Competition escalates the mobile wars

A little competition is always good for the industry, be it mobile service providers or mobile phone manufacturers.

For instance, the Wireless Landline market that was started by PLDT and Bayantel has attracted the mobile phone service providers Sun and Globe. The metered pricing structure of PLDT has all but faded after repeated salvos of unlimited, unmetered service from all of its competitors.

I guess old habits die hard... but if PLDT does not abandon its old "monopoly" bad habits, it could very well find itself perched on a sinking ship.

These are times that the company has never seen before so the sooner they forget the outdated practices from the past, the better. Those only work when you are a virtual monopoly but those days are gone and thankfully will never come back.

However, there are encouraging signs from the company like the new SmartTalk promo which offers unlimited calls ala Sun.

Hopefully Globe will get on the bandwagon too but there is a little voice at the back of my head that says it might be a diversionary tactic again, to keep the Senate and NTC from burrowing through their records and exposing their profits which some insiders have described as astronomical. And that is credible given the P1 per text charge, and the millions of text messages sent in the Philippines everyday.

Going on to mobile phone manufacturers, for a long time, industry giants Nokia and Sony Ericsson grew complacent and the Koreans just came in and sort of took over a large chunk of the market. I mean when a Korean phone stages an upset of the CYBERSHOT line, well that is big news and a big headache for SE.

Same thing with Nokia, the Innov8 toppled the much vaunted N95 from its throne and the attacks have not stopped. Even LG was able to get in the game with several top rated handsets toppling old SE and Nokia handsets from their place in the "best buy" lists.

Much like the mobile service providers, Nokia then SE suffered from complacency and that lowering of the guard was enough let these upstarts get their foot in the door.

However, a recent slew of phones from Sony and Nokia have shown that the message has finally reached the decision makers and these phones look like they will at least regain some lost ground for their companie.

But as the previous posts show, the Koreans are constantly innovating and if this is what they can do in a recession, whatever can they do when their economy starts up again?

Unfortunately for the Nokia and SE, Korea was pegged by the international monetary authorities as one of the first economies that will recover and this will mean bigger challenges will be coming soon for them.

In the meantime, here then are some Nokia phones that are out to grab the market at the high end and mid end levels.

First up is the Nokia 6303, an upgrade to the 6300 which was a lackluster phone that had mostly sleek looks going for it.



Click here for the 6303 Classic review on Mobile Phones UK


Then there is the so called evolution of the 6500 Classic, the 6700 Classic. Now this phone is one that is catching my attention too so it seems that my technolust list is getting even more crowded. Oh well, the fun is in the lusting anyway..



Click here for the 6700 classic review on Mobile Phones UK



And lastly, here is a Nokia phone that is near the top of my technolust list, the N97.

I could go on and on about the features of this phone but I'll save that for another day. Just the mere images are enough to make a broke grown man cry.


Well the Americans and Koreans did get in some shots, pretty good ones at that.

First of is the Samsung S5600 Preston. Its supposed to be an upgrade to the Tocco Lite.



Read the Mobile Phones UK review of the S5600 here



And Apple of course will not be left out and its Iphone 3G S was reviewed too

Last but most certainly not the least, the LG Crystal was launched and its preliminary specs can be read also on Mobile Phones UK