Today is smartphone market graph day. Every website I check out has there own pretty version of the same information.
Nothing really new to see. Nokia is still king followed by RIM and Apple. Why post it then? Mainly because it has been a boring news week and the graphs are pretty.
Jump over to GIGAOM to check them out.
It doesn’t do much for most people, but for the people who hang around wireless access points like bacteria hang around my laundry basket, then this is good news. The Nokia N810 is now cheaper, and by quite a bit. $US90 has been shaved off the RRP of the device, probably in the light of the replacement model in the air (and pressure from all the MID news). The price drop should be available now, so what are you waiting for?
For more info, click over to Engadget.
It seems today was the worst day to buy a new mobile phone, with a slew of companies releasing their new fancy pants range or devices. The one that a lot of people have been waiting for has just become official, and that is the Nokia N96. It has been pictured before, but I have the official specs and info on this full featured handset.
First off it will have a few similarities to the N95, such as A-GPS, 5MP camera and a Symbian OS. This little fella gets a 2.8-inch screen (up from 2.6-inch’s), 16GB of flash storage (take that iPhone) and a DVB-H receiver (watching TV in Europe and Asia). It also features the new N-Gage gaming platform, that will hopefully out last the last N-Gage.
The N-Gage doesn’t seem to feature 3G support, so not so good for the US and Australian market, and will cost around $US800. There is no release date know set of the device, but I hope the price tag is pure RRP.
For more info, jiggle over to Gizmodo.
Nokia has decided to give the Canadians an after Christmas gift. The gift is the N810, the internet tablet that is drool worthy. It is available on shelves now, for a cool $CA485.
For more info, go to MobileInCanada.com (what a name!).
I was Digging as I usually do when I’m extremely bored, and I came across a front pager about why an assortment of technology companies dislike Asustek. Normally I wouldn’t waste my time pointing out articles that only focuses on drawing in traffic, but this time I have to. The article is a very ridiculous call from a person who is supposed to be informative, not misleading them.
The article can be found on Datamation, and is titled The Most Hated Company In The PC Industry. To sum it up the writer discusses how Asustek and Intel are now chums, owing to the success of the EEEPC. He also states that the new technology is negatively effecting companies like Microsoft, Apple, Palm and Dell.
Firstly i would like to say the EeePC will have a minimal effect on Microsoft. The EeePC supports Windows XP and has even been seen running Vista. Xandos is a very powerful OS, and is known to be user friendly and intuitivel, but it has been around for years and hasn’t affected Microsoft’s OS market share in the slightest. Also, if you didn’t already know, Microsoft and Xandos have a collaboration, meaning it would be to Microsofts advantage if Xandos was to take market share from other Linux distro’s.
In the article the writer compares the price of an Apple iPod Touch (16GB model) to the 8GB EeePC, and concludes that the EeePC is slightly cheaper ($US69). Considering the devices are completely different and designed for such different functions, comparing them is just crazy. To even debate the comparison is a waste of the readers time.
It is true that Dell and other PC manufactures, who have a series of flash drive based notebooks, could be affected by the EeePC. That is, if their notebooks had not been designed for a completely different market. Ultra Mobile Personal Computers are usually designed to be used without a desk or while standing. Wrap your hands around the EeePC and you will quickly discover it is merely a tiny laptop. Examples of true UMPC’s are the Samsung Q1, Sony UX Series and Gigabyte U60, which all feature a QWERTY keyboard, and are engineered to be used on the move.
To further elaborate on Apple’s position, consideration must be given to their pre-established advantages over Asus. Apple have this thing called MacOSX which doesn’t natively run on anything but an Apple computer. Apple also get very good deals on NAND memory due to the fact they use over a quarter of the NAND memory produced worldwide. Apple also have this little program called iTunes, and does that run on Linux natively? No unfortunately it doesn’t .
Palm had to cancel their Foleo, not because of the Asus EeePC (though it could have been part reason), but because the Foleo had no way of reaching the hype that Palm had created. Match that with their ageing Treo series of smart phones, and financial difficulties and you get a cancelled product. Palm should hate themselves if anyone, because for a long time they were the best at what they did.
To me it seems that none of the companies in the article will be threatened by the EeePC. If anything Asus should be thanked for discovering another niche market. No doubt by the middle of the year you will hear about EeePC competitors that are all similarly priced and spec’ed.
The companies who could hold a grudge against Asus are Nokia and OLPC. Nokia have their N810, which is probably the closest thing to an EeePC (when you consider features and price). The OLPC should also be envious as the EeePC does more for the same price or less (though the OLPC is more technically advanced).
Intel and Asus have had a relationship for a long time, but Asus also has relationships with many of Intel’s competitors. Also, Intel have nothing to lose, because all their competitors (with the exception of OLPC and Nokia) use Intel insides to do a very similar thing.
Mike Elgan, if you’re reading this, I would like you to know your other articles are fantastic and you are usually right on the mark with your conclusions. Had you done a little more research behind the scenes I am sure you would have come to the same conclusion I have.
For the original article, click over to the Datamation Website.
The Nokia N810 is one of those devices I get excited about (almost to the point of arousal) and would love one if I didn’t owe the bank so much money. It is now available for purchase $US479 from a whole array of US sellers. If you are from the US, what are you doing still reading this? Go get one!
For more info, click over to the Engadget Blog.
I want one. It is a gadget to lust for, to dream of, to leave your whining wife for. The Nokia N810 was official non-rumor yesterday, but today we have all the dirty, dirty details of what it hides under its sleek plastic face.
To start, it does definitely have a GPS inbuilt. It also has the same 4.3-inch display as its predecessor (WVGA with 65,000 colours) , expect it is 20% brighter. Other features include a 2GB internal storage, WiFi (802.11b/g), Bluetooth (2.0+ EDR), 400MHz OMAP 2420 CPU, 128MB RAM, 256MB ROM, integrated frontal camera, ambient light sensor, mini USB 2.0, hardware lock switch and did I mention the complete QWERTY keyboard? It natively plays back video: 3GP, AVI, H.263, H.264, MP4, ASF, WMV, MPEG-1/4, Real video; audio: MP3, WMA, AAC, AMR, AWB, M4A, MP2, Real audio, WAV (it is a Symbian, so it can also install 3rd party apps to play other codec’s).
The battery life will hit around 4 hours for movies, internet access, etc; 10 hours music only, up to 2 weeks totally idle time and 5 days active standby (whatever that means). It will weigh 7.97 ounces and measure in at 5 x 2.83 x 0.55-inches. It is supposedly set for a November release and could hit around the $US479 mark. For a GPS, PMP, DAP, PDA and many possible other things, it is a really sweet deal.
On a side note, the guys over at Engadget got a hands on with the N810, and liked the device except for the keyboard. Maybe it is a good time to buy those now obsolete N800’s?
F0r more info, click over to the Engadget Blog.
Only a couple of weeks ago now I speculated the rumor of a brand spanking new Nokia N800 tablet replacement being around the corner. Seems the new model is coming, and will be titled the N810. What is new you ask? No full specs as yet, but we do know that there will be a full QWERTY keyboard, and what looks like to be GPS (hopefully real not virtual). You will get more info, when I get more info, but from what I can see it will definitely be lust worthy.
For more info, dance over to Engadget Blog.
No not the pornographic taken advantage, more the commercial type. It seems that after the whole Apple brick and/or relock after firmware update fiasco, that Nokia sees it as a good time to grab some market share from the now Apple giants (iPhone isn’t doing too bad people). How can I make all these accusations? Well look at the image (click on read more for bigger image) if you need more proof.
Personally, in the long run the Nokia N800 will be a far more versatile, with the very mod-able Symbian OS. Does it matter if Nokia take a few Apple interface ideas? I don’t see why not.
For more info, click over to the Engadget Blog.
The current internet tablet from Nokia, the N800, is actually a pretty cool device. If it was a little smaller and a little cheaper it could quite possibly compete with the iPhone. Well it seems Nokia have found a different way to compete, and that is to add features. New features will include WiMAX and GPS. Hopefully it will get a sweet price point as well, because god only knows I need a new gadget.
Click over to the NaviGadget Blog for more info.