Hasta La Gadget!

After unboxing a pair of phablets at CES, Chinese mobile maker Huawei looks to be lining up a new flagship smartphone in its Android-based Ascend P line ahead of the Mobile World Congress trade show kicking off in Barcelona Monday. The company, which pushed into third place in the global smartphone rankings for the first time in Q4, has sent out invites to a press conference taking place tomorrow afternoon (CET).

It’s not confirmed what device or devices Huawei plans to unveil tomorrow — the invite includes the cryptic tagline “Discover possible” – but CNET‘s Stephen Shankland has snapped a photo of Huawei’s MWC booth, currently under construction before the crowds arrive on Monday, which includes a sign for an as yet unreleased device called the Ascend P2.

Judging by the name, the Ascend P2 is the sequel to the Ascend P1, which launched in Europe last summer. P stands for ‘Platinum’ in Huawei’s marketing speak — one rung down from its top-of-the-line D for Diamond devices, such as the 5-inch Ascend D2, which it outted at CES, along with the 6.1 inch Ascend Mate (its Galaxy Note rival). Those quad-core whoppers leave room in Huawei’s portfolio for a powerhouse smartphone with a slightly less palm-stretching screen. So, enter stage left the Ascend P2. Either that or it has a typo in its booth signage.

Aside from an LTE variant, the Ascend P1 was a relatively mid-range affair — with a dual-core 1.5Ghz chip, 4.3-inch display and 8 megapixel camera. The Ascend P2 is rumoured to add more beef the second time around, with various leaks hinting at a 1.8GHz quad-core chipset — which would give it more welly than either the Ascend Mate or the D2 — along with a 4.7 inch display, a 13 megapixel camera and Android 4.1. We’ll find out for sure tomorrow.

Huawei can’t claim to have the massive brand clout of Samsung and its Galaxy range, but its mobile profile is growing and it has carved out a savvy niche for itself in the Android space by offering relatively impressive specs for the device’s price point — which, in its Ascend G range, has helped to power up the functionality of budget Androids. The company is also taking a similar tack with Windows Phone — showing off an “entry level” Windows 8 device at CES, the Ascend W1, and partnering with Microsoft to launch an “affordable” Windows Phone device for the African market.

The number of gadget-related thefts in major metropolitan areas has only continued to rise, and the number of resolved cases simply can’t keep up. However, it would appear that Apple is now working directly with the NYPD to help return iThings into the hands of their rightful owners.

The NYPD has formed an official team which will work directly with Apple to track down stolen iThings, mostly iPhones and iPads.

Devices are tracked in the same way they always have been: with the help of tracking number (International Mobile Station Equipment Identity). Once the tracking number has been relayed to Apple, Cupertino can locate the device and send police to retrieve it.

According to NYPD spokesman Paul Browne, the team hopes to uncover a pattern that will lead police closer to the more organized side of the thefts, involving resale on the black market to unsuspecting buyers.

In New York, 74 percent of all stolen Apple products remain within the five boroughs. But some venture quite a ways away — the NY Post reports that Apple helped police track down an iPad that had ended up in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

According to the Huffington Post, the NYPD reported that over 40 percent of all robberies in the city now involve cell phones.

The wireless industry has been working hard to integrate with law enforcement on a number of levels. Along with Apple’s direct work with the NYPD, the wireless industry as a whole has been working to form a database of tracking numbers to help keep theft down, or at the very least, return as many stolen devices as possible. However, that won’t launch until November of 2013.

Additionally, carriers are working with officials to developer a next-generation 911 system that includes texting, MMS, as well as calls.

For almost as long as Apple’s iPhone has been in existence, analysts have claimed to see visions of a low-cost version of the device aimed at developing and prepaid markets. It’s easy to see why these visions have grown in magnitude and gained a more vocal following over the years: entering that market would, in theory, broaden Apple’s potential appeal by hundreds of millions of new customers. But I refer to the low-cost iPhone as a “siren song” for a reason – there’s a significant potential downside if Apple tries such a device and fails to impress.

The latest buzz around a budget iPhone device is being generated by a new investor note from Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty (via Business Insider), who provided three reasons for why she and her firm see a low-cost iPhone on the horizon. The iPad mini’s success in China and Brazil, Chinese consumers gravitating to the latest iPhone over older models, and surprise iPhone 4 demand were all seen as indicators that Apple will go budget in the near future.

Huberty met with Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer before penning the report, but she doesn’t directly attribute any of her reasoning for a cheaper iPhone to him directly. Other encounters between analysts and Apple execs have also left similar impressions, and Tim Cook even went so far as to tell Bernstein’s Toni Sacconaghi that the company had specific “clever things” planned to target the prepaid market, and that the company wasn’t “ceding any market” despite its continued efforts to target higher-end smartphone buyers.

Recently, there have been more indications that Apple might be going low-cost with a new iPhone design, including reports from the supply chain that a new model will come out with a plastic body and design cues from the current iPod touch. More reliable sources, including the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, have also chimed in (though they’ve thrown out the same idea in the past, actually right around when Tim Cook made his original statements to Sacconaghi).

A cheap iPhone is a tantalizing story because it’s a tantalizing product for investors, for consumers and for Apple itself. But Apple’s concern isn’t beating competitors on price, as it has said time and time again; it’s about delivering a no-compromise experience. So long as it can do that at a price point that makes more sense for the prepaid market, it would be happy to field such a device. The iPad mini is another example of Apple waiting to build a product people clamored for until it could get the experience up to its standards, and waiting has proven the right strategy there.

With a cheap iPhone, striking that balance is even more important. Apple has to deliver a product that allows it to maintain its reputation as a mobile platform with the best consumer experience. Doing anything else would invite comparison to other “good enough” budget products from rivals, which would undermine all of Apple’s efforts to brand itself as a premium maker of hardware and software. It’s a slippery slope, which is why, despite allusions made by Cook two years ago to a strategy that embraces the pre-paid market, we’ve seen little, if any deviation from its standard course since then.

Analysts love the idea of a low-cost iPhone because it looks like ripe, juicy, low-hanging fruit. But Apple is rightfully cautious because it has built a brand on produce from higher up in the tree. Huawei and ZTE have shown how it can be difficult to start as a budget brand and claw your way up in consumer eyes, and their marketing struggles are probably a good indication of why Apple, if it is going to go after the prepaid crowd, will have to do so very, very carefully to avoid being lost in the deep.

Windows Phone 8 is Nokia’s big play for the future, but as a result of focusing on those devices and their higher-end target market, the company is giving up ground to firms like Huawei and ZTE with lower end devices. But the Finnish company may be looking to get its budget-friendly groove back with the introduction of new, basic handsets not based on Microsoft’s mobile OS, to be unveiled at MWC next week according to Reuters.

The tails of new models come from “company sources,” according to Reuters, and suggest Nokia will introduce “cut-price” hardware in multiple handsets, as well as a single new Lumia device on Windows Phone 8, but one designed with affordability in mind. Nokia already offers the budget Lumia 620, a $249 smartphone with Microsoft’s latest OS onboard, but that’s still over $200, whereas the average selling price of Nokia mobile phones in general was € 31 in 2012, Reuters notes, with net sales of mobile phones accounting for € 9.44 billion in sales in 2012 for the company.

Nokia has had tremendous success with its Series 40 line of devices, as Natasha noted in an article late last year, but even that market where it has traditionally been strong is under attack from rival manufacturers. Nokia is failing to attract audiences in its traditionally strong markets with even low-cost Lumia handsets. And it’s losing share fast to Huawei and ZTE, which are quickly charging up the ranks of global handset manufacturers thanks to an emphatic focus on lower end devices.

Nokia’s candle is burning at both ends, with the company facing threats in both smartphones and with low-end devices. The company said to “expect a lot of things” in 2013 based on the Series 40 platform at the end of 2012, and it looks likely we’ll see some of those things unveiled at MWC. A revamped Series 4 line could definitely help shore up its shrinking share of the under $100 market, and if a new Lumia can break the $200 barrier, we might see Nokia win back some precious smartphone share as well.

Perhaps aware of the tsunami of news that will hit during Mobile World Congress, we are seeing an increasing amount of news releases coming out before the actual event. France Telecom/Orange has already told us about one device — an Android smartphone with Fujitsu aimed at the senior market — and now it is following that up with three more, own-branded, Android handsets aimed squarely at the middle market of smartphone users.

The Lumo (pictured) is the carrier’s first own-branded LTE device; the Nivo is a device aimed at the budget segment; and the San Remo is a large-screened 4.7″ device with a brushed-metal casing. All will be out in selected markets in the first half of this year.

And while each of these devices will come loaded with Android 4.1, Patrick Remy, the VP of devices for France Telecom, also notes that we may soon start seeing own-brand handsets from the carrier not built on Android. “There is no willingness to only have Android devices in this range,” he said. “We believe the best opportunity is with Android right now, but we are looking at other operating systems, specifically Windows Phone, but potentially others.” 

On the subject of Firefox OS — the mobile platform being built by Mozilla with other partners — “we are monitoring what is being done there,” says Remy. “We are not announcing any launch of such devices at this point in time, but we are definitely interested in that area and depending on the opportunities, there is a chance for an Orange-branded device among those.”

Remy also admits that Orange’s own-brand smartphone devices do not move the needle when compared to the volumes sold by carriers from smartphone leaders Samsung and Apple. But they are proving to be small hits for the carrier, specifically when targeting users in the mid-market — or “higher-end pay-as-you-go or lower end contract customers,” in Remy’s description.

This naturally means these devices do best in markets where these segments are biggest. “Not Luxembourg,” Remy joked of the very affluent little principality where the carrier offers services. But other markets do quite well. In Spain last year, Orange’s best-selling device was the Monte Carlo, another handset in its own-brand range. Overall sales of this line of devices has grown by 62% over the last year. But it’s telling that there are currently “no plans” for any of these three to be offered in the UK this year.

France Telecom/Orange does not release sales numbers on how well these smartphones do but did note that last year its entire range of own-branded devices — including both feature phones and smartphones — were about 10% of all handset volumes, “and that’s increased a bit to about 12%,” says Remy. He notes that within that proportion smartphones are a “significant part of that.”

Orange has struck deals with Alcatel/TCL, Gigabyte, Huawei and ZTE to make its own-brand devices. The Lumo and Nivo come from Gigabyte, whereas the San Remo is made by Alcatel/TCL, with Huawei and ZTE sitting out in this particular round.

Perhaps more than other European telcos, Orange has over the years dedicated a lot of time and energy to creating devices that are filled with Orange-customized services and the Orange brand. These devices play into that theme, but for now will not be packing as much Orange-punch as they can.

Baidu, for example, which has inked a deal with Orange to provide a customized browser for its devices, will not be making an appearance on the devices for now, although this may be something we will see going forward, says Remy. “They’ll come with our standard suite of services and customization,” he noted. These include customized lock-screens, the ability to port your services when roaming, and links to Orange services specific to your home country.