The G2 is T-mobile’s follow up to the first commercial Android device, the G1. In the two years since the release of the G1, cellphones have changes radically, and the differences between the G1 and G2 are a great example of the advancements. The G2 takes advantage of T-mobile’s HSPA+ network, which allows for download speeds in excess of 20Mbps (faster than most home internet connections), and has a “stock” version of Android. A “stock” version of Android allows the Android operating system to be upgraded faster, which I have found to be a major benefit of the Nexus One that I’ve been using. I consistently get Android operating system updates 2-3 months before anyone else. The bottom line, if you’re looking for a clean Android experience and can’t get your hand on a Nexus One, the G2 is the next best thing.

Nokia also began shipping its N8 smartphone last week. While still the leader in both overall and smartphone shipments, Nokia has become all but forgotten due to all the iPhone and Android hype. It’s quite an unfortunate situation as Nokia still makes great hardware, and the N8 is no exception. However, since Nokia does not have a strong relationship with any of the major US carriers, no one has launched a major marketing initiative around the device. Unless Nokia really steps up both their marketing effort and carrier relationship status in the US, I would suspect that Nokia will continue to fade away into a niche player in the US market, which is a shame based on the quality of their hardware. If you’re seriously interested in picking up the device, your best bet is going to be to shell out the cash and buy the N8 directly from Nokia.

While I am not a huge tablet fan, BlackBerry maker RIM announced their tablet called the PlayBook last week. My first reaction was that RIM is making a huge mistake, until RIM co-CEO Mike Lazardis spoke about it. RIM is positioning the PlayBook as a companion to their smartphones targeted directly at business users. I think BlackBerry may be onto something. Businesses may be hesitant to buy employees iPads due to the level of distraction from games and apps that are available. With the PlayBook, enterprises will be given more control and the majority of applications will be business oriented. I suspect that businesses will be more receptive to buying their employees PlayBooks, which could overflow into consumer sales, much like their BlackBerry smartphone platform. In essence, I like the strategy, now it is up to RIM to execute.

In other handset news, another interesting device released last week was the R2-D2 themed Droid 2 from Motorola. Themed cellphones is an untapped market in my opinion. People are always looking for a way to stand out from the crowd, and themed cellphones are a great way to achieve it. I’m very curious to see how well these R2-D2 themed units sell. If they sell as well as I think they should, I suspect that you will see a lot more themed cellphones making their way into the market.

Finally, if you are interested in what the future holds for mobile phones, then take a look at this Mozilla video for a concept phone called “Seabird – A Community-driven Concept Phone.” Mozilla does not have any intention to build the phone, but it is clearly a sign of what is possible and what could be coming to mobile phones in the near future. I particularly like the idea of the included Bluetooth headset/mouse as well as the projectors that allow you to turn any surface into an interactive screen. I suspect that you will see phones within the next 2 or3 years with this type of technology, and I can’t wait!

In other comments at the conference, Verizon inidcated that tiered pricing for mobile data usage is coming within the next six months. With Sprint CEO Dan Hesse hinting at the same thing for his network, I am fearful that carrier greed could become the biggest impediment to mobile broadband adoption. I understand that the carriers need to make money, and that networks cost money to build, but if consumers start getting charged by the bit to download emails, access the web and watch streaming content, I suspect that mobile broadband adoption will slow – considerably. Lets face it, the internet as we know it today didn’t really take off until flat rate broadband pricing to the home was introduced. If the carriers begin metering users, many of the most innovative services that are being developed for mobile, like streaming content, will suffer and could die, killing innovation. In other words, the biggest impediment to carriers signing up more mobile broadband customers are most likely the carriers themselves.

Finally, I want to wrap up this week with another fun video featuring Dot, “the world’s smallest stop-motion animation character.” At first glance, this would appear off-topic on a blog focused on mobile, except for the fact that it was shot using a Nokia N8 cellphone equipped with a microscope attachment. I can still remember the days when my Dad had to carry around not only a TV studio-sized camera but also the entire VCR unit itself to shoot home movies. Now they can be shot on a device that not only produces better home movies than that old video camera but also takes pictures, plays music and lets you talk to anyone in the world at anytime. Truly amazing when you consider the progression of technology over the last 30 years!

Kicking things off, rumors about the iPhone becoming available outside of AT&T continue to grow, which given the results of a JD Power and Associates study highlighting AT&T’s poor network performance, can’t happen soon enough for many people. The chic rumor is that the iPhone is coming to Verizon given Apple’s orders for CDMA chipsets. While this is what most people want, another possibility raised last week is that Apple is creating a “world-phone” iPhone. In other words, one device that is compatible with mobile networks around the world. I think this a better possibility than a Verizon iPhone. A “world-phone” iPhone could also lead to the phone landing on T-mobile, which is another rumor that is gaining momentum. Of course, Apple’s lips are sealed, so I don’t suspect that we will know anything until the day after it happens, at best!

Speaking of AT&T, executives at the company have implied that the new BlackBerry Torch sales are not meeting expectations. Not a good sign for BlackBerry, who is continuing to struggle against the rising tide of Android devices. It is also rumored that many of BlackBerry’s best customers, like financial institutions, are starting to experiment with iPhone and Android devices. As I mentioned before, BlackBerry would be best served to keep their “bread-and-butter” enterprise customers happy and forget about competing in the consumer market.

In Android news, T-mobile announced the G2 device – the follow-on to the G1 who many consider “the original” Android device. The device looks great on paper, but the best part could be that it will run a stock Android build. In other words, no carrier crapware or special UI’s like Sense, TouchWiz or MotoBlur. If my NexusOne is any indication, this means that it will be one of the first devices to get new Android builds, which I’ve found to be one of the best, if not the best, feature of the NexusOne.

Another hot rumor last week is that Microsoft will launch Windows Phone 7 October 11 in a flashy New York City event. Microsoft has committed over $500MM to the launch of their latest mobile OS, so I would expect this event to be quite the party. Unfortunately, I don’t think that I’ll be on the invite list, but I’m willing to tag along as someone’s guest if you need company for the week….

Finally, Nokia is preparing to launch the Nokia N8, their latest attempt to head off the iPhone and Android juggernaut. In order to build buzz for the device, they released a rather racy, but not over the top, interactive video featuring a self-described “sizzling hot” model. Is Nokia worried that the N8 cannot stand on its own, or is this a genius move by Nokia to create buzz about the device? I’ve embedded the video below, and I’ll let you be the judge.

Both companies really should be more concerned about potential new competitors. One such company is Huawei, the largest telecom equipment manufacturer in China. Huawei is releasing smartphones into the US market and is working on some very interesting concept phones (see video below from Andoid and Me). I have experienced working with Huawei firsthand in a previous career, and they are very aggressive when entering a market and determined to win, at any cost. With Huawei entering the market, all the current major players – Nokia, Apple, HTC, Samsung and Motorola – need to pay close attention to Huawei’s next move. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them get very aggressive here in the US and Europe with their smartphone offerings, particularly on price. Make note of the name . Huawei’s first smartphones should show up on T-mobile later this year.

Finally, for those who like green initiatives, one innovative person came up with a new way to charge a cell phone – by hamster! I’ve seen phones that use solar to charge, or movement, but this is the first time I’ve seen a phone charged by hamster. Who knows if it’s real or not, but it sure makes for an entertaining video.

With the hot summer handset releases behind us, who is the worldwide leader in the market? According to Strategy Analytics, Nokia (remember them?) sold the greatest share of the 308M handsets sold in Q2. Nokia’s share was 36.1%, follwed by Samsung at 20.7%, and LG at 10%. RIM, the only dedicated smartphone maker in the top 5, came in fourth at 3.6%. So while smartphones grab all of the media attention, the low-end of the market accounts for all the volume. If the market is largest at the low end, then why are all the manufacturers chasing the smartphone market? Because that’s where all the profits are. For example, Apple is nowhere to be seen on the market share list, yet they are far and away the most profitable mobile phone company.

Speaking of market share, a report on mobile search was released by StatCounter last week. At the top of the heap was Google, with a whopping 98.29% share of the market. I’m not sure how accurate the numbers are, but even if they are off by 20%, that’s still a dominant share of the market. If that doesn’t convince you that you should have a mobile presence that Google can index, then you’re losing lots of business to your competitors who do have one - without even knowing about it! Both Yahoo! and Bing, the two other big mobile search providers, account for just 1.25% of the market. On the bright side, I guess Yahoo! and Bing’s share can only get bigger, because it certainly can’t get any smaller!

Finally, just to kick start everyone’s favorite rumor mill, I am going to jump on the bandwagon and say that AT&T’s iPhone exclusivity may be coming to an end this year. Why? Well, AT&T made a statement that they are going to be the premier vendor for Microsoft’s latest mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7. I don’t understand why AT&T would back a competitor to the iPhone unless their exclusivity is coming to an end. It’s time to place your bets. I say that the iPhone is available on another carrier for the holidays, and I’ll predict T-mobile over Verizon since T-mobile’s GSM technology is the most compatible with AT&T and Apple, out of spite, wants to stick it to Verizon for their Android promoting, iPhone-bashing ads. What do you think? Feel free to sound off in the comments!

The releases of these new smartphones have not been without troubles. Even the iPhone 4.0 has had its share of issues, primarily with reception. The issue got so bad that it forced Apple to hold a press conference with Steve Jobs responding to the criticism. In Apple style, they did a great job of spinning the problem and declaring the iPhone reception as good (or as bad, depending on your viewpoint) as every other smartphone. I thought the point of paying the “Apple tax” was to be a cut above everyone else, not as good as the competition. Either way, the iPhone 4.0 is still the class of the field these days, and it certainly helped Apple post great earnings for last quarter. Whether you love Apple or hate them, one thing is certain – they are posting impressive results!

In addition to the iPhone 4.0, the Droid X from Motorola that launched on Verizon has also run into its share of issues. Screen problems are plaguing the device, although both Motorola and Verizon have been quick to step in and remedy the issue. The increasing problems with smartphone introductions leads me to believe that manufacturers are rushing devices out the door prematurely to save/gain marketshare at the expense of quality. Manufacturers need to start doing a better job of quality control in order to preserve consumers’ trust in purchasing new devices.

Finally, one large player that has been absent from all of the mobile discussion has been Microsoft. Once a leader in the smartphone market, they have become a laggard. They are trying to stem their losses with a new OS called Windows Phone 7 (WP7). Microsoft is working to push out the OS by the end of the year, and it appears on schedule as they released hardware last week to Microsoft employees and select press members for review. Initial reviews have been mixed, and I get the feeling that the first release of WP7 will be half-baked with rapid improvements planned, similar to Apple’s original iPhone release strategy in 2007. Unfortunately for Microsoft, the market has shifted dramatically since 2007. iOS and Android are mature enough that I’d be surprised if users are willing to adopt an immature smartphone platform. While Microsoft has lots of resources to place behind WP7, I predict that they will compete with HP/Palm for third place in the smartphone market behind leaders Apple (iOS) and Google (Android).

If you’ve picked up one these, or a different, handset this summer, leave a comment – I’d like to hear how your experience has been. I’d be particularly interested in hearing from anyone who picked up a Samsung Vibrant on T-mobile. It’s the most underrated phone on the market in my opinion, and variants of the device will be available on AT&T, Sprint and Verizon by this fall.

HTC has done it right by spreading around high-profile phones across all the major US carriers so everyone has the opportunity to touch on of their handsets. T-mobile seems to have embraced them the most and are rumored to be starting an iPhone replacement campaign where iPhone users might be paid up to $350 for switching to the HTC HD2 (and T-mobile of course). I’ve played with the HD2 and it’s a nice device, a little big, but nice. I’m really curious to see how it goes.

Finally, here are a few other stories that I found interesting but didn’t have time to write about:

Windows Phone 7 Series now just “Windows Phone 7″. Who cares… Microsoft really needs some branding help. If they spend as much time on product development as they do on trying to brand, they might actually release “Windows Phone 7”

Starbucks now letting you pay for your coffee fix via iPhone in 1,000+ Target stores. Pretty interesting concept and I’m looking forward to trying it out. I think it makes a lot of sense but it should also tie automatically into a loyalty program so regular users get some incentives.

Samsung already working on a Galaxy S Pro, complete with physical keyboard? If it’s real, this will be my next phone.

As always, if you see or hear anything else interesting in mobile, let us know by leaving a comment below.

The history of .mobi
Just as .gov indicates government sites, .edu indicates educational institutions, and .mil indicated military sites, .mobi was created to indicate sites that were optimized for viewing on mobile phones. The .mobi domain was approved as a top level domain in July, 2005, by ICANN, the official overseer and approver of top level domain names. Its inception was financed and backed by a number of major companies, including Google, Microsoft, Nokia, Samsung, Ericsson, Vodafone, T-mobile and others. Registration of domain names using .mobi became available in September, 2006.

According to dotMobi, close to one million sites have been registered using the .mobi top level domain since its inception, but the .mobi domain has never really taken off amongst consumers. Most of the problem is timing related, as very few mobile consumers were accessing the web using their mobile devices in 2006. All of that changed with the release of the iPhone in 2007. The iPhone and subsequent smartphone platforms made the web usable on mobile devices. People bypassed .mobi sites because they were either not aware of a .mobi domain or not happy with the reduced functionality of the .mobi sites, which were built for the most basic mobile devices and did not take advantage of the improved functionality and touchscreen capabilities of the latest devices. 

The issues with .mobi
Using .mobi is not free and comes with many issues that you need to be aware of before jumping in.

1. Increased Cost
Costs for .mobi domains are usually more than 2x the cost of regular domains. A regular domain registration usually runs less than $10/mo. whereas a .mobi domain can run $20/mo. or more. Plus, while a standard domain can service both desktop and mobile clients, a .mobi domain exists only to serve mobile devices resulting in additional domain registration costs.

2. Maintenance Overhead
Since the .mobi domain is an additional domain on top of your regular site, you need to invest additional resources to maintain the content and site.

3. Lack of Awareness
The general public is not aware of the existence of the .mobi domain. In order to get the most out of a .mobi site, you need to spend additional resources and money marketing and promoting it.

4. Poor Functionality
.mobi sites need to be designed for the most basic web-enabled phones resulting in a sub-optimal experience for smartphone users. Since smartphone users are the overwhelming majority of mobile web traffic, your .mobi site ends up service an extremely small, if not non-existent, segment of the market.

A .mobi domain is unecessary
Given the tremendous advances in mobile over the last five years, there is no reason to secure a .mobi domain. When creating an on-line presence and mobile website, you are best advised to use a “OneURL” strategy. A OneURL strategy is easily implemented using device detection code on your existing web presence and allows you to simplify your marketing by promoting one domain for desktop and mobile and by saving money through reduced maintenance and domain registration costs.

So when considering your mobile presence, don’t  use a .mobi domain – you don’t need it. If you already have a .mobi domain, drop it and start using your existing url and device detection code to service mobile visitors.

By the way. if you’re considering mobile or have an existing .mobi site and would like help or advice on your mobile presence, feel free to contact us. We’d be more than happy to help.

Last week’s mobile news was a little sparse but that was expected following the flurry of activity around the Mobile World Conference. One of the more interesting stories was about mobile at the Olympics. Yahoo said they saw huge spikes in mobile searches related to every aspect of the Olympics. This doesn’t surprise me. The mobile web is fast becoming an integral part of our daily lives and with quick accessibility to info and news anytime, anywhere. What did surprise me are some of the key stats for searches on Yahoo last week:

• Searches “ice skating rinks” were up 607%
• Searches for “red Olympic mittens” were up 182% (um, there were searches for this before the Olympics?)
• Searches for Lindsey Vonn were up 1,446%
• Searches for “Shaun White snowboarding” were up 1,921%

Yahoo also built a specific mobilesite for the games sharing info, announcements, and results. This is truly the future of sporting events as the mobile web allows attendees to enhance their in-venue experience and for non-attendees to follow along. Well done Yahoo!

The other big story this week that caught my attention was Gartner’s latest worldwide smartphone sales and marketshare numbers. Overall, smartphone shipments were up 24% from the year before. The iPhone doubled its smartphone marketshare to 14% taking most of their growth away from Symbian (which is used by Nokia and I’ve discussed their slide in previous posts). BlackBerry ended up with 20% marketshare which represents a growth of 3%. So, for all of you who keep telling me that the iPhone is stealing marketshare from BlackBerry, it’s just not true. The iPhone is gaining ground but at Nokia’s expense, not BlackBerry.

As always, here are the latest handset rumors, announcements and reviews I found this week:

• HTC Supersonic (or Incredible) spotted on video?
• Motorola Backflip for AT&T unboxing and hands-on
• Motorola Cliq XT with T-Mobile branding caught in the wild
• Snapdragon powered LG LU9400 Arena Max touchscreen phone lands on LG Telecom as Maxx
• Review: Motorola Devour
• LG hopes to launch their first Windows Phone 7 handset around September or November
• Nokia E72 smartphone review – all business
• HTC Incredible sneaks into Verizon’s inventory system
• Windows Phone 7 devices will come in three flavors
• HTC Desire headed for AT&T, Sprint picks up Legend (as Hero2)?
• Checking out Acer’s low-cost beTouch e110 Android smartphone
• Acer Liquid e comes to North America by way of Rogers Wireless
• LG GD510 Pop touchscreen feature phone surpasses one million sales, new colors coming soon
• Nexus One for Verizon takes one big step closer to reality, clears the FCC

To finish off this week’s update, here are a few other articles I want to share with you:

• RIM’s free BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express is available now
• Survey: 26% of Americans Get News via Phone
• T-Mobile USA reports Q4 2009 subscriber growth, but lower earnings
• Sprint to launch 4G network in at least 8 major markets this year
• Mobile phone subscriptions expected to exceed 5 billion in 2010, global mobile prices falling
• Microsoft updates Marketplace – smartphone apps can now install to memory cards
• MWC Attendance Reaches 49,000
• Opera Software Posts 87% Slump in Q4 Profits

See or hear anything else interesting in mobile.  Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Last week was a big week in mobile with the Mobile World Conference (MWC) going on in Barcelona. If you follow us on twitter or facebook, you would have seen several posts on the announcements during MWC. The biggest stories during the week centered on Microsoft and Google. Microsoft released their highly anticipated finally presentable Windows Phone 7 and received great reviews from the critics (yes, I’m serious) … but we won’t see it until at least Q4 2010 which in today’s mobile environment is an eternity. Just imagine what Google will add to Android by then, especially considering they told the mobile world last week that Google advocates “mobile first”.  Google seems to be saying all the right things these days and the numbers prove it with over 60,000 Android-based phones shipping per day. Can Microsoft capitalize on Windows Phone 7 or is their finally-respectable mobile product just too late? Only time will tell. Either way, MWC got me even more excited about mobile in 2010.

I’m sure you noticed but one major mobile company made no news at MWC – and that was Apple. Why not? Simple, it’s because they are just too arrogant to attend. Apple wants the world to respect them as a mobile leader yet they don’t have enough respect for the industry to attend the biggest mobile conference of the year.  Ironically, Steve Jobs won the “Mobile Industry Personality of the Year” at MWC… I don’t think he’ll be getting that award again.  Although Apple was not at MWC, they still made the headlines last week. Apple decided to use their magic veto stick and remove apps from the app store that “suggested” explicit material (not contained, but “suggested”). OK, now that Apple’s removed all those “dirty” apps, the iPhone is free of smut, right? Hmm… ever heard of Safari and the web??? I used to respect Apple and their core corporate values, but with their over-the-top egos and authoritative control, I now see them for who they are – money vultures in angel’s clothing.

Along with all the MWC excitement, we saw lots of handset news last week. Below is the list I compiled, so enjoy and start planning your next purchase:

• Hands-on with HTC’s Smart for O2, based on BREW MP but sporting the Sense UI
• Live – the Pulse mini Android 2.1 smartphone for T-Mobile UK
• First look at Samsung’s bada-powered S8500 Wave
• Hands-on with the Acer’s Android powered Liquid e smartphone
• LG’s Android powered LU2300 smartphone to ship with augmented reality app
• The OT-980 is Alcatel’s first Android device and the first Alcatel handset to offer advanced smartphone features.
• AT&T launches Mobile-TV equipped LG KM900 Arena touchscreen phone
• AT&T to carry Android powered Motorola BACKFLIP with MOTOBLUR
• Acer outs beTouch E400 Android 2.1 powered touchscreen smartphone
• A look at HTC’s stunning Legend Android smartphone, carved from a block of metal
• Mobile World Congress Best Of Show: HTC Desire
• HTC reveals updated Sense user interface for Android smartphones
• T-Mobile gives an HTC HD2 reminder, now with more fun!
• Android 2.1 coming to Samsung Moment and HTC Hero in Q2, says Sprint
• LG GW990 to be among first MeeGo phones
• Motorola Quench hands-on with video
• Acer announces neoTouch P300 Windows Mobile 6.5.3 smartphone
• Acer shows off neoTouch P400 Windows Mobile 6.5.3 smartphone
• Acer Ferrari smartphone coming this March to handle your mid-life crisis
• Huawei makes the U8100, U8110, U8800 and U8300 with Android official
• Microsoft Turtle and Pure deets are revealed

As most of you know, I always end by sharing other stories or articles I enjoyed during the week, so enjoy:

• Shout for Android offers one-tap texting
• Can Any Smartphone Survive The Patent Gantlet?
• ITC Opens Second Apple Investigation In Three Weeks
• Motorola DROID running Flash 10.1 demo
• Firefox Mobile for Android launching “late this year”
• The New WebKit BlackBerry Browser: Yes, It’s Actually Good
• RIM to give away server software
• Verizon Wireless and Skype launch Skype Mobile for BlackBerry and Android devices
• Adobe bringing AIR to smartphones–Android first
• Mobile companies band together and rise against Apple

See or hear anything else interesting in mobile.  Let us know by leaving a comment below.