Motorola, the No.2 in Mobile phones will be the No.1 to offer its Mobile phones and accessories through a Vending machine. The stores are operated by San Francisco-based Zoom Systems, which also operates iPod vending machines. Currently these vending systems are in the San Francisco International Airport and Macy’s on State Street, in addition to more locations across the country.

The vending machine-like “Instantmoto” stores will sell 12 kinds of phones and 18 accessories. Shoppers will be able to use credit cards to purchase mid- to high-end models, including the Razr and the Q, and can buy with or without a service plan for T-Mobile, Verizon and Cingular service. Using a touch-screen, customers can pick a phone’s style, color and accessories, such as car adapters and chargers. Then go-online to the carriers website to register for the service.

The machines are about three times the size of a typical beverage vending machine, so one can spot them easily. These machines are being installed in nearly 20 malls and airports nationwide by November, 2006.

[tags]Motorola, Mobile-Phones, Nokia, Zoom-Systems[/tags]

As per a news item, Nokia N-series phones will enable users print photos right from their mobile phones, by connecting them to printers through USB or a bluetooth connection. The software on the phone also allows to order prints of pictures directly from their mobile phones from Snapfish and likes.

Software in four of Nokia’s Nseries camera phones will enable users to order prints of their pictures for store pick-up or home delivery from services such as Hewlett-Packard’s Snapfish. The new software will add to the printing capabilities of the phones, which can already connect to certain printers over USB or a Bluetooth wireless connection.

Nokia’s software will allow Snapfish users in the U.S. to order prints from their online photo gallery directly from an N80 Internet Edition camera phone. They can already upload pictures to their gallery from a variety of camera phones, but so far prints can only be ordered over the Web from a PC.

The N80 will ship in the U.S. before year-end, Nokia said, but users elsewhere will have to wait a little longer.

[tags]mobile-printing, mobile-life-styles, mobile-applications, nokia, nseries, snapfish, usa[/tags]

At ‘The Cellular Life Style‘, we strongly believe that devices play a very crucial role in the success of Mobile in redefing the Life Style. It is fundamental and very important for users to think of Mobile as multi-utility device than just a simple phone. Once the Cell phone becomes a part of every thing we do, we want to do everything in our world with or on mobile. This explains why US mobile-is-just-for-voice lags far behind Europe’s Mobile Life Style.  Our key question on the main page puts this belief in proper context:

Would you like to carry an iPod, a Sony recorder, a Palm PDA, a cell phone, a digital camera, a gaming console, a GPS navigator, a jump drive, a laptop, …………….. OR a cool smart Cellular phone?

Recent M:Metrics press release clearly substantiate our belief with numbers from various markets. M:METRICS: WILL SMARTER PHONES DRIVE CONTENT CONSUMPTION?released on 10th July, 2006 finds that,

“while smart-phone owners comprise a small percentage of the overall population of mobile phone users, large percentages of smart-phone users are consuming mobile content. Contrary to popular belief, those carrying these powerful devices are not using them exclusively for productivity applications, but are also using them to view mobile video, play mobile games and listen to mobile music in addition to using them for personal e-mail and wireless Web access”

Compared to the average mobile phone subscribers, smart-phone owners are avid users of mobile multimedia

Read the full report by M:Metrics here.

While many users may not see a need or think they may not use all applications at this point, Smart phones and/or cell phones that will combine atleast 4 or more utilities into a single device will hold the key to content on mobiles.

Also, at a recently held CTIA conference, CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment 2006 over 300 exhibitors showcased their products that are promised to provide the key to success of mobile content. While many believe that Content and applications drive Mobile market, no one is certain how it will evolve and what kind of applications or content will be in demand. While there is NO clear answer to this question on applications and content, a capable device and a supporting network is essential for us to consume any kind of content.

[tags]MMetrics, Smart-phones, Mobile-applications, mobile-life-styles, CTIA[/tags]