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| Tue, Nov. 10 - - Mobile - RSS | |
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Smart phones, gaining in popularity
Smart Phones--The Next Generation: Can cell phones be smart and sexy to appeal to the young?
Date published: 8/27/2005
By MICHAEL ZITZ MUST A SEXY phone be a bimbo phone? Or can it be smart, too?And if everybody buys smart phones, will they no longer qualify as smart? When the average person has one, will they become not-so-smart-phones? A smart phone is a cell phone with e-mail, a small keyboard, Web browsing capability and PDA function, including a calendar and a contact list. Designwise, at least until recently, smart phones have had all the sex appeal of a brick. But early next year, when Motorola releases its stylish Q phone, the smart phone could begin to go mainstream. It's based on the slim and popular Razr V3, but has a QWERTY keyboard--the same setup used on PCs. The ultra-thin, 11.5 mm-thick Q phone's e-mail features Microsoft's Windows Mobile software. It has powerful multimedia capabilities and a one-handed navigation thumb wheel. And it has a 1.3 megapixel camera with photo lighting, video and MP3 audio capabilities. "The Motorola Q is being called a BlackBerry killer," said Alan Reiter, a wireless industry analyst based in Chevy Chase, Md., because "the traditional BlackBerry has lacked the bells and whistles the younger market wants." But, Reiter said, such speculation is meaningless months before a phone is released. "You can't determine the success of a phone by simply looking at a publicity photo," he said. He said you have to touch it, see how it feels in your hand, see how tactile its keyboard is and see how it will be priced. Reiter said he wouldn't be surprised to see smart phones become popular with the young. "A feature-laden phone is a lot less scary to a typical 16-year-old than to the typical 50-year-old," he said. For now, the star of the smart phone market is the palmOne Treo 650, son of the Handspring Treo 600, which was the breakthrough device for the genre. The Rev. Deborah J. Hertle, chaplain of Carriage Hill Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Fredericksburg, said, "I've moved to the Treo 650 and it's a delight--much easier to use than the 600. I'm impressed."
Date published: 8/27/2005
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