Why Motorola is still at the bottom of the table!

Motorola recently launched the "smallest & lightest" Enterprise Digital Assistant EDA] class phones, for the business class.
It leverages on Motorola's mobile computing platform architecture, MC55 and the features include, Windows Mobile Pro. 6.1,two-way radio, bar code scanner, digital camera, and mobile computer into a compact and lightweight design. It supports the GSM/GPRS/EDGE standard for wireless wide-area networks, offering voice and data services to provide the information needed for better decision making and business results. With an array of features, like integrated GPS,the new MC55 EDA supports a host of real-time location-based applications.
The phones have a whopping 3.5" [for comparison, iPhone has a 3.5"] and qwerty-keyboard, and has many unheard features like a 1D laser scanner, 2D imager, WLAN, WIFI,WWAN, VoIP, Push-to-talk, even support soft phone clients and integration with installed IP PBXs.
All goody goody?

This is how the phones look like!!

No, this is not some kind of joke of spoof. This is REAL!!

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Let’s bury the iPhone, Omnia unfolds an era

Samsung’s growth and rise as a mobile phone market major went unnoticed, until earlier this year when they surpassed Motorola to become the World's 2nd largest Mobile phone manufacturer. Lately Samsung has been putting a very strong and challenging competition even to the market leader Nokia. With constantly launching new handsets with rich features and presenting those with competitive prices have been their strategy.
Now, they have come up with a dream phone, a phone which has everything one could think of, a phone which could be could challenge a 2 year old PC, in short we call it Omnia.
Overview
Omnia is a candybar phone with a 3.2” touch screen and WQVGA display on a 12.5mm thin body with platinum finish. It has a 5MP camera with almost professional features and runs the latest Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional. It has a built in memory of 8GB or 16GB and supports additional memory via memory card. It even has a laptop like optical mouse for one hand navigation. It also has WiFi, GPS, Word, Excel, Powerpoint what not?
Multimedia
Going into details, the camera has face detection, smile detection, auto focus, long panoramic shots with auto-panorama shots. There is also extending video recording features like adding subtitles, live dubbing, trimming video etc. The display looks very vivid and clear and the touch interface used is a new patented Samsung technology called TouchWiz, which is genuinely above par to iPhone’s interface. It has support to all major video formats including DivX, Xvid etc.
Connectivity
The phone has GPS for navigation and geotagging. Along with the normal EDGE, Push mail, FM Radio, GPS, Bluetooth A2DP, Wi-Fi, USB 2.0 etc, it also has HSDPA 7.2mbps, Quad-band GSM. It also has Outlook for handling e-mails.
User Interface
No stone has been left unturned in this new Samsung’s all in one package. Omnia has a multitouch with TouchWiz technology, (do watch the video at the end), with intuitive tap, sweep, drag and drop operations as well as an on-screen qwerty keyboard. It also has unique calling and texting methods. Another elegant addition is a widget full desktop, which can be fully customized, (I have never seen a thing like this before). There are also dedicated keys for communications and other shortcuts.
The phone can also download large files and store in them, thanks to the native windows OS in it. It can be used much like a PC without great difference.
Only negatives I could find is the display resolution of 240x400 which I feel is ordinary. Also the 5MP camera doesn’t seem to have a camera cover.

Overall, Omnia SGH-i900 is a PC packed into 12.5mm of metal which is designed for the pocket.
Omnia will be launched by June in South East Asia, and later by July in UK and rest of the world.
And iPhone, what is that???
TouchWiz Demo video


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The iPhone, Tube and Windows Mobile 7

iPhone started it all, but will it prevail at the end?
Once upon a time, the cell phone was meant for calling and maybe SMSing as well. But, with the advent of the iPhone, the cell phone turned out to be a pocket PC, it could chat, mail, read your daily news feed, prepare your presentations and what not?
I am not telling you cell phones did not have these feature until iPhone was launched, but iPhone, with its intuitive multi touch, glass like interface and slick marketing, became a fashion statement. Soon, the word iPhone killer began to be associated to every new high end phone that emerged. If not all, at least some of them where marketed that way. Samsung and LG were the first to start this, with their “do all in touch” phones hitting the market. Soon, the Mr. Perfect Sony Ericsson also joined the bandwagon, by announcing their version of the mobile-PC, the Xperia, and that too backed by the software giant Microsoft providing their brand new Windows Mobile 6.1 for it.
Now, Nokia, the Finnish mobile leader, has announced their first ever touch phone, codenamed Tube 5800. That is not all, the story will also cover Microsoft’s mobile dreams with their Windows Mobile 7, (yeah, the Desktop dream is also called Windows 7, might not be all coincidence!!).
The Tube
Nokia were never into touch screen business, they always had the traditional keypad based mobiles. But, now with the pressure mounting up after so many iPhones and iPhone killers, the giant has now changed their stand and now has announced their first touch phone codenamed Tube 5800. From the initial snaps which I could find in the internet Tube looks similar to the iPhone (less glossy though). With the screen size slightly less (3.2”) but does support 16:9 video and tilt detection.
It was shown first a slide at the Evans Data Developer Relations Conference in Redwood City, Calif. "It's our first touch device," said Tom Libretto, vice president of Forum Nokia. The road map for the phone’s shipment is not clear yet. But definitely once the king is in the market it could kick some others out of their seats. What makes Tube even hotter is that it might be Nokia’s one of the slimmest offing and will sport a 3.2 MP camera, Quad-band (850/900/1800/1900Mhz) GSM/EDGE, radio, 3G UMTS/HSDPA, WiFi and GPS too. It will also have a standard 3.5mm audio jack and maybe a TV out too. As usual Nokia will get the software from Symbian, (Symbian 60). It also supports Java and Flash, another no-no in iPhone.

Windows Mobile 7

While Nokia and other vendors are coming up with the iPhone killers, Microsoft is fighting out the battle in their own style. Microsoft is coming up with their next version of mobile OS, and it will change the entire scenario. It would not only be a thud on the head of Apple but also to many others like Google (remember android?). The mobile 7 rests itself on the touch interface and mobile gestures to run business. You will be able to flick through lists, pan, swipe sideway, draw on the screen. Forget all those scrollbars and dropdowns, shake it, tilt it, touch it to get things done.
It also has breathtaking visual effects and transitions much reminding Vista, (maybe iPhone also :p). The touch screen doesnt need a stylus and will work on your fingers, all the apps look new and cool, the new media player, the tabbed internet explorer with "shake to switch tabs".
Another great feature that WM7 offers is, it doesnt need a phone with an accelerometer to work the gestures, the OS will utilize the camera to detect motion and analyze it. It does sound very innovative, but how much battery it would drain in this process is a question. Windows Mobile 7 will also run on phones with keypad and no touch.
They are so many other new, exciting features in this new OS, which you can read here.

iPhone started with a great hype, but now there are so many variants and competitors which are, maybe even better than iPhone. So, what is Apple doing? Wait till iPhone 2.0 is out.

Windows Mobile 7 To Focus On Touch and Motion Gestures

Tube 5800 Snap

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Sony Ericsson's Show stopper: Xperia

Xperia, though not even out in market, has already gained many nicknames, like iPhone killer, show stopper, ultimate mobile experience are to just list some of them. For all those mortals who are still scratching their heads on what is this all about, Xperia is the new mobile phone from Sony Ericsson. A a company which was formed just over 7 years ago, is already making their presence felt in the arena. SE is already getting in level to Nokia in terms of popularity, passion and even resale value.
Now, Microsoft and Sony Ericsson have joined hands to give a masterpiece, the Xperia. For the first time, a mobile gadget would be running on Windows Mobile 6.1. Xperia story does not end there, in fact it starts with this. It has an unique, arc design slider with a metal finish and full qwerty keyboard with aesthetically chiselled keys and full 3" touch screen, too add cream to the pie, it also has a 4 way key and an optical joystick. Further you have handwriting recognition, aGPS, EDGE, a 3.2 MP camera to list a few.
The interface; I have never seen such a breathtaking interface. Xperia user interface is based on a bunch of panels. Panels are like desktops, you can fill them with icons and tools you want, and you can have many of them. One for each occasion, like an Office panel which would have all your outlook and meeting gadgets arranged and a holiday panel which will list all your multimedia, games etc. The panels will cascade on a press of the hot key and you can choose which one you want. From the initial videos of the phone, the whole software seems to be very swift and crystal clear.
Now, let us get under the hood, what Xperia is made of. The display has a resolution of 800x480 pixels (no I am not talking about my laptop), running on a Qualcomm MSM7200 528MHz processor, 400 MB internal memory, 128 MB RAM, and a 256 MB storage memory. It can beat my 5 year old Laptop, if you put in a 4 GB MicroSD card to it. Even my lappy does not have the WiFi, or A2DP Bluetooth and 3G. The phone comes in black and silver paints.
Though the spokesperson refused to comment on its price, it could be easily be a topper in that section too. I hope it would be cheaper than 145grams of gold.
Xperia Mini-site
Xperia Specifications from GSM Arena


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