A recent report published by comScore shows the top five mobile manufacturers for mobile subscribers and not only is there no sign of Windows Mobile devices or Windows Phones, but Apple, HTC and other Android device makers are nowhere to be found. Moreover, feature phones have 4 of the top 5 spots, with BlackBerry being the only smartphone maker to crack that list.

Samsung, Motorola, LG, RIM and Nokia round out the top 5 OEMs for the first quarter of 2010.

The report found that SMS still reigns supreme in mobile content, with 63.7 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers using text messaging on their mobile device, up a hair from last quarter. Mobile web browsing was used by 30.1% of U.S. mobile subscribers (up 2.6 percent), while subscribers who used downloaded applications made up 28.6% of the mobile audience (also up 2.6 percentage points).

Access of social networking sites or blogs continued to increase, posting gains of 2.8 percentage points to 18.7 percent of mobile subscribers, showing the most improvement over any other type of mobile content.

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PPC Configurator features:

• SIP Configurator which allows you to select which of the on screen keyboards are active and shown in the list to choose the SIP from.
• SMS Configurator allows you to easily switch between threaded and classic text message display, as well as enable or disable the SMS Sent Notification.
• SIM Contact Configurator for enabling or disabling the ability to show Contacts from SIM card.
• Calendar Configurator for enabling Lunar Calendar.
• Lock Configurator for enabling Auto Lock on the device.

Very useful, especially the SIP Configurator – somehow my Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 always switches over to the symbol pad when I’m not looking…

Among the more interesting things, some of which we knew before:

• no competing app stores (i.e. Mobihand can’t distribute a WinMo app client through the Marketplace)
• no VOIP over carriers’ networks, although no mention of WiFi
• nothing that changes the default dialer, SMS, or MMS interface (interesting…)
• no changing the default browser, search client, or media player “on the device” (does this mean beloved apps like CorePlayer or PocketMusic? New browsers like Skyfire and Opera? I can’t imagine…)

This list really begs more questions than it answers and will surely be followed up by a more comprehensive distributor’s agreement of some kind. See the full list of faux-pas after the jump.

Straight from Microsoft’s site:

1. Applications that are or distribute alternate marketplaces for content types (applications, games, themes etc.) that are sold or otherwise distributed through Windows® Marketplace for Mobile.

2. Applications that link to, incent users to download, or otherwise promote alternate marketplaces for content types that are sold or otherwise distributed through Windows Marketplace for Mobile.

3. Applications that promote or link users to a website, or contain functionality within the application itself, which encourages or requires the user to purchase or pay to upgrade the application outside of Windows® Marketplace for Mobile.

4. Applications that enable VoIP (Voice over IP) services over a mobile operator network.

5. Applications that sell, link to, or otherwise promote mobile voice plans.

6. Applications that display advertising that does not meet the Microsoft Advertising Creative Acceptance Policy Guide http://advertising.microsoft.com/creative-specs.

7. Applications that replace, remove or modify the default dialer, SMS, or MMS interface.

8. Applications that change the default browser, search client, or media player on the device.

9. Applications with an OTA (over the air) download >10 MB.

10. Applications that run code outside Microsoft runtimes (native, managed, and widgets)

11. Applications that publish a user’s location information to any other person without first having received the user’s express permission (opt-in) to do so, and that do not provide the user a means of opting out of having their location information published.

12. Applications that publish a user’s data from their mobile device to any other person without first having received the user’s express permission (opt-in) to do so, and that do not provide the user a means of opting out of having their data published. A “user’s data” includes, without limit, contacts, photos, SMS or other text communication, browsing history, location information, and other data either stored on the mobile device or stored in the “cloud” but accessible from the
mobile device

• SSL encrypted communications.
• It’s fast!
• SMS and voicemail notifications.
• Native dialer interception.
• Use your own contacts for dialing and SMS. NOW VERY FAST!
• Threaded SMS conversations.
• Visual Voicemail with transcripts.
• Audio voicemail streamed directly from Google.
• Voicemail and SMS management. Archive, delete, mark as read, reply, and callback from the client.
• Option for silent notifications.
• Highly configurable.

Looks like a handy application; give it a download from OneDialer’s website.

Displays Flash card, memory and battery, SMS, email, Missed calls icons with fast access to the items. Elecont Launcher has multiple layout modes including one-line mode with small icons.

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QuickList:

System/OS/Device Requirements: Pocket PC or Windows Smartphone
Price: Original Price: $9.95 Special Price: $6.95 until Mar 31
Company: Elecont
Download here or grab the free trial here

KEY FEATURES

• Full featured touch-controlled quick launch panel for Home/Today screen.
• Touch friendly and easy-to-use.
• Protected against accidental touch.
• Starts any applications, URLs, documents and control panel items.
• Displays SMS, EMail, Memory, Battery, Missed calls indicators with fast access to the SMS or Email list and etc.
• Animated icons and sound effects on Home/Today screen.
• Compatible with Pocket PC and Smartphones.
• Small memory/resource usage.

CONCLUSION

Neato little program — it did exactly what I expected it to do. It’s not a resource hog at all, either. Let’s you put launch icons for your favourite apps on your Today screen. Brilliant!

RATING (out of 5)

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Are you like me – lots of friends still living in the dumb-phone dark ages? There you are, sitting in front of your computer sending out a few emails to all your smartphone buddies when POW! – you run into the old this-buddy-doesn’t-have-email-on-his-phone problem!

Well, don’t panic. If you know your friends’ phone number, and you know what carrier they’re with… you can send emails to right to their cell phones right from your email program! And it arrives to their phone as an SMS!

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So how does it work?

Nearly all mobile carriers offer free Email to SMS gateways. Find the carrier in the list below (provided by Make use Of) Most of mobile carriers offer free Email To SMS gateways which can be used to forward simple text emails to a mobile phones. And the good news, majority of those gateways are free and available to the general public.

You just need to know the number and the carrier of the recipient to start emailing them to mobile phone. Below we put together a table listing free email to SMS gateways for different carriers. You can use as quick reference both for US and international mobile numbers.

United States

International (& the rest of the US)

Give this a try and let us know if it works for you! Have more carriers to add to this list? Make sure to let us know that too!

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There’s almost nothing I can say about this “luxury” phone that you won’t already be thinking when you hear it’s description.

Gresso’s Avantgarde Skeleton is a “skeleton” phone… and what does that mean? Well, you can see it’s circuitry through the back of the phone. And for $5000 each, what else could this phone possibly offer?

Gresso allows no compromises between luxury and functionality. This model Royal White Diamonds is destinated for those who have achieved everything and are accustomed to make great demands of life. The gadget is provided with Windows Mobile 6 Standard, 2 Gb memory, SMS/MMS/e-mail, Internet explorer, Outlook, WAP 2.0, GPRS, Bluetooth, USB-port, mini-USB, PC Synchronization, voice recorder, MP3-player, 2 MP camera.

If you find yourself making great demands of life, you should definitely have one of these. Hurry, though, they’ve only made 15 of them.

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Gresso Avantgarde Skeleton. The only one…
Gresso Company is proud to introduce a true breakthrough collection – Avantgarde Skeleton. Gresso Skeleton is a great innovation in mobile phone design, made in a limited edition of just 15 pieces.
For the new model Gresso drew inspiration from complicated Swiss Skeleton watches, which allow to view the complete movement of the piece in all its perfection. Similarly to that of Skeleton watches the back panel of the new model is executed of hand-polished sapphire crystal of 42K.
In creating the Avantgarde Skeleton, Gresso employed the outstanding traditions of watchmaking and jewelry art, as well as achievements of aero-space technologies.

The case of the phone is executed of special titanium alloy which has been used originally in space industry only. Titanium is known as a metal, which combines hardness and immutability with extreme
lightness. It has the virtues of being hypo-allergenic and resistant to temperature and corrosion, but it requires a very much more complex specialist surface finishing process.

The unique feature of Gresso Avantgarde Skeleton is the scratch-proof high-tech ceramic coverage.
This is the material of which the high temperature protection on spaceships is made. Ceramics’
solidity is second to that of diamond only.

23 functional keys and the triangle on the front panel are executed of aircraft steel. The sapphire glass on the back panel is decorated with the Gresso logo covered with 10 micron gold. Roman numerals on the keyboard are an innovation by Gresso. Another invention patented by the
company is the magnetic lock of the battery cover. The cover is executed of stainless steel and decorated with genuine leather. Name of the collection and individual serial number are laser-engraved on the metal plate under the battery cover.

Gresso allows no compromises between luxury and functionality. This model Royal White Diamonds is destinated for those who have achieved everything and are accustomed to make great demands of life. The gadget is provided with Windows Mobile 6 Standard, 2 Gb memory, SMS/MMS/e-mail, Internet
explorer, Outlook, WAP 2.0, GPRS, Bluetooth, USB-port, mini-USB, PC Synchronization, voice recorder, MP3-player, 2 MP camera.

The collection will be available on the on the 19th of December. Price is 5000 USD.

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Late last year, Papa John’s pizza restaurant launched a mobile pizza-ordering service which allows customers to order pizzas via SMS text message, widgets, or online. Reportedly, they have already seen $1 million dollars in revenue from these endeavors – that’s impressive!

Recently, Papa John’s mobile ordering has become so popular that they have launched a mobile-optimized size from which to order. Richard Wise, vice president of operations at wiseOutlook, the company that developed Papa John’s mobile ordering service, had this to say:

As these devices are getting more powerful browsers, we’re able to take advantage and offer upgraded features and better designs.

Watch out for Papa John’s planned mobile advertising push initiative soon — there might be some great deals on yummy, yummy pizza!

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Pocketnow has posted the above video of their software tour of the AT&T Fuze. According to them, the Fuze comes with a lot of extra trial-ware games and doesn’t come with Windows Live or Windows Live Messenger. Hrmm. That’s no good! But it does save a bit of grace, apparently, in that it includes an SMS based IM client that does log in to AIM, Y!, and MSN.

Be sure to check out the above video for the full run down of the AT&T Fuze’s software!
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It’s time for the second edition of WindowsMobile Cool’s sister site round up featuring the best of this week at BlackBerry Cool, the voice of the BlackBerry community!

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Storm vs. iPhone: which will win? (Weekly Contest)
BlackBerry Cool is giving away ten free copies of Peek-a-who!

Bplay launches official NFL BlackBerry Themes
Are you ready for some football? I guess that’s the question on Bplay’s mind these days, after releasing officially licensed BlackBerry themes for all 32 NFL teams!

PeeKaWho v.1.160 Reviewed!
If you’ve been looking for a reliable caller ID function for your incoming email and SMS text messages, look no further. PeeKaWho is great if you want to view your email or text messages at a glance while performing other functions on your Blackberry, like composing an email or surfing in the browser. You can also disallow PeeKaWho pop-ups when using certain applications, great for when you don’t want to be interrupted while you’re writing an email, viewing a video or dialing a call.

Be sure to tune in next Friday for the Weekly Round Up!

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