That's right, there's a new smartphone coming to market - two actually - and they're not from Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Palm, RIM, nor any of the familiar old diehards - not even Apple. No, this one is from Velocity Mobile.
Who? That's what I said.
Formed by Invantec and some folks from Microsoft, this new dialer in the great, big smartphone conference call in the wireless skies is set to give its forerunners a run for their money. With the new Velocity 111 (which looks a lot like a BlackBerry) and Velocity 103 (which looks a lot like an iPhone), Velocity plans to improve on what's been working so well for its competitors and getting rid of all that doesn't meet up. It will have more icons and interfaces familiar to Windows PC-users and promises to be the most customizable smartphone yet.
As might be expected, both devices will be running Windows Mobile 6.1.
For sheer quality and durability it may be argued that Nokia makes the best smartphones around. And for software functionality and versatility none is more revered than Microsoft. So it's no wonder that the two industry leaders would eventually bring together their winning expertise into a single offering. In fact, one only wonders what took them so long.
HTC and Motorola customers already enjoy the PC performance that the Windows Mobile OS gives their smartphones, not least of which is access to mobile versions of the Microsoft Office suite of applications. Now Microsoft is aiming to put their coveted OS into a Nokia N-Series smartphone. About time!
Following on the heels of the most recent convert to the WinMo family, Samsung, with its T-Mobile Shadow. And if Samsung can diverge from its Symbian loyalty, so can fellow Symbianite Nokia, right?
It likely won't happen until after Windows Mobile 7 or Windows Mobile 8 hits the market, but one thing seems certain - it will happen.
With the increasing popularity of Virtual Desktops, the increasing capabilities of smart phones, and the increasing pervasiveness of speedy networks, the day will soon be upon use when people start using their smartphones as a secondary laptop or desktop PC.
One writer looked forward to the day this "Nirvana SmartPhone" comes to market and offers readers a sneak peek at how this product of the future will look and feel, and what it will do.
Like the Nokia N95 and certain PDAs, the Nirvana smartphone will have a Video Out. The iPhone already has such functionality, but it's limited. The upcoming i-Mate promises to improve upon it. The Nirvana smartphone will also have a keyboard and mouse and a docking station.
It's probably obvious to most technophiles that such a Nirvana smartphone would have improved and enhanced music, video, photo, and voice capabilities, but there are endless other innovative uses for the burgeoning technology including: web-enabling all of the televisions in your home, and conducting video conferences through your TV.
According to Information Week, a company named Strategy Analysis has released its predictions for the future of the mobile phone ten years hence. And topping this list, prediction number one is that all mobile phones will be smartphones.
Cell phones already perform much of what PCs just started being able to do ten years ago - from music to video to voice to on-the-go networking, file-sharing, and web-browsing at broadband speeds.
Calling the smartphones of the future "media phones", an associate director commenting for Strategy Analysis cites innovations like a rollable display and transformers as revolutionizing the already revolutionary technology. At the very least, he reports, every mobile phone in every household and workplace in the world will have a wide screen, an expansive keyboard, and a more powerful battery than the marketplace has yet seen.
Already powerful applications like Windows Mobile are infusing today's smartphones with enhanced capabilities comparable to those of their home computer. That kind of customizable integration of the PC programs a user relies on most will certainly only continue (and continue to improve).
Also making headway in its course towards future perfection is the intuitive user interface. Smart phone users can look forward to the amount of buttons they have to press and the number of menus they have to cycle through on the graciously steady decline.
The future of smartphones also sees the imminent demise of the brick-and-mortar wireless store, as something called Mobile Device Management (MDM) - whereby consumers to design, buy, update, upgrade, and repair their own smart phones all over the internet - becomes commonplace.
One feature that's notably absent from the general smartphone market that is predicted to be mainstream by 2018 is the integration of multiradio chipsets in every smartphone. Soon people will be able to listen to PAN, LAN, MAN, and WAN radios over their phones.
To find out more about this vision of our collective technological future, read the full article in InformationWeek.
