Rumour Roundup: The iPhone competition

This week, rumours have been flying fast and furious about a new swag of mobile phones.

Somewhere between the recent Mobile Expo in Barcelona and this week’s massive CeBIT electronics show in Germany, intrigue around what the forthcoming generation of mobile handsets will offer has gathered momentum.

Take BlackBerry. While we’re all keen to take a squiz at the BlackBerry Storm 2 – which should come in next week – there are already stirrings of something even newer and more different from its maker, RIM. Tech murmurings suggest this may be a BlackBerry slider phone with a touchscreen on the front and a full QWERTY keyboard, like that used by the Bold, underneath. So it would be a Bold Storm. Or something like that.

Then we have Sony and rumours about a “PSP phone”.

Will the next icon on this screen be a phone?
Will the next icon on this screen be a phone?

Yes, the PlayStation Portable might make its entrance into the telecommunications arena, or so says the Wall Street Journal. The report speculates that this new smartphone will be capable of playing games downloaded from the Playstation Store, as well as do duty as an e-reader. And it may appear by the end of the year, to boot.

And then there’s Windows Phone 7 Series (also known as Windows Mobile).

Microsoft is looking to turn its woeful reputation on the mobile platform around with this this new operating system, and will be supported in its endeavours by a range of handset makers. LG came out this week with the expectation of being able to have its first Windows Phone 7 Series handset released to the world by September, beating down the “end of year” expectations put forward by Microsoft at the February Barcelona conference.

 

Windows 7 Phone Series - Gaming
Will the Windows 7 Phone support true Xbox gaming? We’ll find out soon.

In more good news, we also hear that the Xbox Live integration with Windows Phone 7 Series might be better than previously expected. We expect to receive an announcement regarding this in a few weeks.

We’ll certainly be keeping our eyes and ears peeled, as we’re sure you will be too.