"The managing director of Panasonic's overseas phone division, Bob Morioka, has confirmed that the long rumored Panasonic X700 will be out in stores in July. The X700 will use Nokia's Series 60 UI and have a clamshell form factor, unlike any other Series 60 phone released or soon to be released."
This is an unusually bluster free Andrew Orlowski article for The Register that raises several interesting questions about the future directions for Symbian, UIQ and Series 60.
InfoSync World give a quick mention to the "world's first cordless home-phone with built-in camera and MMS capability" which Siemens will be demonstrating at CeBIT in March.
Daring British mobile phone users can now compete in a nationwide search for the new face of 2004 by simply snapping and submitting a picture of themselves using their MMS camera phone. One male and one female winner will be awarded modelling contracts with Premier Model Management, in conjunction with the Daily Star and Samsung.
I love the idea of a dedicated, pocketable web-browsing device that connects to the net through my bluetooth enabled mobile. But why in the blue blazes are they squeezing the keyboard into so little of the apparently available space? What a waste :-(
Tom's blog also points to an interesting Register article from today about gaming on mobile phones.
Mobile gaming substitutes micro-moments of boredom for entertainment; you don't need to be wired to a console and TV and now you can be part of a wider community. Local communications is a useful addition to the gaming experience, if not directly to the operators' coffers. However, they should realise that mobile data applications of all types will have a greater impact on the bottom line if they foster all aspects of substitution, community and mobility rather than just price and raw technology.
Next step, MMS and picture messaging?"
I've actually stopped playing games on my Nokia 3650 because I found it caused me serious eye strain. Pity though as I would definitely be more interested in playing games on my mobile than on a console, for precisely the reason mentioned in the article - it allows you to alleviate micro-moments of boredom.
Tom Hume nails it more succintly than I think I've ever seen -
"Look at the companies whose products inspire evangelism in their customers: Apple, Palm, Nokia, Sony.
Look at who invests heavily in interfaces and design. Coincidence? I don't think so. Interfaces are where you meet your customers."
Absolutely spot on. More of my friends have Nokias than another make. In fact I don't know if any of them have anything other than a Nokia,... honestly! And all 5 members of my immediate family who have mobiles also have Nokias. Wow, I never actually realized that until Tom's post made me think about it. That's amazing!
"Of the numbers published by Vodafone in the update, ARPU in Ireland was the highest in the world in euro terms, save for Japan where ARPU came to EUR621 (JPY82,917). "
... Linux beats Symbian. That's according to research by the Zelos Group. They base these findings on "two criteria that matter most to OEMs and carriers: openness and low cost."
MobileWhack points to Zidango which "boasts the ability to send an MMS message to devices on all carriers that do MMS, such as Cingular, T-Mobile and AT&T Wireless", even if the carriers themselves aren't up to the job. Nice one.
"A Zelos Group report predicts that the mobile electronics sector will be redefined as nearly half of all mobile handsets will be based on full-feature operating systems by 2008. "The mass adoption of full-featured handsets will be disruptive," said the author of the report, Mr Seamus McAteer."
Having used a Symbain 6 based Nokia 3650 for 8 months I can only say that there's no doubt about this. As the reports goes on to suggest, consumers will substitute use of PDAs, digital cameras, gaming consoles and music players. Right now my 3650 plays all those roles, albeit modestly. The camera is obviously limited as is the gaming functionality, and even though I can play MP3s it's not exactly an entertaining experience. However, I'm sure that by 2006 (never mind 2008) I'll be able to replace the phone with a new Nokia model that ups the ante in each of those departments, offering a perfectly adequate all-in-one gizmo.
