TamsPalm – the Palm OS / web OS Blog

Krusell is a huge Swedish manufacturer of protective cases. Their top list tends to be somehwhat representative for “average users” – and saw some severe changes this month.

RIM fell out, Palm didn’t get in (no wonder due to European focus)….and Sony Ericsson has gone amiss too:

1. (3) Nokia 6300
2. (-) Apple iPhone 3G
3. (-) HTC Touch Diamond 2
4. (2) Nokia 3109
5. (-) Nokia E51
6. (1) Nokia 5800
7. (5) Nokia E71
8. (6) HTC Touch HD
9. (-) HTC Magic
10. (-)HTC Touch Pro2

11. (4) Samsung SGH-i900/i910 Omnia

() = Last month’s position.

Last month Nokia took a Grand Slam by taking all Top 3 positions at Krusell’s best seller list for May. The list in June also gives an impression something is happening in the market. Nokia takes 5 out of 10 positions, HTC takes 4 and Apple one. Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson are all out of the list.

To me it is surprising even the previous best seller Omnia had to leave the list this month, says Ulf Sandberg MD at Krusell. Yet another surprise is that everybody in the industry always talks about how short the lifecycles of mobile phones have become. This month’s No 1, Nokia 6300, was introduced in February 2007 in Krusell’s assortment and is now back on the No 1 position 28 months later, he ends.

People who own more than one handset can tell a tale of the charger eekers – every manufacturer has at least one (usually two or more) incompatible charger types.

This is not only annoying (extra weight), but also bad for the environment. As such things tend to attract EU regulators attention, manufacturers had to act – Yahoo Tech reports the following:

…

The agreement by Nokia, Sony Ericsson and other industry majors will mean phones compatible with standard charging devices are available in Europe from next year, said the EU executive, which has pushed for such a deal.

…

The Commission said the agreement would involve the creation of an EU norm, and that the new generation of mobile phones would use a standard micro-USB socket to ensure compatibility.

…

According to them, the situation will go even further: chargers and handsets will be unbundled one day (which would lead to even lower handset prices).

Even though I personally prefer MiniUSB as I feel it handles better, MicroUSB nevertheless seems to be a pretty robust solution. My Nokia XPressMusic 5800 is still alive and kicking, and Nokia’s large-scale roll-out has started with the Nokia N85 (review here)…

Mobile computing once was a harbor of various diverse processor platforms: some manufacturers used x86 CPUs, others used 68k ones (think Palm), and others decided to deploy ARM processors. However, all of them have since given up on their personal breed, and switched to ARM cores – which means that boys at the company which holds the ARM patents have a lot to say.

CNet’s NanoTech tracked one of them down, and got a very interesting interview. For example, did you know that dual-core boxen are expected by 2010?

“You’ll definitely see handsets shipping with a dual-core A9 in 2010,” James Bruce, wireless segment manager for ARM, said in a phone interview earlier this week, referring to the next-generation Cortex-A9 processor from ARM.

Hit the link below for the full scoop – and ignore the sensationalist headline. Neither Apple nor Palm have said anything about using these CPUs…but as both of them use Linux, well, you get the idea. More here:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10263278-64.html

TechieLobang.com is fortunate, as he lives in Singapore – this gets him access to loads of cool events which are not held in Austria. An example is the one pictured on the left…it is MSI’s introduction of the X-Slim X340.

Long-term followers of the Tamoggemon Content Network probably know that I am a diehard MSI Wind U100 fan…and thus naturally am interested in a “larger and stronger” version.

According to Lobang, the X340 is just that:

Here are some of the shots that I have taken on the X340. Personally, I think that it is really light at 1.3kg. The thickest portion of the laptop is just 19.8mm and the thinnest is a mere 6mm!

Further information at the link above!

BrightHand’s mindshare stats are one of the few benchmarks which tend to get published every month – they measure the interest exhibited by members of the mobile device forum, you guessed it, BrightHand.

The latest issue covers May – the rankings are as follows (figure in brackets=April’s rank):

1. Nokia E63 (4)
2. Nokia E71 (5)
3. BlackBerry Curve 8330 (3)
4. HTC Touch Pro 2 (1)
5. Samsung Impression (2)
6. Nokia N97 (new)
7. LG Incite (10)
8. RIM BlackBerry Storm 9530 (6)
9. Palm Pre (new)
10. BlackBerry Bold (returning)

Breaking this down by operating systems, we see RIM and Symbian leading Windows Mobile with a 3-3-2 advantage. The remaining spaces are occupied by a WebOS device and a dumbphone – iPhones are nowhere to be seen…

After Palm gave up on the 68k processor when moving to OS5, the mobile computing platform was dominated by ARM processors. Intel originally was the one and only supplier; but companies like Samsung and QualComm quickly followed suite.

QualComm has now managed to take the performance crown with its new QSD8650A processor. It runs at 1.3GhZ, and furthermore consumes less power than its predecessors clocked at 1GhZ:

… The new Snapdragon QSD8650A™ chipset – scheduled for sampling before the end of 2009 – offers significant performance improvements including a 1.3 GHz processor for 30 percent higher performance as well as enhanced multimedia and 2D/3D graphics. Utilizing 45nm technology also allows power consumption improvements such as up to 30 percent lower dynamic power than previous-generation Snapdragon products and an unmatched standby power of less than 10 millwatts.

Now that we have the specs above, it’s time for a little predicting: I am pretty positive that we won’t see this CPU in any devices until Q2 or even Q3 2010…

Further information can be had here…

P.S. The image doesn’t show the newly-announced CPU, as QualComm did not share any images so far. It instead shows a Microchip PIC16F84a in a TamoggeTalk doerchen2 prototype…

TelecomsKorea reports the following:

Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, the world’s No. 2 and No. 4 makers of mobile phones, each reported Sunday that sales of their touch-screen handsets have surpassed 20 million units.
…
Both companies reached the 20-million milestone about two years after they began selling such products.

Even though this may sound like a huge number, a quick look at the product lines of the two manufacturers should put this into perspective. Even though both Samsung and LG have Windows Mobile phones (and Samsung furthermore has an – unreleased – S60V5 phone), the majority of sales probably come from dumbphones with a touchscreen.

For example: Samsung has flooded the Austrian market with devices based on its “UltraTouch” system. These devices look like the Omnia HD…but are about as smart as a fly…

The Palm Pre will arrive on June 6th. On this date the device will be available in all Sprint stores in the US. Best Buy, Radio Shack and selectecd Wal Mart stores will sell the Pre as well. According to Palm the price for the device will be $199.99 (after rebates etc).
The release date for europe was not mentioned.

source: http://blog.palm.com/palm/2009/05/palm-pre-availability.html

This is a public service announcement for all of you who have paid an ETF (Early Termination) fee to T-Mobile USA!
T-Mobile’s US division has just settled a class action lawsuit with all of its customers who have paid an ETF between 1998 and 2009:

You are part of the lawsuit if you are a current or former T-Mobile wireless subscriber who paid or were charged a flat-rate ETF from July 23, 1999 to February 19, 2009, or if your contract for service included a flat-rate ETF from July 23, 1999 to February 19, 2009.

You can claw back up to 125 USD, depending on class status and the number of applications received. As the deadline runs to the 23rd of August, there should be more than enough time to check these bills once again – it could pay out!

Further information can be had here:
http://www.etf-settlement.com/Notice.htm

Quite a few carriers have claimed exclusivity for HTC’s second Android device – and it looks like all of them were right. Let’s quote Berthold Thoma:

The exclusivities for the HTC Magic go by color. For example, a major Austrian carrier who has claimed exclusivity indeed has it…but only for the white version.

He then went on to announce the device formally, considering it one of the “device highlights of 2009″:

The machine will become available for preordering in about 2 weeks, and will start to ship in the second half of June for 3 Euros on contract.

A working example of the device was passed around:

The branding on the back is very small and is said to be below the sticker (the BlackBerry Bold which was announced alongside was free of branding):

Here are two shots of it next to the XPERIA X1:

These two shots pitch it next to an N96:

Finally, two shots next to the Touch HD:

Being the non-Android head that I am, I went on the lookout for the keyboard…and found this:

According to a product manager, many Android heads were extremely unhappy about the keyboard and demanded a touch-only device with better build quality. As far as I could see, this was true…the device really felt extremely solid and well-built.

E-Books could just be on the verge of taking off. Thalia reported selling about 10000 units of Sony’s PRS-505 in a conservative-tech country like Austria…and Amazon just added a sibling to its US-only Kindle line.

The new face is called Kindle DX – the changes are summarized in the image below:

As of now, the device can not be purchased – the “video demonstration” found on Amazon’s web site (link below) is all we have:
http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-DX-Amazons-Wireless-Generation/dp/B0015TCML0

Don’t ask me why the folks at BrightHand’s have stopped publishing their search stats for a few months (the last ones went out in January) – but stat posting has just resumed with a bang.

First of all, here is the sales table:

1. HTC Touch Pro 2
2. Samsung Impression
3. BlackBerry Curve 8330
4. Nokia E63
5. Nokia E71
6. BlackBerry Storm 9530
7. Samsung Instinct s30
8. LG Versa
9. Samsung Omnia i900
10. LG Incite

The chart below breaks the devices down by platform:

When looking at the input possibilities, we see that touchscreen is becoming the norm:

Furthermore, hardware QWERTY keyboards seem to have eliminated classic MultiTap ones for good:

Of course, Brighthand’s sales data is heavily slanted towards enthusiasts based in the USA and Great Britain – seeing two S60 devices on the table thus is especially interesting…

So far, ebooks have been a non-issue for European book sellers: nobody cared about them, nobody wanted them and nobody talked about them either. The release of the Kindle changed it all: suddenly, ebooks were hip.

In Austria, everything tech is suspicious – but the bookseller Thalia nevertheless started to market the PRS505. Here is a box shot:

Size-wise, the device is big but thin:

Screen clarity is ok, contrast is insane:

The screen sometimes is refreshed “partially”. If this happens, artifacts remain visible:

This one is especially interesting for long-term Palm heads – Kinoma was involved in the development of the PRS505:

Don’t ask me why, but the device can be “powered off” with a switch at the top of the device. This clears the screen => useless extra power consumption. BTW: memory sticks can be used to expand the storage capacity of the device:

Here is a video showing the (sometimes somewhat slow) UI in action:

According to a helpful clerk, less than 10000 units have been sold all over Austria as of this writing (sales began on the 1st of April). Nevertheless, the store is extremely happy – according to them, sales have “exceeded expectations by far”.

Customer reactions were cool: a lawyer from Austria’s Hauser Partners LLP was extremely impressed, but missed the touchscreen and wondered “where the touchscreen was”.

In the end, Austria definitely isn’t the market of choice for all things high-tech – but the PRS505 seems to fare surprisingly well despite the insane price of 300 Euros. The e-paper display is nothing short of impressive…if Sony would only be able to improve usability…

Quite a bit of time has passed since we last heard from Krusell – but the boys just sent me their latest top-seller list:

1. (2) Nokia 3109
2. (1) Samsung SGH-i900/i910 Omnia
3. (8) Nokia 5800
4. (5) Nokia E71
5. (4) HTC Touch HD
6. (7) Nokia 3120
7. (3) Nokia 6300
8. (6) Nokia E51
9. (-) Sony Ericsson C702
10. (-) Sony Ericsson X1 Xperia
() = Last month’s position.

On Krusell’s Top 10 list for April, six out of ten phones are Nokia. At the moment Nokia is a very strong brand in many markets, says Ulf Sandberg MD at Krusell. Though it is rather surprising a pretty simple handset as the Nokia 3109 takes the no. 1 position this month. We all know that most people who buy a smart phone or a more expensive device prefer to protect it with a case. Now also phones in the lower price range frequently shows up on our list. This is encouraging for us, but I am still a bit surprised, Mr Sandberg ends.

As usual: keep in mind that Krusell has a very strong high-street presence and thus has more “down-to-earth” figures compared to metering companies which focus solely on smartphones…