Cell phone industry gathers in Barcelona
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Alfredo Padilla Published on February 11, 2008 Comment on this |
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February 11, 2008 - This week in Barcelona the wireless devices industry has gathered for its biggest event of the year the Global World Congress. As expected manufacturers and other wireless industry players have made announcements and released handsets at a dizzying rate. The biggest story of the event so far may be Sony-Ericsson's move into the Windows Mobile space with the Xperia X1 handset. Microsoft also made news by announcing that they have purchased Danger Inc., responsible for the Sidekick line of smart phones popular with young people.Sony-Ericsson has announced a range of other devices including the W980 Walkman phone, two Cyber-shot camera phones, the C702 and C902, and two additional smart phones, this time running the Symbian OS, in the G700 and G900. Nokia revealed the update to its popular Nokia N95 smart phone, the N96, which comes with 16 GB of internal storage as well as several other smart phones. Samsung's lineup is also headlined by a smart phone, the G810 slider with a five megapixel camera.
Motorola hasn't had as big a presence at the show as the other major manufacturers, announcing three relatively unimpressive handsets. Givens Motorola's recent struggles in the mobile space this may be unsurprising. Motorola is reportedly seeking a buyer for their under-performing handset business.
Linux handsets are also making news in Barcelona, starting with Google's linux-based Android operating system with several demonstration phones shown on the floor. Android based handsets are not expected to be available until the second half of 2008, while Samsung announced that they will have an Android based phone by 2009. The LiMo Foundation, another consortium of wireless industry player working on a Linux based interface, announced that they will be making an Software Development Kit available in the second half of the year.
The trend at the Mobile World Congress so far seems to be on high end multimedia phones, with almost all the major manufacturers announcing handsets with five megapixel cameras. GPS functionality has also made its presence felt. Nokia, in particular, seems to be aggressive about moving these features further down their product lineup with mid-range devices like the N78 and 6220 Classic both sporting five megapixel cameras and GPS functionality.
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