Mobile Phones Blog

Yes its been that time of year again when all the industry bigwigs unveil their spanking new handsets and generally gather together to get drunk in a beautiful sunny location, preferably with a beach within staggering distance (as you can tell I'm a bit jealous). But aside from such frivolities the future of mobile phone use was up for some considerable debate. At last years event mobile TV was the buzzword, every handset was demoed showing streamed TV channels and it was thought that everyone would soon be tuning in to their phones for entertainment on the move.

To an extent this has taken off, though not as much as the networks would like. It's estimated that there are around 1.3 million consumers of mobile video content in the UK with around 230,000 Sky mobile TV subscribers. Having watched Sky Sports news on this service I can say it isn't without its problems, the picture can jerk more than a badly dressed breakdancer at times. But on the whole, the service is good.

This year internet connectivity was a recurring theme. Each of the big manufacturers had handsets that were GPS & HSDPA compatible. Nokia released the E90 Communicator, their assault on the Smartphone market which garnered some great reviews. They also gave some more publicity to the upcoming N95 which is sure to be a smash hit. For gadget hungry consumers such as myself, the N95 promises to be an essential. It does pretty much everything bar make you a cup of coffee, and feed you grapes. When they release a phone that can do that my life will be immeasurably improved, I live in hope.

Samsung again showed their technical nous by announcing the U100, officially the world's thinnest handset at just 5.9mm thick. Samsung appear to have gone down the style route but have managed this without compromising on high end technical features. Most of the handsets unveiled are successors to existing models (such as the D900), the highlight of which was the U600. With its combination of touch sensitive and normal keys it is sure to be a hit with customers.

Motorola unveiled some successors to their existing phone line up which included the Z8. It's unusual bendable form and innovative functions made it one of the hits of the conference. The all singing all dancing update to the hit K1 was also unveiled. The K3 (I don't know what happened to number two either, it wouldn't have been confused with the mountain) has 3G support and surprise, surprise its HSDPA enabled with stereo Bluetooth compatibility and it's sure to be another popular phone for the American giant.

Sony Ericsson had a great year last year and they look set to continue their upward trend. Handsets like the W880 improve on the existing formula of feature packed, media focused handsets. The hit K800i has received a make over (with a bit of lipo suction) and has become the K810i. The K810i has a thinner body and a camera lens cover that doesn't protrude from the body of the phone (from personal experience I know this resulted in hundreds of photos of the inside of my pocket, a truly dark and lonely place) and it has received some software upgrades.

Korean manufacturer LG have again come up trumps in terms of handset design. The shine, which is now available on this site, takes the chocolate slide design into ever more desirable territory. The real show stopper however was the Prada phone. This black touch screen (another of one of this years buzzwords) handset resembles the upcoming iPhone and is sure to steal some of its thunder. Mr Jobs will be a worried man, well as worried as a multi millionaire CEO gets;

2007 looks like it could be a revolutionary year for mobile phones. The way you use your handset will certainly change in the next few years and the handsets described above are just the beginning. Also you'll be able to see and buy all of the handsets that I've discussed, at length in some cases, on our site very soon.

Vodafone Live users will soon be able to tinker and update their Myspace profiles on the move - emo kids are stoked. So the next time you’re in the pub with your mates, you can take a ‘hilarious’ photo of your inebriated face at a jaunty angle and instantly load it up onto your profile to foster the illusion that you are a fun, outgoing party animal.

It’s probably only a matter of time before somebody manufactures a branded Myspace handest, which comes with a camera perfectly positioned to instantly facilitate those oddly angled profile shots.

Myspace has become an unprecedented net phenomenon, superseding LiveJournal and a million bulletin boards in one fell swoop. It was bought by News International in July 2005.