So 3G is what we’re all looking for in terms of surfing the web, checking e-mails and streaming video. It’s modern, cool and new – not to mention useful. It’s only starting to take off now since the release of the first touch screen smart-phones that give you HTML browsing – not like 2007 when all you could do was see mobile web slightly faster.
Now a Japanese company by the name of NTT DoCoMo (the company that first introduced 3G back in 2001, but the world failed to adopt it for years) now say that they will introduce 4G in 2010 and that they are confident that the world will get behind them this time.
“We went first and when we looked behind us there was nobody there.” Said the company’s president when asked about the 2001 launch of 3G.
However, even though the future certainly lies with 4G, I can’t see it catching on so quickly. 3G is at its height now and
basic business strategy is that you don’t stop selling until the product does. Then you move on. I admire DoCoMo’s enthusiasm but even though it’s been over eight years since they introduced 3G, it’s only been three or four for the rest of the world.
They are really starting to push what 4G can do in the hope of winning over big companies into adopting the service. They claim that it will be able to stream movies and live TV anywhere where there is a hint of service at speeds approaching 300Mbs. In summary, I would say it will be a few years until we start seeing 4G around these parts.
iPhones seem to be everywhere these days and even the release of the G1 phone hasn’t really had an impact on their growing marketshare. Palm have also announced that they will soon be launching their new smartphone called the Palm Pre, which is getting a huge amount of buzz at the moment. Thus bringing us to the final major player in the market who is yet to release a smartphone that can actually take marketshare and thats Nokia.
Nokia announced about three months ago that they will be releasing the N97 which is their rival to the iPhone. The N97 will be release in the 2nd quarter of 2009 and its sure to raise some eyebrows.
Here at Crenk we are still yet to get our hands on a new N97 test version, but I thought I would provide our readers with a basic overview of the phone and how it compares to iPhone and G1.
Nokia N97 – compared to the iPhone3G and G1
3.5 inches screen size
( iPhone3G : 3.5 inch ; G1 : 3.2 inch )
640 x 360 pixel resolution
(iPhone3G : 320×480 pixels ; G1 : 480×320 pixels resolution)
16:9 Aspect ratio,the same as that of TV,PC Monitors etc
(both iPhone and G1 have aspect ratio of 3:2 )
Resistive touchscreen display with tactile feedback
(both iPhone & G1 boast a capacitive touchscreen(feather touch sensitive) )
Sliding QWERTY Keyboard
( iPhone : No physical keyboard ; G1 : Sliding QWERTY Keyboard )
Inbuilt WiFi,Bluetooth,HSDPA,A-GPS,3G
( Both iPhone and G1 have it )
32GB Onboard memory (expandable through microSD card upto 48GB as total capacity)
(neither iPhone nor G1 go beyond 32 GB as total capacity )
Battery : 1500 mAh (Heavy duty ! )
(iPhone : 1400 mAh ; G1 : 1150 mAh )
5 MP Digital Camera (DVD quality video capture)
(iPhone : 2.0 MP ; G1 : 3.2 MP )
OS : S60 5th Edition
(iPhone : iPhone OS 2.2 ; G1 : Android 1.0 )
Weight : 150 g (approx.)
( iPhone : 133 g ; G1 : 158 g )
Price : $550 (before network subsidies so expect it to go way cheaper than this)
(iPhone : $199(min.) ; G1 : $179(min.) )
Conclusions:
After a direct comparison with all the feature of the n97, G1 and iPhone3G the Nokia is by far the leader from a hardware perspective. However, it terms of the software and the OS, Nokia is a long way behind Google and Apple but this is expected.
The key also is that the App Store has made a huge impact on making the iPhone such a big success, and with the Android Market just being launched I’m sure that the G1 will slowly gain more and more marketshare. Where does this leave Nokia? Nokia really need to think hard and long about how they are going to open up their software to outside developers and then allow the average user the ability to pick and choose the applications that are right for them. OS has never been a strong point for Nokia, but it is about time they actually improved this sector if they are going to continue to be a major player in the smartphone market.
Also that the ‘App Store’ is something that has played a very critical role in making iPhone a worldwide success and now the same thing is occurring in the form of ’Android Market’ for G1, Nokia(being ‘new’ to open developer support for apps) can’t afford to reach the standards set by the other two veteran smartphones(specially iPhone)
Ten One Design has created a way to boost the sound for your iPhone 3G. The product is called SoundClip and it increases the sound by about 10dB with signal between 6kHz and 20kHz.
This would be useful to people that especially love to listen to music through the built-in speaker, but the device just gets in the way of iPhone gamers in landscape mode.
Storing the SounClip is simple. There is a cord-gripping feature that keeps it fastened to your iPhone charge cable during syncing and charging. To buy the device, visit Ten One’s website here.
Palm as just released their much anticipated – and leaked – Treo Pro, a Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional device with a touchscreen and UMTS/HSDPA GSM networking. The phone also includes G.P.S. and improved WiFi handling for better and easier WiFi hand-off.
Although previously we have looked at a lot of potential iPhone killers, the new Treo is definitely not going to be an iPhone killer. Instead Palm are really trying to put together a great group of highly functionable and usable phones, that will bring them out of the doldrums and back into the competition.
The phone is available on Vodafone and O2 in Europe and will be available unlocked for $549 in the U.S.
I came across a great article over at DigitGeek which talked about some of the potential phones that might be able to grab some marketshare away from the 3G iPhone.
Samsung have really gone after the iPhone on this one, whatever the iPhone lacks the Omnia tries to make up for. The Omnia is powered by Windows Mobile 6.1 and sports an iPhone esque Multi Touch interface – Touch Wiz. It sports a superb 5MP cam and has everything that the iPhone does not – Flash, Video recording ( VGA at 15 FPS & QVGA at 30 FPS ), FM with RDS, A2DP. The audio quality is close in line with the iPhone 3G.
The HTC Touch Pro is the most powerful and feature packed phone ever on Earth. It sports 288 MB RAM, coupled with a very powerful 528 MHZ processor. It runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro and features a very cool User Interface – TouchFLO 3D which is just as good as the iPhone’s UI. In addition it features many more softwares and games from the Windows Mobile stable. The 3.2 MP Cam with AF & Flash is much better than iPhone’s 2 MP Cam. It combines style (Multi Touch) with usability (QWERTY) and is much more suited for office executives.
- Sony Ericsson XPeria X1 :
The Sony Ericsson XPeria X1 is a slightly underpowered clone of the HTC Touch Pro. It marks Sony Ericsson’s foray into Windows Mobile phones. It is slimmer and lighter than the HTC Touch Pro and with a supposedly inferior UI. It sports 256 MB RAM, a little lesser than the Touch Pro. It has a 3.2 MP Cam too, with Auto Focus, Flash and VGA Video recording at 30 FPS.
The Nokia N96, though not a touchscreen phone, has everything you could ever expect from a phone. A superb 5 MP cam with Auto Focus and Flash, Video recording – VGA at 30 FPS, 16 GB Internal memory, A-GPS, a DVB – H receiver, a Dual ARM 9 CPU, 128 MB RAM, a brilliant 2.8″ 16M color screen – the list just doesn’t end. It is powered by Symbian s60 V3.2 OS v9.3 – The most popular smartphone OS ever. It has huge 3rd party application support, second only to perhaps Windows Mobile.
The C905 is Sony Ericsson’s latest and greatest Cybershot. It will have a mind boggling; yea, hold your breath, 8.1 MP Super Cam with AF, Flash, VGA Video recording at 30 FPS and the likes. It is the best camera phone ever and gets precariously close to digicam territory. Taking awesome pictures is in its genes. It has 128 MB internal memory and theoretically supports up to 32 GB. It has all the other regular stuff like 3G, A-GPS, Geo tagging, WLAN, Bluetooth with A2DP etc. Like the Nokia N96, this one also doesn’t sport a touchscreen, but WTH! , does one need Multi Touch with all such features packed in?
The HTC Touch Diamond is the current reigning iPhone 3G ass kicker. It will soon be surpassed by its successor, the HTC Touch Pro. It has similar features to the HTC Touch Pro – Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro + Touch FLO 3D, except that it doesnt have the QWERTY keypad and has less RAM – just about 192 MB. The only negatives with the Touch Diamond are the absence of a QWERTY keypad and the slightly laggy Touch FLO 3D user interface. You can check out the HTC Diamond review here.
via (Digital Geek)
Is the 3G iPhone just about to hit the Apple Store? The Apple online store has stopped selling iPhones completely, stating they are currently unavailable. Thus, everyone is mentioning that the next gen iPhone could be hitting the stores in the next few days.
