Motorola’s First Android based Mobile Phone - Cliq

Motorola has come up with its first Android powered mobile phone called Cliq. The phone comes with a responsive touch screen, a slide out QWERTY keyboard, a 5 megapixel camera, and a built-in video and audio player. The USP of the phone is its social networking software called MotoBlur.

What MotoBlur does is simple – it makes mobile social networking a lot easier. All you need to do is enter all your information – email accounts and social networking accounts. MotoBlur syncs everything into a stream and gives you constant updates from various social networking sites. Whenever any of your contacts post a message or send you a mail, it will let you know immediately.

When you switch on the phone, you will see four widgets, or word bubbles as they are usually referred to, on your screen – Happenings, Status, Direct, and Weather. Happenings widget shows you all the posts made by your contacts, Status widget allows you to update your personal status simultaneously on various social networking sites, Direct widget brings you all the private messages, emails, and text messages your contacts send you, and Weather widget gives you weather updates throughout the day.

One of the interesting features of Cliq is that whenever you take a picture or shoot a video with the mobile camera, a small ‘share’ icon appears on the screen. One click and you can share the photo or the video with all your friends on various social networking sites.

In a sense, Cliq is a make or break product for Motorola. The company, as some of you might know, has been going through a rough phase of late and it badly needs to make something happen. Since the success of Razr, the company has not come up with anything worthy enough to be called its successor. Now, after eight long years, Motorola has unveiled what could be the worthy successor of Razr – Cliq. As of now, Cliq is only available through T-Mobile USA. A lot of experts, however, feel that Motorola should join hands with other carriers to make this product a success.

A lot of people also feel that Google sees Cliq as its chance to make its presence felt on a market which is completely dominated by Apple iPhone and Blackberry. If you remember, Google released Android in 2007 and it still has not been able to make its presence felt on the market. As of now, there are only four phone models that run with Android software. So, in my opinion, Google has a lot riding on this phone too. Let us see how it turns out for everyone involved with it.

Categories: All things mobile phones, Mobile Social Networking.

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Watch what you say about Apple

Regular readers of this blog might know that I’m not exactly a politically correct person and I say just what I want to say. I’ve written for and against a lot of issues regarding mobile phones, mobile phone advertising, and other things. But from now on, I shall restrain myself when I write about Apple iPhone. Or anything Apple for that matter. Not that I’ve changed my writing style or taken a course on political correctness or something. I read the New York Times today. Dan Mitchell had something to say about Apple fans and their so called ‘thin skin.’ Read it and decide it for yourself.

Categories: Rant, Apple iPhone, All things mobile phones.

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iPhone 2.0 from Apple - Are you ready for the future?

Few days back, on March 6, Steve Jobs made an announcement which made everyone sit up and take notice. It focused on something called iPhone 2.0, based on which Apple has planned its moves for the iPhone.

As we all know, the iPhone is what it is today, because it stands out from other phones. In fact, we can’t even categorize Apple iPhone as just another phone. It’s almost like a handheld computer in which you can make calls. So, Steve Jobs has stated that he considers the iPhone to be a platform. Or even better, a multipurpose, handy device meant for both computing and communication. This is what the idea of iPhone 2.0 is based on.

Steve plans to categorize the mobile phone market into two main categories – ordinary mobile phones and the iPhone. While the ordinary mobile phones can be used for calls, text messages (SMS), MMS, songs, radio, and mobile TV, the iPhone platform, as it’s called, will offer superior mobile web browsing, email, instant messenger, multimedia applications, and other things that you can run on a PC.

Ever since its release, iPhone has got 28% of the smartphone market in the U.S. under control which is amazing. As we all know, the U.S. smartphone market is generally dominated by Blackberries and the iPhone is slowly changing that.

Steve Jobs has also mentioned that the next version of iPhone will support Microsoft Exchange Server. Now, this is a very significant move on the part of the iPhone. The reason is quite obvious. Microsoft Exchange Server is the system used to manage applications like email, address book, calendar, and more for big companies around the world. With the iPhone supporting this server, most companies will switch from Blackberry to the iPhone. And that should make Steve a happy man.

Categories: Apple iPhone.

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JPMorgan - watching the mobile advertising industry closely

Just happened to get a glimpse on the “Nothing But Net” report by JPMorgan. It has raised a few questions, come up with a few predictions, and made a few assertions. It’s more of a report on the advertising phenomenon that’s taken the world by storm. I mean, we have advertisers chasing us everywhere – print medium, online, and now mobile phone, which is what I’m interested in.

JPMorgan says it will be a tough job for the advertising companies to show conversions, as the latest developments in the advertising field has put more pressure on them. One example they have quoted is behavioral targeting. JPMorgan says it will definitely increase CPM and could possibly drive more volume. What this means to advertising companies is that they will be in a position where they have to show definite results and good conversion rates, which will push them to perform better and better.

The same applies to mobile advertising, as JPMorgan is having a close look at the industry, especially the developments of Google and the iPhone. JPMorgan predicts that with Google Android and Apple iPhone, things could get a lot better in the mobile advertising industry. What this means to me is that I’m not the only one watching the mobile advertising industry closely, I have some good company.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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Yahoo mobile internet services to run on Google Android, Windows Mobile, and iPhone

In a move that might have even startled Google, Yahoo has planned to get along with Google to go the mobile way. Confused? Let me paint the complete picture. Yahoo recently launched a mobile developer platform and its latest version of Yahoo Go 3.0. Since then, there has been a buzz in the market that Yahoo is trying really hard to make its mobile internet services reach out to a lot of mobile phones. This news, has confirmed it.

Yahoo has planned to create different versions of its mobile internet services that can run on various mobile platforms, which includes Google Android, Microsoft Windows Mobile, and Apple iPhone. When you come to think of it, it’s a very smart move indeed. Apple came up with its own phone and Google came up with its own mobile phone platform, so Yahoo was not left with much choice. So, it decided to come up with different versions of its mobile internet services, which can run on literally every other mobile phone in the world, thereby making the Yahoo campaign a success. After a long time, a smart and sensible move from Yahoo, I should say.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, Yahoo, Mobile Web.

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