HTC and Samsung's Windows Phones account for less than 5% of total sales

HTC and Samsung's Windows Phones account for less than 5% of total sales Microsoft's buy-up of Nokia raised quite a few heads in the industry. Pundits expected both Samsung and HTC to be ire by this announcement. This can not be father from the truth – their Windows Phones simply don't sell in meaningful numbers.

This shocking statement can be obtained by analyzing the user statistics of Tamoggemon Holding's scientific calculator TouchCalc. Over the Christmas period, new users showed up with the following handsets:

Lumia 520 - 33.4%
Lumia 710 - 8%
Lumia 505 - 6.2%
Lumia 610 - 6%
Lumia 620 - 5.5%
Lumia 625 - 5.1%
Lumia 720 - 5%
Lumia 920 - 4.6%
Lumia 521 - 4%
Lumia 800 - 3.5%
Rest - 18.7%

Sadly, the line designated as "rest“ is largely made up of smaller Nokia devices. The most successful Non-Nokia device is the ATIV S; which managed a user share of barely 1.35%. These numbers lend credence to the rumor that Microsoft invests millions of dollars into keeping HTC and Samsung on the Windows Phone track.

From now on, expect frequent updates with data from Firefox OS, Windows Phone and other platforms. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact Tamoggemon Holding at any time. Tam Hanna, CEO and Founder, has followed the industry since the days of the Palm IIIc and would love to provide you with in-depth comments.

About TouchCalc

TouchCalc is a scientific calculator for Windows Phone 7 and 8. Unlike most of its competitors, Tamoggemon Holding k.s. offers the product to its users at no cost. In addition to the here-tested client for Windows Phone, the product is also available for Firefox OS, webOS, Symbian and bada OS. Further information on TouchCalc can be found via www.tamoggemon.com. The Windows Phone client can be downloaded at http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/touchcalc/e0f06f7a-4691-47cd-964a-dfa989a1c17b.

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One Charger For All Video Campaign, EU Commission Speaks Up

An estimated 500 million mobile phones are in use in the 27 EU Member States - and that number is growing every day, with a staggering number of makes and models available to choose from when buying a new phone.

The chargers that we use with our phones very often differ according to the manufacturer and model, however, with 30 different types of charger currently on the market.

How many times have we forgotten our chargers, found that our phone battery was running low and had to ask to borrow a charger from a friend or colleague with the same phone? Aside from being very inconvenient, the problem of having so many different types of charger is also incredibly bad for the environment.

The problem is that every time we change our phone we usually get a new charger, which leads to an enormous amount of unnecessary charger waste. Almost every household has a collection of old chargers - which currently generates more than 51 000 tonnes of electronic waste per year in the EU.

Seeing that this was a serious problem affecting both consumers and the environment, in March 2009 the EU Commission gave the mobile phone industry an ultimatum to voluntarily adopt common standards for chargers or be subject to mandatory EU legislation.

In June 2009, Europe's major mobile phone manufacturers agreed to adopt a universal charger for data-enabled mobile phones sold in the EU. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) - to date signed by 14 manufacturers - commits the industry to provide charger compatibility on the basis of the micro-USB connector.

In the first months of 2011, European consumers will be able to purchase a standard mobile phone charger for all data-enabled phones - including smartphones - sold in all 27 EU Member States.

So when we forget our chargers, we’ll soon be able to charge our mobile phones using the new common charger. In addition, when chargers are sold separately, we won’t need to buy a new charger with every new mobile phone.

Moreover, since the number of chargers will be reduced, the environmental impact will be positive. Reducing the number of chargers sold unnecessarily will substantially reduce electronic waste in the years ahead.

Good news for consumers and for the environment.

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My Predictions in the Mobilephone World 2011

The mobilephone world has experienced a massive changed and development in 2010 like no other industry in the business world, from the fiercest competition, birth of new competitors, success stories, struggles, and failures to getting back on track in the fullest fighting form among others. It is a healthy battle of competitors in the arena where nobody wins except the buying public.

I will not be detailing such events in this article but instead focus on the things that I expect to happen in 2011.

1. Battle royal of mobilephone operating systems, from Symbian offering massive improvements, Android going for the kill, iOS going defensive, Windows Mobile 7 advancements, BADA’s forward press, Blackberry going offensive with their newly brought user interface and Meego going mainstream.

2. The introduction of Meego devices to droll for from mobilephones, tablets, laptops among others. It will be launch by several computer and mobilephone companies with Nokia leading the way with the Nokia N9 and the Z5000 Tablet.

3. iPhone will be launching another breakthrough product via iOS 5, as much as possible they want to announce something for everyone to talk about to hide the decrease of their market share. iPhone will also become cheaper.

4. More expensive HTC devices with improvements on the Sense UI to envy.

5. New high end Samsung devices both phones and tablets bearing Android Operating System and BADA. 3D will be their game to apt the competition.

6. Sony Ericsson launching their own Android Tablet and will witness how their Xperia Playstation fail in the market.

7. Motorola taking up more market share from Samsung in North America with their rigorous Android campaign.

8. LG to release high end Android phones with 3D screens and joining the Meego team.

9. Nokia going Window Mobile 7 on Tablet devices and the releasing more Symbian^3 devices from all form factors possible. My dream phone will be included abd I cannot afford to buy one until 2012.

10. Android going nuts with multiple handsets from different manufacturers that people would start getting confused and would rather go for unique OS’s.

11. Last but not the least, me buying entry level phones because aside from the fact that it is my most read articles of 2010, I also cannot afford expensive devices anymore. I‘m also routing to buy 7-10” Tablet device, a cheap one to play around when I’m at home. It would definitely serve as my movie, surfing, eBook and gaming buddy. At the moment, the cheapest are the Android tablets from Chinese manufacturers, something around PhP8,000 for an Éclair running one but a Meego running one would be awesome. Early preview of tablets running the Operating System is very cool, dying to own one.

And the next chapter of the blog continues.

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HTC Tattoo vs Nokia C6, Price Fight

A very interesting match up here, a far different devices verging only one common denominator, PRICE, as they are currently offered in the same selling point, PhP14,600 for the HTC Tattoo in any Globe Telecom Business Centers and Nokia C6 in any Nokia Flagship Stores around the country. Though I have to mention here that the Nokia C6 costs at around PhP13,400 outside Nokia Stores and Tattoo being exclusively sold by Globe Telecom and nowhere else.

Caution! My opinion is based only on the company’s given hardware, technical specifications, features and sample videos that can be seen in the web or in any video sharing sites. I have no hands on experience whatsoever on booth phones but I’m familiar with the Nokia C6’s UI having tried a Nokia N97 Mini device before.

Advantages against the disadvantage in every criterion mentioned and I will site winner in each. The most number of votes win!

Operating System: Android 1.6 Cup Cake vs Symbian Series 60 rel. 5 version 9.4

The HTC has a Sense UI (User Interface) on top of the Android 1.6 Cup Cake, meaning it has all the usable effects on top of the Android operating system. The 6 window active customizable homescreen with eye candy graphics brought about by the widgets on board, a single tap mechanism among other features giving a unique and satisfying experience.

The browser is very much part of this criteria having used proprietor web browsers from the Operating Systems. HTC tattoo uses an Android web browser supporting HTML and like any other Android phones, the phone has the ability to automatically adjust characters to fit the screen during zooming or changes in the screen dimension, which I very much like. But also tagged along was the rather clunky and slow interface which becomes unresponsive at times. Writing SMS is a nightmare on the tattoo especially on portrait mode, the virtual QWERTY keyboard is too small to use effectively.

The Nokia C6 on the other hand has the typical Nokia UI, the less customizable, two grid active homescreen mechanism with no 3D effects and double tap mechanism all throughout giving a bit less satisfying user experience. The browser was rather feature rich having WAP2.0x/HTML, HTML and RSS Feed support with Flash Lite 3.1 that allows youTube video watching directly from the website. It doesn’t support character adjustment unlike the Android but browsing is better on C6.

Overall, HTC offers a good impression but the Nokia C6 is more fluent and faster that’s why I choose it as the winner. I just could not stand with the lag of Tattoo in opening applications specially in writing text or SMS. Symbian is speed efficient giving a more holistic experience.

Cover

The HTC Tattoo has a compact design wrap around a solid plastic and very much customizable. Users can change the casing all they want having a removable case sled. The Nokia C6 on the other hand has a plastic outer cover but at the same time metal support giving it a more solid foundation and that is why I’m giving Nokia C6 the winning point in these criteria.

Size and Dimension

HTC Tattoo is wider having a 55.2mm width compared to the 53mm of the Nokia C6 but the later is longer with 113mm, thicker with 16.8mm against 14mm and heavier by 40 grams. The HTC Tattoo takes an easy win in these criteria.

Display

Both phones have a resistive touchscreen and an accelerator sensor for auto-rotate but they differ in screen size with Nokia C6’s 3.2 inches screen edging the 2.8 inches of the Tattoo and a 16million color display with 360x640 pixel over the 65Thou with 240x320 pixel of Tattoo citing C6 as the champ. The difference is very much noticeable especially in screen sharpness.

Memory

The HTC offers a 250MB with 516 ROM internal memory which means the phone is very much capable in handling multitasking while the C6 have 240MB to spare yet the later could handle multitasking more efficiently than the other. Both could support microSD card but C6 has a free 2GB memory on board while the Tattoo has none. With this info, the Nokia C6 wins having a UI that utilized less memory in all its applications.

Connectivity

The Nokia C6 is quad band in both GSM and HSDPA while HTC only offers 900/2100 band frequency for HSPDA. HTC Tattoo is faster on 3G connection which could reach up to 7.2Mbps against 3.6Mbps of C6 but on the GPRS and EDGE, C6 takes up a faster connection. Booth phones have WIFI b/g and Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP. Given all this info, the C6 takes up the win.

Camera

No question here, with C6 having a 5MP camera with autofocus and LED flash with the capability to take 30fps video against the 3.2MP camera with 15fps video capability of the Tattoo, Nokia C6 is on for another swift and easy win.

Entertainment

Both phones have merely the same feature except that the C6 has Flashlite 3.0 which could play youTube flawlessly directly from the website. HTC Tattoo has no flash player so it won’t play youTube videos. Lame! Nokia C6 wins, again!

CPU

The HTC Tattoo has a Qualcomm MSM 7225 528MHz processor against the ARM 11 434MHz of the C6 but the later reacts faster. It might be because the processor of the Tattoo is not enough to power an Android processor compared to the work efficient Symbian OS. Nokia C6 wins!

Features

The Nokia C6 have a social networking integration, have push email via Nokia Messaging, Maps with unlimited voice guidance support, Java support, Document viewer, mechanical QWERTY keyboard among others while the HTC Tattoo has Screen quick profile switcher and Voice Memo to boast, nothing much to be topple the competition so C6 wins handily.

Battery Life

HTC Tattoo has an 1100mAh Li-Po battery, 340hours of standby time and 6.5 hours of Talk time while the Nokia C6 have 1200mHz Li-Po power source, 384hours of standby time and 7 hours of Talk time. The C6 has bigger screen that takes up more power but the Tattoo also have a bigger processor that consumes power as well. Safest choice, the Nokia C6 with a clear difference on talk time and standby time.

Customer Support (Care Centers)

Nokia have strategic Care Centers all over the country so I am assured that if anything happen to my device, I have somewhere near to bump into. Nokia also have ready to use accessories, parts and supplies to purge so Nokia C6 wins.

The Scores:

HTC Tattoo = 2 point
Nokia C6 = 10 points

And the winner under a not very obvious victory swift… Nokia C6? Yes! via landslide. I just couldn’t understand why the HTC Tattoo is being priced same to that of the Nokia C6. It’s a mismatched, the phone is nothing more than a rag compared to C6. Calling Globe Telecom or HTC Philippines, I think it would be best if the Tattoo will be sold below PhP10,00 marked, more likely as a direct competitor to the 5530 XpressMusic. It might take a change of defeating it hands down.

Then again, a reminder to my readers, buying a phone must not only include a super savvy OS or a high pixel camera; it has to be everything, the after sales support, the price, usability among others. Go for the best value device that is worthy of your hard earned money, or rather enroll to a mental hospital. No Fuss!

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HTC Desire vs Motorola Droid X vs Nokia N8 vs Samsung Galaxy S

Red Alert! The following opinion is based only on the company given hardware and technical specifications, features and sample videos that can be seen in the web or in any video sharing sites. The writer has no hands on experience whatsoever on all of the aforementioned devices so I have the choice to compare them blindly.. just deal with it!

Then again, I will only be citing advantages of the phone with a bit of disadvantages as I have a code of professional point of view/ethics to follow which is… “Don’t Panic!”, so prepare your best argument if you disagree. Anyways, here are the results.

Operating System: Android 2.1 Éclair on HTC Desire. As I mentioned yesterday, Android was the better OS so no need to fret here. I choose HTC Desire specifically because of its graphics riched and eye candy Sense UI (User Interface) above the Android OS. The weather app was outstanding showing graphic effects depending on the day’s weather.

Outer Case: Nokia N8. The anodized aluminum casing is just too awesome compared to the rest. The scratch resistant, super durable case implies longetivity which I badly need being reckless as hell. Though I have to mention the sliding USB cover of Samsung Galaxy S, it’s a genius mechanism no less eliminating the rubber plug that was used by other manufacturers to cover connectors.

Size and Dimension: HTC Desire and Nokia N8. I just cannot stand with the wide dimension of the Samsung Galaxy S and Motorola Droid X. I have a small hand/fingers being a regular Asian dude so the wide dimension matters a lot. I don’t want to reach my thumb all the time when using a device, never!

Display: Nokia N8. The 3.5 inches of the Nokia N8 counts a lot here, again I have a small hand and not to long fingers so the 4 inches screen of the Galaxy S and the 4.3 inches on Droid X doesn’t suite me even if the Galaxy S has a Super AMOLED screen. It’s very important for me to use a phone in one hand recognizing outdoor scenario like walking on the street or clubbing while holding a chick's hand on the other, it must be a comfortable experience of not having to use both hands during the process. The N8 have an AMOLED screen as well so it wouldn’t be much of a difference.

Memory: HTC Desire, Motorola Droid X and Samsung Galaxy S. The 512MB RAM, 512MB ROM internal memory matters a lot to me being a power user that opens a lot of applications at a time on my device. I have problem with this one on my Nokia 5530 XpressMusic touch device before crashing the phone a lot of times during heavy use because of its limited RAM. I don’t want this to happen as much as possible on my new phone.

Connectivity: Nokia N8. The phone is the only Penta band among aforementioned. The N8 also have the WIFI b/g/n like the rest of the phones, Bluetooth 3.0 like the Galaxy S among the latest connectivity options. Best feature of the phone in these criteria are the HDMI and USB OTG connection which allows the phone to play videos flawlessly in an HDMI television with Dolby Surround sound and connect to any USB memory devices such as Flash Drives or any external hard drives.

Camera: Nokia N8. The phone only carries a 12MP Carl Ziess camera, no less than the best to date and Xenon Flash. The phone also is capable of capturing an HD video with a 30 fps speed, also the best among mobilephones. Droid X has an 8MP camera while the rest have 5MP unbranded lens. HTC Desire and Droid X have no second camera and Desire has no flash, shame!

Entertainment: Nokia N8 and Samsung Galaxy S. Both phones can play anything thrown under the hood. The DivX/Xvid support cuts them from the rest, I’m fun of watching movies on my phone so this is as important as the rest of the criteria! Latest Flash support can also be found on both phones though the Droid X topples them both with its 10.1 version. Music app is there, Radio among others. FYI, did you know that the HTC Desire has no Radio app, very lame!

CPU: HTC Desire, Motorola Droid X and Samsung Galaxy S. This is given since the N8 only have an ARM Cortex with 600Mhz while the rest have 1Ghz to boast. This is the main reason why there OS were faster and sleeker.

Features: Samsung Galaxy S. The only phone among the three that has a ready to used Document Editor and Swipe input. The rest of the features among the 4 phones were the generally the same. They all have Games, GPS, Maps, Digital Compass, Voice Memo (except N8) among others.

Battery Life: Samsung Galaxy S. The phone has a 1500mAh Li-Po battery with up to 750 hours of standby time in 2G and 360 hours in 3G. Talk time of 6.30 hours in 3G and 13.30 hours in 2G. Huge battery source in here same to that of the others except Nokia N8 which is the least power capable. The Samsung Galaxy S also have a removable battery which I prefer being a travel freak. The Nokia N8's suffers an ill-fated non-removable battery, lame!

Price: Nokia N8. The phone was announced to cost around 340Euro, meaning it will be within PhP22-23,000 here in the Philippines, far out from the HTC Desire which cost at around PhP29,000-30,000 and Samsung Galaxy S that cost PhP32,000-33,000 at the moment. The Motorola Droid X is currently not sold here in the country so it’s good as none.

Customer Support (Care Centers): Nokia N8 and Samsung Galaxy S. Both phones have strategic Care Centers all over the country so I am assured that if anything happen to my device, I have somewhere near to bump into. Both also have ready to use accessories, parts and supplies to purge.

The Scores:
HTC Desire = 3 points
Motorola Droid X = 2 points
Nokia N8 = 8 points
Samsung Galaxy S = 6 points

And the winner is… (Drum Roll!) Nokia N8! Cheers! This is not an easy win for N8 having been pitted to the best devices in the Android arena. Buying a phone for me doesn’t only include a super savvy OS or a high pixel camera; it has to be everything, the after sales support, the price, usability among others. I also tend to go for the best value device being a smart buyer.

So to my reader who challenges me to discover Android over Nokia N8, the answer is No! Nokia N8 will still be my utmost choice no less at the moment. December would be the perfect time for me to buy one having to go against the initial release price hike scenario and an ample time to save money, it’s inevitable. ;)

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Pre-Symbian^3 vs Android 2.1 Éclair Operating System

Warning! The following opinion is based on sample videos only that can be seen in any video sharing sites. The writer has no hands on experience whatsoever on both Operating Systems (OS) so I have no right to compare the two.. I think!? not sure.. so just drink moderately!
Serious isn’t it? For the past week, I’ve been watching and researching about the two OS and comparing them as an answer to the challenge thrown to me by one of my readers (good to have one!) and I quote “You’re missing the train to the future gregg003, try Android, Hug and Kisses! Steve Jobs”. This lead me to a rigid and vomitous investigation giving me sleepless nights and as always brain twisting scenario depleting my gray matters even more, told you this is serious!

And I will only be citing advantages of both OS folks as I have my code of professional point of view to follow which is… “Think Positive!”, so bare with me on this. Anyways, here are the results.

Pre-Symbian^3

- Sleek, cool and a breath of fresh air for Symbianoids (Symbian users)
- Intuitive, more user friendly
- Contacts, Calendars, Messaging are top notch
- DivX support, Video Editor
- More service integration like Maps, Ovi, Music, File syncing and back up among others
- Solid support system

Android 2.1 Éclair

- Very sleek, fast and smooth user interface
- Eye candy crazy with the 3D effect’s everywhere! (Awesome!)
- Standby window is more customizable
- Web browser prowess, fast download of web pages
- Voice activated Google/web search (Futuristic!)
- Better text/message input, supports voice to text conversion, Swipe input is crazy
- Have a very good social networking app integration
- More applications via Android Market

Well, it seemed like a close fight here but it would also be obvious to site Android 2.1 Éclair as a “winner” having to offer “more” but given the fact that the Symbian^3 is still in the pre-production, there are still elements of surprise left to be uncovered, it might catch up and impressed. Question now is, can the final version of Symbian^3 outdo the Android Éclair?

With the result on hand and doubt casts, I think it will it be best to compare devices full hand from hardware, specs, services among others to gauge everything up. Will I still be going for the Nokia N8, the upcoming Symbian^3 or an Android 2.1 Éclair (Upgradable to a more better Android 2.2 Froyo) running devices like Samsung Galaxy S, HTC Desire or Motorola Droid X to mention some? Exxciting isn’t it? Stay tuned for the verdict, tomorrow!

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