Last week we reviewed the new Palm Treo 800w and already, just a few days later, we catch wind of Palm's next Treo, not yet released but on the horizon. The Palm Treo Pro is its name - aka the Palm Treo 850w - and as its name implies, this upcoming Palm will be geared towards the business customer.
With a sleeker, slimmer, flashier, and more professional looking design than its predecessors (and consumer counterparts), the leaked photos and Flash vidoe demos show a Treo that may take Palm to the next level, on par with the BlackBerry Bold, Samsung Instinct, and - yes - the Apple iPhone.
But the latest Treo for enterprise customers has as many similarities to the Palm Treo 800w as it does differences, with:
In this face of broad-sweeping success with their HTC Touch Pro and HTC Touch Diamond series handsets, the smartphone maker has announced that they are still on course to release their first (and possibly the first) Google Android OS powered device by the fourth quarter of this year.
Expected to be called the HTC Dream, the new smartphone from HTC flies in the face of recent rumors about possible delays in the launching of any Google Android powered smartphone.
Promised to bear both a large touchscreen and a complete, slide-out or swivel-out QWERTY keyboard, the HTC Dream will be about 5” long and 3” wide with controls for online navigation placed on the handset itself, beneath the touchscreen.
The HTC Dream is readying to face its biggest competition, at least initially, from Samsung, which seems poised to put out the 2nd Google Android smartphone to be scheduled for release (with Motorola not far behind).
The CEO of Symbian, the company, producer of Symbian, the operating system, OS for such popular smartphones as the LG Joy, Motorola MOTORIZR Z8, Samsung SGH series, several Sony Ericsson smartphones, and dozens of Nokia smartphones, has suggested that collaboration with search giant Google, and makers of the long-awaited (by users) and feared (by competitors) Android mobile OS, would be more than welcome by him.
Avoiding specifics as to whether the releationship would remain in the realm of applications or venture into OS territory, chief Symbian-ite Nigel Clifford points out that Google and Symian have already been working closely together for a while now, mainly on search and mapping applications for Nokia smartphones.
It would be quite difficult for the two to merge their operating systems, so the likes of RIM and Apple don’t have too much to be nervous about, but the mutual back-scratching of the two giants in their respective industries leaves a lot for fellow partners Motorola, LG, Samsung, and others a lot to be excited about. Only time will tell however, what such a collaborative venture will produce.
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.
Recently this blog reported on results of a study that showed the RIM Blackberry OS to be the "best" smartphone OS among industry analysts. However, according to an informal survey conducted by internet technology review stalwart CNet, the preferred smartphone operating system among consumers (or at least, CNet readers) is Windows Mobile.
Smartphones running Windows Mobile include the Samsung Blackjack, the Motorola Q (the top two tier-1 smartphones), as well as many manufactured by HTC, including the widely-popular HTC Tilt.
Based on pure market share alone, the study of 130 users showed Windows Mobile at 42.3%, RIM Blackberry at 19.2%, Apple OS X at 17.7%, and Symbian and Palm OS at 10%. Those are the stats for operating systems. As for smartphone manufacturers, RIM and HTC both took the lead, tying with a 19.2% market share each, Apple following close behind with 17.7%, Motorola at third with 11.5%, Palm at 10%, and all the rest (Nokia, Samsung, etc.) taking the remaining 22.3%.
Interestingly enough, the praise for Windows Mobile was balanced out (read: marred or tainted), however, by half of the respondents reporting complaints of the very same OS. Finally, a whopping 66% of CNet readers responding the survey said they would be likely to consider purchasing an Apple iPhone as their next smartphone, three times more than those who said they'd opt for the second place contender, the Blackberry.
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.
The world’s largest mobile phone maker has finally decided to join the touch screen revolution. Is it too late for Nokia to compete in this arena, though – with LG, Sony Ericsson, and Samsung already upping the stakes set by the Apple iPhone? Doubtful.
Apple may have pioneered consumer-friendliness in technology, but Nokia pioneered quality, and they’ll do it again, and continue to do so, with the increasingly coveted touch screen next up at bat.
A flurry of blog postings in late 2006 about the Nokia Aeon (which doesn’t exist yet) gave a sneak peek into Nokia’s plans for improving upon Apple’s greatness. The innovation? A full-phone touch screen. In other words, a touch screen display that occupies the entirety of the face of the phone.
It was in the Research and Development stages then, and it’ll still be a while longer before such technology can be made viable, but that hasn’t stopped Nokia from putting its proverbial nose to the grindstone nonetheless and coming up with its first entry in the touch screen arena.
Proving that battling Apple requires strategic planning on multiple fronts, Nokia’s as yet unnamed first touch screen venture will be an unlimited music phone. Look for it later this year.
We're all used to the typical promotion where you get a free cell phone in exchange for signing up for a set period of service. So it should come as no surprise that the same phenomenon has begun with the product representing the evolution of the cell phone - the smartphone.
CNET reported today on the Samsung BlackJack II being offered for free on Buy.com for anyone signing up for a two-year AT&T contract. While not the fastest or easiest phone to use, the Samsung BlackJack II nonetheless has some impressive qualities, including:
a GPS
a 2- megapixel camera
and AT&T HSPDA network support
Researching this phenomenon further, I found that Buy.com actually offers several smart phones for free with activation, including:
From here, I checked into how commonly this phenomenon occurred at competing cell phone and smart phone vendors and found that everybody's doing it. In addition to more of the aforementioned brand names, I also found all sorts of other smartphones (such as Sony Ericsson, Nextel, and Nokia) offered for free by all the major carriers:
AT&T (and the former Cingular)
Verizon
T-Mobile
and Sprint
Now there's a way that people on a limited budget can still afford to get a smartphone of their own (though maybe not the latest and greatest model), just by signing up for the wireless service they're going to need to get anyway.
To boot, most of the participating smartphone vendors will even throw in free shipping with the deal.
With such great deals flooding the net, and every phone manufacturer and wireless carrier competing for your hard-earned dollar, we may soon see the day when you never have to pay to obtain a smartphone again.
