What Phones Will The New Cell Carriers Provide?

In four to twelve months from now Canadians will have three new cell phone carriers to choose from. Wind Communications (aka Globalive), DAVE wireless, and Public Mobile will enter the market hoping to pull subscribers away from Bell, Rogers, Telus and a few regional carriers. The startup carriers are promising better value by dumping fees charged by the traditional carriers. Network coverage will be leave a lot to be desired at first but as the new networks build out coverage will improve. But one of the most important things that people take into consideration when choosing a cell carrier is the selection of phones a carrier offers. Having many cool phones will be one of the most important things that the companies entering Canada's cellular industry will need to attract subscribers. Since all the new cell carriers all intend to use GSM as the technology that all the new carriers will build their networks on speculating on which phones will be offered is somewhat easier.

Blackberries: In Canada it's the Blackberry that is the king of the smart phones, even Virgin Mobile offers Blackberries to prepaid customers. It wouldn't be unreasonable to expect versions of the Bold and the Curve for the new carriers at launch. Any new GSM Blackberry models in a year from now will practically be guaranteed to provided by one of the new carriers.

Google Android: With a dozen different handset manufacturers getting ready to launch Android based smartphones it would be a pretty safe bet that the new carriers will have at least one Android phone each.

Microsoft Danger Sidekick: The consistently popular smartphone jr. with tweens and teens that has never been able to crack the Canadian market will finally have a chance to come North of the border with one of the new cell phone carriers.

Palm WebOS: While Bell Mobility is offering the Pre exclusively to their subscribers in eastern Canada, Palm is promising a GSM based smartphone which will probably will launch with one of the new cell providers first, if Rogers doesn't nab it first.

Nokia: The world leading maker of cellular handsets that almost went extinct in North America several years will probably use the launches of the new cell phone carriers to get a foothold back into the Canadian market. Expect the offerings for basic cell phones to contain at least a few Nokias. Nokia's version of the smartphone running the symbian operating system, probably not likely to be seen.

Expect Samsungs, LGs and Motorolas to be represented in the phone lineups by the new carriers but can there be any surprises when the new carriers launch their phone lineups I think so.

Canada's New Cell Carrier Gets A Brand Identity, And It Really Blows

Globalive one of the biggest winners of last year's cell phone spectrum auction has officially unveiled the corporate identity for the new cell carrier. Wind Communications will be the name of the main stable offering from Globalive. There is still expected to be a discount offering under Globalive's Yak brand.

Globalive brings the Wind brand from Wind Telecomunicazioni, the wireless communications provider with subscribers in Italy and Greece which is owned by Globalive billionaire backer Naguib Sawiris who is set to take a 65 percent stake in the Canadian carrier which is set to start offering cell phone service towards the end of 2009.

Not failing to pounce the established cell carriers have already filed complaints with the CRTC claiming that the 65 percent stake claimed by Sawiris is a violation of Canadian ownership laws which require that 80 percent of the telecommunications provider remain under Canadian ownership. Globalive promises that two thirds of the directors of Wind will be Canadian which should meet the requirement for Canadian control as set out by the CRTC.

The CRTC will hold hearing in the last week of September and will render a decision thirty days after which will alter wireless communications in Canada.

What Apple Needs To Do With Their Upcoming Tablet

The next insanely great gadget that Apple is set to unleash upon the world is going to be a touch screen tablet computer according to the rumoured leaks coming from silicon orchard in Cupertino. Supposedly in about a month or so the tablet will be announced and hit stores anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months later. How can an insanely great tablet be an insanely great success, here's a few tips:

Run a full version of OS X

Many rumours suggest that Apple's tablet will be just a larger version of the iPod Touch. This would hinder rather than help the Apple brand. Running a full version OS X would not only help increase the market share for OS X but would provide functionality that an iPod Touch on steroids cannot. An iPad as some have already dubbed it showing pictures from a collection of photos in iPhoto while it's charging. It needs OS X to do that.

Don't Dump AT&T

There has been much speculation and rumours that Apple has been in talks with Verizon to provide the embedded 3G Internet service for Apple's tablet in exchange Apple would produce an iPhone for Verizon's CDMA network. There are already millions on iPhone users who are spending a hundred dollars a month for their data plans on AT&T, don't expect them to shell out more money for a Verizon data plan as well. Apple would have to produce tablets with 3G chipsets for GSM networks for outside of North America, putting in a CDMA 3G would require paying the Qualcomm tax just for the American market. Putting in CDMA 3G would also keep the Apple tablet out of Canada because Apple is still under an exclusivity agreement agreement with Rogers Wireless, any CDMA based device would break that exclusivity agreement.

Come Down to $500.00

It's no secret that Apple's computers are viewed as premium devices that come with a premium price tag to match. A tablet computer from Apple would have to compete against PC based netbooks priced from 300 to 450 dollars. If Apple prices any higher than 500 dollars then they are in the same price point as full PC laptops. The average buyer won't see any value for a downscale tablet when they can get a full laptop for the same price even if it's running Windows.

Don't Close The Door on Hardware Keyboard

The first laptop computer I saw in a store with a trackpad was a Powerbook back in 1995 and now all laptops both Macs and PC's still have them. Rumoured pictures show a software on screen keyboard. That doesn't mean that people are ready to ditch hardware keyboards, there is sure to be at least one USB port on the Apple tablet because users will need something hook their iPods to. That will still give people room to hook up a corded keyboard, the Apple Tablet could ignite the market for Bluetooth keyboards.

Just like any other rumoured Apple products, the tablet is promising a lot it will be interesting to see what Apple delivers