Skype coming to iPhone

How’s this for a game-changer: Skype, that free Internet phone service we all enjoy, is coming to the iPhone. You can already use Skype on Google-powered phones, Nokia phones and Windows Mobile phones, but on Tuesday, you’ll be able to download a Skype app to your iPhone and make free VoIP calls to other Skype users. If you want to call a landline or cell, that works too: Skype provides cheap calls to ”traditional” phone numbers too.

Skype will only work with Wi-Fi, so it’s not like you’ll be able to make free calls from anywhere. Regardless, if you’re hanging out at home or in a café with an open wireless network, phone calls are free to other Skypers. Not perfect, but not bad at all. If I were in a business that relied on charging people to make cell phone calls, I’d be very, very nervous right about now.

Although I have gone on record as preferring the Jitterbug to the iPhone, but this news changes even my mind. I’m declaring it here: I am giving in to technological hipness and going to purchase an iPhone. So I’m on board and Attack of the Show host and iPhone user Kevin Pereira has been moved to declare “This will be a GAME CHANGER!” on his twitter. Perhaps you disagree? Do you think Skype will prove popular enough to be a widely useful way to make calls? Or does adding another layer of complexity to making a phone call doom iPhone Skype to the ghetto of tech weenies and “early adopters?” 

CellphonesBox.com got a 3-million-dollar investment from Focus

According to sources, China’s first online wholesale site WWW.CellphonesBox.COM reached an investment contract with Canada Focus Private Equity Investment Company. Focus will offer a first-round fund injection of three million dollars, which can be ranked as another private equity investment in IT field. It is also considered a new high of the shortest capital attraction period. According to its domain registration information, we will easily find this site just celebrated its first month anniversary.

Focus is a Canadian private equity investment company managed as a family business. In its early years, it was mainly engaged in angel equity in the fields of infrastructure, aviation, etc. So Pandaoo.com is a new attempt for Focus on internet, who takes CellphonesBox.com the only investment target in China’s market.

According to sources concerned, the business pattern of CellphonesBox.com is to directly sell Chinese-made products around the globe through the internet, especially the US and Europe, where people are able to save as much as 50% of the prices of the local products. In the past, major B2C companies like Amazon.com were focusing on the US and European markets, whose influence on China were very limited, and people could hardly find any made-in-China goods online. But now CellphonesBox.com is making it possible that Chinese-made products are directly wholesaled into US market. Because of the price differences between directly-wholesaled Chinese products and Chinese products in American shops cellphones is able to maintain both competitiveness and a delightful profit margin of their products.

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Buy Cell Phones directly from China

On March the 9th, China’s first  online digital product wholesaler Cellphonesbox.com officially kicked off, whose goal is to make it possible for all the internetional purchasers to enjoy the favorable prices from Chinese wholesalers.

According to the spokesman for CellphonesBox.com, “On most American and European B2C sites, people can hardly find any Chinese-made products or the prices are way much higher than their expectations. For instance, in Shenzhen, China’s distributing center of digital products, a multimedia mobile phone with features like dual Sim cards, dual standby, MP3 and MP4 costs only around 80 dollars, while on Amazon.com and the like, you have to pay more than 200 bucks for a cellphone of similar functions. Though you have to take the shipping expenses into consideration when puchasing overseas, you can still save half of the price of the similar phone on American and European sites. So, Pandaoo is launched as a purchasing platform for all American and European buyers, where they can buy made-in-China products directly from Chinese wholesalers.”

“I have many American and European friends who often buy quite a number of digital products when they come to China, so we decided to launch this site and make it an assistant system,” said Brain Chiou, the COO of CellphonesBox, a Canadian entrepreneur who was born in Taiwan and received his education in the USA. He has also founded three companies of great success in the north America and spent five plus years in China. “This is why we established CellphonesBox, we have got an insight into Chinese and US markets and I have been long engaged in domestic wholesale and international trade, so, with the great help and support from a great network of wholesalers and internet specialists, we reached an agreement and established this company.”

There are quite a few similar businesses here, when talking about the difference between CellphonesBox.com and the others, Ray said: ” First of all, we are specializing in digital products and Chinese-made products. Secondly we are doing better in the quality control and shipping than our competitors. On the surface we are copying the business pattern, but actually we have used ‘Blue Ocean’ strategy to create new market space. At last, we are conducting experiential and word-of-mouth marketing as our leading promotion approach to boost our business.  ”

According to statistics from Alexa, this newly-launched business who just celebrated its first mensiversary has almost successfully sqeezed into the top 20K with a total daily traffic of tens of thousands of visitors. It is growing at an astonishing speed, which proves what Ray told us: this business pattern is doing great.

Windows Mobile 6.5 heads to new phones

With a wide selection of smartphones now available utilising operating systems from the likes of Google and Apple, the latest from Microsoft may have its work cut out in terms of tempting back users.

However, the upcoming Windows Mobile 6.5 will look to improve upon the advances of the Android and iPhone packages when it is made available on a number of devices later this year.

One such handset that could also be available later in the year - and was showcased at the recent GSM Association’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona - is the Toshiba TG01, which aims to make the most of the Microsoft system, which could allow the manufacturer to take on the industry heavyweights.

It has been argued that in the past mobile phones powered by Windows Mobile technology have had a tendency to be on the larger side, but this has been addressed with devices like the Dopod 858 Cell Phones and HTC Touch HD. However, the TG01 claims to be one of the most powerful handsets that has ever been available - and as such there could be a great deal to look forward to.

The TG01 boasts a 1GHz processor, as well as a 3D user interface and 4.1-inch screen, yet it seems that alongside the introduction of Windows Mobile 6.5, which was unveiled at the very same conference, some analysts have said this could put Toshiba’s new phone up their with the iPhone in terms of usability.

Last month HP, the company formerly known as Hewlett Packard, confirmed that it planned to support Microsoft’s new Windows Mobile operating system in a number of its future endeavours, stating that the reason for this was the vast amount of scope the 6.5 version had for wireless technologies, business productivity and personal messaging.

Susan Macke, vice-president of marketing for HP’s Handheld Global Business Unit, said that the company had been “working closely” with Microsoft in the past and this would continue with the launch of Windows Mobile 6.5. “HP continues to work toward developing smartphones that simplify the mobile experience and meet evolving customer needs,” she added.

Her comments were echoed by corporate vice-president of mobile communications business at Microsoft Todd Peters who said: “We’re excited HP will offer phones with Windows Mobile 6.5, which will help people access and personalise services and applications that can make a phone truly individual.”

On announcing the new system at the Mobile World Congress, the software company’s chief executive Steve Ballmer took the time to outline some of the key features people could expect from the new version of Windows Mobile and noted that with partnerships from HTC, LG and Orange, some new and interesting phones would soon be available that would benefit from attempts to make it more user-friendly, as well as ready for the next generation of mobile software and services.

“Windows phones bring together the best of the web, the PC and the phone so you can connect instantly to the experiences you care about, no matter where you are,” he said. “We’re working with partners across the industry to deliver a new generation of Windows phones that break down the barriers between people, information and applications and provide great end-to-end experiences that span your entire life, at work and at home.”

Some of these features include My Phone, which allows users to sync text messages, photos, videos and contacts, and Windows Marketplace for Mobile - which is looking like it could be the company’s own attempt at an Apple App Store. In other words, the resource would provide direct access to a number of direct-to-phone applications that would be for exclusive use with the 6.5 system.

With My Phone, a free application that will come with new Windows-enabled devices, users can back up contacts and other data to a password-protected internet resource, which means losing the phone is less of a problem and upgrading is kept as simple as possible when it comes to transferring information across to a new handset.

The Windows Marketplace service plans to offer a way for consumers to search, browse and shop for the widgets they need and will be accessible via a Live ID account. “The new marketplace will be included with all Windows phones based on Windows Mobile 6.5, which will help consumers to easily find, install and experience those applications that fit their needs and make the phone truly personal,” Microsoft explains. It is estimated that there are already more than 20,000 applications ready for use with the system and will be online when the service goes live.

Users will also have a dashboard-style page where their most important information will be available. From here, new emails, messages and calls can be accessed as well as calendar appointments and a revised version of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Mobile browser.

Microsoft’s partners have also been quick to unveil their intentions to embrace the new operating system, with networks such as Orange and manufacturers including LG and HTC stating their intentions. Orange has said that the introduction of Windows Mobile 6.5 will allow it to offer enhanced web browsing and a more personalised surfing experience. LG has said its upcoming GM7300 will also benefit from new features - like one-click email set up - that will fully utilise the platform. HTC has also noted that the Touch Diamond 2 and Touch Pro 2 will be fully upgradeable to the software and will include the company’s Straight Talk technology, which combines a host of integrated e-mail, voice and speakerphone facilities.

Alfredo Patron, Microsoft’s Director of EMEA Mobility Marketing, concludes Windows Mobile 6.5 will “merge two worlds, bringing business space and consumer space in one”.