Samsung continues to leave us spellbound with its snazzy sliders. After Samsung E900 Pink and Samsung D500, there are two another style divas: Samsung D800 and Samsung D600.

Samsung D800 is a snazzy mobile phone with a smooth opening slide mechanism. Elegantly designed, the phone’s casing comes in the lustrous black color complete with chrome edging and a polished magnesium surface. The overall size of Samsung D800 is 97x 52 x15 mm, which is indeed very slim and provides a great feel in the user’s hand.

Samsung D800 comes with a large QVGA screen in 262 colours with a 240 x 320 pixels screen resolution. You can easily click all those special moments with an integrated 1.3 mega pixel camera. You can also take photos in different formats like single shot, multi shot and mosaic shot. Samsung D800 also allows the user to make good-quality videos with the integrated video recorder facility. You can also enjoy the video playback feature to play your own videos or any other footage in the H.263 or MPEG4 format.

You can also choose your ring tones from the 64 polyphonic ringtones available. Samsung D800 provides the user with a complete user-friendly experience with its voice recognition and voice-dialing features. In voice-dialing, you just need to speak a person’s name and the number will be dialled itself. You can also use the speaker phone which has been made available through the in-built Bluetooth technology. Samsung D800 comes with the EDGE technology which provides the user with a high speed web browsing facility. Samsung D800 operates on the triband GSM which means you can easily use this phone in USA.

Samsung D600, is the successor of the hugely popular Samsung D500 and is a fantastic all-round device. You can use this handset to surf the mobile internet, play MP3’s and to record upto one hour of videos. Samsung D600 comes with a 2megapixel camera, so that you can capture photos as well as make videos at a stunning resolution of 1600×1200 pixels. Capture the beautiful and special moments of life through the lens of this camera. You can share the pictures with contacts via Bluetooth or Email. You can also save them to your handset and view them later in the 256K color screen. Samsung D600 comes in two attractive colours of charcoal grey and wine red. You can avail this phone in the form of various rental plans on T-mobile, Vodafone, Virgin, O2, Orange and Three.

While the controversy on the future of 3G spectrum is consuming the industry, Trai and the government alike, a new challenge relating to 2G spectrum is emerging in the forefront.

According to sources in Trai, it is set to float a consultation paper any day specifically to address the question of whether a CDMA operator is eligible to apply for GSM spectrum.

This issue specifically relates to Reliance Infocomm, a nationwide CDMA operator that also operates GSM in eight circles.
At the heart of the controversy is a policy decision made by the government in 1999 allowing technology neutrality for mobile licences in India. Now Reliance, which has made its ambitions to enter the GSM mobile business clear, has applied for 2G spectrum in the GSM band rather than the CDMA band, in 16 circles where it wishes to operate GSM services.

The association for GSM operators, COAI, is opposing this possibility of a crossover of technologies or allocation of 2G GSM spectrum for CDMA operators on grounds that GSM operators deserve priority, especially as spectrum is a scarce resource.

COAI quotes a 1999 case of BPL mobile (now Hutch Essar), which was denied CDMA frequency from the government on grounds that it was earmarked for basic service applications. COAI says a DoT notification of April 2001 also supports their point.

However, the fact that government-owned operator, MTNL actually uses a single licence to operate both CDMA and GSM - Garuda and Dolphin, makes the debate more complex. If MTNL can be allowed to operate simultaneous technologies using a single licence then why can’t others, counters Reliance.

To help resolve these complexities, the DoT has written to Trai seeking its intervention in this matter. Ironically, the second CDMA operator, Tata Teleservices, tends to side with COAI. Confirming its commitment to CDMA, the company believes technology neutrality cannot be interpreted to mean a combination of both technologies. An operator must choose one technology and grow with it or, if it wants to migrate to an alternative technology, it must forego spectrum in the first, it says.

CDMA was once seen as the new kid on the block, a technology expected to challenge GSM’s dominance. However, GSM has since evolved manifold and continues to have an edge over CDMA especially when it comes to roaming.

2G spectrum refers to the spectrum that is currently used by GSM and CDMA mobile operators to serve nearly 160 million subscribers across the country. 3G spectrum, on the other hand, is available in separate bands distinct from 2G and is considered more efficient, especially when it comes to non-voice applications. Several developed countries have multiple operators in this regime.

MUMBAI: Friday 6 pm U.S time. As the world gets ready for this deadline to grab one of the most sought after handsets - the iPhone - two Indian companies are also getting ready to register gains from this revolutionary offering of Apple Inc., the makers of Macintosh computer (popularly called Mac) and the iPod.

HCL Infosystems and Wipro Technologies are close to becoming the exclusive Indian distributors of the iPhone. Analysts are expecting 1-3 million handsets to hit the shelves on Friday.

A luxury product iPhone costing $499 for 4 gigabytes memory and $599 for 8 gigabytes memory, It will have a large touch screen minus the conventional keypad. It will also double up as an iPod, video player and will come equipped with a digital camera.

Despite some of its flaws, the iPhone has bagged rare reviews and is being branded as a ‘breakthrough handheld computer’ as it automatically syncs all contacts from a PC, a MAC or internet service.

The good response is seen helping Apple Inc’s head, Steve Jobs, to meet his goal of selling 10 million iPhones in 2008. Such sales will automatically catapult iPhone to third major revenue garner for Apple along with Mac and the iPod.

Back home, HCL Info and Wipro may have to wait only few weeks before counting their profits. Generally, companies get 2-3% commission on the sale of handsets.

“The hype behind the iPhones launch globally has already hit the Indian shores. There are quite a few people waiting to grab the latest gizmo,” said technology analyst of leading domestic broking firm.

Both HCL Info and Wipro could not be reached for comments. On the distribution side, HCL Info already has an edge due to its multi-year contract with Nokia. In the domestic market, Nokia has 71% marketshare (as on February 2007) followed by Motorola at 14%, Sony Ericsson at 8%, Samsung at 3% and rest 4%.

In U.S, AT&T has bagged the multi-year license to distribute iPhone. As per media reports, AT&T will be selling iPhone with a two-year service plan with prices varying from $60-220 a month. The phone will also be available directly from Apple retail stores.

Several news outlets are reporting that a deal has been made between O2 and Apple to launch the iphone on the o2 network in the UK.

“Press reports said that O2 is set to sign an exclusive contract shortly and should have the new phones on sale in time for Christmas. A spokesman for O2, which is owned by Spain’s Telefonica, declined to comment on the reports.”

The iPhone saw a huge launch in the USA this past week with carrier AT&T claiming that they had upwards of 500,000 iphone’s activated in week 1, surely we will see a similar trend in the UK?

There are still a few issues which O2 and Apple will have to work out before the UK launch of the iPhone, namely that the iphone doesnt use 3G and cannot send MMS picture messages (although the later is fixable through a firmware update). Another issue is that O2’s current dataplan is £3 per MB and with the iPhone’s rich internet connectivity users could see their bills rack up quickly.