Week in Review - A touch and the dream of a bump!

Since we didn't get a chance to post any news this week, I thought I'd take a few minutes for a review of some of the major events of the week...

iPhone - The hype continues to build around the iPhone's June 29th launch and if nothing else, it has brought the idea of PDAPhones from the world of nerds, to the general public. For that reason alone, I hope its successful. Unfortunately, I think it has a large uphill battle to be successful. Who is the target audience of the iPhone? I think it overlaps with other PDAPhones, and it may come up lacking for that customer set. Some of the speculated issues include the lack of a removable battery (listening to music all day may leave you without a business tool by day's end), lack of applications - in particular MS Office, compatibility with all of the business email and PIM tools - Outlook, Lotus Notes, etc., and finally... limiting its launch to one carrier in the US. I think the hype may set expecations well above what the iPhone will be capable of delivering in its first release, but we'll have to wait and see.

HTC Touch - The HTC Touch, riding on the coat tails of the iPhone hype, appears to be thus far being well received by the carriers. No word on a US release yet, but it appears that the big players in Europe are lining up - O2, Vodaphone, T-Mobile, and others. I haven't heard a lot about actual usage of the new Touch interface, but it looks people are looking at it as an iPhone alternative for the rest of us (those not on Cingular/AT&T). The thing is, the interface stops when your applications start, so I really want to hear from some actual users how well it works. Here is one early review of the Touch... FOXNews.com - HTC's Touch Smartphone Promises Lots, Delivers Less - Technology News | News On Technology

And the bump (Mogul) - Our release thread for the Sprint Mogul (PPC-6800 and XV-6800 on Verizon) has become a battle of who's rumor is mroe credible. You'd wonder if everyone is talking to the same company by as confident everyone is with the varying answers of when this product will be released. Over the last couple of months its release date has varying from May to November, and practically every week in between. Based on a conversation I just had with my Sprint business rep, I expect to be able to get one on order first thing Monday morning (6/1

, but given the "bumps" in its release, nothing would surprise me. How appropriate the code name "Mogul" has turned out to be for its release. I just hope all the bumps in the product are smoothed out before I get it.

Squeezing the Palm - The biggest news in the Palm camp is the release of a Crimson Red version of the Treo 680. You know that times are tough when a new color is the best you can muster to generate new sales. I tried a Treo 755P for a few weeks with Sprint, and although I was impressed with the refinement and feel of the physical device, I was disappointed that there was nothing new in the Palm OS. They really need to get that new Linux based OS out to breath some new life into a line that is about as refined as it can get. Elevation Partners invested $325M to take a 25% stake in Palm last week, and now this week there are reports of some layoffs. Earlier in the week we saw rumors and some early pics of the Treo 800w "Gandloff". Base on the pictures, I don't care for the look, but it does appear that they've managed to shrink the device a bit to be more in line with the Moto Q. Palm “Gandolf” Phone Rumours : Digital-Lifestyles (alpha remix)

Sony-Ericsson brings it to Apple - I was recently watching a documentary on the iPod development, and it said that Steve Jobs realized that Sony had overlooked the digital music market, after essentially owning the personal CD player with the Walkman. Now, just as Apple is about to go after the phone market by leveraging their iPod success with the iPhone, Sony (via Sony-Ericsson) is making a pretty big punch at the same market. Sony-Ericsson has announced a new product in the Walkman Phone line with the w960i. The w960i will be running the Symbian UIQ interface that has been very well accepted on the p8xx and p9xx PDAPhones. This platform has a strong following and so there are many applications available for it. The w960i packs 8GB of storage, 3G, WiFi, and a 3.2 megapixel digital camera... and has the power of Sony-Ericsson and years of cellphone and walkman experience under their belt. With proper marketing and courting to carriers, Sony-Ericsson could really benefit from the hype around the iPhone.

Summing things up, I have to comment on the fiasco of the lawsuit that Qualcomm has gotten themselves into which will further put a lag in feature rich phones on CDMA. Unfortunately, in a lot of the US, the footprint of Verizon Wireless and Sprint PCS provide critical coverate that the GSM carriers don't cover well. But because GSM is really the world standard, the latest and greatest PDAPhones on CDMA seem to lag those on GSM. Both Sprint and Verizon have fought against efforts to have the notion of "unlocked" phones be sellable that could be used on any carrier, so it means that developers have to have a deal already in place with the carrier before they produce their product. I'll have to settle for a PPC-6800 Mogul that I will hopefully be able to order on Monday.