HTC Bravo Review

Here’s an update on one of the phones featured in the leaked HTC 2010 line-up. Shown here in a better quality picture is the HTC Bravo. We now know that it will come with a 3.7-inch OLED touchscreen, 5-megapixel camera, dual-LED flash, WiFi, HSPA, A-GPS, 3.5mm jack, and packs a 1GHz Snapdragon processor under the hood as well. It’s also another Android phone, and based on its reported specs, certainly lives up to its billing as a phone meant for power-users out there. Physically, it’s hard to deny it resemblance to another HTC phone, the HTC HD2. Well, that’s because this is also considered as the Android version of the HTC HD2. No price just yet, but word is that it’ll be dropping in the US as the HTC Passion sometime in January with Europe to follow (as the Bravo via T-Mobile) in April. This should serve as a good reason for you not to spend all your savings this holiday season so that you’ve got enough left come next year for this sexy new Android touchscreen phone.

Google’s Android Smart Phone Marks New Assault on Apple IPhone

Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc.’s development of a mobile phone that uses its Android operating system marks a new push by the company to take on Apple Inc. and Research In Motion Ltd. in the smart-phone market, analysts said.
Google, the most popular Internet search engine, last week gave employees an Android handset for testing. The device has a touch screen like the iPhone, and users can search the Web by speaking search terms.
Google is focusing on the mobile market as growth in its search-advertising business on desktop computers slows. Phone makers such as Motorola Inc. and HTC Corp. already offer handsets that run on Google’s Android operating system. Having its own device gives Google more control over how the hardware and software works together, and intensifies competition for Apple, said Ben Schachter, an analyst at San Francisco-based Broadpoint AmTech Inc.
“If all of a sudden everyone is getting on the Internet via their mobile device, Google needs to make sure it has an influence on that,” Schachter said yesterday in an interview. “They need to make sure they have influence on how the mobile Web will develop.” He recommends buying Google stock and doesn’t own it.
The Android phone, made by Taoyuan, Taiwan-based HTC, may be available for consumers as early as next year, the Wall Street Journal reported. No carrier has been announced for the device.
Mobile Advertising
Creating its own handset reflects Google’s effort to expand advertising sales on mobile devices, a market that may grow to $2 billion to $3 billion by 2013 in the U.S., up from less than $1 billion now, according to Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. In November, Google announced plans to pay $750 million for AdMob Inc., a mobile-phone advertising startup backed by Google investor Sequoia Capital.
Google, based in Mountain View, California, first disclosed that it was working on a phone in a blog posting on Dec. 12, saying that employees were using the device to provide feedback.
“At Google, we are constantly experimenting with new products and technologies, and often ask employees to test these products for quick feedback and suggestions for improvements,” Google said. “We recently came up with the concept of a mobile lab, which is a device that combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities.”
Katie Watson, a spokeswoman for Google, declined to comment beyond the blog posting. HTC Chief Financial Officer Cheng Hui- ming, and public relations official Maggie Cheng didn’t answer calls.
More Google Searches
If the handset sells well, it would push more people to use Google when searching from their phones, said Aaron Kessler, an analyst with Kaufman Brothers LP in San Francisco. The number of mobile searches grew 30 percent in the third quarter from the previous three months, Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt said on a call for analysts in October.
Apple’s iPhone models were the second and third most popular consumer smart phones last quarter, according to research firm NPD Group Inc. RIM’s BlackBerry Curve 8300 lineup took first place. The newest iPhone, the 3GS, sold more than 1 million units in its opening weekend in June. Natalie Kerris, a spokeswoman for Cupertino, California- based Apple, declined to comment. Marisa Conway, a spokeswoman for Waterloo, Ontario-based Research In Motion, didn’t immediately return a phone message seeking comment.
Users Lure Developers
Google needs to attract more consumers to Android phones to spur developers to create applications, said Jeffrey Lindsay, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein in New York. There are more than 100,000 applications available for the iPhone, while Android has more than 12,000.
“The guy who gets biggest fastest gets the most developers,” Lindsay said. “It’s a fight for scale.”
Google slipped 0.2 percent to $590.51 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading on Dec. 11. The shares have gained 92 percent year. Apple, which has more than doubled in 2009, fell 0.9 percent to $194.67.
Google may use the device as a way to show other manufacturers and wireless carriers the possibilities of mobile computing, Schachter said. The company could use its Google.com site to sell the Android phone, just as Amazon.com Inc. used its home page to help increase sales of the Kindle electronic book reader, he said.
“Let’s say it’s not a major success -- then it shows what’s possible,” Schachter said. “They want to have a very powerful seat at the table.”
Motorola Droid
Google and T-Mobile USA Inc. introduced the first Android phone in September 2008, a bid to lure consumers away from the iPhone and BlackBerry. Last month, Schaumburg, Illinois-based Motorola introduced the Droid phone, which can run multiple applications at once and features voice-driven Web searches.
Google’s phone may be “unlocked,” meaning that it wouldn’t be tied to a specific phone network. Customers would then have to sign up for wireless service from a carrier.
T-Mobile and AT&T Inc., the wireless partner for the iPhone in the U.S., offer service plans for unlocked devices. Michael Coe, a spokesman for Dallas-based AT&T, and Peter Dobrow, a spokesman for T-Mobile, declined to comment. Verizon Wireless spokesman Jeffrey Nelson and Sprint Nextel Corp. spokeswoman Michelle Leff Mermelstein didn’t return phone and e-mail messages.
Google has the opportunity to kick start demand for Android phones, even if Apple’s iPhone still dominates, Lindsay said.
“They’ve put all the conditions in place to succeed,” said Lindsay, who rates Google “outperform” and doesn’t own the stock. “Still, Apple’s got the edge.”

Google Phone May Be in Works

Google appears to be preparing to market its own smartphone, a move that would intensify the company’s rivalry with Apple, whose iPhone dominates the high-end smartphone market in the United States.
On Friday, Google distributed a new phone running its own Android operating software to many of its employees. On the messaging service Twitter, some Google employees described the device as a “Google phone,” renewing speculation that the company is getting ready to release a mobile phone with its own brand.
Google employees who asked not to be identified confirmed recently that the company was indeed developing new hardware and software for Android phones and coming up with new ways to get those phones into the hands of consumers, but they would not give more details. One Google employee said the new phone, which is being made by HTC, a major Taiwanese cellphone maker, was designed from the ground up by Google.
The Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site late Saturday that Google would sell the phone directly to consumers rather than through carriers, which sell the bulk of mobile phones in the United States.
The move, if confirmed, would signal a more aggressive effort by Google to become a force in mobile devices. Google has long insisted that it is not interested in building or selling phones, saying it prefers to rely on hardware partners and wireless carriers to flood the market with a wide variety of Android-powered phones.
A shift toward branding, distributing or even dictating the exact hardware design of an Android phone could also put Google at odds with those partners, which currently include Verizon Wireless and Motorola.
On Saturday Google acknowledged on a corporate blog that it was indeed distributing a new class of Android phones to employees to experiment with new features.
Mario Queiroz, a vice president of product management, said, “This means they get to test out a new technology and help improve it.”

Samsung unveils new smart-phone platform ‘bada’

ISLAMABAD: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, a leading mobile phone provider on Friday unveiled its new smart-phone platform, ‘Samsung bada’. At this unveiling, Samsung showcased the bada Software Development Kit (SDK) for partners and presented the unique benefits and unprecedented opportunities that the bada platform will bring to developers, mobile operators and consumers. Samsung Pakistan Managing Director Steve Han said, “Samsung bada is a driving force in accomplishing Samsung’s vision of a ‘smart-phone for everyone’.” staff report