Posts Tagged ‘smartphone’

There is an obvious sense for a gold rush in the smartphone industry. Investors and companies pour billions of dollars into their mobile efforts to get a slice of what is generally believed the biggest opportunity for IT since the dotcom boom. Many product segments do not have clear leadership yet – such as the hardware that runs compact mobile devices. Intel is in the game, pushing its x86 technology relentlessly and in an effort to grow beyond its core desktop/notebook processor business. But it has been and it still is a surprisingly half-baked effort. Intel knows what it needs to do to succeed, yet it does exactly what is required to fail.

Google today said that it will make its Nexus One smartphone available through “existing retail channels” as its web store, which has planned to be the Nexus One’s primary point of sales has not worked out.

Sprint will begin selling the first of two WiMax smartphones announced for this year on June 4. The Android device promises blistering download speeds for a relatively modest price, it can be a Wi-Fi hotspot, it carries two cameras, one of them with 8 megapixels, and it delivers video output at 720p on a 4.3” display. Oh, and you can use it to make phone calls, too. The HTC Evo is smartphone overkill at its finest. The question is: Is it good enough? Do you really want a WiMax phone? Will consumers bite and finally give Sprint a glowing flagship device?

Intel today announced its Moorestown Atom processor platform, which the company hopes will get the company on one table with smartphone and tablet manufacturers. The platform consumes significantly less power than the original Atom chip, it is much more compact, is uses a more advanced production process and it is vastly more capable. But it has two major critical problems: ARM and it may be too late to market.

Rumor has it that HTC has walked away from an opportunity to acquire Palm and that Lenovo has emerged as the front runner to buy the struggling handset maker. Just like IBM’s Thinkpad enabled Lenovo to buy credibility in the U.S. market, Palm may do the same for cellphones.

Verizon Wireless today confirmed the Droid Incredible, a new Android-based HTC phone that offers good looks and an array of features that may make you think twice whether you should get that iPhone or whether you should be giving Android a shot. In fact, the Incredible is evidence of Android’s maturity and the fact that Apple will have to take Android phones much more serious.

Steve Jobs is about keeping things simple.   When he took over Apple he simplified the company to make it manageable and successful. When he created the iPod he took out the other players by creating a device that was amazingly simple.  It took a few years, but Apple now owns the MP3 player space and has relatively easily held off all others including Microsoft. Can Microsoft replicate Apple’s success with the Kin?