I’m sure most of you saw this week’s top story even if you don’t follow the mobile news. During the ALCS games, Verizon launched a direct assault on Apple and the iPhone with its “iDon’t” commercial and directed people to its new droiddoes.com website. What does all this mean? Well, Verizon essentially slapped Apple in the face in front of millions. Wow. WOW! As Gregg mentioned in a post this week, Verizon extinguished any last remaining hope that they will pick-up the iPhone. And just to throw a little salt on Apple’s wounds, Verizon reiterated their intention to carry the Palm Pre in 2010. Ouch, now that’s a low blow.
Every week when I put this summary together, I keep a running list of articles and see if I can find any common themes. This week was exciting. I noticed several articles discussing the mobile web, its popularity, its growth, and how to make it better. This isn’t a new topic but I found it interesting that all these articles came out in the same week. Obviously, here at Aumnia we love this theme since we’re strong proponents of the mobile web and think it’s been overshadowed by the “coolness” of apps recently but now brands are looking for mobile analytics and ROI just like any other marketing.
Do you think mobile web is useless? Then read this: Opera mini released some of its usage statistics and claim to be serving over 500 million pageviews per day. If that doesn’t convince you, then check out how some major brands are using the mobile web to connect with consumers. I know a lot of users complain that load time is a major deterrent to using the mobile web, but that’s starting to change dramatically with brands focusing on creating a focused mobile web strategy. Google has put its weight behind the mobile web recently by releasing tips to help companies make mobile web faster and adding mobile tracking to Google Analytics. It’s an exciting time in mobile and I’m glad to be all part of it!
The mobile handset announcements and stories this week did not slow down a bit from the past two weeks. Here is a summary of the main stories I stumbled across:
- Verizon: This is the Droid you are looking for
- Rumor: Verizon Storm 2 launching Oct. 28th at $179.99?
- The BlackBerry watch is real, renders leaked
- Acer unveils three touchscreen smartphones in beTouch line
- Motorola Calgary is like the Droid, but horribly ugly
- Review of the Nokia 7705 Twist cell phone for Verizon
- BlackBerry Bold 9700 launching on domestic and European GSM carriers in November
- Nokia N900 Maemo-powered smartphone not shipping until November
- Motorola Droid (”Sholes”) hits the FCC with AT&T-friendly 3G – for real this time.
- Review of Samsung’s Moment for Sprint – AMOLED and Android meet
- Exclusive: Sony Ericsson XPERIA X3 in the wild
- MOTO DROID for Verizon specs surface on Motorola site
As always, here are some articles, stories and rumors I found interesting this week that I want to share with our readers:
- Apple profit jumps 47 percent in fourth quarter, sells 7.4 million
- Leaked: T-Mobile’s “Project Dark” Unlimited plan pricing
- WinMo 7 vs. WinMo 6.5, in screenshots
- Barnes & Noble officially launches the nook, its Android powered eReader
- Over half a billion people to use mobile money transfer services by 2014, according to Juniper Research
- Net Neutrality: The Proposed Rules
- Nokia files suit against Apple for iPhone patent infringement
- Analysts: Apple could face US$1 billion in fees to Nokia if it loses patent suit
- iPhone gaming could overtake Nintendo, Sony by 2014
- Augmented reality set for major growth: ABI Research
See or hear anything else interesting in mobile. Let us know by leaving a comment below.