Vodafone Prepares World's Cheapest Mobile Phone :MWC 2010

Vodafone announced yesterday what it claims is the “its most affordable ultra low cost handset to date”. It’ll be a pair of phones, the Vodafone 150 and 250, which will both retail for $15 and $20 unsubsidized. They’re hoping the device will make it to developing markets, and they hope it’ll help get phones in the hands of more people.

As Vodafone’s press release says, the purpose of these ultra-cheap handsets is “to maximize the availability of [cell service] across countries with sizeable and isolated rural populations.” The list of countries that they hope to target is India, Turkey, Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Qatar, South Africa and Tanzania.

As you can imagine, there isn’t a lot of decent telcom coverage in some of these countries. Vodafone has been adding an “extensive logistics infrastructure” for some time and they say they can reach “deep rural segments where mobile penetration is low.”

The phones will offer both voice and SMS services. They’ll even support a pay-by-SMS feature for mobile payments. As for the phones themselves, obviously, they’re low-cost and a bit crude by most standards. The Vodafone 150 will feature a monochrome screen while the Vodafone 250 will support a color screen and an FM radio.

It will support custom ringtones, phonebook connectivity and 2 embedded games, the folks at Vodafone aren’t totally draconian. These remind me of a Nokia 5120, they’re basically 10 year old mobile phones.The Vodafone 150 will go for $15 unsubsidized and the Vodafone 250 will go for $20 unsubsidized. No word on a release date, but if you’re reading this, you’re probably not in the market for one.

HTC Legend May Join Nexus One in Google's Android Store infoSync World

One of the two new smartphones with Google's Android mobile operating system that High Tech Computer (HTC) plans to start selling in March isn't officially billed as an update to Nexus One, but its design is similar and it offers improvements over the Google phone.

The similarity is no big surprise considering HTC built Nexus One for Google.

The HTC Desire, as the handset is called, carries specifications nearly identical to the Nexus One with a few key changes.

The two handsets both sport 3.7-inch AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode) touchscreens, use Android version 2.1 (Eclair), are almost identical in size and depth, carry 5-megapixel cameras with flash and use 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets.


One improvement in the HTC Desire is the use of an optical joystick as an alternative to using the touchscreen. Nexus One has a trackball for the same function, and trackballs tend to get dirty over time. The optical joystick is touch free.

The HTC Desire also adds FM radio, which the Nexus One lacks.

Another difference to the two handsets is an updated version of HTC's Sense user interface (UI) on Desire. The new UI makes improvements on a number of important areas, including social networking, Internet browsing, e-mail and contact management.

The UI adds Friend Stream, a view of messages coming from various social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as a new way to use the touchscreen to see all seven main screens by pinching two fingers together on the screen.

The UI also puts a person's contacts into new groups so a single text message can be sent to a specific group of friends. It offers better e-mail management than the previous version, including an Unread E-mail Group for unread e-mail from all addresses, as well as the ability to Add Widgets such as Call Mom, which starts green and turns red over time if Mom's phone number is dialed, or a widget to split dinner bills or perform other tasks.

Verizon Wireless To Offer Skype Application On Phones

At the 2010 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Verizon Wireless and Skype today announced a strategic relationship that will bring Skype to Verizon Wireless smartphones in March. The new Skype mobile product enhances Verizon Wireless’ smartphones for users who have data plans by offering a new way to call around the globe.


The two companies have created an exclusive, easy-to-use Skype mobile offering for 3G smartphones. Verizon Wireless 3G smartphone users with data plans can use Skype mobile to:

◦make and receive unlimited Skype-to-Skype voice calls to any Skype user around the globe on America’s most reliable wireless network;
◦call international phone numbers at competitive Skype Out calling rates;
◦send and receive instant messages to other Skype users; and
◦remain always connected with the ability to see friends’ online presence.
Initially, Skype mobile will be available on Verizon Wireless 3G smartphones with data plans, including the BlackBerry Storm 9530, Storm2 9550, Curve 8330, Curve™ 8530, 8830 World Edition and Tour 9630 smartphones, as well as DROID by Motorola, DROID ERIS by HTC and Motorola DEVOUR