Instead of a lengthy blog post here is just a wrap-up of quite interesting news announced at the Mobile Word Congress today:
Symbian joins Open Screen Project
The Symbian Foundation is joining the Open Screen Project, an industry-wide initiative led by Adobe to enable the Adobe Flash Platform across a broad range of devices. This means that Symbian will be integrating Flash 10.1 in future releases of the platform.
(Sources: allaboutsymbian.com, eon.businesswire.com)
Ericsson launches eStore
Today, Ericsson unveiled an application store product for mobile operators allowing them to set up their own application store. The eStore is available in 25 markets worldwide, reaching more than 1 billion subscribers throughout more than 100 operator networks. It already has 30,000 free and paid apps and games. The eStore is backed by Opera who provides the client framework for widgets and applications across multiple channels and devices.
(Sources: mobilegamesblog.com, finchannel.com)
Intel and Nokia release new Linux OS “MeeGo”
Intel and Nokia have merged Moblin and Maemo into MeeGo , a Linux based software platform designed to run on any device from cars and home phones to computers and mobile phones. So MeeGo is a primary competitor to Google’s Linux-based Android as well as to Apple’s iPhone software and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile.
MeeGo will ensure that third-party developers will be available to reach the wide range of product types mentioned above. Developers can create applications for MeeGo using the Qt framework and can market their apps through Nokia’s Ovi Store and Intel AppUpSM Center.
The first version of MeeGo will be available in the second half of 2010. Nokia also said that it will continue to sell and develop its Symbian smartphone operating system alongside MeeGo.
(Sources: eweek.com, infosyncworld.com, mobilegamesblog.com, nytimes.com)
Samsung unveils first bada phone “Wave”
Samsung has unveiled “Wave” (Model S8500), the first smartphone which is based on Samsung’s own mobile operating system bada and features Social Hub, a social networking/messaging platform. Samsung’s bada platform allows mobile users to download applications fromSamsung Apps , an integrated application store accessible from the device and online. Already launched in the UK, France, Italy, Singapore, Germany, Brazil and China, the store will be expanded to more than 50 countries all over the world in 2010. The bada SDK will be launched in March.
bada will be one of our platforms, said Dr Hosoo Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of the Media Solution Center at Samsung Electronics. We are still working on Android, preparing for new Windows Mobile features coming this year, and also LiMo.
(Sources: SamsungMWC Twitter, Samsung MWC site, Wave Press Release, eweek.com, mobilebusinessbriefing.com)
Vodafone 300,000 360 devices & 7,000 apps
Only a few months after the launch of the Vodafone 360 devices the operator has already sold over 300,000 handsets (H1 and M1) and has more than 7,000 apps and games for those devices available for download from the Vodafone 360 Apps Shop.
(Source: mobile-ent.biz)
Windows Phone 7 Series
Finally Microsoft has unveiled its newest version of Windows Mobile known as Windows Phone 7 Series and it is connected with the Xbox Live environment. The home screen consists mainly of Widgets (namedLive Tiles ) and the phones will also have all the functionality of the Zune HD: