Today iPhone killers
Jul. 11th, 2008 01:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
paserbypToday iPhone's second coming and today's problems from second coming could be viewed here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/12/business/12iphone.html. From another hand, over the past few months, competing 3G smartphones with touch screens and a host of features have been coming thick and fast. Sprint has started to offer Samsung’s Instinct, which seeks to trump the iPhone with a higher download speed, better video, picture messaging, navigation and applications, plus a battery that can be removed.
Verizon has unleashed two touch-screen 3G smartphones recently that match the new iPhone in speed and visual impact. The Voyager from LG in South Korea is a clamshell that opens to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard. The Dare, also from LG, is a stylish iPhone lookalike that likewise uses a virtual keyboard on its screen. Both have been designed to use Verizon’s fast EV-DO (Evolution-Date Optimised) network capable of speeds in excess of 2.4 megabits per second.
Palm has been staging a comeback with its Centro, a trim little 3G phone and e-mail device aimed squarely at consumers. The Centro costs half as much as even the latest iPhone and is selling briskly.
Meanwhile, to defend its home turf, RIM recently announced an iPhone killer called BlackBerry Bold. This has the Canadian maker’s classic keyboard and trackball, WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS navigation. But it also has a fast processor, a brilliant screen plus four separate radios for tapping the vast majority of 2G, 3G and 3.5G networks around the world.
RIM has clearly learned a lot from its recent foray into the consumer side of the business, with its BlackBerry Pearl and Curve models. Its 16m base of corporate users includes some 60% new subscribers.
Clearly, the BlackBerry Bold raises the game for corporate users everywhere. But perhaps more importantly, it also represents RIM’s most determined effort yet to show consumers that a real smartphone is more than just a pretty face.
Waiting in the wings are any number of open-source smartphones based on the nifty Linux operating system. Apple will need to pull out all the stops if the iPhone is not to be swept aside by the flood of do-it-all smartphones heading for American shores.
Fore more details go to: http://www.economist.com/daily/columns/techview/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11700916&fsrc=nw
Verizon has unleashed two touch-screen 3G smartphones recently that match the new iPhone in speed and visual impact. The Voyager from LG in South Korea is a clamshell that opens to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard. The Dare, also from LG, is a stylish iPhone lookalike that likewise uses a virtual keyboard on its screen. Both have been designed to use Verizon’s fast EV-DO (Evolution-Date Optimised) network capable of speeds in excess of 2.4 megabits per second.
Palm has been staging a comeback with its Centro, a trim little 3G phone and e-mail device aimed squarely at consumers. The Centro costs half as much as even the latest iPhone and is selling briskly.
Meanwhile, to defend its home turf, RIM recently announced an iPhone killer called BlackBerry Bold. This has the Canadian maker’s classic keyboard and trackball, WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS navigation. But it also has a fast processor, a brilliant screen plus four separate radios for tapping the vast majority of 2G, 3G and 3.5G networks around the world.
RIM has clearly learned a lot from its recent foray into the consumer side of the business, with its BlackBerry Pearl and Curve models. Its 16m base of corporate users includes some 60% new subscribers.
Clearly, the BlackBerry Bold raises the game for corporate users everywhere. But perhaps more importantly, it also represents RIM’s most determined effort yet to show consumers that a real smartphone is more than just a pretty face.
Waiting in the wings are any number of open-source smartphones based on the nifty Linux operating system. Apple will need to pull out all the stops if the iPhone is not to be swept aside by the flood of do-it-all smartphones heading for American shores.
Fore more details go to: http://www.economist.com/daily/columns/techview/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11700916&fsrc=nw
