A lot going on in the mobile industry in the last few days and Israel is in the hot spot (no pun intended). Let’s start with the fact that all 3 cellular providers; Orange, Cellcom, and Pelephone recently announced that they will be launching the iPhone 3Gs over the next few months. The word on the street, and when I say street, I mean Twittersphere of course, is that at least two of the three providers bought 100 thousand iPhones from Apple. Now you have to understand that fact in the context that these providers max out at 150 thousand mobile devices sold annually! So out of the 150 thousand phones they will sell in 2009, 100 thousand will be iPhones?!
Pelephone
GSM Beginning To Replace CDMA
E71
The mobile industry in Israel is a booming one. There are three main providers; Cellcom (best service out of all 3), Orange (best devices), and Pelephone (best nothing; until now). I have been a customer of Cellcom since I can remember, and all in all, a satisfied one. Although, I sometimes pass by Orange stores and begin to get a little jealous of the different options Orange subscribers have.
Both Cellcom and Orange run on GSM networks, so naturally, their devices are more advanced than Pelephone’s, which ran on CDMA. I was using one of Pelephone’s devices for the last year, because the company at which I worked cut a deal with Pelephone, and let me tell you, it was not a fun experience. Their phones are generally older models, and the lack of a SIM card just makes things difficult.
OK, now that you know how the Israeli cellular world works, let me explain to you why I am telling you this. Today’s big news is that Pelephone have officially launched their new GSM network. By joining the world of GSM, they are also joining the competition between Cellcom and Orange, and despite what seems to be the recent failure of Capitalism, I am still a huge fan, and more competition means better phones and lower prices.
G810
By the way, this news does not only apply to the Israeli market, this is something I believe we are going to be seeing a lot of in the near future. That is, cellular providers abandoning CDMA and moving to GSM, Pelephone is just the first to make the leap.
N85
Let me tell you, Pelephone did a good job with their lineup. There are no show stoppers, but they have a wide variety of devices, including basic low end phones, all the way up to phones that a wise man once said are in the top 3 phones of 2008, like the E71 for example.
6600 Slider
So here is a list of some of the phones now offered by Pelephone:
- Nokia E71: Just an all around amazing device. Top 3 of 2008.
- Nokia E66: Loved its predecessor, the E65, so this phone’s a winner.
- Nokia 3120 Classic: Am actually impressed with this phone, in a simple kinda way.
- Nokia 6120: I recommended this phone to my sister in law a year ago, and I would still recommend it today.
- Nokia 6210: A solid device.
- Nokia 6600 Slide: Sleek, very sleek.
- Nokia N85 (later release): Best Nokia on the market, period.
- Sony Ericsson C905: 8mp camera, enough said.
c905
- Sony Ericsson W760: The least exciting of the bunch.
- Palm Treo Pro: This will do until we get the Pre.
- Samsung Soul: A nice, solid device.
- Samsung Omnia: The king!
- Samsung Touch Wiz: One of the more impressive phones I have handled.
- Samsung G810: This phone is just sexy.
- LG Renoir: One of the few camera phones that compete with the C905’s 8 megapixels.
Not a bad starting point for Pelephone in my opinion. There are rumors of talks with Palm about the Pre and Apple about the iPhone, but I do not take these kinda rumors too seriously. I am excited about this new development, and hoping this will help lower prices significantly, which will of course facilitate my urge to get myself a new toy.
-Hillel
Omnia
