By Adhurim Murtezai

The Consumer Electronics Show this week in Vegas is shaping up to be a great soapbox for reintroducing the feature phone king, Nokia, to the global competitive stage of smartphones. Beginning with an agreement with Microsoft last year, the Finnish company is placing its initial bets on the United States market and its partnership with Microsoft.

During Nokia’s press conference at CES, the audience was treated to more news about the Nokia line up of smartphones. Also mentioned is how the Windows mobile OS pairs with Nokia specific apps for a top notch customer experience. To top off the conference, there was a glimpse of the AT&T exclusive partnership in store for US customers (looks as though at least the Lumia 900 will not be unlocked).

As the Lumia 900 will be its flagship 4G LTE phone in the US, this is not surprising. The flip side is that the Lumia 710 launched with T-Mobile last year may now be fair game to be made available as an unlocked device to appease customers who prefer to choose their carrier and their smartphone.  Leaving your valuable mobile devices unprotected is risky!  Discover the latest innovative protection solutions… stylish top brand bags, sleeves and cases specifically designed to protect your devices from scratches and blemishes.  Tough on the outside, sweet on the inside these brand name protection accessories combine complete device coverage with sleek artistic expression.

What’s really interesting is the pairing with Microsoft. The Windows Phone has not had an easy time of penetrating markets and neither has the ASUS tablet. But Microsoft isn’t a phone company per se. With a partnership between two companies that excel at what they do and have global brand recognition, 2012 could shape up to truly be Nokia / Microsoft’s year in consumer electronics. And, with the huge market shares of Windows Office there is great potential for business to business sales of smartphones (an audience member did inquire on a rumored RIM acquisition).

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Jumping ahead to the use of the Lumia 900 as a remote for the Kinect technology for Xbox, the streamlining and integration potential of these two companies looks poised to seriously compete in the home, in the car (thank you, Nokia Drive), and in the office. Throw in a solid punch with those peripheral tech devices and accessories that make this kind of technology so much more meaningful in the real world, and we may have a great year of competition and innovation between Nokia / Microsoft, Google Android and Apple!

WIND Mobile will be launching their new $29 per month plan that they have titled their “Super Smart Plan.” the new plans according to the terms and conditions that have been released will be launched on September 30 and will allow for cell phone users to have unlimited talk and all calling zones, as well as unlimited texts across the globe, as well as unlimited data and the use of force. The $29 per month promotional period is good for the first 12 months, when it will then jump up to a total of $45 per month for the duration of your contract.

The company is also expanding their WIND tab from $850 level all the way up to $300. This new plan will be called the “WIND tab+” which is a device that is going to definitely allow for users to get a hold of the WIND “Pay off Promise” commitment. The company also stated that they will clear any balance that you have on your account from previous than three years ago, and your accounts must be in good standing for this to happen. The deal will allow you to get several devices at a greatly reduced price including the Optimist 2X for $95, the Nexus Sand, the unlocked BlackBerry Bold 9780 for a total of just $99.

It is clear that this is a very good deal that is going to be available and will allow for you to get some very great smart phone for a greatly reduced price without having to put any strain on your pocketbooks. It will be interesting to see if this plan is able to garner as much attention as some of the previous promotions that they have run. The new “Super Smart Plan” is one that has continued to add a number of very well priced smart phones that make a lot of sense. It will be interesting to see how many users this brings on board to WIND Mobile.

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WIND Mobile

WIND has been giving away free prizes all weekend long, but their newest prize is probably one that customers will be really excited about. They have a number of promos that they have been providing to existing customers including a new data stick. This is a stick that can hold quite a bit of data, which should make this giveaway interesting to a large number of their users.

In order to get in on the deal you have to have already purchased a unlocked cell phone along with a data stick that comes with the monthly fee of $25. You can then activate the stick for the $29 per month, which is obviously one of their packages that the company is looking to push. This will allow for their users to save as much as $80 in all. This will be available at all of their locations across the country.

The company made their announcement over Facebook, where they detailed who was active for the brand new free data sticks. First, you have to be able to receive a qualifying plan that the company provides. Then, you activate a new laptop plan before receiving your new data stick.

This is an offer that applied mostly to new customers, but the company also put together some plans that would allow for other existing users to get a data stick of their own as well. This is one of a number of offers that WIND has debuted in recent days, and you can bet that they will continue to offer similar plans in the future moving forward as well. With their legal difficulties behind them for the most part, you can bet that they are going to continue to push their brand throughout the country and offering free items such as this is a good way to do it.

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The Federal Court of Appeals has declared that WIND Mobile’s parent company is indeed a Canadian owned and controlled group, and that they do fall into compliance with the Canadian laws that regard foreign ownership. Of course, this was received not so well by a number of other companies in the same space that was likely hoping that WIND Mobile would be forced to be disbanded as a result.

Almost immediately after the ruling, both Public Mobile and TELUS, two companies that requested that they go back to court arguing that they wanted all wireless providers to be treated the same under the rules and be given the same access to the same amounts of capital.

Public, of course, was not happy with the decision that was handed down and quickly sent out a press release stating that they would be taking the issue to the supreme court the first opportunity that they got.

“The company plans to continue its pursuit for a level-playing field on the issue of foreign ownership and control of wireless carriers in Canada,” the company said in the press release they put out after the ruling was handed down. It was clear that they believe that they have not been given the same opportunity as WIND and are willing to fight it tooth and nail to the very end.

Public did say that they never believed that WIND should not be allowed in the marketplace, but said that they hoped that they would be subjected to the same rules that Public was, arguing that the funds that WIND had access to did not give everyone in the space a level playing field and definitely favored WIND. Look for the case to continue to expand as Public pushes it farther into the courts to get the ruling that they are looking for.

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Although Wind Mobile has had a relatively solid first year, they have grown at a rate that many did not expect. They were entering a space that was already inhabited by a number of larger companies that had a track record for success and had been able to put together an excellent reputation with their customers. However, WIND was able to take their spot fairly quickly and have been able to aggressively build their business in a very short period of time, and have announced that their users have used more than 166 million total minutes of talk during the first year that they have been in operation.

The company celebrated the fact that they had been in business for an entire year in Vancouver throughout their anniversary day and celebrated by selling a plethora of refurbished unlocked BlackBerry Bold 9700 cell phone. They also allowed users to get access to their weekend 1$ deals through the end of the months in preparation for their first anniversary. They also allowed users to purchase a Nokia C5-04 for just $150, well below its retail price.

At this time the company has more than 300,000 subscribers in total and users in Vancouver account for nearly one sixth of their total user base. It will definitely be interesting to see if they can continue their new growth throughout the course of the next year. They have put together an awesome product that has been instantly embraced by users and have allowed their company to grow at a rate that many never expected. They appear poised to become one of the premier providers in terms of overall subscriber base, especially if they continue to add new features and garner users like they have throughout their first year in business.

WIND Mobile is one of the fastest growing mobile companies in Canada, and is amid a number of other new providers that have really taken off in the last year. Now, they have announced that they will be expanding even further later this year. A press release was sent out by the company last week that said that they were looking to expand some of their network coverage over the course of the next year. They did not release any further details at the time, but some speculated that a larger announcement was just on the horizon – and they were right. Now the company has announced that they are looking into expanding into Atlantic Canada, and that they expect to have fully expanded into that region by the end of next year.

In the release, The CEO Ken Campbell apologized for not being able to expand sooner, but did say that they would be making every effort to expand to Atlantic Canada as soon as possible. With the way that they have been aggressively expanding their network over the course of the last year and continue to create new pricing plans that benefit their customers, you can bet that they are looking to expand as soon as possible, but do not want to jump the gun, which is exactly what their original press release might have done.

WIND is a company that has continually expanded East since they first opened up on the West of Canada, but has not made the jump all the way to the other coast line. As for now, they will be spending their time putting together sites for various towers and stores to support that region when they have their network there. It looks as though the company is looking most at a late 2012 launch for their newest portion of their network – here’s hoping that it is not the end of the world.

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A report that was recently published by the Convergence Consulting Group stated that they believe that the bundling of popular services (such as Internet, unlocked cell phones and even television) could be the wave of the future, and they believe that new entrants could be able to garner as much as 14% of the market share in the next three years.

The entrants that they are mainly referring to are likely WIND, Mobilcity and Public, who have taken the Canadian landscape by storm and have taken large number of subscribers from the other three main carriers in Bell, TELUS and Rogers. The new entrants into the industry have been able to offer much lower prices than the other companies, and the fact that they are bundling their features together in cheaply priced plans has won many customers over.

Some of the most recent changes include lower data plans, cheap data plan add ons that make them more affordable to the average consumer, and general cost cutting across the board. They went as far as to say that by the end of 2014, which is roughly three and a half years away or so, they believe that the new entrants in the mobile carrier industry in Canada will have been able to garner more than 16% of the total subscribers, which right now would amount to just over five million in total – a serious chunk of the national subscribing base at this current time.

Even further – they said that by the end of 2011 they will have 6% of the market. This is up from the 2% that they had at the end of 2010. The Convergence Consulting Group credits lower prices, with more creative bundled packages and advertising techniques as the main reasoning behind the recent shift from the big three to the small three.

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WIND Mobile has given more than $100,000 to a variety of different Canadian Charities. Their most recent “Best Conversations Ever” campaign has allowed the company to distribute funds to a variety of different charities within the country, helping out a variety of different causes. One of their largest donations went to Engineers Without Borders Canada, which was able to secure more than $50,000 in funding from the company.

All of the donations are going to great causes and the company may be looking to give more money to causes in the future. Their “Best Conversation Ever” contest, when announced, was set to give away more than $600,000 to various charities.

They are also offering 5 Canadian citizens the chance to talk with anyone in the world that they would like to speak with. In order to enter the contest, you have to write a story about who you would like to speak with in a phone conversation and detail why you would like to talk to that individual. Each of these individuals will be able to donate more than $100,000 to the charity of their choice. The company also announced that they would be donating an additional $100,000 on their own accord to a charity or charities that were chosen by the company.

It certainly is an interesting contest that has put a lot of money toward great charities. The idea of being able to talk to whoever you want if you are chosen for the contest is certainly an interesting concept. Obviously they will not be able to hook up a conversation with just anyone – it might be hard to get a hold of Barack Obama and other high profile individuals but nearly anyone should be on the radar for the company.

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The Consumer Electronics Show of 2011 was one that confirmed that the unlocked Samsung Nexus S Google will be making its way to Canada. At the time, it was not clear what providers the phone would be coming to, but the Samsung electronic Canada Vice President Paul Brennan was very straight forward when he said that the device would be making its way to Canada as well.

It will be carried on a number of different Canadian providers including Bell, Rogers, Mobilicity and Wind as well as others. They have stated that the version that is being released will give users the “full Google experience” and will build on what has come to be expected of the device in the States.

The confirmation that the phone is coming to so many different carriers was met by praise by most users. The Samsung Nexus S Google unlocked has been highly successful in the United States and the fact that it is coming to Canada will make it all that much more interesting.

There is current no information on the price that users can expect to pay for the device, or even what new features they can expect it to come loaded with for its Canadian debut. Some have suggested that the changes are not going to be as much as some users have come to expert, but they can expect some very subtle upgrades from the device.

The Android system is going for about $149 with a three year contracting the states, so Canadian susers can expect it to cost them nearly the same amount there as well.

As per one of the leading Unlocked Cell Phone Blog Site, Mobilicity, fresh off of the RBC report in which it states that they were the fastest growing subscriber base of the 4th quarter of 2010, the company announced that they were slashing prices on a number of their plans. The will be discounting these plans in a number of different cities. In Vancouver, the company dropped all of their plans by five dollars per month. The unlimited talk, text and data plan will now be at an all time low of 40 dollars per month. Mobilicity is also dropping rates even lower in Edmonton, where the rates are going to hit just $35 per month.

Mobilicity has been very prosperous in recent months, and garnered the largest number of new subscribers in the fourth quarter based on their previous market share. The fact that they are passing these good tidings on to their subscribers will probably convince more people to make the switch in the future, especially with the legal problems that are currently surrounding Wind Mobile.

Mobilicity has been a part of the Canadian carrier price slashing war that we have seen a lot of over the course of the last few months. They are continually making changes to their plans to ensure that they are offering the best possible solutions for all of their users. These price cuts will help the company to continue rolling after a great 4th quarter in which they brought in 60,000 new subscribers to mobile plans, second only to Wind Mobile who brought in some 20,000 more but is a much larger company. Mobilicity first launched in Toronto, and has continued to rapidly expand over the course of the last few months. Its hard to imagine the company cutting their prices much lower, but the fact that they have continually made changes to their plans suggests that perhaps their pricing structure is a work in progress.

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