Readers by now would have realised I have an obsession with mobiles - it frustrates me how much unexploited potential there is for the device yet device manufacturers don't seem to get it. But the pieces are finally coming together - Siemens (remember the SL45?), Nokia and Sony Ericsson brought multimedia to the table, Motorola brought cool physical design, Windows Mobile/Blackberry/Handspring brought office functionality, and now Apple's brought more cool physical design as well as UI design, but more importantly, its brought the 'user experience' factor.
The latest devices from the annual 3GSM convention show that Apple really just managed to the first out the door - it wasn't alone with its ideas (phone producers seriously can't turn around that quickly with a design - its only been a month and a bit since the iPhone announcement).
Samsung's attempt is the f700, and it looks damn slick. Its a touchscreen only phone with HSDPA, video-calling functionality, and a QWERTY keyboard among other things. Its apparently flash-driven too, which gives it a good push in the design direction.
Asus, who usually only just produces phones for other companies, has
joined the party too with its concept phone. Again its a touchscreen only phone, but the interesting thing about this one is that it has a row of movable buttons that sit on top of the touchscreen. Presumably this is Asus's solution to the lack of tactile feel.
New-ish player Neonode unveiled their newest device too, the N2. Another touchscreen only phone, but this one seems aimed at the more general consumer market. The size of the screen though is a turn-off I reckon, but then again, the web doesn't seem to be a large part of this phone, so it won't be too bad. More pics
here.
HTC's got its renamed HTC Advantage design coming out soon. Quite stylish and highly specced, though I'm not sold yet about how sturdy the connection is between the QWERTY keyboard and the rest of the phone.
O2's refreshed their 'mighty Atom' with a new name - Atom Life, another camera, HSDPA, a faster processor (624MHz) and more memory. I can't work out why O2's suddenly decided to go with black buttons though - they looked ugly on the
Stealth, and now on the Atom Life.
Microsoft released the new Windows Mobile 6 at the convention too, the most noticiable 'feature' being a design refresh. Not sure of any phones announced with it yet though...
And finally, Motorola hasn't released a widely available touchscreen only device
just yet, but it has improved on the slider form factor by curving the
handset to better fit the user's face in the new
MOTORIZR Z8. Motorola's handsets still look better and more distinctive (against competitor's phones) than its competitors I reckon.
Hopefully these devices will have given the user interface a bit more thought as well as the battery life, and do a bit more promotion than they've done previously, especially when left to just the carrier.