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Optimistic Windows Phone 7 Forecast
Although it seems that Windows Phone 7 is doing very badly compared to Apple, Android and RIM it seems that the folks at Pyramid Research think that by 2013 Windows Phone 7 will beat Android. They are banking on the Nokia-Microsoft partnership whereby the mobile phone giant will be able to roll out several Windows Phone 7 devices in order to compete with the multitude of Android devices already available in the market today.
“We trust that Nokia and Microsoft are a really absolute tandem, and that will uncover in a full force by a finish of 2013,” writes researcher Stela Bokun. “Some of a categorical obstacles to a enlargement of WP to date will be removed, as Nokia helps with bringing down a cost of WP smartphones. Lower cost of a inclination will be a essential exigency for a enlargement of WP models. Nokia knows it and Microsoft knows it, and we are certain they will act on it quickly. It’s also value mentioning that, detached from Nokia, utterly a few other vast handsets vendors in a world, such as Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson are still fixation their bets on WP. With a change in a cost of WP devices, and a multivendor vital proceed of Microsoft, a categorical advantage of Android – scale – might be removed.”
However since it is already almost halfway through the year 2011 that gives Nokia-Microsoft a little less than 2 years to make that prediction come true although this is assuming that Apple or Google does nothing revolutionary in the meantime.
The Fairphone 2 was first unveiled in June earlier this year, where this particular handset carried a modular design while featuring majority of its components that have been sourced from conflict-free mines. It seems that this particular handset that you can purchase with a clear conscience has begun to ship to those who happen to live across Europe.
Fairphone announced in a blog post, “It’s been almost two years in the making, and some of the earliest buyers have been patiently waiting since July to receive their new phones. As community manager, I want to personally welcome the new batch of Fairphone owners to our community.” The initial 1,000 units are tipped to ship this month, before the other pre-orders follow in January 2016.
In terms of hardware specifications, the Fairphone 2 will run on a Snapdragon 801 chipset, has a 5″ 1080p screen with Gorilla Glass 3 protection, 2GB of RAM, an 8MP camera, with Android 5.1 Lollipop in tow. It will be a dual SIM capable handset with a microSD memory card slot and plays nice with 4G LTE networks, retailing for approximately €525 a pop.
It looks like the upcoming flagship model from Xiaomi will feature NFC support, at least based on a document that was released by China UnionPay. Just in case you are scratching your head and wondering who China UnionPay is, they happen to be the only domestic payment gateway supplier and card organization, and hence, to see them offer detailed support concerning the newly released NFC-based payment system points to the very real possibility of the upcoming Xiaomi Mi 5 featuring NFC capability.
After all, the Xiaomi Mi 3 was also mentioned on the list, which so happens to feature NFC, and there is no mention of the Xiaomi Mi 4 which does not come with NFC. Still, such a new payment system would be the ideal tool to see the reintroduction of NFC to the flagship model.
OnePlus did make an announcement in the previous month that the Ceramic variant of the OnePlus X will be released on November 24. True to their word, they did exactly that – although only a pitiful number of units were made available, and not only that, this was through a charity auction. Thankfully for the rest of the masses who are on the lookout for this device, it has gone on sale officially already.
Needless to say, this particular variant is available only by an invitation, although do bear in mind that standard OnePlus X invites are not good here – you will still need to snag yourself a specific Ceramic variant invite before you make a purchase. OnePlus is also on the lookout to offer additional methods of picking up this smartphone, although no further details were revealed.
The OnePlus X Ceramic will be available only in select markets, where among them include Europe, India, and Hong Kong. To date, we do know that OnePlus had made only 10,000 units of the handset available. A case of the early bird getting the proverbial worm here?