Latest Mobile Phone News

Microsoft found its latest mobile goldmine and it is not Windows Phone. The company doesn’t even need to make or sell the product. It is Android, which is a mobile phone platform made by its rival Google. In the last nine months, Microsoft went after several companies that manufacture Android tablets and smartphones. It has filed lawsuits or asked the companies to pay licensing fees for technologies found in the Android platform. Microsoft claimed that it owns the patents for the technologies involved.

Four companies agreed to pay licensing fees to Microsoft for selling smartphones and tablets running on Android. One of them is the major Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer HTC, which entered a licensing agreement with Microsoft in April. It agreed to pay $5 per Android phone made. Microsoft has also in discussion with Samsung, the world’s biggest Android smartphone maker. Google, Microsoft and Samsung decline to give any comments with regards to the issue. Microsoft chief attorney Brad Smith said that the company is happy to entertain licensing agreement deals with companies that make Android smartphones and tablets. Once Microsoft can get every Android device maker to pay $5 for every device, the company could earn up to $913 million a year. That’s based on 500,000 new devices a day.

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Microsoft have remarked on the story we brought you about the problems with the Windows Phone 7 update. We taled there were tribulations with the update on Samsung Omnia 7 mobiles which lead to them not turning on at all. Microsoft have now released a declaration and testimony on the crisis which found that 90 percent of Phone 7 owners have installed the update fittingly. Of the 10 percent that failed over half were due to lack of storage space or failed internet connections, both of which are simple to join.

On the other hand, the other 5 percent are the Samsung Omnia owners and Microsoft said they have acknowledged a dilemma with a small number of Samsung handsets. Accordingly, the update has been suspended to Samsung mobiles. No auxiliary information was given to cure a problem handset, but they stated that you should return the mobile to the retailer you bought it from. Microsoft also stated that punters should make sure they have a solid internet connection and enough hard-disk space before installing the update.

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On the back of Microsoft’s latest partnership with Nokia, the company is aiming to double its global reach with Windows Phone 7 operating system. The software firm hopes to do this by the end of this year. How far the firm achieves this will depend in part on fixing problems currently occurring in particular countries, one notable example being Poland. The declaration was made at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer also proclaimed that the new partnership with Nokia is big news in the expansion of future editions of the Windows Phone 7 platform.

Future editions will include tweaks to the hardware to enable the handsets to make use of Internet Explorer 9 or at least the mobile version. Extra features will also comprise such things as access to Microsoft’s Skydrive and compatibility with the Xbox Kinect video games accessory. Another specification planned is an integration of Twitter with Windows Phone 7 ‘People Hub’. As an aside Steve Ballmer also said the multitasking option will also be improved. The latest update with this feature is expected at the beginning of March. Confidently, Microsoft won’t run into the same problems Google have had in trying to update Android.

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In a bid to capture the foothold on the growing smartphone market, Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia announced on Friday that it will form a strategic partnership with software giant Microsoft and will use its Windows Phone OS as platform for its smart phones. The tie-up announced in London by Nokia CEO Stephen Elop and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer means that one can soon expect the phasing out of Symbian OS which has been used by Nokia for long and helped it to become one of the prominent smartphone vendors.

Notably of late, there has been a considerable rise in several mobile phone OS which has given Nokia a tough competition with the share of the company falling drastically. In the last few years there have been a considerable rise in several mobile phone OS, most notably Android. In fact Android has overtaken Symbian and with smartphones poised to become one of the prominent means by which people access internet in near future, the move by Nokia is not surprising.

However, the move by Nokia has already started raising concerns among employees working on Symbian. It was reported that about 1000 employees in the company’s headquarters walked out over apprehensions about the fortune of those who are working on Symbian. Analysts have also warned that the move can prove risky as Nokia has not revealed as to how it will regain the lost market in US with Windows Phone 7. It also needs to compete with vendors rolling out high-end phones at a cost effective point in other parts of the world. At the same time, Windows Phone 7 OS has yet to transverse a long way to match the popularity of Android, BlackBerry OS and Apple’s iOS.

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The early numbers are in for Microsoft’s product latest cell phone operating system Windows Phone 7: 1.5 million gadjets sold to date. Nonetheless, that number entails some explaining. Microsoft on Tuesday morning published a ersatz interview with Achim Berg, vice president of business and marketing for Windows phones, who says Windows Phone 7 is growing fast.

The “sales” number is a bit tricky: “Another is phone manufacturer sales – phones being bought and stocked by mobile operators and retailers on their way to customers,” Berg thought. “We are pleased that phone manufacturers sold over 1.5 million phones in the first six weeks, which helps build customer momentum and retail presence.”

To be clear, that means Microsoft has sold 1.5 million handsets to mobile operators and retailers to put on their shelves, not 1.5 million phones activated by punters. Then again, I’d be surprised if 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 phones were activated already: Microsoft is ingoing a market already dominated by Google and Apple. Google claims it’s activating 300,000 Android phones a day, and Apple proclaims 270,000 iPhones are activated each day. Microsoft has a lot of catching up to do before it can start boasting parallel numbers.

Nonetheless, Berg’s statements commonly give a humble overview on a fresh, new start. Berg adds that after just six weeks, Microsoft has recruited 18,000 developers, and there are 4,000 Windows Phone 7 apps accessible in its app store. 1.5 million “sales” isn’t the sort of sales we’d usually care about, but it shows that the software giant has a solid foundation of partners to help Windows Phone 7 potentially gain a foothold in the smartphone market in the coming years.

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Windows Phone 7 owners should mark February 2011 in their calendars, because it  appears Microsoft is one step forward of them at the moment as in February 2011 at the Mobile World Congress it is expected that a second major update to the mobile OS Windows Phone 7 will be brought to its customers.

Microsoft’s second update will initiate enhanced developer controls for applications. Microsoft is expected to open up numerous latest APIs that will allow for superior multi-tasking, in-app downloads and better customization for end consumers. Microsoft is presently compiling beta builds of the update and has shipped some early bits to external beta testers. One tester, who did not want to be named, claimed the update will enthuse developers. “The update includes some great new features for developers, Windows Phone 7 apps in 2011 will certainly become more interesting.”

Microsoft is also working on a foremost renovate of the Windows Phone 7 browser. In a job posting, listed in November, the software maker promises a “major overhaul of standard support and new approaches to make significant advances in performance, power consumption and bandwidth utilization.” It’s possible that part of the refurbish could be seen in the point release in February but most of the significant changes will be reserved for the upcoming Windows Phone 8 update.

Topping the record of traits and changes in the update is much-reported copy and paste functionality which was last week rolled out to select developer devices. Microsoft has repeatedly confirmed that copy and paste will be coming to consumer devices in ”early 2011”.

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Although it was considered one of Microsoft’s biggest flops in the mobile market, Kin might be getting revived by Verizon, the restricted carrer that found itself with thousands of unsold units once Microsoft pulled the plug on the platform.

The Kin One and Kin Two phones presented absolutely for Verizon earlier this year and lasted just a few weeks before Microsoft pulled them, and canceled plans for an international rollout. It had planned to be Microsoft’s intermediary handset platform in between Windows Mobile and Windows Phone 7.

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