Vodafone is accepting pre-orders for the HTC Magic, the first full touch-screen phone to run Google's Android operating system.The latest “Google phone” is available for pre-order ahead of its release next month.
The HTC Magic will be available exclusively on the Vodafone network and runs Android, an operating system for mobile phones designed by Google and a host of partners to make it easier to surf the web and carry out complex computing tasks on mobile devices.
T-Mobile launched the first Android-based handset last September, but that phone, the G1, is thought to have sold in modest numbers. The Magic, which is made by Taiwanese manufacturer HTC, has already won critical acclaim ahead of its release. It features a large 3.2in touch-screen, a 3.2-megapixel camera, high-speed internet access, push email and satnav technology. Users can also downloads games and software from the Android Marketplace, the Google phone equivalent of Apple’s App Store for the iPhone and iPod touch.
Vodafone has announced that the Magic will be free to users who sign up for a two-year contract worth £35 per month, which includes unlimited web use, 700 minutes of calls, 250 texts, and unlimited calls to landlines and other Vodafone customers.
The HTC Magic will hit shops on May 5, a month before Apple is widely anticipated to unveil its third-generation iPhone at a conference in San Francisco.
The two phones will also go head-to-head with Palm’s new device, the Pre, which has received glowing early reviews from technology experts, and is widely expected to win some users away from the all-conquering iPhone.
Vodafone is readying the HTC Magic phone, the second model based on Google's Android platform to reach the UK market, for next month. In a brief statement to Pocket-lint, Vodafone said that the short delay (the phone was originally due to be launched in April) was caused by a last minute hardware change. Mobiletoday says that the new phone, named HTC Magic Pioneer, will be available for as little as £25 on monthly contracts. This compares well with T-Mobile's £31.50 contract but a quick look at Vodafone's tariff list shows that £25 does not provide with unlimited internet. Vodafone Users have to spend £35 per month to get unlimited mobile internet and email. Mobiletoday also reports that T-mobile is in talks with HTC to release a third Android smartphone. Talkandroid however says that Vodafone UK has already confirmed that the Magic can be pre-ordered as from the 17th of April for £30 per month. The package is expected to include 600 minutes, unlimited SMS, Internet and email. On the other hand, T-Mobile offers 700 minutes rather than 600 minutes for £35.
A huge revolution in location-based advertising is soon to take place, according to the chief exec of Google.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos, Eric Schmidt said that mobile users could be affected by the soon-to-be truly mobile internet.
"It's the recreation of the Internet, it's the recreation of the PC (personal computer) story and it is before us - and it is very likely it will happen in the next year", he told assembled journalists.
At the moment, reports Reuters, analysts have been cautious about the future of mobile advertising, or advertising that targets where the phone users is, and consultancy Forrester predicting revenues of under $1 billion by 2012.
But, according to Schmidt, this is a massive underestimation.
He explained that Google wants to be a key player in this market by bidding for airwaves to launch an open US wireless network, which would see it competiting against established telecommunications players.
Analysts immediately responded by stating their concerns that Google would be over stretching itself as it would be a very expensive move tbut Schmidt dismissed this saying that location-based advertising - which could, for example, direct hungry travelers to nearby restaurants - would be "a very, very good business".
In Google's perfect world, cellphones would be free for those users who would be willing to watch ads on their devices. In an interview with Reuters, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said that cell phone price subsidies should increase in tandem with the amount of advertising delivered over cellular networks. "Your mobile phone should be free," Schmidt said to Reuters. "It just makes sense that subsidies should increase."
Google has begn moving into cellphone advertising with experiemental ads consisting of brief video clips, images, and text ads underway in Japan.
Whether Google's cellphone advertising plans succeed depends on how users interact with their cellphones. Schmidt sees a time when consumers spend up to 10 hours a day not only talking, but texting, surfing the 'Net, and watching video. If you're using your cellphone that much, Google's hope is that you wouldn't mind an ad or two, especially if it subsidized the price of the phone.
The advertising experiments in Japan are reportedly going well for Google, which bodes well for the company's intention of delving deeply into advertising on mobile devices. Google has big plans for the market and is on record as predicting that revenues from cellphone advertising will eventually will eventually match those from its core, web-based ads.
Mobile phones are not the only place you will be seeing—and hearing—ads from Google in the future. The company recently entered the radio advertising market, acquiring dMarc Broadcasting for $102 million in January. dMark's core product was an automated radio advertising system, which was integrated into Google's AdSense for radio after the purchase. Google has also tried moving into print advertising, but the results haven't been as impressive. A print ad auction earlier this year ended badly for Google as interest from potential bidders was lukewarm.
Will Google's plans for the cellphone market pan out? It depends on how accepting consumers are of the concept. If the advertising is unobtrusive, perhaps with the cellphone display showing an advertiser's logo while a call is being connected, consumers will likely go along—especially if the phone is free or subsidized. But if Google and cellular providers go overboard, consumers may stay away in droves.
Chad Hurley, The Co-Founder of You Tube notes that 13 hours worth of videos are uploaded every minute to YouTube (a figure we’ve reported before). And he predicts more of the same: more videos will be uploaded to the Web, more video creators will be uploading those videos, and more viewers will be watching them on all sorts of screens from the living room to their mobile devices. In other words, more of the same means more exponential growth of videos on the Web.
Hurley’s vision of the future, though, pretty much describes the world as it is today. You can watch YouTube on your TiVo, iPhone, or PC. But if you read between the lines, he does hint that mobile might be the next really big step for YouTube.
Our goal is to allow every person on the planet to participate by making the upload process as simple as placing a phone call. This new video content will be available on any screen - in your your living room, or on your device in your pocket. YouTube and other sites will bring together all the diverse media which matters to you, from videos of family and friends to news, music, sports, cooking and much, much more.
The mobile opportunity for YouTube is bigger than just making all the video in the world available in your pocket. Mobile phones are also the new video cameras. Once it becomes truly easy to upload video from your phone to YouTube, it could truly become the repository of every captured moment in people’s lives.
For all his visions of the future, however, Hurley still has to figure out how make money from all of those videos.
courtesy:techcrunch
Vodafone is accepting pre-orders for the HTC Magic, the first full touch-screen phone to run Google's Android operating system.
