Delay in Launch of Acer Iconia Tab

According to Engadget, it was reported that there would be a delay in the launching of the 7-inch Acer Iconia Tab A100. This media tablet will now be available in the market in the later part of 2011.

On Tuesday, the website reported: "We've just been informed by the company that it’s [Google Android] Honeycomb-sporting, [Nvidia] Tegra 2-powered slate will not be arriving, as had been expected, right around now”.

It was reported that Acer already has launched its two tablets A500 and W500 as per schedule. Both of these tablets are available in market or via internet.

It was found that the first Android 3.0 Honeycomb devices are available in New Zealand. The Acer Iconia A500 tablet weighs only 750g, measuring 26cm x 17.5cm and boasting of a 10.1" touch screen with 800 x 1280 pixels. It is available with the storage capacity of 32GB with one GB RAM and it is based on a NVIDIA Tegra 2 platform running at 1GHz. It also has some preloaded games like NFS Shift. Games like NFS Shift can be played just by tilting of the tablet as it consists of a gyrometer.

It is expected that by the end of this year Android will acquire the market leaving behind various OS for cell phones and tablets.

Nokia C3-00: Facebook, chat on the move for hip-hop class

Emails and messaging services, once widely used by the business class, is now being thrown open to the ‘cattle class’ as well towards what is now famously called the ‘democratisation of chat’. Nokia, for one, is taking social networking and interactivity to the next level by allowing users customise up to 10 email accounts on their Nokia C3-00s, due for launch at the end of next week. This means that customers can access their Gmails and Hotmails simultaneouly at any given time. 

Opening up the social interactivity platform further, the new series will also offer Facebook and Twitter on the C3-00s. “There is also a provision to configure up to 10 instant messaging platforms (chats) on the C3-00,” explains Viral Oza, head (activation), media and online marketing, Nokia India. With a single login, the user can access his email and messaging platforms while on the move. 

The sub-Rs 7,000 price range aims at 18-25-year hip-hop youngsters who wish to stay connected with friends. 

There is a single-click access to social networking, and users can view alerts and news on their home screens, almost simulating a PC-like experience. This also enables quick navigation through their friends’ latest posts. 

The C3-00 has a full QWERTY keypad, which makes messaging and accessing emails easy on the 2.4-inch screen. The phone has a 2-megapixel camera, media player, FM stereo radio, 3.5 AV connector, support for up to 8GB memory card and a built-in handsfree speaker. 

Even as excitement is building over the Nokia 8 series, designed on their latest Symbian 3 operating system, expected to be announced at the Nokia World, London, on Tuesday, the company is readying a different strategy for India. “The N8 series is targeted at a different audience, but as far as India is concerned, we are opening the social interactivity platform to youths, who form 45% of the population,” says Oza. Having tasted success on this series in Indonesia and Vietnam, the phone-maker is optimistic of user response in India as well.

Spice Mobiles Launches Two New Phones

Spice Mobiles has announced the introduction of two new handsets into its line-up with the launch of the M5161 and the M6363.

Both the handsets are Dual SIM enabled and are priced around the 2500 and Rs. 4300 mark. Lets see what these phones have in store for you.

We start with the M-5161. The M5161 boasts of a 2-inch display with a resolution of 176*220. The internal phone book can take up to 1200 contacts and can store pto 500 SMS'. The phone is let down by a rather low internal memory of 1 MB. Thankfully, it has a memory card slot which can take memory cards of up to 4GB in size.  There is a basic camera at the back which can also record videos.  The phone is Internet enabled and supports GPRS and WAP as well.  The phone has a 1200 mAH battery that can give up to 4.5 hours of talk time. Other features include a Torch, FM Radio, Scheduled FM Recording and Wireless FM. The M5161 will set you back by Rs. 2799.

As for the N6363, the phone is slightly more premium compared to the M5161. The M6363 boasts of a 2 mega pixel camera again, with support for video recording. The front is dominated by the 2 inch TFT color display.  Other features include dual expandable memory of 4GB+4GB. Other features include   WAP 2.0, GPRS and Bluetooth 1.2. The M6363 costs Rs.4799

Both the phones are now available and are on sale.

Nokia X2's Official Price Increased to Rs. 6,579

Nokia's low-end X Series phone, the X2, was first heard of back in April 2010. The phone has now made its official entry to India - five months after its existence was revealed.

The X2 which was supposed to be officially here by June has seen its launch delayed by almost three months. Now that the phone is here, let's take a look at its specs again.

The X2, as evident from the naming scheme, will be positioned below the X3 and is a mid-range handset. It boasts of a 2.2 inch QVGA display, dedicated music keys, dual speakers, Bluetooth 2.1, 3.5mm headset jack, FM radio, Nokia Messaging, Facebook integration and microSD card support. The phone, unlike most other X-Series handsets, runs Nokia's proprietary S40 OS. 

The highlight of the phone is its impressive 5 megapixel camera at the rear. This is a rather surprising because the X3, which is positioned above the X2, has a 3.2 megapixel camera. 

The X2 was supposed to be priced at around the Rs. 5,000 mark when we first heard of it. However, it's a tad more expansive and has been priced at Rs. 5,999 in India. The phone is officially on sale now.

Nokia 5250 Music Phone to be Launched Soon

Nokia has finally announced new 5250, a music-centric handset about which we had reported earlier this month. The all new Nokia 5250 is said to be music-centric and is a step higher version of the existing 5230/5235 handset. This handset will come with Ovi Music Unlimited in select regions. 

Nokia 5250 has 2.8-inch TFT touchscreen with 16:9 aspect ratio and will support 640x360 pixel resolution. Loaded with Symbian^1 (S60v5 Touch), this multimedia centric phone will come with Guitar Hero 5 Mobile for free. Though its internal memory is mere 51MB, one can add up to 16GB via microSD memory cards. Also, Nokia has added FM radio for the avid radio listeners.

This 5230 phone successor will sport a 2 megapixel camera and has Ovi Share pre-installed to share photos directly to the web. With support for quad-band GSM/EDGE networks and GPRS for data, users can obviously access Ovi Store to install different apps and games. 

Nokia promises to ship the new 5250 music-centric handset in the fourth quarter of this year for 115 EURO (Rs. 6,800 approx), albeit without taxes. Expect this music phone to cost around Rs. 7,500 when it reaches India. You can expect to see this phone in Black, White, Purple and Blue colors. 

Samsung launches Android-based smartphones Galaxy 3 and Galaxy 5 in the Indian market

Samsung Eletronics launched affordable smart phones Galaxy 3 and Galaxy 5 in the indian market. Both the phones are based on Android platforms.

Announcing the launch Ranjit Yadav, Director, Mobile & IT, Samsung Electronics said, “The smart phone era has begun and is here to stay. We, at Samsung, are committed to making smartphonesavailable for everyone. We have been focusing on Open OS mobiles recently since many key characteristics of smartphones are becoming more and more relevant - especially mobile internet, messaging features, strong third party applications and flexibility for customization. 

In the open OS area, our strategy is to offer consumers with whatever they want. As a result we are offering mobiles based on the Android, Windows and our own proprietary OS bada in the Indian market.” Thus, while Samsung WAVE is based on the bada platform, the Galaxy S is based on the Android platform.

The Samsung Galaxy 3 is priced at Rs.12,300 while the Samsung Galaxy 5 is priced at Rs.10,200.

“With the launch of these two smartphones, Samsung’s smartphone portfolio now boasts of 4 feature-rich models at a price range of Rs.10,200 – Rs.31,500.“By the end of 2010, we plan to a have a portfolio of 8-9 smartphone models and expect to notch up a 20% market share in the smartphone market” stated Mr. Yadav.

The company also launched two new entry level mobile handsets namely Samsung Guru Power with a long battery life of 2000 mAh priced at Rs.3,150 and Samsung Champ priced at Rs.4,500.

Nokia dials India with dual-SIM phones

Nokia is ready with its dual SIM phones for India. The Finnish giant is preparing to launch its C1 and C2 models of entry-level dual SIM phones in two-three months. Both models would be launched simultaneously in India, following its global launch in the third quarter of the current fiscal year.The phones would sport features like FM radio, a 1,000 entries-address books, LED torch, VGA camera.

Although the company is yet to divulge price details, it is expected to be within the tag of R2,500. Both models would be integrated with Nokia Life Tools service (for information on healthcare, education and entertainment) as well as Ovi Mail.

V. Ramnath, director, operator channel, Nokia India, said the company was yet to decide whether the new phones would be manufactured at Nokia's Chennai facility now or at a later stage when the numbers pick up.

Samsung had launched its dual SIM phones in the country about two years ago. It currently has five dual SIM models in India with price tags ranging from R3,200 to R9,600.