Huawei Technologies, a Chinese networking company, will be launching Android and Symbian smartphones in the first half of 2009.  The company is planning to expand into phone and mobile broadband, hinging on the current economic crisis to extend the lifespan of lower-end phones, and create extra time to bring smartphones to market.  Despite Huawei’s late arrival to the smartphone market, the company believes they’ll be able to achieve their corporate targets without an established partner.  But they are looking for private equity investment.

A member of the Open Handset Alliance, Huawei finds the open source Android attractive, as it allows the company to leverage their software expertise and customise phones for specific operators.  Just don’t look for the Huawei name on any smartphone;  they’ll be sold through operators and branded as such.

via pcworld

The North American version of Nokia’s N96 is expected to begin shipping next month, but the N96 has started shipping in Europe.  The S60 slider is priced at 550 Euros before taxes and subsidies and is 100% GPS-enabled.  Featuring  voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation, detailed urban maps and even satellite views, the Nokia N96 comes with City Guides to help you discover urban treasures and even a sharing feature that allows you to upload your great finds online.  Get all the dirty details after the jump.

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Symbian fans will be able to get their hands on the new Nokia 6650 sometime in the near future, as the successor to the N75 is headed to AT&T’s 3G network.  It has a couple of separate display-a 2.2-inch QVGA primary display and a smaller 160 x 128 pixel secondary display.  Packing GPS (AT&T Navigator), a 2 megapixel camera, push-to-talk support, the Nokia 6650 supports HSDPA 850/1900 as well as quad-band EDGE.

via engadget mobile

The reason we cover open handset platforms such as LiMo, Android, and Symbian around here is because they’ll have a definite influence on the evolution of personal navigation now and in the future.  Even historically tightly controlled telecommunications providers such as AT&T are realizing how true this is and beginning to loosen the reins a little.

The LiMo Foundation, a consortium of mobile handset providers which support the LiMo Platform, has unveiled seven new devices-Motorola’s MOTOZINE ZN5, NEC’s FOMA N906i, FOMA N906i?, FOMA N906iL and FOMA N706i and Panasonic’s FOMA P906i and FOMA P706i?-bringing the total number of LiMo’s to 21.  Definitely a far cry from the one we’re expected from Android later this year.

You can take a look at detailed specs for all of the LiMo Platform-based phones here but expect several of the new handsets to feature built-in GPS and hopefully some innovative future location-based apps.

Despite the fact that Google has announced a delay in the release of their mobile Android platform and rumors of a possible merger with Symbian, the big name behind the operating system HTC says everything is on track for a 4th quarter release.  The company behind the wildly popular Touch Diamond handset which is already available with 50 wireless carriers in over 30 countries, says they’ll begin shipping Android-based handsets to ODM clients in the 4th quarter.

On a slightly different note, a recent writeup in The China Post states that Sprint will be getting a CDMA version of the HTC Touch Diamond this month, and despite the fact that HTC wasn’t planning on releasing a GSM version to avoid competing with Apple’s iPhone, a GSM Touch Diamond is apparently on its way to North America before Christmas.

Photo Credit: Phone Arena

We’ve talked about Loopt here before and were hardly surprised to see the location-based mobile social network eagerly debut a new iPhone app.  In fact, co-founder and chief exec Sam Altman said that the day the iPhone software development kit was released by Apple, he had one person devoted solely to putting together the application for a full six weeks.  The application is available for free from the iPhone App Store and allows users to use the iPhone’s touchscreen to navigate their way around an interactive map of their location in order to find their friends and see what they are doing.  It functions as an interactive tool that allows friends to find each other, meet up, and hang out and provides reviews of local events and services.

Whether related to the new iPhone app or not, Loopt has made some big inroads lately in syncing their mobile web presence with their ordinary web presence.  One handy feature Loopt integrates into their iPhone app is Yelp reviews.  If you’re not familiar with Yelp, it’s kind of a social network/review database that helps its members find the best and avoid the worst events and services around big-city USA.  Now not only will Loopt help bring friends together, but together in the best places to eat, drink and socialize with the addition of such a content partner.  If you take a look at the iPhone screenshot above, you’ll see map markers that when clicked on will take you directly to Yelp reviews of that particular location.  Disappointly though, for the time being you won’t be able to post Yelp reviews directly through the Loopt application although you can obviously still write Loopt reviews.  Why Loopt has chosen to do this isn’t totally known, but I’d venture to guess that the company wants to build their own platform, not contribute to a competitor’s.  Using an established database such as Yelp does assist in scaling Loopt’s application however.

Further solidifying their online presence is the integration of Loopt status updates into social networks such as Facebook and microblogging service Twitter.  iPhone users can also post updates on status aggregator Friendfeed.  By syncing the a user’s mobile web presence with their online presence, Loopt is poised for success in the future we’re sure.  However they have some hefty competition in the form of Pelago’s Whrrl and uLocate’s Buddy Beacon, both available as iPhone apps.  When it comes right down to the nitty-gritty, it’ll come down to strategic partnerships to decide which company ultimately ends up on top.  Generate a critical mass of user’s, be available on all major wireless networks, and form effective advertising partnership that generate dollars.  The first company to do this will swallow up the others, but we’re sure there will be more competitors on the scene in the near future.  With the GPS capabilities of the second-gen iPhone, the upcoming Android OS bringing in more competition, Windows Mobile and Symbian operating systems all making grounds in laying a foundation for application developers, the going will be tough even for established networks like Loopt.