April 2009 Archives

WITH a brand known for its high-end corporate smartphones, Taiwanese device man ufacturer HTC is setting to introduce cheaper mobile phones for the entry-level consumer market in the Philippines. While the company did not announce which specific models will be available in t he country, HTC Philippines Country Manager Mark Sergio said prices of the newe r models will hover somewhere around P15,000. In comparison, many HTC phones have price tags starting at P30,000 pesos all th e way up to P50,000. The units would also have some watered down features. But Sergio said the consu mer phones will still include functionality that are familiar to their high-end brethren, which include touch screen capabilities. Some of the consumer-level units will also have QWERTY keyboards, as well as 3G capabilities. Sergio also said that an HTC phone using Google's Android mobile phone operatin g system will be available in the Philippines. Currently, the cheapest HTC model in the Philippines is the Touch Viva, which c osts P21,990 pesos. It is also one of its highest selling models in its latest Touch series. "This showed us that there's a market for cheap, touch screen phones. The new p hones will be aimed at different user types but the important part is that the phones will deliver great user experience," Sergio said. Sergio stressed that despite the economic crisis the company has seen good sale s in the past few months. He attributed these to corporate customers looking t o provide multi-function devices to executives. The company plans to introduce the phone during the second half of the year. Se rgio promised that the new consumer phones will be "priced competitively" with other smartphones. To whet the appetite of users, Sergio showed the new HTC Touch Cruise targeted at the constant traveler.It uses Windows Mobile 6.0 just like all of the other Touch models, except for the new "Footprints" application, which allows users t o take photos and update these on the installed Google Maps software. The Touch Cruise connects to the Internet via 3G and Wifi. It also comes with a global positinging system (GPS) feature. It is priced at P32,900.

INTERNET giant Yahoo! has invaded more mobile devices, including RIMâs Blackber ry and the Apple iPhone. The mobile portal of the Internet giant is now be available in over 300 mobile devices. The company now allows users to download the mobile application in 8 countries, including the Philippines. Once installed in a mobile device that has HTML-capable browsing features, the Internet giant's mobile portal activates several services that are commonly acc essed from its main site, including search, email, messenger, and news updates. A separate installation version is available for iPhone users, the company said . A version for Windows-based smartphones would be made available by the end of M ay, it added. Yahoo! Mobile Senior Vice President David Ko said the mobile application target s users wanting personalized web services on their mobile devices. "It is a dynamic starting point enabling consumers to discover the world around them, stay connected through a variety of communication services, and customiz e content to define their Internet experience on mobile devices," Ko said.