TamsWMS – the Windows Mobile Smartphone Blog

This email recently was sent out to each and every user on Apple’s mailing list:

No words needed IMHO…

i-mate has recently been in the press for all the wrong reasons: rumors of a bankruptcy and spontaneous office closures are not exactly good news.

Either way, the CEO was quick to claim that the company will continue under a new structure. PocketNow quotes a since disappeared report from Mobile Europe as follows:

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“To safeguard the brand and assets of i-mate these have been acquired by a new company Hillfoot Limited which will continue to trade as i-mate with operations in Australia, Taiwan, the UK and USA. The new company will be led by Jim Morrison, Chief Executive who has committed to stay until normal trading is resumed and the financial infrastructure is established to take the business forward..”

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As of now, not much more is known…

Both HTC and Inventec started out as so-called OEMs who produced hardware for other companies. HTC has since tried to make its own brand popular, and has been quite successful at it. Inventec has not done anything like this so far.

DigiTimes now reports the following:

Inventec will begin shipping Windows Mobile-based smartphones to markets in Europe in the fourth quarter, marking a major milestone in the development of the notebook maker’s OEM handset business, according to market sources.

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If this really happens, the Windows Mobile market could heat up significantly in the near future. Having another large OEM enter the market will always lead to higher innovation – let’s see what the boys will show in Q4…

Microsoft’s Marketplace for Mobile is a key feature of Windows Mobile 6.5. However, the boys at Microsoft’s were sensible enough to also open it up for older WM6 devices.

Unfortunately, it looks like older handsets will not be around from day 0 – PocketNow got the following response after inquiring at Microsoft’s:

How will older devices get Marketplace for Mobile loaded onto their phones? Would there be a CAB install file available?

Additional details on using Windows Marketplace from a phone running Windows Mobile 6.0 or 6.1 will be provided by the end of the year. Stay tuned.

As of now, this is all we know…

Gizmodo recently posted the two shots below – according to them, these two handsets are currently being worked on at Microsoft’s.
Pink

Turtle

However, WM heads can IMHO remain unworried: we are looking at successors to the current SideKick models here:

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These phones are going to be made by Sharp, who’ll get to share branding with Microsoft. Sharp produced the Sidekick hardware for Danger, who was bought by Microsoft almost two years ago. Pink will be primarily aimed at the same market as the Sidekick, and the branding and identity for it is highly developed, pointing toward a later stage in the development cycle.

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If my personal intuition is right, these two critters are likely to be dumbphones and could (or, rather, should) have been branded as SideKick to prevent confusion. People who currently use WM smartphones will most probably not want to switch over…

Reports of a closure of i-mate’s Dubai office have caused quite a shake-up in the industry – but seem to be unfounded.

ArabianBusiness reports the following:

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Jim Morrison, who founded the device maker eight years ago, said the company had run into difficulties after uncovering a “major fraud” committed by a senior employee within the organisation.

Morrison said the fraud was discovered at the end of August and the case is now with the police.

“This all happened just before we were launching [a new device range]. We produced all the paperwork, we have the devices and so we have to sort this problem first,” added Morrison.

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As of now, no further information is available. However, the CEO has stated that “more details are coming soon” – stay tuned…

Attendants of last year’s MWC press events can remember that Steve Ballmer was extremely optimistic about the future prospects of Windows Mobile 6.5, and saw no need to accelerate work on WM7.

Fortunately, the guy seems to have come to his mind – two venture capitalists who attended a Microsoft event twittered the following:

As of now, Microsoft itself has stated nothing – but why should two independent VCs give Microsoft a bad rap and risk getting sued for spreading false information intentionally?

Austria has always been an extremely interesting country for all things carrier: 6 million inhabitants on 8 carriers are not a healthy situation for any of them.

So far, contracts were non-negotiable. However, T-Mobile’s discount subsidiary tele.ring has now changed that – the ads below are currently all over Vienna:

Looks like tele.ring stores will start to get an all-new bazaar feeling in the near future…

The folks at the Boy Genius Report have been able to get their hands onto the roadmap pictured below:

Various news sites interpret the gems behind the names as indication of an upcoming OS update for these two handsets – stay tuned for further info as we get it!

I personally still think that Microsoft will not enter the direct hardware game to prevent extra licensees from jumping ship – and it looks like I am not alone with this world view.

Mary-Jo Foley from ZDNet has shared her view of the matter, which reads as follows:

… Yes, it’s a Microsoft-branded (but not Microsoft-manufactured) phone. Yes, it also will feature premium mobile services (like the Zune video store and music subscription/purchasing). I wouldn’t be surprised if Pink looked like — or at least was targeted at the same demographic as — the Sidekick, given the Danger folks have been at the core of Pink’s development team since Microsoft acquired Danger in 2008.

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IMHO, the strength of the WM market is its plethora of licensees – building a phone of its own would jeopardize this relation quickly…

A recent trip to Carl Zeiss provided me with the opportunity to analyze camera phone components – enjoy the images below.

First of all, a look at the size. The component on the left is a complete camera assembly, which is then followed by a CCD sensor. Next to that is a lens in an autofocus assembly and finally an optical lens on the right:

Here is another shot showing the components next to an XM5800 for scale:

Once again – big thanks to Nokia and Zeiss for the opportunity…

Centralized app stores have to have a “kill switch” for legal reasons – I thus can’t understand the uproar about Microsoft’s.

ArsTechnica has now received a clarification from Microsoft on the feature:

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“In the vast majority of instances where an application is removed from Windows Marketplace for Mobile, users of this application will continue to be able to use these applications on their phones,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Ars. “In the rare event an application from Marketplace exhibits harmful behavior or has unforeseen effects, Marketplace has the capability to remotely uninstall these applications. While we hope to avoid this scenario, we will make refunds available in such cases.”

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For me, this policy sounds sensible (especially due to the availability of third-party retailers like MobiHand) – any eekers, anyone?

Rumors of a Microsoft-made smartphone have circled the industry for months (read: ever since they gobbled up Danger). So far, none have materialized: if you ask me, the Windows Mobile market needs no “in-house” competition to discourage device makers.

9to5mac is a Mac site and thus not likely the best of sources for all things WM – they state the following:

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we’ve gotten word that Microsoft will unleash two new Smartphones, probably at CES in January 2010. Developed under the project “Pink” moniker, these two slider phones stem from the aquisition of Danger and will continue to use Sharp as the manufacturing partner

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I personally feel that the article could very well be a hoax due to the way it is written – and also hope that it turns out to be false.

Licensees are under pressure due to decreasing margins and the availability of free alternative OSses: if Microsoft really enters the smartphone market, many of them could blow…

Score one – our prediction was spot-on. Version 5 of Opera Mini will bring the long-developed tab support. The picture on the left is from the vendor; I will do a detailed review as soon as I am back in the office.

Opera Mini 5 will furthermore add the following features to the browser:

• Password manager
• Speed dial for favorite web sites
• Better touchscreen/keypad UI

The product is currently available as a beta – hit the URL below for further info and let us know how it goes:
http://www.opera.com/mini/next/