You may or may not have noticed, however, the reality is manufacturers have cut back or delayed their number of new mobile phone launches in 2009. Even Nokia, the global mobile phone giant, is feeling the economic downturn from consumers around the world. We all are buying less or more frugally. At the same time, the mobile phone manufacturers are really not 'wowing' us with anything new and exciting as in years past. The US carriers are churning out, at a slower rate, some new mobile phones, but nothing iconic noted yet.
I will admit, as far as the unlocked business goes, that Nokia does have a pretty impressive device launching mid year called the N97 which is their next generation Nseries smartphone with a new and improved S60 OS (actually my blog site uses a picture of the N97 on the top).Check into its details on the web as it is much anticipated by tech leaders around the world. HTC is probably second is pushing sales of unlocked mobile phones in the US, but 2009 looks like 2nd generations for HTC Touch Diamond and HTC Touch PRO. Not that these are not great smartphones....just not that much different. The HTC Touch HD 2009 does have some nice feature upgrades and slickness so be sure to check that device out - it is available unlocked today - one site I know it is available at is www.mobilecityonline.com. SonyEricsson is in a lull and now there are reports that Ericsson wants out of the SonyEricsson joint venture and Sony is willing to buy the share from Ericsson, but Sony is a bit cash strapped now so they are looking at other options. Regardless, Sony Ericsson mobile is riding their Experia X1 which is not doing so well in the US. I can tell you that their sales distribution model and strategy for unlocked is not optimized and that is mostly the reason behind the sales lag. The X1 is a nice product. Anyway, SonyEricsson's new so called strategy for the US involves a focus on theiradvanced camera functionality built into their new mobile phone lines like the C905. They still aspire to get in with a US carrier in the high end smart phone category. I wish them luck. Samsung is gobbling up US carrier market share like it is going out of style. My thoughts are - kudos to Samsung and their US team. They are designing some great products to meet the carrier specs and they hired most of the older Nokia US employees with years of experience and relationships to make the business happen. LG is almost holding their own with ATT and Verizon as their anchors in the US market, but minimal business in the unlocked space. Blackberry is trucking along driving the bulk of smartphone sales in the US and with a great product line from Bold to Storm to 8900 Curve, to Pearl. They are really dominating the smarthphone space in the US with good reason since their email solution and ease of use is driving consumer demand. Motorola is really struggling and lost most of their share globally and now their US mobile phone business is in jeopardy. They just are launching the EM330, an entry level clamshell, at ATT to help gain some marketshare, but it will by no means save them. Apple is cruising along selling the iPhone 3G at ATT retail and recently announced they will launching OS 3.0 in the summer as an upgrade...iPhone to Get MMS, Cut & Paste, Stereo Bluetooth and More...I also learned today that ATT is now selling brand new Apple iPhone 3G 8Gb and 16gb to existing ATT customers with NO contract. This added about $400 to the cost, but at least it is an option at $599 and $699 respectively. Now if they would just offer it unlocked then that would be true progress!
To sum it up, we are just about a quarter into 2009 and no announcements nor leaked information on anything new and exciting in the mobile phone and smartphone space besides maybe the Nokia N97. Of course there are Apple rumors on the "Nano" phone, but that has been rumored for a while now. We will see as CTIA approaches and happens April 1-3, 2009 if there are any mobile phones in 2009 to 'Holla' about.
