By Tham Yuen-C and Stephanie Gwee
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IT IS important to look good. But as the old adage goes, it's what's inside that really matters.
And so it was with the mobile phones that went on show at this year's CommunicAsia held at the Singapore Expo last week.
Phone makers, operating system makers and almost anyone in the mobile phone ecosystem offered something to take phones further away from the original purpose they were built for - talking.
The phones on show came with loads of applications and services, more room for customisation and beefed-up geolocation smarts.
More applications
"APPLICATIONS" has been the buzzword in the mobile industry for a while now but it is finally gaining traction.
At a demo session for its Android phone operating system last week, Google showed off a navigation system that uses a phone's global positioning system, motion sensors and camera to identify buildings and landmarks.
There was also a golf tool that dishes out advice based on the measurement of factors such as wind speed, gradient and distance.
The application was one of the 1,700 submissions the Internet search giant received for its Android Developer Challenge. It offered US$10 million (S$13.7 million) in prize money for developers whose applications were selected for the open-source phone operating system (OS).
"What's important is not the phone itself but what's on the screen," said Andy Rubin, Google's director of mobile platforms who is behind the Android platform. "We're going to see a lot more data- and application-centred things on phones. It will be like bringing your desktop with you."
While he declined to give details, he said that people who use phones that run Android will eventually be able to "shop" for phone applications.
Two weeks ago, Apple announced an upcoming online store that will sell anything from third-party games to social networking software for its phones.
Phone makers like Samsung have also taken note.
"The mobile phone is not just hardware anymore, everything is in there," said Younghee Lee, its vice-president for global marketing.
More personal touches
THAT is why with its new Omnia touchscreen phone - a dead ringer for the iPhone - the company had taken pains to make applications such as games easily accessible.
Although the phone runs Windows Mobile 6.1, its TouchWiz user interface was specially customised for the phone, with a menu of icons running down the side of the screen.
Recently, HTC also launched Windows Mobile phones with customised overlays.
Microsoft's corporate vice-president of marketing for the mobile communications business, Todd Peters, said that the phone's OS was designed to allow such flexibility.
With Android, room for customisation is also one of the key selling points. Not only will phone manufacturers and operators get to custom-build menus, users will also be able to personalise three different screens with whatever icons and applications they want by simply dragging and dropping.
Eventually, tech-savvy users can even modify their own phones by tinkering with the programming codes. "That is one of the things we hope to see eventually," said Andy.
Nokia's new E-series devices, the E71 and E66, also have two home screens that users can populate with applications that they use the most.
More geolocation features
THIS year's event also saw a rash of phones with global positioning systems (GPS). From Samsung to Nokia to Sony Ericsson, all mobile makers had some form of GPS offering.
Said David Steel, vice-president of Samsung's mobile communications division: "There is a lot of consumer demand for GPS-enabled mobile phones as GPS become more mainstream and users become more used to using phones as a navigation tool."
While most were focused on navigation, others like Sony Ericsson's C905 8.1 megapixel camera phone also uses it for geo-tagging of pictures, so you know where you shot them.
The most comprehensive GPS phone came from traditional GPS device maker Garmin.
Called Nuvifone, it is more of a well-connected navigation device than a phone.
"The problem with most phones that have navigation functions is that they are strictly features. They're not central to the device, so you need a lot of key strokes to get what you want," said Roger Jollis, Garmin's director of mobile marketing. "For the Nuvifone, everything is integrated with navigation, such as our contact lists, SMS and even e-mail."
The phone not only morphs into a car navigation system the moment it is plugged into a vehicle's dashboard, but is also useful for social networking as it can detect contacts and friends who are nearby.
Even map-maker Navteq has joined the game. Its annual Global LBS Challenge attracted a slew of location-based services that work on mobile phones.
GreenDrive, which won second place in the competition, is an application that detects road attributes, such as stop signs and gradients that affect fuel consumption, and alerts drivers so they can speed up or slow down accordingly.
This article was first published in The Straits Times, Digital Life on 24 June 2008.
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