New Windows Mobile 6.5 Mockup

Not sure if it’s the real deal:

Via Engadget/SmartphoneFrance.

New Willcom Phones for Japan

Some pretty sweet announcements out of Willcom:

The black QWERTY slider (the Willcom 03) has a touchscreen that allows you to draw designs/notes and send them live to others during a conversation. It runs Windows Mobile.

The neon yellow phone is called the Honey Bee 2, and comes armed with a 3MP camera and the Opera browser.

Willcom intros four new phones – SlashPhone

Nobody is going to use

this. Ever.

Fail.

I was considering shorting their stock a year ago. I really should’ve.

New LG Lotus Out On Sprint

Interesting design…a flip-QWERTY, not the prettiest but surely notable:

Sprint launched Highnote, Lotus and Rant – PhoneArena

A Gentleman Loses An Item

“A gentleman makes sure to cast his net far and wide so that a town is – literally — littered with a strong web of valuable social connections. [A gentleman is owed favors.] Over the course of painting the town red one evening, should a gentleman lose a priceless item from his deep pockets (be it a golden scepter or a gold and diamond encrusted cell phone), he can rely on one of his many friendly contacts to promptly return said item.”

A Gentleman Benefits From Keeping Good Company – The Foggy Monocle

BlackBerry Bold On AT&T

One of the most anticipated devices from RIM finally has a release date at AT&T: November 4th.

For those of you who didn’t know, the Bold has been a complete failure so far. It’s been going through network testing on AT&T for months, and keeps on failing because the software stack is too buggy, among other things.

Other carriers that rushed it to market this summer (Orange in the UK) have recently halted sales until the phone’s problems can be fixed.

Now, the Bold has a new problem: its price.

It’s going out the door for $300 (after rebates), a full $101 higher than the iPhone. Steve Jobs just announced that Apple sold 6.8 million iPhones last quarter, compared to 6.1 million BlackBerries. If this isn’t a sign that RIM needs to discount its devices or innovate better ones, I don’t know what is.

This intro is looking to be a failure.

New iPaqs

This design is hot:

It’s thicker than the iPhone, and runs a weaker OS as well. But the keyboard looks pretty useful.

Sprint is getting back in the game

I’ve been buying, selling, and writing about Sprint over the last year quite a bit. The firm was losing customers at a rate of ~ 1M/quarter. Their customer service was the worst. They bought Nextel, which uses a completely different, incompatible, and decrepit iDEN voice network. Their new CEO, the very seasoned Dan Hesse, has been trying to turn things around.

Now he’s got a minor victory to trumpet.

The latest poll by Pali Research indicates Sprint is now on top with regard to wait time, measured by percent of calls answered by a real person within 30 seconds of calling. Sprint, on average, answers 91% of calls within 30 seconds. Verizon Wireless came in second with 85%, T-Mobile – 44%, and AT&T brought up the rear at 33% (OUCH!). Improvements at Sprint have also been measured in other areas, including the number of customer issues resolved the first time they call, and how long it takes to handle a call.

The real test will be the next comprehensive poll from JD Power. If Sprint tops that poll (or even marginally improves), it will be indicative of the new CEO’s good execution on customer service, an area in which he’s really focused on in his short tenure at the helm.

Sprint soars from last place to first place in customer service poll

Best Buy

Just so you know, I’ve begun accumulating shares of Best Buy (NYSE: BBY).

I think they’ll weather the storm of lower consumer spending more than admirably. They’re expanding their Best Buy Mobile division, which they (and I) have high hopes for. It’s a retail store where you can buy a cell phone and contract from any carrier. Beats the Verizon stores, where you can only look at VZW devices. Their stores are small and often located in malls, making them more accessible than typical Best Buy stores, which are often stand-alone.

Best Buy Mobile has 30 locations at present, and they’re one of the few retailers that is in the process of expanding during the economic downturn.

Best Buy stock has been trading in the $40-$50 range for years, but in the past month, shares have taken a hit, now trading just under $25. They’re down 40% in the last 30 days! Forward P/E is hovering around 14, significantly lower than the S&P’s average of 18. It’s not yet in deep value territory, but it’s a stock you should at least be watching.

Photo by Flickr user djcn0te.

Set’cha Fone on Vibe

Nice sign-off phrase to end your review of a device with (emphasis added):

When you take the battery cover off the G1, the first thing you might see is the vibrate mechanism. It’s actually the first time we’ve ever seen one exposed on a mobile device and it gives off a weird vibrate feeling. It’s sort of a rough-ass vibrate that makes you feel like the phone is going to explode. Ok, well maybe not that bad, but we guess a stronger vibrate is better than a weak one? That’s what she said.

From T-Mobile G1 Review @ Boy Genius Report.

BlackBerry Storm Video

Txt Msgs

(After being directed to [redacted]‘s voicemail and leaving him a voice message)
[Redacted]: “I’m in a meeting till 10:00. What’s up?”
Me: “I left you a voice msg.”
[Redacted]: “I can’t check it till 10:00. Text me nutshell…”
Me: “nutshell…”

Sounds like he’s in one boring meeting.

The Google G1

The G1 on T-Mobile USA has been formally unveiled, check the video:

T-Mobile G1 Launch Site

Gore Created Internet, McCain The BlackBerry

McCain’s policy adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, claims that McCain’s efforts on telecom regulation in the Senate birthed the BlackBerry.

The BlackBerry is Canadian, not American, and its development was a result of both consumer demand for mobile email devices and stellar technology innovation, things having little to do with telecom legislation.

McCain has acknowledged that he doesn’t know how to use a computer and can’t send e-mail, one of the BlackBerry’s prime functions.

The Arizona senator’s handling of regulation and deregulation of [the telecom] industry in particular left him with the skills to help revive the economy amid a mortgage crisis, an energy crisis and a Wall Street meltdown, the adviser said.

How could McCain’s regulatory skills revive our economy amid three crises?

Keep in mind, this is coming from one of his crackpot advisers, and not him, so I guess we shouldn’t knock McCain for this. However, he should ensure that his posse sticks to the script when talking to the media.

It’s not like politicians are known for embellishing or anything.

Adviser says McCain helped create the BlackBerry – AP

Taking A Look At Palm

Palm, the smartphone maker, might just be making a comeback.

Over the last year or two, they’ve had a management shakeout, 25% of the company was bought by U2′s Bono and some ex-Apple execs, and the company’s aging product line was refreshed (on the low end by the Centro, and on the high end by the 800w and the Treo Pro a.k.a. Treo 850).

From a product competitiveness standpoint, Palm is in the best shape it’s been in since the launch of the Treo 700 and Treo 750 in 2006. Their new high-end Treos have all the specs needed (WiFi, GPS, HSDPA) to compete with RIM (BlackBerry) and the other Windows Mobile devices (Motorola Q9, Samsung Blackjack II). The problem is that in 2008, the smartphone market is more competitive than it was in 2005 and 2006 — the last period of time that Palm performed well. Palm products now have the iPhone to compete with, as well as a line of BlackBerries that has more depth (different models to serve more niche audiences) and more enterprise adoption (many firms have been running BlackBerry Enterprise Server for years and are unlikely to switch).

Clearly, Palm’s new products are not a ‘perfect storm’ scenario. In fact, if anything, it’s a truly sad situation: Palm finally came out of the gate with some really strong products, and their competition has already decided their fate by having cooler products (Apple) and a competitive moat (RIM).

Let’s look at Palm stock for a moment. Palm (NASDAQ: PALM) is down 49% in the last 12 months. By comparison, its northern competitor, RIM (NASDAQ: RIMM) is up more than 65%. Palm stock has followed a pattern since November 2007 of occasionally rallying to $7, and then falling down closer to $5. As recently as a month ago, shares could be had for $5.33. Since then, we’ve seen a stronger-than-usual rally, with the stock surpassing $7. Shares today are selling for $7.76 (a gain of more than 40% in only 4 weeks!). Now, if you look at previous rallies from earlier this spring and summer, you’ll see that this one could very well subside just as the previous ones did. Palm’s income statement and cash flow numbers don’t look very promising, which lends to the idea that share purchases will be contained, and share sales would perhaps outpace purchases. But if you believe, as I do, that Palm’s new products will propel them to higher sales numbers during the 3rd and 4th quarters, perhaps buying Palm shares makes sense.

I’m still trying to figure out where I stand on Palm.

I guess it doesn’t matter if Palm makes a sensational comeback or not. They’ve at least proven that they can take on powerhouse RIM, which may be consolation enough.

Edit: Wired GadgetLab and a telecom analyst at Global Crown Capital seem to agree.