ZTE Kis smartphone now available on Virgin Media

Another ultra-cheap Android device is about to hit the market, this time from ZTE. The ZTE Kis will sell for less than £50 on Virgin Media from today and has a 3.5? HVGA 480×320 screen.
Powered by an 800MHz CPU, the phone runs Android 2.3 and has Bluetooth 2.1, WiFi, GPS, microSD expansion, 256MB RAM and a 1400mAh battery.
We’re struggling to see why they’ve added “WAP” as a feature (retro, baby), but they are at least chucking in a 2GB microSD card too.
You can buy this for £49.99 when you purchase a £10 top-up.
Details below, plus more photos of this device. Thoughts ?

ZTE Launches Kis smartphone with Virgin Media
Virgin Media’s best value Android handset at under £50.00
11 July 2012, London, UK – ZTE Corporation (“ZTE”) (H share stock code: 0763.HK /A share stock code: 000063.SZ), a leading global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, has launched its Kis smartphone, which will be distributed in the UK through Virgin Media from 11 July 2012. Available exclusively from Virgin Media at launch, the ZTE Kis is a feature-packed Android handset entering the Pay As You Go (PAYG) market as the best value Android available at just £49.99*.
In addition, Virgin Media is offering its customers 1GB data free per month for 12 months, making it ideal for customers who love to stay connected on the move and want to make the most of having access to over 600,000 Android apps through Google Play.
This is the second smartphone that ZTE has launched in partnership with Virgin Media, following the launch of the ZTE Tania Windows Phone earlier this year.
With a quality, high-end design, ZTE’s Kis is a great value smartphone that delivers on functionality at a cost-effective price for the style-conscious consumer. The 2GB memory card included allows for plenty of storage for photos and music files, while the 3.2MP Auto Focus camera with digital zoom provides the capability to take high quality pictures. Users can also share photos and tracks online using the smartphone’s Bluetooth and WiFi capabilities, and the handset’s fast 800MHz processor provides for swift operation and enables customers to enjoy smooth video playback and run apps with ease.
Jamie Heywood, director of mobile at Virgin Media said: “With the Kis, ZTE has designed a handset that meets customer requirements for a rich Android experience at a very affordable price for PAYG customers. With plentiful features and an abundance of apps to choose from through Google Play Store the ZTE Kis certainly delivers on that.
“We’re bundling in a huge amount of data to complement this Android handset for our PAYG customers. This is yet another example how Virgin Media is raising the bar in the mobile market because we know how much our customers love to be connected no matter where they are without worrying about expensive bills.”
“The launch of the ZTE Kis is a further demonstration of our commitment to building the ZTE brand in Europe and the UK across a number of price points and operating systems, which will continue with new devices throughout the remainder of 2012 and in 2013. It is also an example of our commitment to providing our customers with quality devices at affordable prices under the vibrant ZTE brand proposition,” said Wu Sa, Director of Mobile Device Operations at ZTE UK.
Key functionality
· Display: 3.5”, HVGA 480*320, 262k colours, TFT, Capacitive
· Processor: 800MHz
· Camera: 3.2MP Auto Focus, 2 x digital zoom
· OS: Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
· Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.1, WiFi, GPS, WAP 2.0, Tri band
· Storage: Internal 512MB ROM, 256MB RAM. External memory up to 32GB, 2GB micro SD card included with device
· Dimensions: 114.3 x 61.6 x 11.5mm, 120g
· Battery: 1400 mAh Li-Ion

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Smartphone Design Is Rapidly Maturing

May 11 2012   4:07PM GMT
Posted by: EdFrmBrighthand
Android, BlackBerry, RIM, Samsung, Smartphones
An article on Brighthand this week had a statement that surely caused some people to blink. The comment came from analyst Craig Mathias, who said, “We will see relatively little evolution in terms of industrial design going forward.”
I tend to agree with this, in general. Honestly, we’ve seen little genuine innovation in smartphone designs in years.  Virtually all models are slabs with a large display and few of small buttons. Yes, there’s some tweaking of that basic design, but that really just means ever-larger screens. All you have to do is look at the the HTC One X and Samsung Galaxy S III to see this. These are latest cutting-edge, flagship models from these companies, and they have the same general form factor.
Even the classic sideways slider is declining in use. The once almost ubiquitous portrait QWERTY is also all-but dead – even BlackBerry is giving it up. There is a market for devices that offer a physical keyboard, but it’s not a big one.
And don’t look for new ideas to come out of left field. For the most part, consumers aren’t interested in innovative designs. Kyocera Echo was probably the most innovative phone released in the last two years, and it flopped and was widely (and unfairly) mocked. The market has spoken: people want safety and familiarity, not innovation.
Maturity Means Less Experimentation
While it might be easy to see this as a bad trend, really it’s just a sign that smartphones are maturing. Companies have figured out what most consumers want, and are giving it to them.
For an example of how this process works, think about laptop designs — this is something that has been mature for over a decade, which means virtually all devices look the same. They are bigger or smaller, fatter or thinner, but they all have the same basic shape. That’s the direction handsets are headed.
Look at it this way: It’s time for smartphones to put their crazy teenage years behind them, settle down, and get to work.
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Canalys: China is now a bigger smartphone market than the US

It's a time of change in the smartphone world and we've seen various analysts chime in. Now Canalys released its report and it contains an interesting detail - the US is no longer the biggest smartphone market in the world, as China overtook it.
During the first quarter of this year, there were 146 million smartphones shipped (45% ?? compared to last year's Q1). The growth isn't even among the various countries though - the US saw only a 5% year-on-year increase, while shipments in the Asia Pacific soared 81%.
China saw the number of smartphone shipments double over last year's and the country gobbled up 22% of global smartphone shipments. In comparison, the US took just 16% of all shipments.
Samsung is the leading vendor of smartphones in China with 22% in Q1, while Apple takes second place with 19%. Nokia is in third place and analysts expect it to regain traction with their new Lumia lineup. Local makers like ZTE, Huawei and Lenovo are on the rise as well.
Android is doing quite well in China - a quarter of all droids went to China, where the OS accounted for two thirds of the shipments during Q1. And that's without access to Google Play - Canalys reports that the gap is filled by third party app stores, which are more popular there than anywhere else in the world.
Source

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