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It’s been a grand couple weeks for Future Shop! First we had the leaked “2-Weeks of Savings” newspaper ad promoting the upcoming HTC Touch Pro for $239.99. Then we saw a link on their website promoting the HTC Touch Pro for sale with no contract for $649.99…

After all has been leaked and done, an official apology has been make stating: “Correction Notice: Telus HTC Touch Pro T7279 Please note page 19 of the Oct 10th flyer, due to the vendor’s shipping delay, store will not have Telus HTC Touch Pro on time. To substitute it, please offer following sku to the customers on a new 3 year voice & Data plan. 10108904 Telus HTC Touch Diamond @ $99.99 save $100″

More here at Future Shop

London-based designer Zinc Chan has developed a really cool concept phone called “Icono”. In his own words “I have based my design on the iconic hand gesture people use to represent the telephone. The handset is divided into two parts, earphone and microphone. This invites the user to use the iconic gesture when using the phone. When the user dials the numbers, an animated path is shown on the touch screen. Therefore, people start to remember the person by their unique pattern rather than the numbers. This, together with the two-piece handset creates a more emotional interaction between the phone and the user.” More here

When Best Buy Mobile officially came into Canada last month they half heartedly launched their website BestBuyMobile.ca, which led people to a static page with their “promise” to customers. Now it seems they have fully integrated the site with carriers, accessories and latest promotions. By the way, you can get the Telus HTC Touch Diamond for $99.99, or hold out for the Touch Pro

AdMob has been reporting mobile Internet usage since September 2007 and they’ve seen a massive 1-year growth. The reports are based on the number of requested ad impressions from their 6,000 publishers. What is incredible on a Canadian front is that we finally cracked the top 15 with 30,846,195 requested impressions! Right behind Australia and in front of Kenya.

This can most likely be attributed to the release and popularity of the Apple iPhone

Some AdMob Highlights from the past 12 months:

- The number of monthly ad requests in the AdMob network tripled over the past 12 months from 1.6 billion in September 2007 to 5.1 billion in September 2008.
- This growth is widely distributed with 34 countries sending more than 10 million requests in September 2008, compared to only 16 countries in September 2007.

- More than 6,000 mobile sites and applications are now in the AdMob network. 4,308 publishers requested ads in September 2008, more than twice as many as a year ago.

More September info can be found here (PDF)

With Globalive positioned to launch next year, they have partnered with MyScreen to bring you advertising to your mobile phone. Most likely in the form of subscribing to a “contract-free” phone and in return you’ll get branded advertising sent to you where you’ll have to click. Co-Chairman of Globalive, Michael O’Connor said “Our relationship with MyScreen will be an important element of our offering, and will bring direct value to subscribers by making mobile more affordable for Canadians. The offering will be contract-free, which is an essential element of Globalive’s existing services through Yak Communications. The MyScreen application will be embedded on all of Globalive’s mobile devices”. Read the whole story here

With Fashion week coming up we’ll see a slew of new phones. These will be pre-cursors to the really good ones that majority of the carriers will launch in November.

To start, Samsung will launch a basic flip phone called “Cleo” on Monday. This was recently kicked off by Verizon and is currently available for $49.99 USD (after a $50 mail-in rebate). Key features include multiple messaging options: text, Mobile IM and picture, has Bluetooth support, a VGA camera with “Night Shot” support. You can expect a similar price in Canada. No word on carrier but we are predicting Bell to release this.

We received this invite to the launch party:

When the iPhone 3G came out research firm iSuppli nailed down every part and came to the conclusion that the total manufacturing cost $175. Now, the BlackBerry Bold has been ripped apart and found the newest addition to RIM family shows the parts and materials “cost $158.16, and that assembly and testing add another $11.25, for a total cost of $169.41″.

More info here

Brantford resident Steve Szikora received a bill from Rogers that totalled over $26,600 for 3 months of use on his iPhone. He says he doesn’t owe and has refused to pay. After unsuccessfully working with the Brantford Rogers location, he was contacted by a local paper and Rogers has since reversed the charges with Elizabeth Hamilton, director of corporate communications with Rogers Wireless said “There is no debate, there is an error on his bill. We would like to apologize to the customer and correct the error immediately.”

If you’re in the market for some new wheels and want to spend a cool $64,450 for a base model, you can pick up the new Lexus IS F.

Why is this on MobileSyrup? Well, Lexus has made it possible for us mobile fans to view all the specs, prices and pictures of what they are calling “The Beast”  – this comes with a “5.0-litre 416-hp V8 engine and the world’s first 8-speed Sport Direct Shift automatic transmission”.

Tony Wearing, Managing Director of Lexus in Canada said “Consumer research indicates that more than 75 per cent of Canadian households have access to a wireless phone with internet access. The IS F combines passion, luxury and world’s first advanced technology in a performance sports sedan. It brings a new level of excitement and advanced experience to the Lexus brand, so it will be the focus of our engagement with Canadians through mobile media. We will be able to bring Lexus to mobile users and become the
first automotive manufacturer in Canada to participate in a research lab connecting Canadians to Lexus from their mobile devices.”

Go to the Lexus mobile site here

Nokia Corp. reported a massive 30% hit in its Q3 profits. Overall through July through September profits fell to 1.09 billion euros (US$2.7 billion), from 1.56 billion euros a year earlier, Net sales dropped to 12.2 billion euros ($16.6 billion), market share fell to 38%.

However, it sold almost 118 million handsets, up from 112 million last year. Nokia CFO Rick Simonson said “We don’t manage for volume or market share for the sake of market share. We manage for market share that’s sustainably profitable. We’ll continue to make sure that we focus for maximizing the total profits, the total cash flow.”

More info at Nokia.com