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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Google Android vs. Apple iPhone - Who is the real winner?

So, the widely anticipated Google Android phone, T-Mobile G1, has been released. Before its release, there were a lot of speculations and questions due to two reasons. First, it was from Google. As we now live in the Google era, anything Google does is big news. Second, a lot of people compared Android to Apple iPhone and expected it to create a huge buzz in the market like the iPhone did. So, now that the phone has been released, did it manage to create a huge buzz like Apple iPhone? The answer to that question would be ‘no’.

First of all, you need to understand why and how Apple iPhone managed to create such a huge buzz in the market. There are two main reasons behind it.

1. Apple iPhone was the first of its kind. The unbelievably smooth touch screen, the built-in YouTube player, built-in iPod, and other features made iPhone a stand-out choice for both technophiles and laymen. Also, it made mobile web surfing easier than before. This was a major breakthrough, as an overwhelming majority of iPhone users use the mobile search facility extensively, making the iPhone the leader of mobile searches.

The T-Mobile G1, on the other hand, is in the ‘oh; so what’s new now?’ category.

2. Apple iPhone had a huge, loyal subscriber base way before its release. Most of the iPod-worshipping crowd was excited about the arrival of iPhone and these were the people that rushed to buy the iPhone on the very first day of its release, without even knowing how it was.

The T-Mobile G1, on the other hand, does not have such a loyal following. Though Google is probably the most popular brand today, it is not so in the mobile world. So, we can safely assume that G1 will not rock the sales charts like iPhone did.

However, there is one important thing which sets Android apart from iPhone - its open source platform which allows any developer from anywhere in the world to create mobile applications. Apple, on the other hand, has a tight grip on both the hardware and software of the iPhone. So, though Apple offers plenty of mobile applications through its App Store, it retains a lot of control.

Google has announced that it will license Android to any company in the world, which gives handset makers and wireless carriers around the world to tweak the software according to their needs. This is a major plus point.

Just imagine – If any handset maker can come up with a device for Android and any wireless carrier can support it, Google Android can become a household name around the world in a few years from now. Apple iPhone, on the other hand, is locked with AT&T for five years.

So, while T-Mobile G1 phone has not managed to create a huge buzz like the iPhone did, there is every possibility of Android becoming widespread around the world. So, who could be the real winner in the long term? My money is on Google. What say you?

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

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Google Android to be launched within this year

Ever since Google made the announcement about Android, much has been talked about the mobile software system. Almost every other day, you could see someone talking about Android. The kind of buzz it created in the market was incredible. The initial reaction was nothing but excitement for Android, then it was seen as the potential Apple iPhone killer, and things were looking bright. But then, after some time, some people questioned Google’s logic of making people wait for a long time to get a glimpse of its product. The wait, however, is over.

Last week, at the Annual Developer Conference at San Francisco, Google unveiled the near-completed Android platform to people. The reaction from the crowd gathered there, unanimously, was a big ‘wow.’

Sample this – you can unlock phones by drawing a certain shape on the touch screen. No need to enter passwords or any such thing. On the homepage of the device, you can bookmark all your favorite web pages. There is a magnifying tool that you can use to zoom in on the text in the web pages. And there is an automatic compass tool which helps you with road maps. With all this and more, Android certainly caught everyone’s attention at the conference.

Google has also made it clear that Android will be launched within this year. Google firmly believes that its open source mobile platform will benefit users more and will become the major player in the future.

Analysts believe that with close to 3 billion mobile phones in the market, the scope for an open source mobile platform like Android is huge. They estimate that Google could be able to rake in as much as $5 billion every year from the mobile advertising market.

I have no doubt that Android will be a very useful, very innovative, and very futuristic platform. However, the important thing here is its ability to change certain perceptions about mobile web like the Apple iPhone did. Before the launch of iPhone, surfing the internet from the mobile phone was considered a cumbersome process and very few did that. Bang came in the iPhone and made mobile surfing so much easier. Similarly, if Android could change certain perceptions about mobile phone and offer great user experience, we are in for another revolution in the mobile industry. Are you excited about the launch of Android? Will you give it a try? Most importantly, do you think it will live up to its expectations?

Categories: Google.

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