Posts filed under Opinion

The Apple iPad has now launched and all the hype has dissipated like the lancing of a grotesquely engorged ulcerous boil. Through the clearing mist lies reality and the path to the future, which, oddly, doesn’t feature the iPad at all.

In fact the only thing that’s caused the iPad to exist in the first place is the limitations of current display technology.

Find out why after the jump.

HTC surprised everyone when they released the HTC HD2 late last year. The HD2 is nothing short of the best Windows Mobile phone on the market now, and probably will be for some time (particularly given that HTC are pretty much the only company investing in innovative Windows Mobile phones at the moment).

The surprise is that HTC actually bothered to make a phone this good. Given their expertise with Google’s Android, their obvious close relationship with the search engine giant (just look at the Nexus One, which Google designed and HTC built), and the critical success they received with the HTC Hero (another Android device), why bother developing such a great phone as the HD2 on such a dog of a platform as Windows Mobile?

Step forward an intriguing theory…!

Music streaming service Spotify has hit a winning streak. Not content with winning awards for its Web-based music-streaming service, it’s also set to take the mobile world by storm, firstly with a Spotify app for Android phones (above, and in the video below) and the iPhone, and now with a dedicated Spotify phone.

Most companies are happy enough with just a smartphone app to add to their Web app, but Spotify figures that it might as well go the whole hog and build an entire phone around its service. And why not? If Twitter and Facebook can do it, then surely the world’s most talked about music streaming service can too?

But a Spotify phone won’t just shake up the mobile phone world – it’ll shake up Starbucks, too. Read on after the jump to see how…

A new report by Strategy Analytics predicts that 3G and 4G mobile technology is set to find its way into 20 different mobile device types that are anything but mobile phones. From laptops to cameras, GPS devices to portable game consoles, every type of mobile device is set to become 3G-enabled as the technology and its cost shrink inexorably.

By 2014, the company predicts over 100 million of these always connected devices will have been bought, leading to a golden age of mobile technology that’s set to transform every type of gadget you currently own.

I’ve always thought buying a new mobile was unnecessarily complicated, but things just seem to be getting worse! I’m currently with T-Mobile on a monthly contract for a SIM with Web n Walk Plus, which I use in my unlocked Nokia E90. I love my E90, but it’s become slow, doesn’t have a touchscreen, and, worst of all, has started to act – flaky! It no longer sends individual texts – it sends three at a time. It refuses to call out, and doesn’t like accepting calls too much either.

Now, all of this could be due to the network rather than the phone (though that’s unlikely, as my girlfriend’s also on T-Mobile, and she has no problems), but even if it is, it’s got e thinking that I want a new mobile, even if I don’t need one!

So, I went shopping – and ended up with a headache! Here’s why after the jump.

Sony Ericsson had rather a successful MWC this year, with the 12 megapixel Idou being very favourably received, and the new Sony Ericsson W995 marking the first of a new range of phones from the company that it’s calling “Entertainment Unlimited”

Entertainment Unlimited phones are the start of a new strategy for Sony Ericsson that will see the launch of the mythical PSP gaming phone in 2009 and will hopefully solve the financial problems the company has been having of late.

Rumours are circulating that Nokia may be working on a new class of mobile phone that will be announced at this year’s MWC. Based on the form factor of the E90 communicator, and beginning with the launch of the Nokia N97, the Finnish mobile phone giant could be about to unleash a new range of netbooks on us that literally are multimedia computers, and will enable us once and for all to unshackle ourselves from our desktops.

“Where’s the evidence?!” I hear you cry. Case for the prosecution after the jump.

If there’s one thing I’ve noticed since the launch of the iPhone, it’s how few phone companies have been prepared to take on the iPhone at its game. All the iPhone “killers” out there from the major phone companies are really nothing of the sort – they’re just touchscreen phones that pretend they’re iPhone competitors, but they don’t really go for the throat.

Before you start protesting and throwing examples of your favourite phone at me as a demonstration of how wrong I am, Sony have very kindly come up with all the proof I need – and it’s not even a phone!

In an intriguing article, long-time technology pundit Bob Cringely has made a compelling case for the death of Windows Mobile. He is, as he admits, no expert on mobile phones, but this counts in his favour as he has no bias towards one platform or another.

Analyzing the current mobile phone market and some of the announcements that have been made this year, he predicts that Apple’s iPhone will become the dominant smartphone platform, Google’s Android will be second, and Symbian and RIM fighting each other for third place. Windows Mobile, meanwhile, will simply wither on the vine and eventually be killed off by Microsoft.

If you take a look at the mobile phone news these past few months, there’s one thing that’s been dominating global coverage: smartphones, and in particular, a confusing plethora of new models, applications and features that have suddenly swarmed onto the market.

Traditionally seen as ugly phones for business, smartphones are set to become the big thing in the mobile phone market for 2009, with no fewer than five key smartphone platforms (all of which, of course, are incompatible with each other!)

There’s fierce competition between smartphone manufacturers, not just to attract users, but also developers, as the more applications a platform has, the more likely it is that other developers will develop applications for that platform: success breeds success.

Which reminds me of another, similarly competitive market: games consoles, which has seen some spectacular winners and losers over the years. What’s more, if you compare the different strategies of the different console platforms, you’ll find them remarkably similar to the strategies currently being employed by the different smartphone platforms.

So is Nokia really following Nintendo’s strategy? It certainly is, while Android is set for nothing less than world domination.

Read on after the jump to see why.