This week’s mobile news was a little lighter than normal. Looks like the holiday season is underway. But, reading through my feeds this week, there was one interesting theme I saw – mobile browser wars. With all the new smart phones and so called “super” smart phones, mobile browsers add an additional level of customization for mobile users. This week alone, Skyfire, Firefox, and Opera announced new releases with additional features intended to enhance the mobile web:
- Skyfire 1.5 Brings A New Interface And A Bunch Of Polish
- Mobile Firefox release candidate coming as early as next week
- Opera Mobile 10 introduced for Android, only available to OEM distributors for now
Over the past few months, I’ve written lots about Android and its future. This week was good for both Google and Android as Time released their Top 10 Everything of 2009 on which #1 is Motorola’s Droid and #2 is Barnes & Noble’s Nook. Both of which are powered by Android. I can’t wait to see what else comes out next year.
AT&T also made the spotlight this week with regards to their data network, fees and poor performance. I don’t understand how AT&T can survive with all their stupidity. I’m getting a little tired of analyzing their problems and providing my insights, so instead, I decided to simply list this week’s articles and let you form your own opinion:
- AT&T CEO Admits AT&T Sucks. Solution: Charge More Money.
- AT&T Taps Apps to Measure Network Performance
- AT&T says you’re using too much bandwidth! Bad you!
- Is the unlimited data plan in jeopardy?
- Study: Mobile TV in Demand (hmm… how’s AT&T going to deal with this)
As always, here is a list of this week’s handset announcements, rumors and analyses:
- Leaked: HTC’s handset releases for the first half of 2010
- Dell dials into mobile
- Review of the Windows Mobile powered Samsung i350 Intrepid smartphone
- iPhone in Korea off to a good start
- iPhone Sales Still Slow in China
- The Nokia 6700 Classic done up in 18-carat gold
- RIM to offer customized BlackBerry with TD-SCDMA technology through China Mobile
- Motorola Milestone sells out in the UK in three hours
- Surprise! There will be another iPhone next year
- Nokia announces 5235 Comes With Music touchscreen smartphone
- Apple Countersues Nokia, Accuses Them Of “Patent Hold-Up”
To wrap up this week’s update, here are some additional articles I enjoyed reading this week and wanted to share with you:
- LimeLife’s mobile site exceeds 1M monthly visitors
- Apple Bans Another Developer, 1000+ Apps Pulled
- Google mobile search strategy includes “Goggles” visual search, improvements for location and voice queries
- RIM adds themes category to BlackBerry App World
- Google restricts Navigation access from international Android hackers
- Google Tags ‘Places’ with 2D Barcodes
- Does Canada really need another National mobile carrier?
- Chrome: Google’s Cross-Platform Platform
- Apple Loosens The Reins A Bit, Sends Handslaps Rather Than Rejections
- Samsung bringing its familiar charging stations to colleges around the U.S.
- Nokia Ovi Store sees 1M downloads per day, redesign planned for 2010
- T-Mobile to launch carrier billing for Android Market content
See or hear anything else interesting in mobile. Let us know by leaving a comment below.