Sony Ericsson Vivaz goes on preorder at Vodafone UK

Shocking as it may have sound, Sony Ericsson will be a little late with getting one of their phones on the market. The Sony Ericsson Vivaz was supposed to hit the shelves in February in a joint launch with the XPERIA X10 but apparently neither of them is going to make it in time.

The Symbian-running Sony Ericsson Vivaz is already available for preorder from Vodafone UK but will actually hit their shelves on 9 March. The phone will be available for free on a 2-year 30 GBP/month contract including 600 anytime minutes and unlimited texts.

There is no UK exclusivity about this deal and other carriers will get the Sony Ericsson Vivaz too, but it's the first concrete date that we get.

In case you are still undecided about the eventual purchase of the Vivaz you can check out our review. A demo of its impressive panorama feature can be found in our blog as well.

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Minimum hardware requirements for Windows Phone 7 revealed

Microsoft is putting an end to free style design and is specifying three variants of Windows Phone 7 devices, that prescribe form factor, CPU, graphics and possibly more. Each variant, or “chassis”, specifies one of the most popular form factors, though we only have specifics for Chassis 1 for now.

Chassis 1 describes the requirements for “big touchscreen” phones. There’s no minimum screen size or resolution yet, but previous rumors suggested 3.6” WVGA. The minimum requirements for the CPU are 1GHz (that’s right - minimum) and hardware graphics acceleration is mandatory. Obviously Microsoft is really keen on ensuring smooth and comparable UI experience over various devices.

There are less details about Chassis 2 and Chassis 3. Chassis 2 will have slide-out QWERTY keyboards in addition to the touchscreen (we guess CPU and graphics requirements are the same) and the Chassis 2 devices are said to be Treo-like (strange, because the Treos are bars with portrait QWERTYs, there’s no sliding).

It’s the Windows Phone 7 Chassis 3 devices that have the bar form factor. That would make them Treo-like, rather than the Chassis 2 phones, which sound more like, say, the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X2.

Previous rumors about the minimum hardware requirements for Windows Phone 7 devices also listed minimum camera resolution, GPS, Wi-Fi and even a minimum set of hardware buttons. These vary quite a lot, so we’re not sure about the specifics, but it looks like Windows Phone 7 devices will be inhabiting the high-end segment only and Microsoft will have a firm grip on the used hardware via stringent licensing procedures.

The first Windows Phone 7 Chassis 1 devices should launch in time for this year's holiday season. There's no word on when Chassis 2 and 3 phones will launch.

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2009 world handset sales ranked, iPhone OS eats WinMo

Technology researchers from Gartner have come up with their annual report on mobile phone sales, 2009 edition. And it's an interesting read.

In short, 2009 phones sales have remained flat despite the economic imbalances but there are some pretty interesting market share shifts.

Unless you've lived in a cave for the past twelve months, you won't be surprised to learn that Motorola and Sony Ericsson took the biggest hits this year, while Apple, Samsung, LG and RIM had one hell of a year.

Table 1
Worldwide Mobile Handset Sales to End Users in 2009 (thousands of units)

Company	2009 Sales	2009 Market Share (%)	2008 Sales	2008 Market share (%)
Nokia	440,881.6	36.4	472,314.9	38.6
Samsung	235,772.0	19.5	199,324.3	16.3
LG	122,055.3	10.1	102,789.1	8.4
Motorola	58,475.2	4.8	106,522.4	8.7
Sony Ericsson	54,873.4	4.5	93,106.1	7.6
Others	299,179.2	24.7	248,196.1	20.3
Total	1,211,236.6	100.0	1,222,252.9	100.0

Source: Gartner (February 2010)

Nokia also took a dive, dropping two percent of total market share (and 5.5 percent of smartphone market) but their market leadership remains pretty safe. They shipped 440 million handsets - a volume that almost totals that of all other companies from the Top Five (470 million). Things are even more convincing in smartphone terms where Symbian accounts to 47 percent of all sales globally.

However Apple have managed to double their market share, shipping 25 million iPhones, compared to 11 million in the previous year. RIM also noted a healthy 48 percent increase pushing the number of sold handsets to 34 million.

Table 2
Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System in 2009 (thousands of units)

Company	2009 Units	2009 Market Share (%)	2008 Units	2008 Market Share (%)
Symbian	80,878.6	46.9	72,933.5	52.4
Research In Motion	34,346.6	19.9	23,149.0	16.6
iPhone OS	24,889.8	14.4	11,417.5	8.2
Microsoft Windows Mobile	15,027.6	8.7	16,498.1	11.8
Linux	8,126.5	4.7	10,622.4	7.6
Android	6,798.4	3.9	640.5	0.5
WebOS	1,193.2	0.7	NA	NA
Other OSs	1,112.4	0.6	4,026.9	2.9
Total	172,373.1	100.0	139,287.9	100.0

Source: Gartner (February 2010)

When it comes to smartphone platforms, the open-source Android has the biggest market share growth shipping on nearly 6.8 million devices in 2009. That's more than 10 times better than the 0.6 million in 2008. Another year like that and they might just take the second spot (or even first if Symbian doesn't up its game urgently).

An interesting trend is that the iPhone OS managed to reach a wider user base in 2009 than all the various versions and reincarnations of Windows Mobile. Now that should tell you something Microsoft, you better get your back into Windows Phone 7. We're waiting...

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