Holiday Showdown: Touch Screen Phones Come Out Swinging

[Image courtesy of Sprint Nextel Corp.]

Yet another touch screen phone has been unveiled today. HTC, a Taiwanese company, is the proud recipient of a deal with Sprint Nextel to provide the new phone. If you're not a Sprint fan there is an unlocked HTC Touch. The phone is based on a modified version of Windows Mobile 6 software which usually requires a stylus for the touch screen interface. HTC’s software modifications allow for finger touch operation. Its origins are evident, the phone still comes with a stylus. Also, there's no physical keyboard on the HTC Touch(Out of the three major carries that have touch screen phones Verizon’s LG Voyager is the only one with the actual keyboard.) Sprint Nextel’s data network was the first to introduce wireless web and it is the fastest data network here in the states. The speed of the AT&T’s data network connection has been criticized by users. The iPhone WiFi connection supplements for the data network’s shortcomings to an existent. The HTC is a smaller and lighter unit mainly due to the 3.5 inch screen size. If you’ve read this much, you are most likely asking yourself why you never heard of HTC. HTC has been producing PDAs and Smart Phones under other manufactures names for a while. Now, HTC is trying to build there brand here in the states. Piggy backing on the Sprint Nextel brand. This seems like it's a pretty good means to that end. Kudos guys, you’ll have ‘caviar dreams and Champaign kisses’ in no time.

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Motorola Hopes the RAZR2, Raises their Stock

posted by Andrew Harris

The once best selling RAZR, was badly in need of a makeover. Enter RAZR2. The RAZR slim phone's popularity seemed to coincide directly with the resurgence of skinny pants. I bet someone at Motorola overheard “With this bulky phone in my pocket...my silhouette will just be ruined”, or a comment similar to this. This in turn may have helped initiate the creation of the RAZR (it most likely was market research but this is more romantic). Cell phones are fashion accessories. It only makes sense that one inspired the other. This phone allows its users to make a unique fashion statement and download a ring tone that lets everyone know their musical taste. Thus, successfully appeasing ones desire to express individuality. Well, as much as one can with a phone. The RAZR2 has been upgraded not only in looks but in functionality as well with the larger external display, 2GB storage (1000 songs), 2.0-megapixal camera, Window Media Player 11(200 online music stores), along with an upgraded mobile browser. The RAZR2 styling is eye catching and elegant and feels great in you hand while talking on it. It is a slick piece, a little too slick. My only gripe is the grip, it's the diamond cut pattern sideband. I would like to have a rubber grip just for peace of mind. I can envision getting one of those stress inducing calls my palms start to sweat and the next thing I know I'm picking up my dented or scratched RAZR2 from the ground. Though, I've dropped every phone I have ever owed...so these fears stem from that more than the RAZR2's design.
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LG Voyager set to Stun Mode

[image courtesy of Verizon Wireless]

posted by Andrew Harris

Even if you’re suffering option overload when it comes to wireless handsets, read on; one seems to float to the top. Now you may ask yourself what does this new touch screen wonder device have that the iPhone doesn’t have? LG’s Voyager has physical keyboard, for one…well a QWERTY keypad, removable SD memory expandable to 8 GB, and Bluetooth connectivity. Needless to say, LG’s latest handset, Voyager, is much more than an iPhone wantabe. Verizon Wireless is hoping that the stocking will be stuffed in their favor this holiday season, promising Voyagers to be in stores by Thanksgiving. Mobile media addicts will get their fix in the usually sundry ways, including Verizon’s high speed wireless broadband with HTML browsing capabilities. Seems as if you can only watch V-Cast videos, but really they have most anything you want to watch on v-cast. As for the music playback it’s much more versatile supporting .mp3, .wma, & .acc, and music downloading is “quick and easy”. LG is banking, not on hype and aesthetics; they’re more about form following function. So satisfy you left brain and be sensible, buy for features not for hype.

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Femtocells, Sprint's last ditch effort

I should get off the subject and go about my business, but this femtocell thing is intriguing. It uses your home broadband to place calls and connect to the internet via WiFi. Sprint has invested lock, stock and barrel in this new technology, so if it fails they are pretty much done. Other U.S. carriers have eaten away at their market share steadily for years. Femtocells HAVE to be their saving grace.

Theoretically the femtocells will revolutionize the way we use our phones, the AIRAVE is the first American market test, if this thing catches on…well the traffic jam could be significant. To begin with what kind of voice quality can we expect? With all the other traffic on the net something is bound to get lost in the mix. Will the internet be able to handle an influx of millions of voice packets flying around? Privacy concerns enter in to the femtocell equation as well. Are these concerns well founded? It’s too soon to tell.

Ultimately, the convenience of femtocell may outweigh most concerns. The ability to travel between countries without paying roaming or swapping SIMs is a big draw. The company that is developing the chip technology is the Bath, England based PicoChip. Ubiqusys, the main vendor in England, promises “speed and coverage” are the hallmarks of femtocell.

The odd thing about the femtocell is the carriers still expect you to pay for using the multimedia data transfer, why anyone would pay extra just to have this content on your phone is beyond me, if the market it right, people will. Eventually, there maybe no need to invest in expanding wireless cell coverage through towers, instead the beefing up of the internet’s infrastructure will become the priority.

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Sprint PCS' Airave, Cost Shifting?

The Sprint network may have been the first network to go "all digital", but being an innovator in any industry your company is going to bare the brunt of the research and development cost. The payoff, being the leader and getting first crack at the new market share your product or service created.Then others follow your lend, add to your findings, and make the product or service better. It's the heart of capitalism, competition. Sprint coverage is getting out done by most major carriers. Other carriers, for one thing, are much more apt to deny you a service contract if your credit is bit smudged.

It would seem Sprint's solution to lack of network infrastructure, is YOU. Airave by Samsung is Sprint's newly announced add on to help you get a signal...as long as your high speed internet connection is up and running. Airave uses the internet to place calls thus helping to ease those overage charges and nasty dropped calls. When the signal from your Airave is out of range it seamlessly jumps back to the Sprint tower. This servers two purposes: first, if they sell enough of these units it may enable Sprint to take a reasonable sized chunk out of the cost of keeping up with growing network demands, secondly it will enable Sprint users to place calls in buildings that insulate there Sprint handsets from the tower's signal.

If you factor in the unit cost vs. the amount you can save by reducing you overage charges, or changing to a lower tier plan, the Airave makes an underachieving wireless carrier a bearable bargain.

"Starting today, Sprint customers in select areas of Denver and Indianapolis will be able to purchase the Airave at area Sprint stores for $49.99. Sprint plans to make the Airave available later this year to customers in the remainder of Denver and Indianapolis, along with Nashville, and to customers nationwide in 2008."
[via Sprint]

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