Almost double SMV customers choose Android over iPhone apps.
Smartone-Vodafone today announced the launch of their new Apps Select Android app website for the Hong Kong market.
This new Smartone initiative is set to really turbo-charge the already huge Android app market in Hong Kong, by putting a Chinese filter on the entire app downloading experience.
By logging into www.smartone-vodafone.com/apps_select/, Smartone customers can use this website to properly check out new Android apps with Chinese reviews, videos on how the apps work, and a download helper that sends an SMS to your Android handset for you to easily download the app.
Although the Android Market only allows for free app downloads in Hong Kong, this initiative is being fueled by the huge demand Smartone is seeing from its customers.
In today’s press conference, Smartone-Vodafone CEO Mr. Douglas Li shared some impressive statistics on the Hong Kong smartphone scene:
This season’s hottest new phone is coming, but the question is: will it show up in HK?
The Motorola Droid is THE mobile phone of quarter 4 for 2009, released on November 6th in the U.S. for HK$1,600 (US$199) with a contract. The buzz about it is as loud, if not louder, than that for the Palm Pre. “iPhone Killer” talk aside, the Droid looks to bring Motorola back from leper to leader this week.
The big question we’re being asked is, if we know when it will come to Hong Kong? Last week, we would’ve said “Not a chance,” seeing as it was developed for the U.S. operator Verizon, but yesterday we learned that Motorola will rename it the Motorola Miletsone and unleash it in Europe! Not only that, but it will include a multi-touch screen - something the Verizon version doesn’t have.
So, the chances of it making it into yet another form seems to point to a “Possibly, Maybe” on having the Droid come to Hong Kong. And with Christmas coming up soon, this could fit nicely into an early December launch by 3 or Smartone-Vodafone. We’ll keep you in the loop as soon as we hear something.
So, now it’s time for the Neonpunch Poll. After what you’ve read and seen about the Motorola Droid (and we’re guessing it will be around the same price as an iPhone: HK$6,000+, cheaper with contract), if it’s available in December will you be getting one?
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If you haven’t seen it yet, below is the cheeky “iDon’t” TV commercial Motorola is running right now in the U.S. for the Droid:
Google updates its revolutionary OS to become more so.
You’ve been hearing alot about Google’s Android operating system for your mobile phone, and with Smartone-Vodafone and PCCW selling different versions of Android phone’s you are probably confused or not sold on changing over to this new device just yet.
Well Google has just announced Android 2.0 and it does even more than it has before. Have a look at the features, and read more about it here,
a visual guide is here and in the video above and let us know what you think.
Buy one for full price or on contract today in Hong Kong!
It’s finally here! Today, marks Hong Kong’s long awaited availability date for the latest Android powered Smartphone: the HTC Hero. This beautiful device has had us, and Hong Kong gadget-lovers drooling for quite sometime. Some already have it via the Mong Kok Distribution System, for the rest of us here is the deal:
The phone definitely differs from its predecessors, the Dream and Magic. Engadget calls it “sleek and modern, it’s like the Magic was beamed to the year 3000 for a redesign. The casing is made of a soft-touch material (Teflon on the white version to prevent dirt), and the shape of the device takes a much more severe, almost rectangular slant.”
You can buy the Hero through regular electronics channels like Fortress and Broadway and pay the full price which is HK$4,480 or you can go the Smartone-Vodafone way, which of course is a contract package.
If you go the contract route, one of Smartone-Vodafone’s cooler features is its versatility by incorporating two modes to cater to you: In Town and Travel. The ‘In Town’ panel works like you would expect it too, offering 3 Internet-related panels such as Google Mobile services, Jetso, and FoneTV (the first mobile TV service for Android!) The “Travel” panel is for the person on-the-go. It quickly changes to offering multiple clocks and weather of home and current cities you’re in and traveling to. It also includes Travel Assist, Places Directory, Wikitude (a translator) and the Lonely Planet Travel Guide. And then don’t forget the Android Market for additional free and paid applications.
We’ve been waiting for this JesusPhone software upgrade for a long time!
If you waited up last night then you were one of the first in Hong Kong to get the new iPhone OS 3.0 from Apple, if you didn’t then all you want to do is start up iTunes and plug your iPhone in and get going.
We were going to do a piece-by-piece overview of the new OS, but iLounge already did a great job:
Search:
A tiny magnifying glass option at the bottom of the screen clues you in to a new screen that sits off to the left of the main page: swipe over to it and you activate Spotlight, a feature that can search your iPhone’s database—everything from e-mail headers to apps to iPod media—for words you enter into a search field.
MMS:
On MMS-capable networks, Messages also displays a camera button that enables users to choose images to include along with the text. Video from the iPhone 3G S will reportedly be able to be sent over networks as well, subject to strict limitations on the size of the files.
Cut, Copy and Paste:
Once text has been highlighted, little blue pins appear on the left and right of the selection area, waiting to be dragged to the appropriate left and right positions; a zoomed-in view appears under your finger to help fine-tune the their placement. On web pages, the text selection box has top and bottom points as well, enabling you to resize the selection area in some cases to grab more or less formatted text.
Read more here and we’ll be following up with new tips and tricks throughout the next few weeks for sure. If you are not on 3 in Hong Kong you may want to read this post on how to make sure your Smartone-Vodafone account can send and receive MMS.
Thinking of buying the HTC Magic? Read this first!
HTC announced to us that the Magic, Hong Kong’s first Android powered phone would be on sale in the next week across the city. Today Google comes out and tells everyone that they expect at least 18, maybe 20, phones that will run the Android OS by the end of the year:
Andy Rubin, senior director for Mobile Platforms for Google and the spearhead of the Android operating system, said the number could be as high as 20. (That figure does not include devices made by manufacturers that use a basic Android system but have not apprised Google of its use). The 18 to 20 devices Google knows about will be made by eight or nine different manufacturers, Mr. Rubin said.
He declined to say which manufacturers will make said phones or for which wireless carriers. At present, there are at least two Android-centric phones — T-Mobile’s G1 available in the United States and a phone called “Magic” made by HTC and available in Europe.
Mr. Rubin said that, in general, carriers will be slower in the United States to introduce Android phones than in Europe. The reason, he said, is that the domestic market is so competitive that carriers and handset makers want to create highly distinctive versions of the Android phone to give themselves an edge.
We already posted the news on Samsung’s i7500 model, Acer has said they will make one and we know Motorola hired a bunch of Android developers so we’re pretty sure that every mobile phone company except Nokia will have at least one. So if the Magic’s very steep HK$4680 launch price is too high for you, you can bet there’ll be more less-costly options coming down the pipe soon. With so much selection and price points in the smartphone market this year, do yourself, your friends and loved ones a favor and make sure none of them purchase a Windows Mobile powered phone
If you can decipher the Singlish (we kid!) you can watch this review from Cnet Singapore on the Samsung Android phone:
And with the launch of the 1.5 OS update for Android coming very soon, you can watch this video and see some of the changes they made (to a phone we never saw in Hong Kong to begin with) to the 1st gen Android:
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