Blackberry Z10 Bursting Into the Samsung vs iPhone Debate

Time to consider a new mobile phone upgrade.  The fierce debate between Samsung Galaxy III and iPhone 4 (I went with the iPhone 4 because reviews haven't been too hot on the iPhone 5) caused me to really think about my next choice of phone.  So I decided to do a side by side comparison of the two phones.  All was going great until a couple of weeks ago when the new buzz was about Blackberry's Z10.  The Blackberry Z10 or RIM is set to be officially launched at the end of January 2013.  Information leaks are giving us a small glimpse into some of its features.  A few of the highlights are things like 70,000 apps and 20 million songs available for download at launch!  The screen has a 356 dpi resolution and a Qualcomm S4 processor.

Business Insider's Steve Kovach gives us a more in-depth peek at the new Blackberry Z10.  I think one of the coolest new features is the time-shifting camera that gives you the ability to change the faces of someone if they blink.  TechnoBuffalo demonstrates some of the features of the new Blackberry phone at CES 2013.

I thought I was pretty sure about my upgrade choice, but now the decision just got a little more complicated.  After January 30, the real comparison shopping can begin, but the cost will have to be factored in.  It would be nice if the Z10 was in the same general ballpark as the iPhone 4 and the Samsung Galaxy III.

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Sprint CEO Nervous About the Wireless Industry's Future

It seems as though the CEO of Sprint, Dan Hesse, is worried about the future of the mobile phone industry. At a reporter’s roundtable discussion at the Sprint headquarters in Overland Park, Kansas, Hesse revealed his worries and concerns about many things surrounding the U.S. wireless industry. He also expressed his extreme opposition to the proposal of merging AT&T and T-Mobile.

Hesse and Farid Adib, the product development chief at Sprint, claim that Sprint has been the carrier to drive innovation among the mobile phone companies. Hesse went on to say that if Sprint had not introduced 4G WiMAX back in 2008, Verizon would have not been as quick to turn on LTE and AT&T would "just have called its 3G network 4G."

Hesse and Adib went on to discuss possible phones for the future and service plans. A reporter questioned the two about why Sprint is not carrying the Palm Pre 3, and Adib responded, "HP ... has been a lifelong partner of Sprint" and that "we still have open dialogues, and work together ... a lot of our OEMS have had ups and downs, but we never count any of them out."

Hesse added that Sprint's strength as the "only unlimited carrier" is not necessarily going to continue or be dismissed by the company. It all depends on "how much capacity do we have," Hesse said. "Every few months we take a look, we take a look at tonnage, and we take a look at all the things we're doing to offload tonnage ... we'll just continue to monitor it. Nothing is forever ... [but] we think it's a terrific opportunity to differentiate ourselves in the market."

Hesse continued discussing concerns about all the patent lawsuits that have been going on between Microsoft, Apple and various different Android phone manufacturers. He said that all of these issues could result in more expensive phones. The rise in costs would then be borne by carriers and customers. "I wouldn't say don't worry about it," Hesse said. "We collectively, the industry, are the customers and potential victims in this. There's no upside to us and I hope it gets sorted out."

Hesse said that by far his biggest fear is the AT&T and T-Mobile merger. He claims that it could be "the end of the U.S. wireless industry." He believes that although Sprint has been the company to push the industry forward in the past, he feels that innovation would be dramatically slowed with AT&T and Verizon dominating the market. Hesse explains that Sprint has a contingency if it looks like the merger is going to happen. "I don't spend any time on it," Hesse said, instead spending "all my time on making sure the decision is the right one."

"If this thing goes through, I hope you like 4G, because it's going to be the last generation America ever gets," Hesse said.

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Smartphones Can Help with Black Friday Shopping

Smartphones have turned into devices that can help individuals with almost every aspect of their lives, and a new survey shows that they will even have an effect on the way that users do their holiday shopping this year.

According to the newest study from market researcher IDC, mobile devices are going to have a very large impact on the holiday shopping habits of American consumers. The survey was conducted with more than 1,000 consumers in September. It showed that customers who use a mobile device for shopping assistance will have a “greater advantage as they engage retailers.”

More than one-third of individuals who were surveyed said that they planned to improve the efficiency and ease of their shopping experience by utilizing their smartphones. They will be able to use their mobile device to search different stores' “price and product information” and also to search for “merchandise availability.” This will help to cut down a lot on stress and wasted time. Of those surveyed that said they plan on using the smartphone, 45 percent said that they would use their mobile device to compare the pricing of certain products to other stores' prices in the area, and 32 percent said that they will be using their phones to browse reviews of certain products that they are interested in.

It has been predicted that the holiday shopping season this year will generate somewhere around $447 billion in revenues. Of the $447 billion, IDC predicts that $127 billion in revenue will be spent by shoppers utilizing their mobile phones to enhance their shopping experience. One thing that is important to note is that these figures do not mean that shoppers are spending cash and purchasing items through their smartphone. IDC says that it simply means that these shoppers will be using their smartphones to help them to ease the stress of holiday shopping and to assist them with their buying decisions.

Now as amazing as these developments may sound to a consumer, it is not necessarily the best news for all retailers. IDC has said that “these new behaviors will exert pressures that weaken the store's immediate influence on purchase decisions at the shelf.” This is a very true thought that I’m sure has many retailers nervous. IDC continued discussing the topic saying that only those retailers that have “superior mobile and social media commerce strategies in place will have a decided advantage."

IDC’s study followed the study conducted by Yahoo that claimed that two-thirds of individuals with a mobile phone will be utilizing it this year while they are doing their holiday shopping. The Yahoo survey also discovered that the average American consumer will be spending close to $900 during the holiday shopping season this year.

These numbers that have been released by IDC and Yahoo are incredible. Mobile devices are increasingly becoming a very essential tool in many individuals' lives. Although it may not be the ideal thing for retailers, utilizing your smartphone to check pricing, availability, and quality of products is smart. It will help shoppers to find the best deals and best products available this holiday season. I know that I will definitely be utilizing these mobile benefits while I’m out doing my shopping. If you’re looking to ease some of the shopping stress of the holiday season, maybe you don’t need to look any further than your smartphone.

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NFL's RedZone Comes to Your Cell Phone

Picture it. It's football Sunday. Your favorite NFL team is getting ready to play their big division rival and you've just settled in to watch and cheer them on, surrounded by your all your favorite snacks. But something happens and you get called into the office. Or maybe you find yourself having to work instead of lounge around in front of your plasma TV. Wouldn't it be great if you could watch the big game from your cell phone?

Well, next season, that dream may become a reality...sort of. The NFL has announced that it is planning to make the RedZone Channel available to cell phone users in fall of 2010. The RedZone cable channel provides coverage of big plays all day on Sunday, during the football season. It switches to any game when a team is within 20 yards of a touchdown, as well as showing all scoring plays, turnovers, and other big plays. The new cell phone version of the channel will be just like the TV version.

Prices haven't yet been set for the mobile version of RedZone. This year, Sprint customers could pay $15 a month for the company's NFL Mobile package (it was also included in their Simply Everything package). Also, DirecTV customers could pay $100 for the mobile feed for the NFL Sunday Ticket, in addition to the nearly $300 they already pay.

Some are wondering whether or not the new venue for watching football will cause broadcasters to see a decline in TV watchers. The NFL has billion-dollar deals with both CBS and Fox and last year, the league was one of the few businesses in the country that did not seen a decline, due to the economy. As a matter of fact, this season's games have seen record numbers of viewers.

But former president of CBS Sports, Neal Pilson, says the networks need not worry, "Right now the sentiment among broadcasters is that this kind of wireless and digital product is only building fans' attachments to the broadcasts. So far, if you can avoid it, you're not going to choose your two-by-two-inch cell phone over your 52-inch, hi-def television."

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AT&T's New Pantech Impact

As of now, AT&T’s phone with the very best features could quite possibly be the Pantech Impact. It has an impressive array of specs including: a horizontal flip that features haptic-feedback-enhanced, invisible number keys, a hidden QWERTY keyboard, and an extra LCD display inside. This could be the phone that you have been looking for.

The Impact has a very strong, sturdy feel about it. It measures 4.2 x 2.0 x 0.7 inches and weighs 4.5 ounces. It is available in two different colors: metallic blue with a black faceplate and internal keyboard or a faded pink with a black faceplate and white keyboard. Overall, the Impact is very nicely put together with its high-quality plastic. The hidden LED keypad is a cool feature. It will appear when you hit the hold button on the side of the phone. It may be a little difficult to get used to, but you can easily catch on and the effect is awesome.

Once you open up the Impact, there is a bright 2.6-inch screen with 240 x 400 pixel resolution. On both sides of the screen, there are stereo speakers that produce fantastic sound quality. The QWERTY keyboard has large, flat, square keys that make texting a breeze. The voice quality of the phone is quite clear, but the low volume of the earpiece can make talking to people in windy conditions a little difficult. The speakerphone is moderately loud but sounds slightly tinny. With Bluetooth, everything is crystal clear and with the perfect amount of volume. Another quick fact to note is the fact that the Impact is a quad-band EDGE and dual-band HSDPA phone. This means that it can work overseas, although the 3G speed is restricted strictly to the U.S. and Canada.

Web browsers look incredibly sharp on the Impact and load quite quickly. Navigation is made easy by the five-way control pad. The browsing experience is very impressive for a midrange feature phone. You can connect to Yahoo, AOL, AIM, Gmail, and Windows Live through AT&T’s Mobile Email offer, but it will cost you an extra $5. Also featured on the Impact is the TeleNav-powered AT&T GPS Navigator that includes the ability to utilize voice-enabled, turn-by-turn directions. There are 80MB of internal storage on the Impact, but in case you need even more room, there is a bottom-mounted microSD card slot that will work with up to a 32GB card.

Other features on the Impact include a 2-megapixel auto-focus camera. Although it lacks an LED flash, it does have video recording capabilities. The photos that the phone took were sharp, but they lacked bright colors. The videos were a bit grainy, but otherwise quite smooth at 320 x 240 pixel resolution and 13 frames per second.

The Pantech Impact is a welcome arrival to AT&T’s line up of phones. With the multitude of features including: the invisible number keys, extra LCD display, quick and easy Web browsing, and plenty of internal storage, you can’t beat the $99 price tag of this feature phone.

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Touch-Screen Phone Usage Soars

According to market research firm ComScore, touch-screen cell phone usage is on the rise and continues to grow at a rapid rate. Between August 2008 and August 2009, touch-screen mobile-phone usage grew by over 159%. The number of touch-screen mobile-phone owners also doubled. In August 2008, just 9.2 million people were using touch-screen phones, but by August 2009, over 23.8 million people were using the phones.

The overwhelmingly rising numbers aren't limited to just touch-screens; it appears as if smartphone usages in general is growing throughout the United States. From August 2008 to August 2009, the number of smartphone users grew by 63%. In August 2008, there were about 20.7 million people using smartphones compared to over 33.7 in August 2009.

So what was the most popular phone? Not surprisingly, it was the iPhone, of course. With 32.9% of the touch-screen market using an iPhone, it was the top device for users ages 13 and older. With 8.7% was the LG Dare came in at a distant second. Other ranking touch-screen phones included the LG Voyager (7.8%), BlackBerry Storm (7%), and the Palm Treo (6.5%).

Another interesting tidbit ComScore found was that touch-screen users tend to be younger than standard cell phone users. Over half (51.4%) of smartphone users are under the age of 35, with a whopping 57.7% of touch-screen users being in the same age range. About 20.6% of touch-screen users are between the ages of 18 and 24, while only 5% of touch-screen users are over 65.