The official partner to DLF IPL 2009 Vodafone Essar (VE) announced Friday (17 April) that it reduced international roaming call charge by up to 85% for its postpaid consumers roaming to South Africa (SA) throughout the DLF Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament. Vodafone is offering several special rates in joint venture with the leading SA mobile services provider Vodacom.  Vodacom is a joint venture company with the Vodafone Group. Officials said the special offers are applicable to every VE postpaid consumers in SA till the IPL finals match on May 30.

In a statement the country’s second largest mobile operator said ”Vodafone Essar’s postpaid customers can select Vodacom as their default network while roaming in South Africa during IPL and enjoy up to 85 per cent discount on calls, SMS and GPRS services.”

According to new offer consumers can make local calls at Rs 12.6 per min and international phone calls at Rs 34.8 per min. Every local incoming call is at Rs 12.5 per min and SMS is at Rs 5 per sms. Customers can also enjoy some other discounted benefits.

Popularity: 43%

Last Tuesday (31 March) Samsung Electronics unveiled its new product Mondi. It is a mobile Internet device. Samsung announced the device on the eve of the CTIA annual showcase in Las Vegas. Initially, the gadget does not support phone calls but it has a built-in microphone. Therefore, it can potentially work with any Internet telephony application.

Key features of Mondi:

• Windows Mobile 6.1
• 4.3-inch touch screen
• Customized Windows Mobile interface
• Five home screen panels
• Web widget
• Favorite contact
• Microphone
• Headset jack
• Voice-over-IP programs supported like Fring
• Program list
• Picture gallery screens
• QWERTY keyboard
• Keys are very small, shiny, slippery and rectangular
• Can navigate with cursor keys
• WiMAX
• Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth
• GPS driving directions software supported
• 4 GB of memory
• External memory card slot
• 3-megapixel camera
• HDMI out port

Slick, black plastic Mondi is just barely fit into your hand. The Mondi, Samsung’s first such device for mobile service provider Clearwire and plans to sell through the provider in the second quarter of the year. However, Samsung did not reveal pricing.

Popularity: 12%

All Nokia lovers and the people who don’t prefer Nokia but love tinny tunes they can be jumping with joy as cell phone manufacturer giant Nokia is going to release three new music-playing handsets very soon. The new edition of Nokia named Comes With Music (CWM) handsets hook up impeccably to the Nokia Music store. The phones come with between 12 and 18 months of unfettered access to millions of tunes. The tunes can be swapped between the handset’s onboard memory and a host computer as well. The model no of incoming handsets is 5730, 5330 and 5030.

5730 Xpress Music

The handset is the company’s first device CWM handset with a QWERTY keyboard and dedicated gaming keys. Additionally, Nokia’s latest Homescreen software provides direct access to music, games and several other applications such as Facebook, photos maps, messaging and Ovi Contacts. The Ovi Contacts lets CWM users see which of their ‘friends’ are online and chat. They can also view what music they are listening to. The authority is promising 26 hours of playback time on a single charge. The expected price of 5732 is about €280 and it will available in June.

5030 Xpress Radio and 5330

The 5030 Xpress Radio is a great collection of Nokia family. The handset is aimed at emerging markets. It has a traditional soap bar design and comes with an internal FM radio antenna. It facilitates with one-touch radio and channel selection keys. The rough price of the cell is less than €40. It is going to hit the shelves in the second quarter of 2009. On the other hand, the 5330 is a top slider with appealing much the same capabilities as the 5730 Xpress Music. However, it sells price could be around €160. It is expected to available in market at the same time like 5730.

Usually, every Nokia’s new edition makes a noise all over the world. People from different part want to stay with Nokia’s new one. That’s why, the company plans to expand its CWM service. The service is now only available in Britain and Singapore. Nokia wants to introduce it into Italy, Australia, Sweden and Mexico in the next few months and later several other countries.

Popularity: 50%

The phone giant company Nokia has its sights set on a new market, notebook PCs. Nokia is looking extreme actively into making laptops, and the phone manufacturer’s boss has already exposed it. Nokia’s chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo revealed that they are considering the opportunity. He told to a Finnish broadcaster that,

“We are looking very actively also at this opportunity. We don’t have to look even for five years from now to see that what we know as a mobile phone and what we know as a PC are in many ways converging.” He also said,

Today we have hundreds of millions of people who are having their first Internet experience on the phone. This is a good indication.

Nokia’s huge level of manufacturing and selling market must help them enormously in their foray into the PC business. And its also know-how with mobile devices, as shown by their greatly successful products, will no doubt also be a positive and strong issue in obtaining customers when they will introduce their product.

It is easily predictable that, with the rising convergence of laptops and mobile phones, Nokia’s timing seems accurate. There’s no word on when it will actually put a laptop out on the market, but whatever it is Nokia is going to have to make certain that its initial model makes its mark. If they continue their latest product with their embrace of open source software trend in the laptop market, we must able to see some smart and easy usable products.

Popularity: 15%

If you desire the style, harmony and the work of the craftsman on your mobile phone less then the functionality, than you will like the 8800 Arte. Because the 8800 Arte is all about the class and fashion instead of hi-tech phone.

The phone is in four category of style;

Nokia 8800 Gold Arte
This features stainless steel parts with the 18 carat gold plating and premium quality leather. Not to mention that Nokia 8800 Gold Arte has the classic, elegant and luxurious finish.

Nokia 8800 Carbon Arte
8800 Carbon Arte is the new premium that marries the timeless design of Nokia 8800 Arte range with materials that reflects a new exclusively based on refinement and authenticity.

Nokia 8800 Arte and 8800 Sapphire Arte
These two brand new designs capture the essence of timeless beauty and fine craftsmanship.

Premium Category
This category is for the people who appreciate finest things in life. This Nokia 8800 Arte is combined with expert craftsmanship, precious materials and functional design.

The specification and features

• Screen

2 Inch 16 Million Colour OLED QVGA Screen (320 x 240 Pixels)

• Imaging

3.2 Megapixel Camera
8 x Digital Zoom
Auto Focus
Photo Editor
Video Recorder
Video Player (3GPP, H263 & H264)
Video Streaming
Landscape Video Mode
Video Editor
Themes with Living Wallpapers

• Messaging

SMS (Text Messaging)
MMS (Multimedia Messaging)
Instant Messaging (IMPS)
Email (SMTP, POP3 & IMAP4)
Email with Attachments
Nokia Xpress Audio Messaging
Instant Messaging
SMS Distribution List
Predictive Text
Language Support

• Sound

Music Player (MP3, MIDI, AMR, WMA, AAC & eAAC+)
MIDI Ringtones
Polyphonic Ringtones (64 Voice)
Video Ringtones by Kruder & Dorfmeister
Video Ringtone Visuals by Fritz Fitzke
Changeable Audio Themes
Integrated Handsfree Speaker
Voice Commands
Voice Recorder

• Connectivity

3G
Bluetooth™
Micro USB
Data Synchronization
EDGE
GPRS

• Memory & Talk Time

1 Gbytes Memory
No card slot
3 Hours Talk Time
300 Hours Standby
Network
Tri Band (GSM 900, GSM 1800 & GSM 1900)
WCDMA 2100
Internet
XHTML Browser

Popularity: 15%