Nokia is currently the most popular handset manufacturer among university students in the UK according in a recent survey. The survey shows that 30% of students had a Nokia phone which means that this brand is covering nearly a third of this portion of the market. Sony Ericsson wasn’t too far behind. The survey found that another 27% of the students had a handset that was made by this manufacturer.

Although these two handset makers seem to corner the market together it is BlackBerry that is really capturing attention right now. Only about 2% of UK university students are using BlackBerry devices but this is the handset maker that is gaining the most new followers quickly. It is predicted that BlackBerry growth among this group will grow considerably in the year to come.

Nokia is trying to hang on to its share of the market by producing handsets that are designed to compete with the BlackBerry phones. They recommend using the Nokia E72 if you like the feel and function of a BlackBerry device.   The Nokia E72 is the latest of their Qwerty handsets, beefing up the popularE71 with a slightly sleeker look, improved software and some interface tweaks. It’s very slim though arguably on a unit this size, a higher resolution wouldn’t make much difference.

This far Sony Ericsson hasn’t put out anything that they say really competes with BlackBerry which means that it could be their portion of the market that BlackBerry starts taking over in the year to come.

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That’s what it certainly looks like, after sources tipped us technology site T3 to the existence of Red Bull Mobile.  It  promises “the latest handsets, competitive tariffs and a complete package of mobile communication features.”  A UK site is up and running, whilst an Austrian website suggests it’s already launched there.

Phones from Sony Ericsson, including the G705 and C702, and Nokia’s 5800, N97 and 5730, look likely to be sold with Red Bull SIM cards, if the Austrian Red Bull Mobile website is anything to go by.  Two SIM cards are offered, with the SimplyAll costing 19 Euros a month, for 1,000 minutes, 1,000 texts and 100MB of data. Red Bull TV is also mentioned, along with Red Bull Mobile portal and community features – which the UK site claims will allow users to “upload and display your home movies, photos and stories and share them with others in the Red Bull Mobile community”.

Red Bull Mobile users will be invited to “be part of Red Bull events, chat to sporting heroes like Sebastian Vettel or watch spectacular videos”, with the Red Bull Mobile handset being “the ultimate tool for accessing news, interviews,  sports and downloads from the world of Red Bull and beyond”.

Samsung telecommunications is a subsidiary of the South Korean Samsung Group the world’s largest conglomerate. In 2008 Samsung became the largest mobile phone manufacturer in the United States and the 2nd largest in the World. Samsung mobile phones are divided into 6 major categories – Style, Infotainment, Multimedia, Connected, Essential and Business. They produce a full spectrum of products from mobile phones and devices such as MP3 players and laptop computers to telecomm network infrastructure.

Motorola is an American multinational which in 2003 introduced the world’s first handset to combine a Linux operating system and Java with full PDA functionality. The Motorola RAZR mobile phone line had sold over 120 million units by 2005.

Sony Ericsson is a joint venture between the Japanese consumer electronics company Sony Corporation and the Swedish telecomms company Ericsson to make mobile phones. Sony Ericsson has had great success with Cyber-shot brand which became very popular very quickly due to its very good media package and camera. Sony Ericsson launched ther Xperian rrange of mobile phones in 2008, which has opened the door for integration of Windows Mobile Operating System into Sony Ericsson smartphones.

LG is part of the Korean Consumer Electonics Manufacturer LG Electronics. The recent success of the Black Label Series has boosted LG, where it has placed a large emphasis upon the actual design of the phobile phone with slide style opening etc.

Blackberry was introduced in 1999 and developed by the Canadian company Research In Motion. Blackberry is a smartphone which supports push e-mail, mobile phone, text messaging, internet faxing as well as a multi-touch interface. The Blackberry has a number of PDA applications (address book, calendar, to-do lists, etc) as well as telephone capabilities. The Blackberry is primarily known for its ability to send and receive e-mail whereever it can access a wireless network of the mobile phone operators.

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