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Finally Nokia has come out with dual sim based phones in order to regain its lost market share and also check its yearly revenue. Worried by the run away success of local mobile manufacturers -micromax, spice, maxx etc which offer dual sim based phones from 1.5k-5k price range Nokia has been contemplating to launch dual sim phones

According to IDC research, Nokia’s market share dipped from 64% in 2008-09 to 52.2% in 2009-10. The company’s revenue too fell from Rs16,567 crore to Rs14,100 crore during the same period.

Nokia launched C1 and C2 dual sim phones to attract the users primarily from tier 3 cities and rural sector where demand is high for dual sim phones. Nokia claimed that these models, especially Nokia C1, will provide a standby battery time of up to six weeks, the longest ever for a Nokia phone.

The Nokia C1 is a basic model without much multimedia features. The users can only use this type for voice and SMS. It has a FM radio, a flashlight and colour screen. The ‘call divert’ feature will help the users not to miss a call from either of the two SIMs.The users can switch between the two SIM cards by simply holding down a key. Users can buy Nokia C1 at just Rs 1999.

Nokia C2 has features like Ovi Mail and Ovi Life Tools, which provides information on healthcare, agriculture, education and entertainment. The memory capacity can be expanded upto 32 GB using Micro SD cards. Users can buy this dual SIM phone at just Rs 2500.

-Hitesh, vcBytes.com

Wyncomm telcom has launched India’s first Hindi QWERTY keypad Y-45 mobile phone targetting youths at Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in India and thus enabling texting in Hindi.

Y-45 also allows a consumer to send free SMSes across India, the UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines instantly with an in-built soft key for 160by2 — free mobile phone application that allows users to send free SMSes via the Internet.

Other features are It has a dual SIM (GSM+GSM) capacity with a 2.2-inch 262 TFT colour screen. It supports social networking sites like Opera Mini, Snaptu, Nimbuzz, Facebook, Twitter, MSN etc and also has a geographic location finder – Saarthi, 1.3 MP camera,  Bluetooth with A2DP, e-mail facility, PC Sync, video recording and Playback.

Its clearly a smart move by Wyncomm to target youths In smaller cities where English language is a big hurdle for communicating over SMS, Y-45 will definitely overcome this problem and can make texting hasslefree.

-Hitesh, vcBytes.com

PhoneCurry is a new website that aims to help Indian consumers decide which mobile phone to purchase in a simple, uncluttered way. In times, when consumers are flooded with a choice of phones, with new models launched every week,  many people are using the Internet to find out about phones before buying. It is for such consumers, that PhoneCurry can come in handy.

The site attempts to make the process easy for a consumer by having:

1. Search oriented interface to help people find phones according to their exact and specific requirements. For instance, a user can do a search such as “Nokia and Samsung phones, costing between Rs 8,000 and 10,000, launched during the last year, having touchscreen, 3G support, full keyboard and in-built social networking”
2. Phone features explained in simple layman terms.
3. Overall opinion around each phone (collated and summarized from various publicly available phone reviews), and an overall rating, to make it easy for the consumer to make his decision.
4. Video reviews for popular phones.

The entire website has been structured to help a consumer make his/her decisions, as easily and as quickly as possible, with minimum of clutter.

Do give it a spin and share your views.

-Hitesh,vcBytes.com

Eyeing a big slice of the fastest growing mobile handset market in the world, multinational IT giant Dell plans to bring its range of smartphones to India.

“India is one of the key markets for Dell consumers and as we work on the plans to bring the smart phones to this market, we continue to explore various go-to-market options,” Dell India General Manager (Consumer) Mahesh Bhalla said.

He, however, did not disclose specific details on the exact date for launch of Dell’s mobile handsets or the models to be made available in the country.

In an advertisement in a local newspaper, Dell today said it is “making a move into mobile phones” and has sought distributors with “retail reach”.

Dell, which is the world’s third largest PC maker, will be following its global peer Apple in introducing its handsets in the Indian market, which is dominated by low-cost handsets.

According to telecom regulator TRAI, India had about 617.53 million mobile-phone users by May-end, second only to China, while an estimate by research firm IDC shows that 101.54 million handsets were sold in the Indian market during the 2009 calendar year.

Dell had announced its entry into the growing smartphone category globally late last year.

Smartphones are mobile devices with PC-like functionality and other advanced features. Smartphone players in India include Apple, HTC, Research in Motion (with BlackBerry), while other handset makers like Nokia, Samsung and LG have also added an array of smartphones to their portfolio to tap the growth in this segment.

Mospay is a 2.5 year old startup based out of Delhi. They develop smart mobile solutions mainly in learning and enterprise space. Mospay is founded by Shantanu Dash, a bitsian and i happen to meet him in one of the BITS alumni meet.

MosPay provides a platform for delivering mobile learning and info contents to its customers like carriers, handsets, training schools, which offer various study materials through the application for its users or students.

The training schools either give the content to MosPay for using it in their applications, or the schools themselves upload the contents by using the online system that the company has developed. Mospay has tied up with various content providers including McMilan and Sultan Chand publication.

Product offerings: Mospay develops products cater to learning, utility and enterprise space. Their product supports 150+ handsets from lowest end to high end phones. Mospay is now concentrating on iPhone and android platform.

Their main products are -:
mGurujee: Helps students to learn courses/crack entrance examinations by preparing for it through their mobile phones.

mLocate: A location search mobile application
mAstrox: An application to tell your personalized and interesting predictions
mEvents: Provides alerts to happening events in town
mBackup: Backup your personal data through this application

Clients include Aircel, Tataindicom, Virgin and in handsets LG, fly, spice, samsung are prominent clients.

-Hitesh, vcBytes.com

Symbian foundation has opened up its platform for web application developers and they can contribute to symbian platform by creating web application tools the simplest way possbile. Symbian platform will enable these web apps to be accessible to both consumers and handset makers around the world.

Mainly its been targetted for Symbian^3 devices and Nokia N8 the first device on this platform. These Symbian web application development tools provide an ideal entry point for web developers targeting the vast, new development opportunities offered by the Symbian^3 platform and the wider mobile marketplace.

Symbian’s web application development tools should enable any web developer to apply existing knowledge in HTML, CSS and JavaScript in a mobile context. There are only a few additional JavaScript APIs to explore, and developers will be able to directly access deep handset capabilities, so that they can deliver engaging applications that can benefit from handset functionalities like contacts, camera, accelerometers and even location.

Web applications for Symbian can be delivered through the use of any web development environment, yet the new tools add more value in segments like mobile-specific application preview, debugging and deployment features. These capabilities are also expected to support the transition of skills in the desktop environment to the mobile area.

The new tools have been recently released out of community beta, and can be used on all major platforms, including Windows, Mac and Linux. Those interested in downloading them should head over to the Symbian website here.

-Hitesh, vcBytes.com

If you are super busy person and you need 4 different numbers to cater to your office, personal, family and gf needs motorola has got the solution for you. Now cellphone users would soon be able to use up to four phone numbers in a single handset, without even having to buy a multi-SIM one.

The US-based company Motorola is in talks with all Indian telecom service providers to launch iSIM — a flexible wafer that can be attached to the original SIM. This allows the user to access three other numbers on the same handset. iSIM is based on a flexible wafer that can be attached to the subscriber’s original SIM providing additional services that can be controlled via SIM tool kit (STK), allowing third-party developers to build applications and services,

Each iSIM supports up to four IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity) profiles and each IMSI profile can be provisioned to one phone number. Subscribers can switch between different phone numbers provisioned to different networks, or the same network, without changing SIMs.

An IMSI is a unique, usually 15-digit, number associated with mobile users. It is stored in the SIM inside the phone and is sent by the phone to the network. It is also possible to define a special “Killer SMS” in this application, which blocks or resets the mobile when it is lost or stolen. Besides parental control applications, Motorola’s iSIM platform would offer compelling value proposition for applications such as mobile commerce for banking, payment and near field communications (NFC), call control, alternative call routing and call back system, among other things.

Bipper Communication AS, a Scandinavian web-based company involved in providing services to keep children safe when using mobiles, would use Motorola’s iSIM platform to enable parental control services, making mobiles safer and better adapted for use by children.

The parental control service from Bipper would help parents manage their children’s approved number list from the Bipper website. Parents could then monitor their children’s use of mobiles through an easy-to-use portal. Who they communicate with, how much and when they use they use the phone can also be tracked.

-Hitesh, vcBytes.com

Nokia’s Ovi Store, the place where the owners of a Nokia smartphone can find a wide range of content available for download on their devices, is seeing increased popularity among users, the latest stats show. The software solutions portal is enjoying a number of around 1.6 million downloads every day, it offers support for over 100 devices (more than 60 of them being powered by the Symbian operating system), and users can access content from publishers from more than 80 countries.

The latest statistics on Ovi Store showing that the storefront offers support for 30 language variations, and that users can enjoy mobile billing with Ovi Store from 66 operators in 19 countries. Two thirds of the customers in these countries choose this payment method, it seems. 90 percent of Ovi Store visitors are able to use their local language, while 80 percent of them can make purchases from the portal using their local currency.

Among the other stats on Nokia’s Ovi Store, we can count the fact that Digital Chocolate has managed to reached over 4.5 million downloads, or that prominent devices in top downloading countries include touch-enabled handsets like N97, N97 Mini, 5800 XpressMusic, 5530 XpressMusic and X6, as well as non-touch ones like E66, E71 and E72. Nokia N900 is another phone that made it in the top 10 performing devices in the past weeks (in 3 of the top 10 most active countries).

China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, UK and Vietnam were nominated as the most active countries (in an alphabetical order).

-Hitesh, vcBytes.com

Every company seems to get a pie of cell phone market  and MS known for its mobile OS launched  two new phone models, called Kin 1 and Kin 2, the Kin brand is designed for teens and Social is part of the DNA of this phone.

Kin 1 and Kin 2 have similar features, and run the same Kin version of WinPhone7, with touchscreens, slideout QWERTY keyboards, etc. Differences include size – the Kin 1 being the smaller, squarish one, with a 5.0 megapixel camera/SD video, mono speaker, and 4 GB of memory built in, compared to the Kin 2’s larger screen and keyboard, stereo speakers, 8.0 megapixel camera/HD video and 8 GB of memory.

In terms of softwares , first the basics – has a browser, Bing search, and Zune software built in – so it should be pretty nice for music. But it’s NOT a smartphone – Microsoft built the Kin for Social. The camera software with social features built in – allowing you to upload straight from your phone to your social sites.

But the coolest feature is Kin Studio which allow user to access, sort, and most importantly, backup everything on your phone – from Contacts, to texts, to pictures and videos.

MS has launched Kin website also.

-Hitesh, vcBytes.com

Nokia is planning a launch soon for its music downloading service in India following a China launch, as it looks to emerging markets to breathe new life into the struggling service. Nokia would bring its Comes with Music downloading service to India offering free music with its mobile phones as it seeks to compete with Apple Inc’s popular iTunes.

Nokia unveiled Comes with Music in late 2008, but it has lacked operator support and has gained little traction in developed markets since then.

Lets wait and watch for this service to be launched and how much traction it gains.

-Hitesh, vcBytes.com