HTC is all rage these days. In 2010 5 new models running Android are expected. The names are HTC Legend, Salsa, Bravo, Tide and Buzz. If anything the names say it all, they are all out to create ripples in the mobile industry. More Android phones would mean more Android users, and since the fever has caught on we can perceive good competition with the ever-present iPhone by Apple, only if they do not bring out something totally new and out of this world. Take a look at the pics for some unexpected drooling.

HTC Legend

Christmas and Holiday season is around the corner and this calls for taking some time out to find that perfect gift for a loved one. With so much happening year round making a decision on what to buy and what not is really difficult. Prices are expected to drop and this should be the best time of the year to buy stuff you have been dying to get your hands on whether for yourself or for someone close. We have some gift ideas lined up which will for sure make it easier for you to find the ideal gift.

• ACM Wallet. What’s in a wallet? well literally your whole life, as it carries your IDs, License, money, credit cards etc etc. And by the way a sizeable population on the planet buys Leather wallets. ACM wallet is quite different, its made of metal, comes in multiple colors and is designed to hold all types of credit/debit cards. Personal/Company logos can be engraved on the outer surface. Comes in two varieties for housing 6 or 12 cards. The cards snug in nicely in their bays and are ejected on pushing the corresponding button. A separate clip is provided for carrying cash. This is the perfect gift costing a mere $ 40 and hence tops our list. Check out the ACM website for more information.

October 2009 happens to be a very important month, somehow. We have Microsoft releasing Windows 7, Ubuntu releasing Karmic Koala and now it is HTC’s Android based Hero Smartphone hitting the shelves on 11 October in connivance with Sprint. The Hero is no ordinary phone, it is smart by all standards. Upon release and further use it will become clear how it fares against the iPhone, Blackberry or even the Windows Mobile 6.5 based devices. The phone has WLAN, GPS, a 5 MP camera, 3.2” screen, 2 GB memory (expandable via microSD card), USB support, Bluetooth, handwriting recognition, trackball, ability to sync with Google services like Gmail/Google maps, push email, music download from Amazon’s mp3 store and stereo Bluetooth to name a few.

It seems Android is going strong, if the media reports are anything to go by. We have Motorola’s Cliq coming out somewhere in November, Samsung’s Moment, and even Dell planning an Android based device in collaboration with AT&T, besides Sony eying the Android. As if all this wasn’t enough there is even talk of Google and Verizon teaming up for more Android based gizmos. This sounds really good for Google, things are looking up we guess. Dell’s party may also include T-Mobile. The buzz is that Google is coming out be a strong contender for iPhone, in the coming years off course. We are keeping our fingers crossed, everything takes time!

The kind of furor created and maintained by iPhone will perhaps take a lot of time for other phone manufacturers to catch on. It is not merely the product that matters, people need innovation, they need something new, always. If you can deliver this you are a winner. Nokia and iPhone both have achieved this by not merely making a phone but by making the tools available to the general public at large for development of applications for these phones. Microsoft aka Windows has had to follow suit, simply because it is a” dog eat dog world out there”, and because there was no other option left but to do this. So now the eagerly awaited Windows Mobile 6.5 based phone like HTC Pure was released on 6th October. Microsoft has said there will be over thirty devices sporting this OS, quite impressive I must say. And according to reports HTC, Sony Ericsson, LG, HP, Samsung, Toshiba and some other big names have joined the bandwagon, guess everybody wants a share of the pie. These devices have their own Windows Marketplace which is an applications store, just like iTunes Store for iPhones. The Windows team has promised users  improved browsing, which will soon be confirmed. Also included is the My Phone service which allows users to find their missing mobile phones, ring their bells aloud even they are in silent mode, and remotely lock them or delete all data contained in them. These devices are being dubbed as the Windows phones, which can only be confirmed in case we come across the BSOD. (Blue Screen of Death)

HTC Leo aka HTC Touch HD 2 also reckoned as Windows Phone is impressive both with its looks and more importantly with its staggering processing power. This device is 300 percent improvement over the Touch HD on every single 3D graphics benchmark with an astounding 1,822 percent improvement on one test, and raw CPU performance was nearly three times as fast. This is amazing for both mobile gamers who love 3D games and also for demanding business mobile applications on Windows mobile platform.Toshiba TG01 bite dust when it comes to screen size, sleekness and Touch FLO UI 2.6, which makes even the winmo 6.5 cool enough to go with capacitive screen.

Well it comes to assessing the success of any product the sales figures is one key Key performance indicator. Nokia has been contending in smartphones market for sometime now and has pushed phones like N95, N97 and recently N900 along with less expensive N97 mini and new finger friendly touchscreen X6 phone.

Nokia has almost 45 percent share in smartphones market with 18.4 million phones of any type in the past quarter only.

Among these N97 smartphone is the leader with two million sets sold since the launch of this model.

These figures as per Nokia are surpassing their own expectations.

though the sales are good for overall Nokia, but it still trails behind Apple’s which sold 5.2 million iPhones in the same quarter making Nokia figures less relative.

I beleive Nokia N97 is a very good competing phone against iPhone, HTC touch series and Blackberry latest editions and is a attractive alternative, it all comes down to the available applications, developer community  and a compelling software market place which can provide a real selling point to users.