Who all wants iPhone in USA

Source: Cellular News

HTC Touch Screen Handset

HTC Corp., the world's leading provider of Microsoft Windows Mobile-based smart devices, announced the global launch of the HTC Touch, a small and stylish mobile phone that ushers in an innovative new concept in intuitive touch screen navigation. The HTC Touch brings a new level of simplicity to the powerful and function-rich device.

HTC Touch represents extensive research and development and the conviction that fingertip control will enable more efficient, natural and intuitive touch screen navigation.

Source: Cellphone Digest

iPhone Ready to Launch

Apple's iPhone is set to launch on June 29, 2007. The highly anticipated smartphone will offer music storage and Internet access. Apple and AT&T have started aggressively running TV commercials of the new handset.

The iPhone will sell at $499 to $599 and will be distributed in the US market via AT&T. The iPhone weighs 135 grams (3.8 ounces) and operates on the Apple OS X operating system with 4 or 8 megabytes of storage.

Source: Cellphone Digest

Mobile phones to effect Navigation device market

Mobile phone operators now have the ability to market a downloadable navigation application that is as good as personal navigation devices. As a result, handset-based mapping and navigation applications could cause a major change in the overall navigation market, which is now dominated by relatively expensive standalone devices.

Source: Cellular News

Harry Potter on Mobile Phones

Electronic Arts and Warner Bros. Digital Distribution have announced a partnership to extend the Harry Potter universe onto mobile phones. This summer, UK & USA mobile consumers will be able to download the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix mobile game and personalization content, including ringtones, voicetones and wallpapers based on the upcoming film.

Source: Cellular News

Pay Your Bill Through SMS

Ticket payments and fund transfers are now an SMS away. You could soon pay for a cup of coffee or dinner at your favourite restaurant using your mobile phone. Not just that, you could also send money to a needy relative via your phone.

The unprecedented growth in the number of mobile phone users has enabled banks to transform mobile phones from only giving customers information on their bank accounts into an alternate channel for payments.

All major banks in India are now entering into tie-ups with companies, facilitating payments through the mobile phone. SBI and ICICI Bank have already undertaken pilot projects on mobile banking, in association with Airtel and payments-company mChek. Citibank already has a service-partnership with Paymate. M-payments operate on a very simple mechanism globally. The details of the credit or debit card get stored onto the user’s phone, following which, transactions are completed via an SMS.

When a user wants to pay using his mobile phone, all he needs to do is share his mobile number with the merchant. Instantly, he receives an SMS asking him to authorise the payment. The customer can do this by confirming the alpha-numeric code sent to him, as well as the amount.

Within few seconds, the bank concerned will authenticate the details and debit the amount. Companies are trying to encrypt card details onto SIM cards, to target people using even the entry-level handsets. Those with sophisticated handsets can download software to facilitate the process.

Also, to start with, each bank will use its own payment-gateway, which should eventually come down to 2-3 gateways.

Source: The ET

One97 Gets Funding

One97 Communications- a Mobile value added services company has received funding from SAIF Partners. One97 has to its credit India’s first short code SMS service, 3030.

Source: DataQuest