New IDC research: IDC: European Mobile Phone Market in 3Q06

Western European total Mobile Phone Vendor Shares are:
Nokia - 35%
Samsung - 17%
Motorola - 13.5%
Sony Ericsson - 13.4%

In absolute numbers they are:
Nokia - 15.5M units
Samsung - 7.4M units
Motorola - 5.9M units
Sony Ericsson - 5.9M units

The amazing growth was showed by SonyEricsson and it was +29%.
A very strong showing for Sony Ericsson, due to its Walkman line and the K800/K790i, meant the vendor challenged Motorola for third position, shipping under 10,000 units less than Motorola despite the lack of an extensive entry-level portfolio. 3Q06 also saw Sony Ericsson begin to rebuild its converged device presence following the launch of the M600, and with the long awaited P990 and W950 launching in the final quarter, IDC expects a substantial sell in for 4Q06 and into 2007, particularly given the consumer orientation of the W950.

New PC Suite 6.82 with firmware updater available

Nokia has released a new version of PC Suite application. The updated version 6.82, adds stability fixes to the backup and restore functionality, improves Nokia Music Manager, adds fluency in information exchange with Microsoft applications (auch as Windows Media Player 11) and integrates Nokia Software (actually firmware) Updater, which allows to download and update phone's firmware from PC.

PC system requirements for version 6.82

• Available hard disk space: 200 MB (file size approx 25 MB)


• Operating system:
  • Windows 2000 (service pack 4)
  
  
  • Windows XP (Professional or Home Edition) (service pack 1 or service pack 2)
  • Windows XP Professional x64 edition
• Connection methods: USB cable, infrared, or Bluetooth


• Supported Bluetooth software (Bluetooth stacks):
  • Microsoft Windows XP Bluetooth (included in XP SP2)
  
  
  • Toshiba Bluetooth stack for Windows XP/2000 v 4.0
  
  
  • WIDCOMM BTW 1.4, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0
  
  
  • IVT BlueSoleil Bluetooth stack for Windows XP/2000, driver version 1.6.1.4

Now Skype on Symbian mobile phone!

The 3 Group a division of Hutchison Whampoa Limited are launching the X-Series Symbian phones (Nokia N73 and Sony Ericsson W950) including software to make Skype calls!These X-Series applications include:

• Skype (Voice and IM)


• Skype to Skype calls will be free on 3 mobiles.


• Google Search and services


• Mobile Browsing


• Sling Player


• Orb (place shifting content from your PC)


• Yahoo and MSN IM


• Yahoo Service through Yahoo Go!

T-Mobile BlackBerry Pearl 8100

T-Mobile has presented the exclusive BlackBerry® Pearl 8100. This phone makes staying connected via e-mail to friends, family and life as easy as calling. The BlackBerry Pearl is a full-featured quad-band world phone, with 1.3 megapixel camera, real Web browser, Bluetooth® 2.0 connectivity, and a media player with extra storage.

The Smallest Nokia Nseries phone - Nokia N75

Nokia introduced the Nokia N75 offering digital music playback, great photography, telephony and rich internet communication. The Nokia N75 is a thin and elegant clamshell. In the Nokia N75 the digital music player has controls on the cover of the device, and the reflective 1.36” color cover display. Supporting formats include MP3, M4A, AAC, eAAC+ and WMA, the music player includes an equalizer, playlist, shuffle and repeat features. Nokia N75 can store up to 1,500 tracks on an optional 2GB microSD card. The Nokia N75 also includes a stereo FM radio. The Nokia N75 has a dedicated camera key and can take 2-megapixel (1600 x 1200 pixels) photos. Also it has the 2.4-inch screen with 16 million colors. The Nokia N75 can do MPEG-4 video capture and playback in landscape mode. The Nokia N75 has internal memory of up to 40 MB. Nokia Web Browser supports RSS feeds, so you can subscribe to your favorite Web sites. The Nokia N75 supports e-mail and standard SMS and MMS features. The Nokia N75 can work on 3G (WCDMA 850/1900 MHz), EDGE and GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) networks.

Nokia has announced music editions of Nokia N70, Nokia N73, and Nokia N91 phones

Nokia has upgraded its highly popular N-series mobiles - Nokia N70, Nokia N73, and Nokia N91. Nokia N91 has a 8GB hard disk for storing your favorite music. Black colored and stylish, the new Music Edition N-series devices have a dedicated music player control keys, more memory for the storing music, new Nokia Music Manager software as a part of the Nokia PC Suite, and 3.5 mm jacks for using standard headphones. The Nokia N70 Music Edition, Nokia N73 Music Edition, and the Nokia N91 8GB will be available by the end 2006. From Nokia Press Release: "...Nokia unveiled music editions of three Nokia Nseries multimedia computers, the Nokia N70 Music Edition, Nokia N73 Music Edition and Nokia N91 8GB. ... With support for the two most popular music formats worldwide, MP3 and AAC, no song should go unheard. ... Experiences such as podcasting, Stereo FM radio with Station Directory and Visual Radio, and Music Recommenders, further push the boundaries of mobile music. ... The Nokia N73 Music Edition is a stunning multimedia computer with up to 2GB of memory, integrated stereo speakers for optimized audio pleasure, and easy synchronization with Windows Media Player. With support for MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+ and WMA, you can choose how you rip your tunes and play them.

Nokia has announced N95 and N75 multimedia phones

Nokia N95 is a descendant of Nokia N80 and offers a 2-way sliding construction along with integrated GPS functionality. The device runs under Symbian 9.1 S60 3rd Edition. Also the device is the first HSDPA (3.5G) mobile of Nokia. HSDPA is not so wide spread right now but it could be the leading standard for mobile devices in the future. Besides HSDPA, Nokia N95 can work in all current connectivity technologies such as Wi-Fi, 3G and EDGE, GSM, Bluetooth 2.0 , IrDA and USB 2.0. Also you can plug your N95 to TV.The musical features are the built-in stereo speakers, a 3.5 mm audio jack for using regular headphones, FM radio and microSD memory card slot supporting up to 2GB added to the 160MB internal memory. N95 has an impressive 5 megapixel camera with Carl-Zeiss optics, autofocus and the capability of recording videos at DVD quality. The device is equipped with a large 2.6-inch display with a QVGA (240×320) resolution.

Specifications of the Nokia N95:

• GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz, UMTS 2100MHz
• GPRS/WCDMA/HSDPA/WiFi
• Size - 99mm x 53mm x 19mm
• Weight 120g
  
• Battery Life - 2.5/3.5 hours talk time
• Display - 2.6 inch 16M color TFT, 240×320 pixels
  
• Camera - 5 mpx with Carl Zeiss optics
• Video VGA capture/playback at 30fps
• Messaging MMS/EMS/SMS/Email
• Bluetooth 2.0, IrDA
  
• Java, Polyphonics
• Memory - 160MB and microSD up to 2Gb
• MP3/AAC/W4A/WMA music player, FM radio

AVKON_BITMAP_FILE in resource files (RSS) in S60 3Ed.

If you need to point to Avkon Bitmap File in your RSS files, but you don't know where it is on the disk, you just can include one of the files avkon.rh or avkon.hrh and use macro AVKON_BITMAP_FILE. The name of the Avkon Bitmap File in S60 3Ed. have been also changed to avkon2.mbm, but constants from avkon.mbg remains the same.

What is the help files folder in S60 3rd?

This is seem to be the \resource\help\ folder in S60 3rd edition.

Motorola does not support Symbian and chooses Linux for mobile phones

Mobile phone maker Motorola has claimed that they are developing all its phone features on Linux first. They also plan to continue making phones runned by Symbian OS to meet the demands of particular markets, the world’s second largest maker of mobile phones after Nokia is choosing the open source operating system Linux to run their next generation of mobile phones. Linux can be challenger to Symbian and other mobile platforms. Experts says also believe that the company is turning to Linux considering Nokia are betting on Symbian for their future smartphones.

Nokia starts shipping N73 and N93 smartphones

Nokia has begun shipping two new smartphones in its N series: the N93 and N73. Both of them run S60 Third Edition of the Symbian OS 9. Nokia describes the N93 as "the ultimate mobile device for spontaneous video recording." This device has a 3.2 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, 3x optical zoom, etc. This smartphone supports GSM with EDGE and WCDMA. Also connectivity includes Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Nokia has opened the first flagship store in the USA

Nokia are on Saturday checked out the full line of Nokia's products at the opening of the giant mobile phone maker's first US flagship store, complete with huge LCD and LED panels and hands-on time with cutting edge S60 devices. It was the first of four flagship stores that Nokia plans to open in the North America, and the second in the world.

Nokia E50 have been approved for US

According to the FCC report the smallest S60 smartphone Nokia E50 is ready for the US. This phone offers enterprises a cost-efficient way to extend mobility to a broader range of employees, by providing employees an access to corporate email whenever required. Also some sources have said that it has two versions - with/without the camera.