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iClones

So the world has been narrowed down to two types of people. iPhone users and the rest of the world. Being an iPhone user myself, I have to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Yes the iPhone has been wildly successful and yes there are many reasons not to like it. However, it's hard to deny what the iPhone has done to and for the mobile market. Let's take a look at some of the competition's spin-offs that are making a run at the iPhone, along with broadening the evolving technology around mobile devices...




HTC is the latest to enter the battle, this week unveiling the HTC Touch Diamond (pictured) a mobile phone that comes in as more compact as its Apple rival and adding what it calls a "3D touch interface" called TouchFLO to offer access to people, messaging, email, photos, music, weather and more.

The HTC Touch Diamond measures 102 mm by 51 mm by 11.33 mm and weighs in at 110 g. For connectivity it operates on WCDMA/HSPA, 900/2100 MHz, and HDSPA 7.2 Mbps and HSUPA. The device runs the Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional operating system and features a 2.8-inch VGA touch screen, a 3.2 megapixel camera with video calling, Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR, 802.11 b and g Wi-Fi, and for storage features 4 GB internal, 256 MB flash and 192 MB RAM. Along with all of those features, the Touch Diamond offers GPS and offers up to 4 hours of talk time and up to 300 hours of standby time, or 100 hours of standby with push e-mail.



Probably the biggest attention-getter of this year's CTIA Wireless 2008 in Las Vegas was the Samsung Instinct (pictured) from Sprint. The device, which features a touch screen and ultra-fast Internet speeds, boasts its lower-than-the-iPhone price tag of about $300, while still packing in features.

The Instinct measures 2.17 inches by 4.57 inches by 0.49 inches and weighs less than 4.5 ounces. It features advanced functions like Visual Voicemail, which lets users listen to messages in their order of preference and manage them with a screen tap. It also offers support for corporate and consumer POP3 email accounts, multitasking that lets users play music in background mode while surfing the Internet, texting or playing games; a 2.0 megapixel camera with camcorder and expandable microSD memory of up to 8 Gb. Other features include stereo Bluetooth 2.0, an integrated world clock, SMS voice and text messaging with threaded text, phone as a modem, picture caller ID and Sprint Mobile Sync.



Verizon is also in on the touch-screen craze with its Verizon Wireless XV6900, a touch-screen device that Verizon said is optimized for easy navigation with the swipe of a finger. The pure white device offers Web access through Internet Explorer Mobile and enables the sending and receiving of emails and chat on several services. Users can also view and edit Microsoft Word and Excel files and view Microsoft PowerPoint and Adobe Reader PDFs while also being able to extract and create new zip files and attachments.

The XV6900 also features a built-in speakerphone, Bluetooth support, a microSD slot, a 2.0 megapixel camera with video capture and support for Office Outlook Mobile and Microsoft Exchange with Direct Push.

The XV6900 has a 2.8-inch touch screen with LED backlight and measures 3.98 inches by 2.35 inches by 0.56 inches. The XV6900 will run about $350 with a two-year service contract and a $50 mail-in rebate.



GPS device maker Garmin, while relatively new to the phone game, has come out with an iPhone-style device that incorporates its GPS technology with a Web-enabled mobile phone. The Garmin nuvifone (pictured) is a GPS-enabled touch screen mobile phone that integrates 3.5G mobile capabilities with an Internet browser, data connectivity, personal messaging and personal navigation in one device. Featuring a 3.5-inch touch screen display, the device has three primary icons: call, search and view map.

One the mobile entertainment side, the nuvifone features a built-in camera, direct access to millions of geo-located landmark and sightseeing photographs available through Google's Panoramio picture sharing site, a built-in video camera, and MP3 and MPEG4/AAC.



The AT&T Tilt (pictured) offers many iPhone-like features as well. The mobile Wi-Fi device enables the sending and receiving of email and multimedia messages on a slide out QWERTY keypad; and users can view messages, photos and videos on a large color touch screen that swivels and tilts upward. The Tilt lets users surf the Web, watch streaming video, listen to satellite radio and download music at broadband speeds. Users can talk and send data simultaneously and combine up to six Bluetooth pairings at once.

Additional features include a 3-megapixel camera, a music player, Telenav GPS Navigator support and integrated Wi-Fi. The device uses Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 Professional with Vista compatibility and features Microsoft Office Mobile, which offers mobile access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.



The Palm Centro (pictured), a touch screen device that builds off the popularity of the Palm Treo smartphone offers touch screen capabilities on both AT&T's and Sprint's network, depending on which you choose. The device, which runs the Palm operating system features a 320 pixel by 320 pixel Transflective color touch screen and supports 16-bit color. The Centro features 64 MB of user storage and includes a 1.3 megapixel camera with two-times zoom and video capabilities.

Depending on which service you choose, the device offers access to various email platforms, instant messaging services, push to talk and a host of other applications.



The LG Voyager (pictured) may be the closest in similarities to the iPhone. The Voyager features a touch screen and a full QWERTY keyboard. The device offers Internet browsing, a music player, V Cast Mobile TV, dual speakers with stereo sound, Bluetooth support and a 2.0 megapixel camera and camcorder. The device hosts a 2.81-inch touch screen and measures 2.12 inches by 0.71 inches by 4.64 inches.

It offers host of other tools, like a phone book with up to 1,000 contacts, a function key for quick access to 10 shortcuts, USB mass storage, VC NavigatorSM for turn-by-turn voice-prompted directions, and access to email and instant messaging.

Portions of this article are courtesy of CRN.com

The future is touch

Touchscreen devices have been with us for years but, for obvious reasons, they’ve been getting a bit of attention lately.

Call it “touch navigation,” arguably a more accurate term. Add the notion of touch-based input/output for productivity-minded business users, another topic du jour. (Fingers for basic menu navigation, stylus for the nitty gritty.) Engineer in a virtual QWERTY keypad for ease-of-use in messaging and handling documents. Give it 3G connectivity. Call it your own.

In fact, call it the XV6900, the latest Verizon Wireless device to hit the market, at $250 online with a two-year contract and mail-in rebate.

The device, made by HTC Corp., is the sibling of the Touch handset at Verizon’s CDMA rivals, Sprint Nextel Corp. and Alltel Corp., and embodies aspects of the ongoing battle for hearts and minds (and wallets) in an upgrade market where competition is fierce.

Touch navigation indeed has a long history, said Saeed Saatchi, executive director for device marketing at Verizon Wireless, which began with productivity devices such as PDAs, morphed to consumer devices, and now returns to productivity — with the requisite multimedia applications that have become “table stakes,” of course.

“We’re always looking at new technologies and we work with OEMs to bring them to market as they mature,” Saatchi said.

The XV6900 has minimal customization to make it as versatile as possible for the mobile professional, according to Saatchi. The operating system is Windows Mobile 6 Professional, with support for Office Outlook Mobile and Microsoft Exchange. The device offers myriad messaging options, the ability to view and edit Microsoft Word and Excel files and view PowerPoint presentations. Add a speakerphone, Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity, a 2-megapixel camera with video capture and microSD slot for up to 8 GB of removable memory.

From HTC’s point of view, the XV6900 and its TouchFLO technology takes its place among the OEM’s lengthening line of touchscreen handsets, which adorn all four top-tier carriers’ portfolios.

“The XV6900 is a great example of our direction and our commitment to tailor hardware and software into one great user experience,” said Jason Mackenzie, vice president of HTC America, via e-mail, “and we believe the pure white XV6900 will be a strong standout in Verizon’s portfolio.”

Despite an HTC effort at establishing its brand by adorning its devices with its logo, the XV6900 is a Verizon-branded device — a point Verizon declined to elaborate on, citing confidential agreements with its business partners.

“The device offers a nice touchscreen experience, emphasizing its strengths with 3G connectivity and tight integration with corporate e-mail systems, all in a caress-able form factor,” said analyst Michael Gartenberg at Jupiter Research. “Verizon Wireless has capitalized on iPhone awareness to offer an alternative aimed at a different demographic. And the device is priced reasonably, in the context of related devices.”

The carrier branding reflects a “natural tension” between carriers and handset vendors that has been playing out for years, Gartenberg added. Both parties are interested in each handset’s branding opportunity and whether the resulting brand logo belongs to the carrier, the vendor, or both is in constant flux. As HTC places more emphasis on gaining brand recognition, that tension is bound to increase and the vendor will continue to wrestle with the issue, according to Gartenberg.

“One reason carriers liked working with HTC in the past is that they could brand HTC’s devices as their own,” Gartenberg said. “For HTC, it’s more important to get the SKU (stock keeping unit) at Verizon. Any single device is merely tactical, not strategic.”

The prospect for and interest in touchscreen devices, however, is in fact a strategic matter, according to analyst Avi Greengart at Current Analysis.

“I consider touchscreens a major form factor overall,” Greengart said, “something that all carriers will need to address with a percentage of their portfolio — this is not just about the iPhone and competing with Apple. Verizon Wireless already has touchscreen products in their line aimed at both productivity and consumer entertainment. The XV6900 falls somewhere in between (those two categories) and can be marketed either way.”

Courtesy Phil Carson

The latest iPhone competition

Sprint gains new CFO and moves to junk status.

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services lowered its corporate credit and senior unsecured ratings on Sprint Nextel Corp. to BB from BBB- and removed the company’s ratings from CreditWatch with negative implications. The downgrade moves Sprint Nextel out of the investment-grade category and into junk status.

"The downgrade is based on our assessment that Sprint Nextel's business risk profile is no longer supportive of an investment-grade rating given its deteriorating operating performance and lack of visibility in the wireless business, along with increased financial leverage due largely to declining EBITDA," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Allyn Arden

The ratings firm placed Sprint Nextel on CreditWatch in February after the company warned of steep postpaid subscriber losses. S&P said it expects Sprint Nextel’s operating and financial results to remain under pressure over the next couple of years.

The downgrade coincided with the arrival of a new CFO for Sprint Nextel. Robert H. Brust was named its new CFO effective immediately. Brust previously was CFO at Eastman Kodak Co. and CFO of Unisys Corp. He also spent 31 years with General Electric.

William Arendt, senior VP and controller, has been serving as interim CFO since Paul Saleh and two other executives were ousted earlier this year in a management shakeup.

The company is expected to report first-quarter results May 12.

Article Courtesy Kristen Beckman

Microsoft gets a taste of Apple medicine

Apple's little gamble paid off.

Tearing a page out of Microsoft's playbook, Apple used one monopoly to help it gain marketshare in another field. Instead of Operating Systems (Microsoft used Windows to spread IE adoption), Apple used iTunes to spread its Safari browser...and oh boy, did it ever work!

Last month, iTunes for Windows users found an interesting new little application in their Apple Software Update window. Safari 3.1. Even if they hadn't ever installed or wanted to install the browser, it was there. And it was ticked.

That ticked (har) off a lot of people who generally saw Apple as having the moral high ground. Not the least of which was Firefox's CEO who called the move "a bad practice" that "ultimately undermines the safety of the Internet."

Apple eventually (on April 18th) created a box called "new installations" in the updater but continues to leave the Safari 3.1 installation ticked. Obviously Apple knows how valuable this "iTunes trojan" has become on Windows boxes and at the same time knows that its method of spreading it is considered wrong by many.



Safari browser marketshare grew 3 fold on Windows machines. Perhaps helped partially by good reviews, the browser is on a serious uptick as you can see on the graph.

When you play in Microsoft's playground you have to play by Microsoft's rules if you want to succeed...I guess.

Article by Seth Weintraub