Mobile Phones Cell Phones

Depending on which part of the world you are in are they "mobile phones cell phones"?

Well in the Northern Hemisphere, and most certainly in the USA they are regarded as cell phones. However on the Southern Parts of the Globe they are commonly referred to as mobile phones.

Cellular telephone, sometimes called mobile telephone, is a type of short-wave analog or digital telecommunication in which a subscriber has a wireless connection from a mobile telephone to a relatively nearby transmitter. The transmitter's span of coverage is called a cell. Generally, cellular telephone service is available in urban areas and along major highways. As the cellular telephone user …

Pricing has really improved in the last decade, with handsets (both mobile phones cell phones) becoming much cheaper for users.

Initially with Nokia setting the standard for 'value for money' in their cell and mobile phones.

The latest craze is the Apple iPhone, which has sold so many units that international best selling cell phone records have been broken. (The previous most popular phone in terms of worldwide sales was the Motorola Razor)

iPhone Shopping Deals

“Since launching our popular iPhone shopping deals on Apple and 3rd party Iphone apps in December, customers have been asking us to bring a similar experience to the BlackBerry, and we are thrilled to make it available to customers today," said Sam Hall, Director of Amazon Mobile. "In addition to their favorite Amazon shopping features, BlackBerry users can now access the Amazon Remembers feature for a fun and easy way to build a list of photographs showing products they want to remember for later, make price comparisons across multiple merchants, and purchase.”

Best Smart Phone

Best Smart Phone

Much has been made of the best smart phone on the market. What do you choose, cell phone and PDA choices include the Apple iPhone, the BlackBerry from RIM and the new Google Andriod phone. The decision when picking the best smart phone is a very tough one these days.

According to market research firm Gartner, worldwide sales of smartphones totaled 38.1 million units in the fourth quarter of 2008--a year-over-year increase of 3.7%--and accounted for 12% of all mobile phones sold in the period.

Globally the best smart phone according to sales for the year topped 139.3 million devices, up 13.9% over 2007.

“In general in 2008, the focus from vendors and operators on increasing their smartphone portfolios remained very strong. Samsung, RIM, HTC and Apple saw their volumes and share increase during 2008, thanks to their ability to offer compelling device experiences and touch interfaces.”

iPhone Apps and Appstore Strategy

Any of you that are familiar with what's going on in Apple's AppStore with the thousands of games available and the extremely competitive pricing problems might be intrigued to hear about a new strategy used by 5 independent iPhone game developers to try to raise awareness (and sales) of their games in the AppStore.

Majic Jungle Software, Veiled Games, Antair Games, IMS and Warhorse Games have gotten together to launch The 5 Fingers Games Bundle that includes 5 games, one from each developer, all for $5.

Per the press release, this is the first games bundle for the iPhone, but the real story here is the way in which it came about. Often for a games bundle, a publisher pulls together one or two good titles and pads them out with some weaker games, but this bundle includes the best selling game from each of five developers. The 5 games included in the bundle are:

* Chopper - Previously a #1 game on the App Store
* Up There - The most emotive game on the store
* Sneezies - An adorable puzzle game for all ages
* BurnBall - Addicting and high energy arcade action
* BlackBeards Assault - Puzzle adventure on the High Seas

Samsung now largest cell phone and mobile vendor

Latest research and figures from company Strategy Analytics has shown that Samsung Electronics has now overtaken previous leader Motorola in the 3rd Qtr 2008, now positioned as the biggest mobile and cell phone vendor in the USA.

Samsung's wide range of devices in the cell phone lineup across multiple carriers, technologies and silos were apparently the reasons that have allowed them to leap to the top.

Korean players, Samsung and LG were both winners in terms of latest marketshare stats, giving them 22.4% and 20.5% each in the ball game.

Previous market leader Motorola (led by their impressive Motorola Razr Handset, positioned as the stand out leader since 2004, fell away to now only hold 21.1% from 32.7% only 12 months prior.

Nokia saw its market share drop in the USA to a lowly 8.4%.

The figures suggest overall mobile phone and cell handset sales in the United States went against the world wide forcasts of economic doom and gloom and grew 6.2% from a year ago to 47.4 million phones in the quarter.

Mobile and Cell Phone Sales Compared

Recent Mobile and Cell phone stats show that 303 million cellphones were shipped worldwide in Q3 2008, only increasing by the slight amount of 5% year-on-year. There has been a visible slowdown in shipments to smaller markets - all of which points to the weakest growth rate since way back in 2002. 4 of the major mobile and cell phone players, only grew at single-digit rates or less. Apple was the standout with their iPhone, grabbing a 2% global share. Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and LG were well below their initial targets, while Apple, RIM and Samsung over achieved on their results.

Mobile and Cell Phone details:

-Nokia shipped 118 million handsets in the quarter, up 5% from the year prior. However it lost market share in every region and continues to miss opportunities in the U.S. where smartphone sales are especially strong.

-Samsung shipped 52 million handset, up 22% from last year. The company’s market share climbed to 17% and volumes increased in North America and Western Europe but were lackluster in emerging markets.

-Sony Ericsson sold 25.7 million handsets in the quarter, which marks a 1% decline.

-Motorola shipped 25.4 million handsets, a painful 32% decline from last year.

-LG shipped 23 million handsets, marking a 17% decline.

Not great news for sure but no surprise, either.

Movaya names new publishers

Movaya (www.movaya.com), a leading mobile commerce service provider, today announced that over 500 publisher and merchant partners have signed up for the company's PlugNPlay and TryNBuy products, enabling these partners to sell mobile content directly to consumers.

"Movaya's technologies are revolutionizing the way consumers discover, browse and download mobile content," said Phil Yerkes, CEO of Movaya. "Rather than relying only on traditional wireless carriers as the prime merchants of mobile content including games and applications, consumers are beginning to discover and download games from all types of online merchants," Yerkes said.

Movaya offers its partners both turnkey and enterprise solutions, allowing merchants to quickly open 'App Stores in a box' for the 99% of mobile phone users that do not have an iPhone. Like both Google and RIM, who are supporting their own unique application stores, Movaya provides its partners with all the tools to build their own mobile application store: catalog of games, billing, distribution and storefront tools.

By partnering with Movaya, online merchants can select from a variety of methods to add mobile games and applications to their current stores. Mobile game publishers, casual game merchants and general video game merchants are currently the early adopters of Movaya's platform.