According to ABI Research, last year cellular modem sales — including PC Cards, Express Cards, USB modems, embedded modems and 3G/Wi-Fi routers cumulatively — increased more than 300% compared to 2006. The research company forecasts that by 2013, shipments of cellular modems will exceed 200 million units.

However, ABI notes, the last year growth did not benefit just traditional market leaders such as Option Wireless, Sierra Wireless and Novatel. Asia-Pacific vendors — including Huawei, ZTE, and C-motech — now control the majority of worldwide sales and are bringing a completely new set of capabilities to the marketplace. The reason is obvious – these Asia-Pacific companies have robust portfolios of other telecommunications products and services that positions them to compete for operator sales at a very different level.

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South Africa’s Vodacom has announced the launch of the country’s first High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) service, extending its existing HSDPA offering. Now South African mobile users will be able to experience download speeds of 3.6 Mbps and upload speeds of 1.4 Mbps, although the average achievable speeds are somewhat lower.

Customers who have opted to use HSDPA service for a fixed fee of R49.00 per month will will automatically receive HSUPA with no extra charge.

Commenting on the announcement, Vodacom Group’s CEO Alan Knott-Craig said: “Vodacom continues to set the pace in wireless broadband technology in South Africa. With HSUPA, our customers will now have access to the fastest down- and upload speeds available, offering them a true broadband experience.”

[Via: CellularNews]

Today Hutchison Telecommunications released the following statement:

Hutchison Telecommunications (Hong Kong) Limited today announced that it has signed an agreement with Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) to bring the iPhone to Hong Kong and Macau later this year.

Mainland China, Japan, Russia and interestingly Spain remain relatively big untapped markets for Apple’s handset. At least officially, users from the countries mentioned can’t get their hands on the iPhone.

[Via: Engadget Mobile]

Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) will be introducing a new Samsung slider this June. We don’t have all the details, but we do know enough for a start. The rock-solid Samsung device, which somehow reminds me on the Nokia (NYSE: NOK) 6500 Slide, will feature tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE as well as HSDPA radios on board. In addition, there’s 3 megapixel camera with 3x digital zoom, 2.2-inch screen, Bluetooth, media player, and of course a microSD memory expansion slot.

And that’s about it. We don’t have the exact release date nor pricing of the device, but something tells me potential buyers will be able to grab the Steel from free on a contract. Stay tuned as we unveil more, as soon as we get more information from either Vodafone or Samsung.

[Via: Unwired View]

The iPhone SDK Beta 6 is available, roughly three weeks after the previous build was released. We’re not sure what’s new inside, but whatever it is, an updated version of Leopard (10.5.3) is required. As usual, it is suggested to keep your apps up to date, so if you still haven’t upgraded your Mac OS, now may be the right time to do so.

And while we’re talking about the latest Leopard update, you should know it brings GMail/Address Book syncing for iPhone users. ArsTechnica has more about that…

[Via: Gizmodo]

Microsoft has made its Windows Live client available for Nokia (NYSE: NOK) S60 smartphone users. Earlier we saw the Redmond giant announcing the same client for the BlackBerry platform, and now they’re bringing the same offering to Nokia’s smartphone platform, to provide S60 users with quick access to such Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)’s services as Hotmail, MSN instant messaging, Windows Live Spaces and Live Search.

“Official” Espoo and Redmond never been so close, despite the fact Nokia competes with Microsoft in mobile OS arena. However, Nokia is using Microsoft’s DRM for its music store, pushes Silverlight to its smartphones, and Windows Live client has a dedicated page on Nokia’s website.

The Windows Live client is available from Download! application (Internet -> Mail and IM) in select countries — including U.S., Hungary, Iceland, India, Israel, Poland, Romania and the USA.

[Via: Eseries]

Well, well, Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) or at least someone very close to the Swedish-Japanese company has made the official P5 Paris demo video available on YouTube. What this means is that in the near future — maybe even before June 17th — we may see the Symbian UIQ smartphone finally announced. After all, we saw the leaked photos and we pretty much know all of the specs. It’s SE’s turn to call the journalists and release the damn thing.

Who doesn’t love the Italian gusto that goes in to every Ducati motorcycle’s design? Ducati exudes a sense of passion and style that bikers the world over envy. There’s only the small issue of the higher price point that keeps a Ducati out of practical reach for many.

While a Ducati is pretty much the cheapest way to lay claim to an Italian-made motor vehicle, it’s not cheap by any means. But, that doesn’t mean that the average Joe-bike-rider can’t get their hands on some official Ducati-designed gear on the (relatively) cheap.

The Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) Z770 Ducati edition brings the style and feel of Ducati’s motoring tradition in a more affordable handset. All gussied up in a Ducati-designed red and black paint-job, this Sony Ericsson Z770 flip-phone sports Ducati-branding. The handset comes with an HBH DS-220 based Ducati Bluetooth headset to match the trick color-scheme of the SE Z770.

Unfortunately for Ducati-fans in The States, the Sony Ericsson Z770 only supports tri-band (900/1800/1900Mhz) GSM. But, if tri-band works well in your corner of the world, the SE Z770 should serve up data through its web browser at UMTS/HSDPA speeds.

Sony Ericsson plans to bring the SE Z770’s Italian gusto to TIM in June.

[Via: Unwired View]

If the Sidekick Gekko/Aspen are on your list of gotta-have HipTop devices, then take a gander at these here leaked user-manual pages. The manual basically confirms some specs that we’ve been expecting on the handset, including user-swappable cases – a la Sidekick iD.

The image of the front-face of the Sidekick Gekko gives us a glimpse as to what the next Sidekick look like, but we’ll wait for some live shots before we get too excited. The 2-megapixel camera allows images to be saved to either the on-board memory or microSD card. Videos are recorded in .3GP format and can only be saved to the microSD card.

The Sidekick Gekko has been speculated to be a lower-end HipTop to appeal to the Sidekick iD’s demographic. If this manual is on point, the Sidekick Gekko could prove to be the Sidekick iD’s successor.

[Via: HipTop3]

The Samsung SGH-L870 was unveiled, and then announced, as Samsung’s first smartphone in their Soul lineup. The super-thin slider is powered by S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 running on top of Symbian v9.3. And, at just 13.5mm thick, the Samsung L870 once again proves that Samsung knows how to pack some serious power in to a stylish-yet-capable package.

But, Symbian and S60 aren’t the most interesting aspects of the Samsung L870. Not even the 3.6Mbps HSDPA or 3 megapixel camera highlight the Samsung L870-show. Nope, those are all features that we’ve seen before in a handful of devices. What does catch our eye is the first-ever instance of Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)’s Webkit-based Safari browser being used in a device that’s not called the iPhone.

That’s right, the super-fast Safari S60 browser that brings full-web browsing in desktop-form to the iPhone will be doing its best to bring all the treats of the interwebs to the sliding 2.4-inch display on the Samsung L870 – with a catch.

The Samsung L870 will only be surfing wireless networks with a tri-band (900/1800/1900Mhz) GSM/EDGE radio and 3.6Mbps on just a single band (2100Mhz) – effectively keeping this Safari-toting badass from making its rounds in the US. Woe is America, with our non-standard GSM frequency support.

Europeans can expect to get their hands on this Soul smartphone sometime in August. The rest of the world will be graced by the Samsung L870 after the European launch.

Full press release on the link.

[Update]
Samsung has clarified their mention of using Safari in their S60-powered L870 slider. It seems that “Actually, L870 is equipped with S60 OSS browser, also known as S60 safari browser because both are using same webcore platform. Sorry again for the unclear specification, and bothering you with this.”

Right, we never heard of any S60 device using the “S60 safari browser” but hey, at least we know for sure that Samsung didn’t actually put Safari on their L870. 

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