireless on Oct. 28, is forging particularly close ties with Google.     

Peter Chou, HTC’s chief executive and president, takes a measured view of the competition. “You cannot expect you are the only player in town. … You need other players to come and make the ecosystem stronger,” he told Forbes in an interview at HTC’s Taiwanese headquarters.     

HTC is strengthening partnerships too. The company will introduce an Android phone on Verizon later this year, Chou confirmed. He says the handset, which will likely debut in the first week of November, is a sign of HTC’s growing rapport with Verizon, the largest U.S. wireless operator. “We’ve worked with Verizon for several years, but this is the first time we’ve been elevated to the role of core supplier,” he says. “We are very excited about that opportunity.”     

Chou declined to comment on his negotiations with AT&T, the one major U.S. carrier that has yet to carry HTC’s Android phones. Instead, he hinted that HTC would do less customization work for some of its carrier customers. “In the past, we perhaps made too many phone models,” says Chou. “Now we’re putting more effort into seeing how we can sell more volume per model.”     

In the cutthroat smart phone market, even winning favored status with operators can’t guarantee strong sales. That’s one reason why Chou recently approved HTC’s first global advertising campaign. The ads, which play on the word “you” as a sign of the company’s commitment to its customers, will roll out across 20 countries in coming weeks.     

The multimillion-dollar campaign represents a second phase of brand development for HTC, says Chou. Between 2006 and early 2009, HTC was transitioning from being a contract manufacturer to a company that emphasized its own brand. Now, the company feels prepared to push toward a “premium, top-tier brand” that can take on household names like Apple and Nokia, says Chou.     

The fact that HTC’s newest products, such as its Hero and Tattoo phones, all clearly feature the company’s name and logo should bolster the campaign, he adds. (Chou says he’s not concerned that the ads have drawn comparisons to Yahoo!’s new “It’s You” marketing campaign. The Internet giant occupies a different market, he points out.)     

“Whether we can compete with [companies like Nokia] on scale is a different subject, but our profile needs to be viewed as first tier,” says Chou. “It’s very hard to use a second-tier brand to compete with these companies.”     

HTC may be updating its brand, but it’s sticking by its longtime partner, Microsoft. Though other handset makers such as Motorola have dropped Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system in favor of Android, Chou says HTC has no plans to follow. That doesn’t mean he’s not frustrated with the software. “Windows Mobile innovation has been a little slow and interest in Windows Mobile phones has been declining,” he admits.     

HTC’s solution is the HD2, a wafer-thin handset that combines a 4.3-inch touchscreen with a high-end processor for snappy downloads and fast Web browsing. The phone, which was unveiled earlier this month, runs the latest version of Windows Mobile (6.5) as well as some flashy HTC software. “We’re working hard on these kinds of products to get excitement about Windows Mobile back,” says Chou.     

Gadget fans have been clamoring for an Android version of the HD2, but Chou hints that the handset will stay as is. “Technically, we could make the HD2 an Android phone, but I have to take care of Windows Mobile,” says Chou.     

HTC’s loyalty also extends to Google, even amid reports that the search giant is developing its own Android handset. “Google tries to do things differently from the rest of the industry,” Chou notes. While some of Google’s actions can be “destructive,” Chou says, HTC still values the partnership. “We’ve worked with Microsoft for 13 years … I also believe we can work with Google for a long time,” he adds.     

As more gadgets tap mobile data networks, phone makers have started producing netbooks, e-readers and tablet computers. Chou says HTC will buck the trend. “There is a lot of pressure to do these things, but we are a relatively small company and need to be very picky,” he says. Elizabeth Woyke, 10.28.09, 6:10 PM ET    

According to Manali Oak,  Windows mobile is an operating system that is combined with a suite of basic applications for mobile phones. Smartphones and PocketPCs run on Windows Mobile. Similarly, the iTunes digital media player application introduced by Apple is compatible with Apple’s iPhone. iTunes can also be used to download music, television shows, games and other applications from the Internet. Originally, Motorola mobile phones supported the synching of iTunes library with cell phones. Certain mobile phone applications have capabilities of converting YouTube videos to formats compatible with mobile phones. Moreover, most of these applications do not require technical expertise and can be easily installed on cell phones.

One of the very popular cell phone applications is the Yahoo mobile, which allows the mobile users to be on Yahoo messenger through their cell phone. This application does not require to be installed on a cell phone. A fairly simple change in the Yahoo messenger settings can allow users to interact with their online buddies through their cell phones. Certain mobile phones feature support for the installation and running of chat and video conferencing applications. Synchronica, a software vendor based in the UK, offers mobile push email synchronization solutions. AIM Sync is a free service that allows the synchronization of mobile devices with Microsoft Outlook.

While some mobile phone applications enrich user experience, others encourage user creativity. Yes, certain mobile applications allow their users to create their own ring tones. They allow the users to compose melodies, edit them and apply them as alert tones. Some applications also feature a fragment tool, whereby a user can crop and edit movie songs according to the user’s preferences and use them as ring tones. Many of these cell phone applications facilitate the customization of mobile phones through the creation of mobile phone themes, wallpapers and animations.

Another group of mobile phone applications is of those offering Internet connectivity. These applications provide the users with emailing and Internet browsing facilities. Some of them also support the posting of blogs and uploading of media over the Internet. They allow the users to publish their work on the Internet by means of their mobile phones. Browser applications that can run on mobile phones provide users with an easy Internet access.

There are GPS-enabled cell phones that serve as tracking and locating devices. Google Maps for Mobile is a very popular application for mobile phones. It is a Java application introduced by Google that can run on any Java based mobile device. It also includes a location service, which makes use of the GPS location of the mobile receiver to identify the mobile user’s geographical location. Spy cell phones host software applications that convert cell phones into tracking and monitoring devices. Installing these applications on a mobile phone helps the user keep track of his/her household and business activities.

This was an outline of some of the different types of applications for mobiles. One thing is for sure; mobile applications have given a new dimension to the world of mobile phones.

Usually when these kinds of issues show up, they are at the startup for the computer itself.  It usually turns out that the user has (knowingly or not) chosen  to start up several programs so these programs (e.g.,  Word, Excel, Outlook, SnagIt) will not have to load from scratch when the user calls for them.

OK, so the way that is fixed is, programs are dropped from the startup folder until an acceptable startup time is arrived at.

But what is the analogy with a browser? Hmm….