Cell Phone News, Photos from 3GSM Barcelona
Most people come to Barcelona to gawk at the amazing Gaudi architecture and enjoy the fabulous food. This week, they're here to see cell phones, too--and so am I (and a raft of my IDG News Service colleagues). The 3GSM World Congress--the biggest trade show for GSM cell phones, networks, and related technologies--has flooded the town with a veritable who's who of people involved in this huge and healthy industry.
Big news at the show, which continues through Thursday, includes the launch of the next-generation version of Microsoft's Windows Mobile platform for cell phones and connected handhelds. (See my pre-show stories about Windows Mobile 6 and HP's first iPaq smartphone, which will be based on the OS. IDG News Service's Nancy Gohring also reported on vendors that will ship Windows Mobile 6 handhelds.)
Microsoft has also announced a new digital rights management scheme, Windows PlayReady, created to meet the specific needs of mobile content providers.
Speaking of content, just about every major cell phone vendor is showing a handset optimized for video and/or broadcast television. Some, such as Nokia with its N77 and Samsung with the swivel-screen equipped F510, support DvBH technology for broadcast TV on handsets. But it's not clear how or even whether U.S. carriers will support DvBH. Here's the N77:
And the F510:
Meanwhile, Adobe is hoping its venerable Flash technology, a popular format for video on the Web, will gain similar acceptance as the standard for mobile video. Read IDG News correspondent Stephen Lawson's story on this.
While Apple is not showing its iPhone here, it's much on the mind of reporters and other vendors who are showing handsets that also feature large, touchscreen displays and skinny profiles. LG's Shine handsets use flash technology for their user interface, and the company's slim Prada phone is also practically all touchscreen.
Samsung showed a whole line of new super-slim Ultra Edition II phones, including a clamshell (the Ultra edition 9.6 or U300), two sliders (the Ultra Edition 19.9 or U600, and the Ultra Edition 12.1 or U700) and a candy-bar handset (the Ultra Edition 5.9 or U100). Here's the U100:
Motorola also introduced more than half a dozen new models including the MotoRizr Z8, a slider phone that curves ergonically when extended to cradle the user's face, like so:
And while Motorola is supporting Windows Mobile 6 in its new MotoQ Q9 handset (a successor to the original Q), the company also is showing a sleek Linux-based slider phone, the MotoRizr Z6:
GPS phones are also proliferating. RIM, for example, packed GPS into its new BlackBerry 8800; Nokia was giving tours of Barcelona in cars outfitted with the company's new N6110 Navigator GPS phone:
HTC, one of the top Asian handset designers (recent creations include the T-Mobile Dash), brought something a little different to the show: A Windows Mobile 5 device that looked like a Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC). It's called the HTC Advantage, and we should be seeing it in North America soon.
That's it for now. Time for some tapas.
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I tried looking up GSM using the PC-World Search, but pressing the magnafying glass icon did nothing. Please, when you use terms like GSM, either spell out terms terms like GSM in parens, or make them hyper-links to a definition. We don't all get on this i-way at the same ramp. :)
GSM is a French acronym, and it doesn't make sense to spell it out. It is commonly used to describe the networks that have been handling our cellphones for the last 7 or 8 years.
GSM - Global System for Mobile Communications.