According to a report on Bloomberg, Samsung is tipped to beat Nokia and Apple in terms of smartphone sales for Q2 2011. The report cites research company, Strategy Analytics who reckons Samsung has a very bright chance to beat the two of top companies ruling the smartphone market.

Samsung is estimated to sell around 18 to 21 million smartphones which is higher than Nokia’s reported 16.7 million and could be higher than Apple’s 20.3 million.

Samsung hasn’t officially confirmed these numbers but expect it to be official by end of this week when they post their Q2 results.

Opera just launched its Opera Mini 6 and Opera Mobile 11 browser for mobile devices. It’s a major launch for Opera as both the browsers are now available for almost all mobile platforms including Symbian, Java/J2ME, Blackberry, Android, MeeGo and Windows 7 tablets.

Opera has managed to make the new browsers faster and smoother and are touted as “the sweetest thing since Opera Mini 5 browser.” Other new features include pinch-to-zoom, URL sharing that can be done via email, social networks etc and also works fine with tablets running on Android as well as MeeGo.

You can download the browser from http://m.opera.com.

Samsung who were non-existent in the smartphone race till 2009 jumped into the race in 2010 with their Galaxy S range of devices. Now the company is confident than before and claims they can sell 60m smartphones in 2011 alone.

At the CES, JK Shin told reporters that they’re looking to sell 60m smartphones in 2011, making them the top-tier mobile manufacturer.

“Last year was a meaningful one for Samsung’s smartphone business. By selling more than 20 million smartphones, we’ve successfully built a foundation on which to grow. And by selling 60 million smartphones this year, we will solidify our status as a top-tier industry player.”

This target may seem farfetched but considering what Samsung did in almost half a year in 2010, they might able to do with few more Galaxy S-like devices.

[JoongAng Daily via Samsung Hub]

Sharp who recently launched its phones for the Indian market will bring 3D smartphones by next year. Sharp has confirmed smartphones that don’t require special 3D glasses will be sold in the United States, China and India in 2011.

While we don’t have details on the upcoming phones, we can expect 3D phones similar to the Galapagos line that will go on sale in Japan next month.

Sharp reckons one distinguishing factor that will help them fight in the international arena is by selling phones with “unique abilities and original services.”

[Mainchi Daily via Engadget]

Mobile VoIP service, Fring now allows iPhone and iPod Touch users to carry out video calling over Wi-Fi, albeit with a catch. Since both these devices don’t have a front facing camera, users will only be able to receive the video stream and not send it. Nonetheless, it’s a first for Apple devices. On the other hand, Nokia smartphone users can enjoy 2-way video calling.

Prerequisite for a video call on fring is to have a Skype account and Wi-Fi connection (or 3G for Nokia).

Fring for iPhone/iPod touch
Fring for Nokia smartphones

[Via TC]

Really HTC, it was not necessary for you to iterate what you had said before but nonetheless, here it is. HTC today confirmed the tentative release dates of one of the hottest WinMo phones for different markets except Europe, where it is already selling. HTC’s home market will get it in the middle of this month while the rest of the Asian continent, including India will get by December. As for Americans, HD2 will be sold by an undisclosed “major carrier” in early 2010.

For the uninitiated, HTC HD2 is feature packed phone boasting a powerful 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 4.3-inch capacitive WVGA touchscreen display, Windows Mobile 6.5 OS with Sense UI, GPS, 5MP cam with dual LED flash, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and more.

Press Release

As we had expected, Acer has officially entered the smartphone arena in India with 5 phones from the Tempo Series to compete with the likes of Nokia, Blackberry etc. The phones unveiled at the presser yesterday were Acer DX900, DX650, X960, F900 and M900, all of them powered by Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro.

DX900 is a dual-SIM phone that supports 3G as well as 2G connections. It has a 2.8-inch VGA screen, 3.2MP autofocus camera with LED flash, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 128/256MB RAM/ROM, GPS and 533MHz processor.

The DX650 does not offer dual-SIM functionality but has something to dual – its screens. One side has a nice 2.8-inch QVGA touchscreen while the other side reveals the normal side of the phone with a small screen and alphanumeric keypad. Specs-wise, it again has a 533MHz CPU, same RAM/ROM as DX900, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, Accelerometer and no 3G.

X960 is a normal looking smartphone bearing somewhat similar specs to DX900 sans dual-SIM. It has the same processor, screen size and resolution, RAM/ROM and GPS. X960 supports tri-band 3G, quad-band GSM bands and also offers 3.2MP camera with fixed focus, microSD card slot, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Acer’s custom UI dubbed as Shell v2.0

The M900 and F900 are of the same breed with few features separating each other. For instance, M900 boasts a physical QWERTY keyboard, 5MP autofocus camera with flash while F900 lacks physical QWERTY downgrades the camera to 3MP with no flash but adds a light sensor. Common features include 533MHz processor, 3.8-inch WVGA screen, microSD slot, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and accelerometer.

Acer has not revealed the prices yet but plans to release all the models by the end of this year.

Acer India

Thanks to Verizon-RIM’s BOGOF promotion, Blackberry Curve has zoomed past Apple’s iPhone. The report released by NPD Group makes Curve the undisputed king in the US smartphone market for Q1 2009.

RIM managed to snag a good 15 percent of the smartphone market while Apple and Palm lost 10 percent of it.

The top five selling smartphones in US for Q1 2009 were:

RIM BlackBerry Curve (all 83XX models)
Apple iPhone 3G (all models)
RIM BlackBerry Storm
RIM BlackBerry Pearl (all models, except flip)
T-Mobile G1

[Via NPD]

It seems Nokia is unable to keep their phones under cover. Another phone alleged to be E63 leaks out at the Symbian Smartphone Show for us to ogle.

The phone is a smaller sibling of E71 with lower specs which makes us to believe that it will be cheaper than the former. The classy metal chassis of E71 is replaced by a plastic body and a degradation of camera from 3.2 to 2 megapixels are the likely changes.

E63 runs on S60 OS with Feature Pack 2, a full QWERTY, microSD card support, Bluetooth and 3.5mm audio jack. It will also carry Wi-Fi just like the E71 but no confirmation on the 3G band.

[Via GSMArena]

HTC just announced a new smartphone, S740 based on Touch Diamond/Pro design. HTC wants to tap in the smartphone market and thus dishes out a rather tried and tested sleek, slender design of Touch Diamond. The S740 has a conventional number keypad on the front with the QWERTY hidden beneath it. The phone has a 2.4-inch QVGA screen, Windows Mobile 6.1 onboard and a fast 528MHz processor. 7.2Mbps HSDPA, EDGE and 802.11 b/g handle the internet department.

Specifications:

• Size: 116.3 x 43.4 x 16.3 mm
  Weight: 140g with battery
  Networks: WCDMA/HSDPA: 900/2100 MHz for EU and Asia
  GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
  Maximum speed: UL = 384 kbps; DL = 3.6/7.2 Mbps**
  Camera: 3.2MP, with the second VGA camera for video calling
  Operating system: Windows Mobile® 6.1 Standard
  Display: 2.4-inch QVGA screen
  Camera: 3.2 megapixel with fixed focus
  Internal memory: 256 MB flash; 256 MB RAM
  Memory card: microSD™
  LAN: 802.11b/g
  Bluetooth®: 2.0 with EDR
  GPS: GPS/AGPS
  Interface: HTC ExtUSB™ (mini-USB and audio jack in one; USB 2.0 High-Speed)
  Battery: 1000 mAh
  Talk time: WCDMA: Up to 320 minutes*** / GSM: Up to 380 minutes***
  tandby time: WCDMA: Up to 400 hours*** / GSM: Up to 280 hours***
  Special features: Sliding QWERTY keyboard, FM radio, Google Maps, RSS Hub
  Chipset: Qualcomm® MSM7225, 528 MHz

Press Release