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]]> ZTE has just introduced the Grand Memo flagship smartphone at MWC in Barcelona. The Grand Memo has top-shelf specs including a 5.7-inch 720x1280 TFT display, a quad-core Qualcomm 800 processor, a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera and a front-facing camera for video chat. ZTE is marketing this as its phablet experience, as competitors like Huawei, Samsung, and most recently Asus bet big on extra-large screens. Considering how much data and texting overpower our smartphone usage, it seems to be paying off. ]]>

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]]> What if your browser could know when you are getting a call on your mobile phone? Earlier this month, Google and Mozilla demonstrated how their browsers’ WebRTC implementations could interoperate. Today, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Mozilla is going a step further. The organization has teamed up with AT&T and Ericsson to show a proof-of-concept called WebPhone that demonstrates how its Firefox browser can use Mozilla’s Social API, AT&T’s API Platform and Ericsson’s Web Communication Gateway to let Firefox users sync with a user’s existing phone number and provide calling services without the need to install any plugins or special apps. WebPhone, which isn’t currently available to the public, demonstrates how users can receive calls and text on their desktop. The system was built on top of WebRTC, the developing standard that allows for in-browser file transfers and real-time video, audio and text chats without plugins. According to Mozilla, this demo shows “how consumers can easily take and receive video calls from their mobile phones or desktop browser using WebRTC or share their web experiences with friends or family who might be on a desktop PC or mobile phone across the other side of the world.” The demo shows how users can start a call from their Firefox browser. Using the operators’ APIs, the web application in the browser gets access to the user’s contacts on the phone and could eventually allow them to, for example, start calls on their mobile device and then transfer them to their desktop once they get home and receive calls right through their browser. “We believe there is value for operators bundling mobile and fixed broadband offerings with browsers, and Firefox will be the first browser to give them this opportunity,” Magnus Furustam, Vice President Product Area Core and IMS, Business Unit Networks at Ericsson said in a statement today. “The open source project with Mozilla means operators can contribute resources to the project and in a new way, jointly collaborating with other innovators to shape the future of web communications.” We will likely hear quite a bit more about WebRTC as this year’s Mobile World Congress gets underway. The standard is now stable enough that developers can feel relatively confident that most browser vendors will support it in their stable release versions relatively soon (with the exception of Microsoft, which is backing a different version of the standard). Like all standards,]]> It’s that time of year again — mobile nerds and enthusiasts of all stripes have begun to descend upon Barcelona for Mobile World Congress, and naturally a TechCrunch contingent has set up camp in Spain to cover it all. Or, we'll try anyway. MWC is a behemoth of the show, packed to the brim with enough phones, tablets, and apps that it's enough to make even the more ardent mobile nerd's heart go a-twitter. To say that we've got a busy week planned is quite an understatement, but here's a brief look at some of the players that are in attendance and what (we think) they're bringing to the table.]]>

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]]> We're now about a week away from the start of the Mobile World Congress, the large, annual European mobile event put on by the GSM Association that has served as a barometer of the progress of the wireless industry. In planning out what TechCrunch will be doing and seeing during the week in Barcelona, we've noticed a gap: Google, and specifically its mobile OS Android, is largely absent. ]]> Mark your calendars, Android fans -- HTC has just started sending out invitations to press events in New York and London on February 19. Granted, those invitations are very vague (no teasing any big features a la Motorola, I'm afraid), but the Taiwanese company is widely expected to officially reveal its latest flagship Android smartphone, codenamed "M7."]]> Well, it certainly seems like a good time to be on the market for an Android tablet -- Sony has just announced its attractive new Tablet Z, and it seems that Samsung really does have another Note tab up its proverbial sleeves. According to Korean news outlet iNews 24, Samsung Mobile chief JK Shin has confirmed that the company's rumored 8-inch Galaxy Note tablet will indeed making an appearance at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. ]]>

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]]> ]]> ]]> ]]> ]]> ]]> ]]> ]]> ]]> ]]> ]]> ]]> ]]> ]]> ]]> ]]> ]]> ]]> ]]> ]]> ]]> ]]> ]]> ]]> Fujitsu once said that it didn’t have any plans to launch mobile handsets outside of Asia, but that strategy appears to be changing rapidly. Today comes a report that the Japanese handset maker — which makes both Android and Windows Phone-based devices — is planning to start selling its devices in Europe, with a debut to take place next week at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The news comes after Fujitsu said that it also planned to sell devices in the U.S. market either this year or 2013. It’s not clear whether Fujitsu will lead on an Android or Windows Phone line of devices — or whether it will opt to sell both. A story in the FT that reported the European launch did not specify which devices would lead the charge. There are pro’s and con’s to both: Android is by far and away the most popular smartphone OS at the moment — with more than 50 percent marketshare as of Q4, according to Gartner — but while that means good news in terms of apps and other services for users, it would also pose a challenge for Fujitsu to create something that stands apart from the pack. Microsoft’s Windows Phone, meanwhile, is a lot less common, leaving more room for Fujitsu to shine — but it’s also significantly less popular with developers and the consumer public. Gartner’s Q4 figures gave it a 1.9 percent share, while the Windows Phone app storefront currently only has around 50,000 apps, compared to the hundreds of thousands of Android. The issue of needing to be distinctive when entering new markets is not one that has gone unnoticed by Fujitsu itself: “We don’t want to be just another mobile phone,” senior EVP Hideyuki Saso told AllThingsD back in January. “We want to be special.” Fujitsu was one of the first handset makers to sign on to Windows Phone “Mango”, and it was actually the first handset maker to ship a Mango device. It’s been a key partner for Microsoft in its bid to make more of an impact on consumers in the Asian market. Some of the more innovative “different” elements of its hardware, though, have come through on Android: waterproofing, very thin devices, and zany colors, like pink.]]> With the end of February nearly in sight, the tech community is all abuzz with talk about Mobile World Congress, the huge mobile conference set to take place in beautiful Barcelona in just over a week. All the big players will be there (though some will be less conspicuous than before), and of course among them will be Taiwan-based phone giant HTC. ]]> ]]> GSMA, the organizers of the annual, massive Mobile World Congress, have announced a couple of new developments this morning. For one, the organization is to expand the developer-focused programme at the event to include new elements such as Macworld Mobile and the Brand App Challenge. In addition, the organization has announced new speakers, including Sir Martin Sorrell, chief exec of WPP and HTC head honcho Peter Chou.]]> ]]> ]]>