n g o b o k @ b l o g m a s

LG and DivX has announced their partnership to enable a high-quality consumer media experience with the LG Viewty (Model: LG-KU990), a new 5.0 mega-pixel digital camera phone available from LG Mobile. The DivX Mobile Certified LG Viewty supports DivX playback and joins the over 100 million DivX Certified devices shipped into the market today, including DVD players, in-car devices, digital still cameras and more.

The LG Viewty enables consumers to easily playback a wide range of DivX files from the PC on the go or output to a TV monitor without converting to another format. Consumers can also view DivX files from popular online video communities such as Stage6.com at ten times the speed of WCDMA through the HSDPA 3.6 high speed internet access capability. DivX is a widely popular digital media format that enables consumers to create, share and playback high-quality video content across an ecosystem of platforms and devices.

LG Viewty is the first in LG’s new line of high technology handsets and boasts a number of ‘world first’ features never seen before on a mobile handset, including 120 fps video recording as well as unique camera functionality such as manual focus, image stabilizer and handwriting recognition that makes editing easy on the Viewty’s 3-inch wide LCD touch screen.

It is not yet known if the LG Viewty will make its way to Malaysia but the phone will go on sale in Mid October starting in Europe and then move on to other regions.

The Star Online (Monday August 20, 2007)

Maxis Communications Bhd (Maxis) hopes to tap the individual user market segment with its newly-launched BlackBerry Curve smartphone.

Chief operating officer Jon Eddy Abdullah said that he expected healthy growth in the individual segment with the new smartphone because it was specifically targeted at entry-level users and also featured new services.

Currently, Maxis has about 10,000 BlackBerry customers, of which 70% are business users and 30% are individuals.

“As BlackBerry usage in Malaysia continues to climb, we are making the powerful device accessible and affordable to people with an entry-level package for the BlackBerry Internet Solution at RM20 per month,” he said at the launch of the smartphone Monday.

For as low as RM20 per month during the three-month promotional period, users will be able to send and receive e-mail, chat online and surf the Internet. Users will be charged RM20 per MB after the promotional period which ends Nov 20.

“We believe the consumer potential for e-mail services is largely untapped and this package is designed specifically for the consumer looking for wireless e-mail connectivity,“ he added.

Priced at RM1,999, the BlackBerry Curve is equipped with a 2.0-megapixel camera, fast web-browsing and powerful multimedia capabilities. It also comes with value-added applications like Namimail, which allows users to read and write e-mail messages in Japanese, and MobileStockLive, a mobile stock trading solution that addresses the needs of business professionals.

In the near future, customers will also be able to enjoy the convenience of on-the-go personal banking and financial services using their BlackBerry smartphone.

Maxis hopes to sell at least 2,000 units of the BlackBerry Curve by year-end, said Eddy.