Can these 3 stop the iPhone?  CTIA gems compared

Posted April 4, 2008 at 12:05 PM by JG Mason

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Email / IM, Smartphones, Mobile, Features, Trade Shows, CTIA

I am doing a bit of head scratching this morning.  CTIA has come and gone, as has CeBit and 3G.  In this post, I’ll go over the 3 phones that are hot on the tail of the iPhone.  But can any of them compare?

First, I think it is essential to boil down the obvious: the iPhone hype is about 3 things. OS.  Fun.  Simple.  Easy.  We like pushing things around with our fingers. Internet.  We do so much online, it is natural to do that everywhere.  The big screen is a huge plus. Sexy.  What makes sexy?  Not sure but Apple has it right now.

Knowing I am but a tech blogger and thus an idiot, let’s see how the phone makers have assessed the competition and how they plan to beat it.

Sony Xperia. Our Editor and all-round good guy, Robert Nelson had this to quip,

Sony Ericsson has launched the XPERIA brand with the XPERIA X1 handset. The X1 has an impressive set of features. Just to start it’s running Windows Mobile 6 with a full slide-out arc-sliding QWERTY keyboard with 4-way key and optical joystick. The X1 along with the XPERIA lineup will be focusing on the growing need for mobile web communication and multimedia entertainment. The X1 features has a metal-finish body with a 3-inch wide VGA 800 x 480 touchscreen display, GPS, Wi-Fi, A2DP Bluetooth, a 3.2-megapixel camera with a microSD card slot for additional storage.

Samsung Instinct Samsung has been somewhat slow to get something to the US market.  Perhaps the Instinct will be the new standard bearer for Samsung.  Our David Gonzales has this report:

As you can see, the Samsung Instinct has a large, touch-sensitive display and it runs on a custom UI made by Samsung from the ground up taking data convergence into focus. It will also offer local haptic feedback, built-in GPS and Sprint TV. This is Samsung’s first direct strike at Apple’s iPhone, as well as against a lot of other touchscreen-based devices that have been popping up lately. I’m sure Samsung hopes that the Instinct won’t stink but will it have what it takes to be a real iPhone killer when it’s finally released? We will see.

LG Vu