With developed countries reaching the saturation point, mobile phone manufactures have to look to developing countries for increased sales. Nokia is selling more and more single-chip mobile phones in these nations. Sales numbers should reach into the tens of millions.

Single-chip phones are inexpensive to manufacture and are highly desired in developing nations, which often have a poor land-line infrastructure. Mobile technology is inexpensive to install and brings phone service to places that otherwise wouldn’t have telecommunications. Companies like Nokia sell single-chip phones at a low price and makeup profits by selling large numbers of units.

“We now have several single-chip phones in the market. It is one of the key factors in our cost competitiveness in cheaper phones,” Nokia Chief Executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo told Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat.

Verizon Wireless customers who have a BlackBerry Curve 8330, Pearl 8130 or 8830 World Edition can now access their financial information with Verizon Wireless’ Mobile Banking application. Users get the following services: account balance information and transaction history; the ability to transfer funds between accounts at the same financial institution; the convenience of viewing and paying bills when enrolled in their financial institution’s Bill Pay service and the ability to view the last five transactions successfully completed on their mobile device.

Verizon Wireless customers must be account holders of a financial institution that offers Mobile Banking to enroll in the application. Currently Wachovia, Regions, SunTrust, USAA, Synovus, America First Credit Union (AFCU), Arvest, Bancorp South, FirstBank, South Financial and BECU offer the service.

The Mobile Banking application has the following security features: multi-factor authentication including initialization codes and six-digit PIN requirements; lock out after three invalid PIN entries; use of account nicknames instead of account numbers; encrypted transactions; time out of application after two minutes on Choose PIN screen and 10 minutes on other screens; and lost device functionality, which disables the application. In addition, funds can only be transferred between accounts that are set up with online access, and Bill Pay payees cannot be set up or edited on the phone.

To get Mobile Banking, Verizon Wireless customers with the BlackBerry Curve 8330, BlackBerry Pearl 8130 and the BlackBerry 8830 World Edition can go to the Home screen on their handsets and select the BlackBerry(R) Browser icon to go to the VZ Start home page. Once there, click on the Mobile Banking link to download the application. VZ Start home page can also be accessed by going to mobile.vzw.com from the browser. There is no monthly charge for the application, although data charges may apply.

Zumobi’s mobile widgets application launches on BlackBerry devices today. As the profile of Smartphone users expands to include more than just business users, Zumobi has developed its BlackBerry product to enhance the user experience by providing easy access to small “bites” of customized Web content via mobile device.

Zumobi has a large library of widgets. Users can access news, sports, weather, entertainment and games. New widgets include NPR, AP Olympics report Major League Baseball and social media sites Facebook and Twitter. Zumobi is banking on the idea that BlackBerry users want more than a business oriented mobile device. The Tile Creation Wizard allows users to create their own mobile widgets from just about any Web content. The personal touch never hurts.

“By adding BlackBerry as our second major mobile platform, Zumobi significantly expands our reach for brand and content partners. We’re thrilled to introduce Zumobi to Blackberry’s data-savvy users, and look forward to providing them with a highly-engaging mobile experience,” said Ken Willner, vice president of Market Development.

Zumobi

Last summer the news was full of stories about people who unlocked their iPhones. So with the new iPhone not out even a week yet, the news cycle is repeating itself. The Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo is reporting that the firm DesbloqueioBR has won the race to be the first to unlock Apple’s latest version of the iPhone.

By altering the handset’s firmware and installing a special card add-on to the SIM chip, DesbloqueioBR claims that the iPhone can connect to any carrier. In most countries, only one service provider has the right to carry Apple’s brand. The initial price of the iPhone is subsidized by the service provider, which makes up for the loss through lengthy contracts and monthly charges. DesbloqueioBR plans to charge between 250 and 375 dollars to unlock an iPhone, an alteration that may cost service providers big money.

Other unlocks are sure to follow and so are the stories that cover them.

DesbloqueioBR

The sale figures for Apple’s new iPhone is taking most of the headlines this week, but a worldwide economic slump may impact global cell phone growth. According to research firm Gartner, 1.15 billion handsets were sold in 2007. A 16% increase over 2006’s numbers. But this year, growth is predicted to slow.

In May of this year, Gartner forecast that global sales would increase by 10-15 percent but has adjusted these numbers down to 10-11 percent because of new economic realities. Much of the predicted growth will take place in emerging markets, which are just beginning to feel the economic squeeze that has hit developed countries.

As long as a global depression is fended off, sales should increase about 10% this year, which sounds good. But much of this growth will be in the low-end market, with increased sales of cheap models. The profit margins for these phones are lower than for the high-end models, so manufactures depend on volume to make up for lower profits for each sale. A loss of predicted future profits can adversely impact the stock price of mobile phone manufactures.

Gartner

Smart phones are all the rage today. Not wanting to fall behind in the technology race, Palm announced today that its new smart phone, the Treo 800w, is now available on the Sprint Nextel network. This is Palm’s first major new model since the Centro was launched last year.

The Treo 800w runs Windows Mobile 6.1 and can access the Internet with Sprint’s broadband network or through a local Wi-Fi connection. The handset comes installed with a chip that allows for fast uploads off of Sprint’s EVDO Rev A network.

Palm’s new phone comes with GPS capabilities and a screen that is an improvement over past models. The Treo 800w has a 320-by-320 screen, is 2.2 by 4.41 by 0.73 inches and weighs in at 5 ounces.

The Treo 800w can be purchased for as little as $250, but a two-year contract with Sprint that costs at least $70 a month is required. Other contract options will increase the initial price of the handset. Sprint doesn’t have the exclusive rights to sell the Treo 800w, so other carriers like Verizon and Alltel may carry the phone in the future.

Palm

Glu Mobile started selling gaming titles for the iPhone and iPod today with the launch of Space Monkey. Apple’s App Store is now selling the popular mobile puzzle adventure game that has you cleaning up trash and fighting monsters across the cosmos.

“The launch of the Apple App Store allows consumers to easily discover and download games for their mobile devices,” said Jill Braff , senior vice president of global publishing, Glu Mobile. “Space Monkey for iPhone and iPod touch utilizes the unique features and capabilities of the platform to incorporate levels of touch and movement, rich graphics and replayability that make for a truly captivating casual game.”

In the game, you control a monkey on a quest to clean up the garbage that Earth has been dumping in space. (Hopefully Space Monkey belongs to a good Union. Zero gravity is hell on the back.) By spinning throughout the galaxy Space Monkey must grab junk, deflect hazards and fight enemies that are trying to stop the hairy garbage collector. There is little glory in this but at least in space no one can smell your stink.

This version of Space Monkey adds new features. The game utilized the accelerometer and Multi-Touch user interface of iPhone and iPod touch, allowing gamers to physically move their device and tap their screen for improved maneuverability and deeper game play.

Space Monkey can be purchased for $9.99 from Apple’s App Store on iPhone and iPod touch or at itunes.

AT&T retail stores will be open at 8AM local time on July 11th, so be “iReady!” Existing customers who don’t qualify for an upgrade will have to shell out $399 and $499 for the corresponding iP3G model. Customers who don’t want to extend their current contract will pay $599 for the 8GB and $699 for the 16GB model. Current AT&T customers who want to upgrade to the iPhone 3G from whatever else they have will have to pay an $18 activation fee while new AT&T customers will pay $36. Voice and unlimited data plans (e-mail and Web) range from $69.99 to $129.99. $199 my foot. Maybe we should all move to Hong Kong.

Full release on CrunchGear

Over the past year, China Mobile and Apple have been dancing about in a bid to bring the iPhone to the world’s largest mobile market. The main hang-up has centered on revenue sharing demands from Apple. China Mobile announced today that Apple has dropped this demand and negotiations are underway.

Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, said earlier this week he would like to see the iPhone enter the Chinese market. An executive of China Mobile confirmed that the two companies are now in negotiations.

“We’ve broken through the biggest obstacle and we are negotiating at the working level,” Gao Songge, deputy director of China Mobile’s general department, said.

No timetable for a Chinese launch of the iPhone was given. It is speculated that it will take place later this year, but months after the iPhone’s 22 nation start date coming on July 11. China Mobile is the world’s largest service provider with around 540 million subscribers.

The cellphone companies (other than Apple; it’s perfect in every way imaginable) are still trying their hardest to make a decent MP3-playing cellphone. T-Mobile latest attempt is the Motorola Rokr E8, which will be available on July 7, the same date that Real Madrid want to announce the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo.

The phone, which debuted at January’s CES, appears to be more evolutionary than revolutionary—2GB storage, built-in FM radio, 2-inch QVGA display, etc. Thankfully, the phone has a “normal” 3.5-inch headphone jack; many such music phones had a 2.5-inch jack.

There’s also something called ClearTalk, which supposedly improves call quality. That’s helpful, since, in my experience, T-Mobile sounds a lot worse than Verizon Wireless in New York City. Really, the difference was startling.

Oh, and it’s EDGE not 3G. Ouch.