15 New Phones: Mobile World Congress 2010

[dconnors]

The Mobile World Congress in Barcelona showcases what's hot in mobile handset hardware each year. Here are 15 new devices!

15 New Phones: Mobile World Congress 2010 : Read more

 

[JohnnyLucky]

15 new phones? Freedom of choice is great but sometimes there can be too many choices. It can wind up being overwhelming.

 

[dconnors]

[citation][nom]JohnnyLucky[/nom]15 new phones? Freedom of choice is great but sometimes there can be too many choices. It can wind up being overwhelming.[/citation]

That's very true, but you need to keep in mind that these split up into two categories - smartphones and featurephones. If you need push email and more functionality, go with the former. If you want social networking and not much else, go with the latter.

Plus, a lot of these won't even be available in the U.S., and those that will be are slated for different carriers. In the end, the amount of choice is whittled down pretty fast.

-Devin

 

[Guest]

Devin - spot on with your carrier comment.

Exclusivity contracts with certain providers mean that you are limited depending on your current contract. Manufacturers such as HTC are fairly new to the UK, so that should bring some excitement to what was becoming a stagnant region, IMO, but it depends if they are exclusively on one network or not.

Sony Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung were too happy to attach a new plastic fascia to an old design, and fob it off to customers as something new. Then along came the iPhone to rattle everyone's cage. It's improved the selection of handsets from other manufacturers, as they struggle to compete. If HTC can start to make an impact and have the same effect, then that should be great for the consumer. However, it all depends on what sort of flexibility the contract providers allow customers to have.

I wouldn't be surprised if other big computer hardware / software manufacturers started getting heavily involved in handset manufacture, because phones are essentially now mini-computers (both smartphones and featurephones), and will continue in this direction for many years to come. Apple were still a niche company not so long ago, even though they had been in existence for the best part of 30 years. Two products changed all that, one of which was a phone.

The fact that the ubiquitous mobile phone handset covers such a multitude of demographics will be too much temptation for another big hardware manufacturer looking to improve their sales figures, IMHO. Choice is still a good thing, but even 15 new handsets per year isn't much when you consider all the people in the market. And how many of them are truly NEW? - are they a re-hash of old technology, or something genuinely new?

The iPhone WAS something fresh in a stagnent market, and I don't think we'll see its likes for a long time. But since the launch of the iPhone, it hasn't really changed TOO much externally or feature wise - Apple have sadly adopted the same predictable pattern as other manufacturers. Add a camera, increase memory, bring out a new colour scheme, software v1.2, add a better camera, add more memory, bring out another colour, software version 1.3 - yawn. zzzzzzzzz - if it wasn't for new apps, the iPhone would be a bit boring already.

 

[liemfukliang]

Please create a print mode for this kind of article. Thx.

 

[Tomsguiderachel]

[citation][nom]liemfukliang[/nom]Please create a print mode for this kind of article. Thx.[/citation]
That's a good idea--we need that feature back. Thank you.