Next Generation of Smartphones on the way… Details Sketchy
iPhone, Blackberry and Android details sketchy
By John Riley
Excitement is already building for the new iPhone 4G and signs suggest it will be unveiled June 21 following the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. RIM has said they will be releasing their Blackberry 6 operating system in the 3rd quarter with a new user interface and WebKit browser, but it may be fall before they release a new phone. Meanwhile, Sprint will be announcing the new HTC Evo 4G this summer, reportedly the premium Android phone.
All U.S. carriers now have phones with the Android operating system. T-Mobile and Verizon are already promoting it as their flagship smartphone. This week, a more advanced Android version, 2.2 Froyo, was officially announced and the big question is whether existing Android phones will receive the update. HTC has said they will. A staggered roll out with the Nextus One smartphone has already been announced, but other Android phones will probably not receive the upgrade as quickly.
Android 2.2 Froyo will have faster speed, better browser performance, sound alert when the battery is low and several smaller improvements. Since January 2009, Android is second only to Blackberry in the percent of Smartphone Operating Systems Unit Share. Apple’s OS X is third.
Lost iPhone reveals new design
When an Apple employee accidently left a prototype of the new iPhone in a bar last month, the finder sold it to the Gizmodo.com blog who disassembled and reported on it in detail. From this story, I learned the design is very different from what came before. For example, it will have a front facing video chat camera, a camera flash and improved display. The back is entirely flat and has an aluminum border going completely around the outside. The screen is smaller and the battery is larger. It also has a new operating system (4.0). Finally, the phone has a Micro-SIM rather than SIM, which is a strong indication it is a new generation device.
The Blackberry 6 operating system most likely will be used to catch up with some of the slick features already offered by some of it’s competitors, specifically gigabytes more memory, flashy software, improved browser, and faster processors. Historically, most of Rim’s revenue has come from high-end devices. Now, the lag in adding features raises a question of RIM’s strategy in that the company could see greater revenue in the lower-end mass market than in the high-end smartphone.
Yet, in the fourth quarter 2009, Nielsen pointed out only 21 percent of American wireless subscribers were using a smartphone which leaves nearly 80 percent of the market open to upgrading. That seems a likely outcome as Nielsen also noted 45 percent of respondents said the next phone they buy will be a smartphone.
Bandwidth hogs may pay more
As the new generation of smartphones make their way to the market, another development seems certain to join the fray. Smartphones are bandwidth hogs and standard cell phone owners are subsidizing them by paying the same rates. Carriers are not immune from the problem because their data traffic has become clogged. This has led Verizon and AT & T to consider setting up a tiered pricing system rather than the flat-based usage now in effect.
Whether a usage based plan or a tiered plan, the result could be a cheaper monthly bill for the cell phone customer because the smartphone owner will pay more as carriers try to free up more bandwidth.
I have not been able to find any information about pricing. Whether these new technical marvels will command a higher price than current models is uncertain. However, new technology tends to be accompanied by premium prices. Stay tuned.
