It looks like smartphone is becoming the next big trend in the mobile phone industry. In the April-June quarter, handset sales around the world rose 13.8 percent of which 19 percent has been contributed by smartphones. On a year-over-year basis, sales of smartphones increased 50.5 percent despite supply shortages.
Top handset makers like Apple, Motorola, HTC released new smartphones which boosted sales. Nokia took over the top spot selling 111.5 million units accounting for 34.2 percent of the worldwide mobile handset market. In the smartphone sales only ranking, the Finnish handset maker came up at the top spot with 41.2 percent market share.
On August 12, 2010, Gartner, Inc. reported that a total of 325.6 million mobile handsets had been sold in the last quarter. For the first time, Taiwanese handsetmaker, HTC was ranked on the top 10 worldwide ranking list. It took over the number 8 sport with a sales figure of 5.9 million units reflecting a 139.1 percent growth on a year-over-year basis. The company specializes in making Android based smartphones. The T-Mobile G1, the first Android based smartphone was created by HTC.
Canada-based RIM came up in the fourth place selling 11.2 million BlackBerry smartphone accounting for a 18.2 percent of the smartphone market while Apple ended up in the seventh position selling 8.7 million iPhones which accounted for 2.7 percent of the market share.
On January 24, 2010, Samsung Mobile unveiled a luxury smartphone named “Samsung Giorgio Armani (B7620) in India. The Giorgio Armani Samsung B7620 is the third mobile phone jointly released by Samsung and Giorgio Armani. The first phone in Armani-Samsung collaboration was released in 2007. It was named Giorgio Armani Samsung. In 2008, a second phone, Emporio Armani Samsung Night Effect, was launched. At a Mumbai event, Bollywood actress, Sonal Chauhan, along with Ranjeet Yadav unveiled the phone. Designed in elegant bronze gold color to compliment Giorgio Armani’s suits, the Giorgio Armani Samsung B7620 is a Windows-based touch screen phone targeted towards business professionals. JK Shin, Executive Vice President and head of the Mobile Communications Division, Samsung Electronics, said:
“We are delighted to have reached another milestone in the collaboration between Giorgio Armani and Samsung Electronics. This latest-generation mobile masterfully combines our experience in technology with a design from one of the world’s best known designers, and the functions offered by Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system. What’s more, the Giorgio Armani-Samsung smart phone is a demonstration of our commitment to offering customers cutting-edge technology in our products, along with exclusive design and fashion.”
Hardware specs:
Processor: 800-MHz processor.
User interface: It has TouchWiz 2.0 interface.
Display: 3.5 inch ultra brilliant low power consuming AMOLED screen
OS: Windows Mobile 6.5 Operating System
Network: 7.2Mbps HSDPA, 5.76Mbps HSUPA
Wireless: Wi-Fi
Camera: 5-megapixel camera
Memory: 8 GB internal memory.
Memory extension: Memory can be extended through microSD slot up to 32GB.
GPS: GPS navigation
Keyboard: four-finger QWERTY keyboard in landscape mode.
On August 4, 2009, Research In Motion (RIM) and Bharti Airtel, jointly launched BlackBerry Curve 8520, the newest member of the BlackBerry Curve family. In the launching ceremony, Raghunath Mandava, Chief Marketing Officers, Airtel said that his company is committed to introduce innovative and cutting edge echnology to its users and through the introduction of BlackBerry they kept their promise. Frenny Bawa, Vice President, RIM said that his company is delighted introduce the new BlackBerry Curve 8520 in India. The phone’s top quality messaging capability, user-friendly features and aggressive marketing would attract lots of people. RIM is going to launch BlackBerry Applications pretty soon. Mr. Bawa did not comment about the BlackBerry store but he said that his company had been hiring application experts in India.
The BlackBerry Curve 8520 is not a high-end phone. It does not have a high resolution screen or GPS navigation. It has almost all the functions of the top-end BlackBerry models but the phone has an average performance.
Dimensions, weight and color:
Length: 109 mm
Width: 60 mm
Breadth: 13.90mm
Weight: 106 grams (including battery)
Advantages:
It is slim and lightweight.
Optical trackpad is a nice addition.
Media playback controls
Have almost all the functions of its expensive counterpart.
Disadvantages:
Does not have GPS or high speed internet.
Mediocre call quality.
Poor battery life.
The phone is made of cheaper materials including glossy black plastic with rubber on sidewalls. Though optical trackpads can be found in high-end phones, the BlackBerry Curve 8520 is an exception. It works pretty well but if you are reading a long document then it might create some problems.
The BlackBerry Curve 8520 featuers a QVGA screen with a resolution of 320X240 which very low compared to the high quality screen of BlackBerry Bold but it works fairly well. You may feel frustrated watching movies or reading a text but it is workable.
The phone has an average call quality. Info Sync reports:
The BlackBerry Curve 8520 did a nice job with phone calls, and it has a few cool tricks up its sleeve that can save you money under the right circumstances. Call quality was okay, but disappointing compared to better BlackBerry devices. Voices sounded a bit muffled on our end, and our callers reported a slightly digitized effect on the other side. Voice quality overall was mediocre.
The phone has voice dialing system and this has a “soft key by default.” There is also the speaker phone.
You can see all your messages in one message inbox which is a great feature. Email, IM, SMS texts, Facebook messages can be found in one spot. Users can access the messages individually.
BlackBerry Curve 8520 comes with a 1,150mAh battery. It can provide six hours of talk time.
The BlackBerry Curve 8520 comes with a powerful calendar that keeps track of appointments.
The Data Viz Documents software allows to read various documents on the phone. Users can not create any documents. It can be used to open e-mail attachments, MS Word and Excel documents.
Dedicated media keys makes it easy to listen to music. Instead of going through menus you can directly play your songs. The phone comes with a standard 3.5 mm headphone jack.
The phone comes with a 2-megapixel camera but it does not have auto-focus.
Price:
BlackBerry Curve 8520 was launched on August 7, 2009. The phone costs Rs. 15,990. Both pre-paid and post-paid customers can use the phone. Prepaid customers of Airtel can enjoy “unlimited” email for Rs. 299 per month.
