Sony Ericsson W910i - Best Mobile Phone of 2008

The Best Mobile Phone of the Year award has been announced at the Mobile World Congress 2008 and the Winner is Sony Ericsson W910i.
The other nominees were:

3SkypePhone
LG Viewty
Nokia 6500 Classic
Samsung SGH-G600

Sadly N95 was not there in the list of nominees.
“We are very proud to receive such a prestigious award for what has proved to be a very popular product”, said Sony Ericsson President. W910i is another excellent Walkman branded phone from the Sony Ericsson stable. The slim sliding form factor of the phone makes it stand apart from other Walkman branded phones of Sony Ericsson. With just $300 in India, it’s worth a buy.

Next-generation iPhone announced online

It has been in the news that the full details of the new and improved Apple iPhone is availablke in the market. Apple iPhone Apps site, with the date of July 17th listed as the launch date. If it's all true (and that's a big 'if'), it looks to be fairly mild evolution rather than a groundbreaking new handset.

The inique addition with this iPhone current price points, but offer 32GB and 16GB of storage (up from the current 16GB and 8GB), along with an improved 3.2-megapixel camera (up from the current 2-megapixel camera) with video-recording and editing capabilities, an all-new OLED screen, double the RAM for improved processing, 1.5x the battery life, a built-in FM transmitter and enhanced GPS, with turn-by-turn directions and the option to identify photos by location.

Cosmetic improvements too, including the removal of the metal band surrounding the edge of the device, a glowing Apple logo on back, rubber-tread backing and an all-round sleeker design.

It's pretty much everything that has previously rumoured and not much more. Sadly, the man on the inside didn't manage to take any blurry spy shots, although one image of a rubber back has appeared online previously. We'll be honest, we're not completely convinced that this is the final specification, but that doesn't really matter. The Apple WWDC is just over two week away, so we haven't long to wait for the official presentation. But just in case it is true, you might want to think twice before you sign up for that new mobile contract.

Toshiba to End Production of Mobile Phones in Japan

Toshiba Corp. said it will cease mobile-phone handset production in Japan amid weak sales and will instead outsource production to cut costs.

The conglomerate will continue development and sales of handsets in Japan after stopping production in October. It will outsource production of typical handsets to companies overseas and focus on making high-end smart phones in China.

Toshiba predicts the move will save 4.5 billion yen, or about $45 million, in the fiscal year through next March. Other global handset makers, such as Motorola Inc., Nokia Corp. and Sony Ericsson Co., also are increasing outsourcing to cut costs.

Handset makers' profit margins have been squeezed by intensifying competition and a slump in demand amid the global recession.

Global sales of handsets in the first quarter fell 9.4% from a year earlier to 269 million units, according to research firm Gartner Inc. That was the biggest drop since 2001, when Gartner began monitoring the market on a quarterly basis.

Toshiba's mobile-phone business swung to an unspecified loss in the company's latest fiscal year. Handset sales fell by half to three million units, reducing handset revenue to 140 billion yen from 260 billion yen a year earlier.

Toshiba "made the right decision because they should cut production costs, which are higher in Japan," said Haruo Sato, an analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Center Co.

To escape reliance on the shrinking Japanese market, Sharp Corp. pushed into China last year with high-end models. Sharp now expects handsets sales to increase to 12.3 million units in the fiscal year through next March. That would follow a 35% decline to 9.92 million units last fiscal year.

TomTom has announced - GO 740 LIVE

TomTom has proudly announced that its GO 740 LIVE personal navigation device would be its very first "connected GPS" to hit the United States of America. Just last month, the company announced that said unit was finally shipping to anxious consumers. Hardware wise, there's nothing here outside of the ordinary, but it's the little extras that make all the difference in the world here.

It's been a rough little while for so-called connected GPS units, but it looks like TomTom is still confident in the idea, and it's just gotten official with its first such device for the US market: the GO 740 LIVE. As you may recall, this one actually made its debut way back at IFA in the summer, and it looks to be mostly unchanged for its entrance into the US. That includes the standard 4.3-inch touchscreen, 2GB of internal flash memory with a microSD card slot for expansion, handsfree Bluetooth functionality, voice recognition, maps of the US and Canada courtesy of TeleAtlas and, of course, a built-in SIM card slot and GPRS modem to let you take advantage of all those "connected" features. As with the Insignia connected GPS unit, you'll get a year of free service with the device, which certainly makes that $500 price tag a bit more bearable. Look for it to be available sometime in the second quarter of this year.