The battle for differentiation in mobile is at fever pitch. iPhone has the app store, BlackBerry has cut-rate, unlimited internet access, Android has… well… Google and Nokia has a mounting collection of services that includes an extensive, and now entirely free, mapping solution.

Nokia Maps was an early play from the Finnish mobile giant that has put it ahead of the pack when it comes to affordable mapping and navigation on your phone.

The service has been mostly free for some time, offering maps of the world and their updates to Nokia users for gratis. Voice navigation and a few other bits and pieces were levied via subscription, however – but these are now free as part of the re-branded Ovi Maps product announced by Nokia this week. (more…)

The BlackBerry Bold 2 (9700) launched in South Africa on Thursday. The much anticipated device is currently available to subscribers on MTN and Vodacom will soon have stock of the device too.

The 9700 is Research in Motion (RIM)’s flagship device sporting a 624 megahertz processor, 256 megabytes of flash memory, built-in GPS and Wi-Fi, a 3.2 megapixel camera and the new mini trackpad for navigation. It’s less bulky than its predecessor and replaces the leather back of the 9000 with a textured pad that is flush with the rest of the casing.

“The BlackBerry Bold 9700 smartphone builds on the success of the original model with new, top-of-the-line features in a smaller and lighter design,” said Deon Liebenberg, regional director for Sub-Sahara Africa at Research In Motion.

The 9700 also ships with BlackBerry OS 5.0 that offers several enhancements, including faster JavaScript and CSS processing as well as built-in integration with Gmail for contacts syncing, an enhanced calendaring application, and other improvements.

I’ve been playing with the 9700 for two days and have been impressed with the speed and responsiveness of the device. The keyboard is great, as was the 9000’s, with the angled-keys that made the Bold ridiculously popular with BlackBerry users.

It’s too early for a comprehensive review, but look out for Finweek Magazine next week where I’ll be running an extended review.

Research in Motion (RIM – the company behind the Blackberry smartphone brand) has launched the Storm 2 in South Africa. This is the reincarnation of Blackberry’s first touchscreen device that was developed in cooperation with british cellular giant Vodafone.

The first Storm was a tad clunky, especially compared to Apple’s iPhone – which still boasts the best touchscreen interface in the market after some two years. The Storm 2, however, is slick and feels more polished than its predecessor. I can actually type on it this time, whereas I had trouble with the original Storm.

I love my Blackberry Bold and am yet to see another model I’d replace it with – but the Storm 2 might be the one.

That said, I must add that my opinion of the Storm 2 is based on less than an hour’s experience with it, so I’ll ice the review until I’ve spent more time with the device.

The Storm 2 has a capacitive touchscreen, which is the same technology as the iPhone. It has a 3.2 megapixel camera that shoots video and offers zoom for stills and 2 GB of internal memory that can be expanded via a MicroSD slot. It also has WiFi, which was missing from the first Storm. And it’s dead sexy. (more…)

Nokia surprised the market this week by announcing a netbook device that it will launch soon. The Finnish mobile company claims the Booklet 3G will deliver 12 hours of battery life, run Windows 7 and include all of the features one would expect from a modern netbook-slash-laptop. It’ll also include Nokia applications, such as Ovi Maps – and has a built-in GPS, which is unusual for such a device.

As smartphones become more capable and netbooks become smaller the Booklet 3G resembles a strategy from Nokia that aligns well to the evolution of the market. Nokia has also recently forged agreements with Microsoft and Intel designed to keep it ahead of the pack, although is has been lagging on the smartphone side where it must contend with the likes of RIM (Blackberry), Apple and others.

Nokia’s timing is also impeccable if Apple does, in fact, plan on releasing a tablet-slash-netbook device soon. And when that happens it’s on like Donkey Kong.

The included video shows off more features of the Booklet 3G. Looks decent. I’ve contacted Nokia to establish availability for South Africa but the company had no further details at time of writing. The biggest question, of course, is in price. And here Nokia will have to tread carefully if it intends to capture any form of market share in the hotly contested netbook arena.