Tag Archives: smartphones

Technology

Back posting on @coolsmartphone

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After a lengthy bout of busy-ness, I’ve finally made some more contributions to the Coolsmartphone blog. Get over there to read my posts bemoaning the ongoing rubbishness of the iPhone 4S battery life (and my further efforts to resolve it), the beauty and emptiness of social network Path’s app for iOS (shortly before the privacy issues emerged!) and a mini review of Death Rally for iOS (Noel – remember Death Track?).

Coming soon: some posts about my investigations into Google Android as I consider leaving the iOS fold!

Enjoy!

Technology

Who buys the blackberries?

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The only blackberries worth buyingDamian asked me a question about smartphone market share for some unspecified reason and it landed me at this article. What’s fascinating about it is it tells you who’s buying which Smartphone platforms. Specific insights:

74.3% of people that buy an Android phone haven’t owned a Smartphone before

84.9% of people that buy a Blackberry haven’t owned a Smartphone before

This tells you two things:

  • Price really matters when buying a Smartphone and not everyone can afford an iPhone (despite it being the best-selling single device in the UK, Apple’s overall market share is proportionally going down as more affordable Smartphones become prevalent)
  • Blackberry users literally don’t know what they’re missing.

I’m increasingly of the view that calling a Blackberry a ‘smartphone’ is inaccurate so I propose that someone sets up some kind of charitable movement to protect the public from these heinous devices…

Business, Technology

iPhones for Enterprise

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appstorevol

I was talking to a friend about Smartphones in the enterprise. He works for a large public company with a strong heritage of working in the public sector, and therefore an understandably high level of concern about IT security. It was for this reason that – despite the mediocrity of the Blackberry platform against contemporary competition and the plunging market share of RIM – he wanted his organization to standardize on Blackberry.

However, for many people accustomed to more… sophisticated Smartphone platforms, Blackberry seems arcane, counter-intuitive and sometimes an actual hindrance to productivity.  That’s not to say that iPhone, with its Apps, games, ease of use et al won’t cause its own distractions but at least people will be able to effectively browse the web!

So it’s with some satisfaction that I note that Apple is upping the game for its enterprise offer – there’s already Exchange controls on iOS devices (pins enforced etc) and remote wipes and remote management is possible (as is location tracking, natch), so enterprise deployment of Apps is an obvious next step in supporting group policy on App deployments within an enterprise environment. That this holds for non-Appstore apps as well is truly remarkable and a very grown up (and atypical) way for Apple to be dealing with the situation. Now, if Apple could just sort out offline email…

I’m going to write further on why Blackberry’s days in the enterprise are numbered and some thoughts on what mobile operators need to do to create more compelling tariffs for the enterprise for iPhone, as have a few other thoughts bubbling under on this.

Technology

Should I wait for an iPhone 5 to renew my contract?

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iPhone 5 PreviewNo! Renew your contract now if you’re out of the contract term! Negotiate a rate on your tariff equivalent to the iPhone subsidy you were hoping for – and start it now so you can work off some of those tediously long contracts ahead of the phone’s release.

Then, when you buy an iPhone5 outright whenever they come out, you’ll already be achieving the savings you needed to afford it via your mobile tariff reduction, and you’ll be ‘locked in’ for a shorter period.

Inspired?? I think so! Would try it myself, but am tempted by the ludicrously cheap monthly rolling 3 SIM only iPhone tariff – at £15 a month for enough minutes, 1GB internet access and 3000 text messages, I’m unlikely to top it irrespective of my negotiations with O2, especially now they think they’re the top mobile broadband provider in the UK… Just need to do the maths on the subsidy…

Technology

Waiting to upgrade

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I’m over 8 months into my latest mobile contract, which means an upgrade is less than a third of a year away, but, unusually for me, I have no idea what my next phone is going to be. Usually at this point in the year, I’m desperate to chuck the old thing in for virtually anything… but this time around, (1) my existing handset, the MDA Touch Plus / HTC Touch Dual has proved remarkably resilient against decay or technological out-innovation and (2) all the new devices I might consider have been stubbornly refusing to include keypads. My current phone has HSDPA, a 2MP camera, Windows Mobile 6, a touchscreen and a keypad. I’d like the successor to have most of the above (I’m more open on operating systems with the launch of Android) PLUS GPS (maybe, see earlier post…), Wifi, a higher resolution camera and maybe even a flash.

Front runners? The HTC HD (not announced on any UK networks yet AFAIK, no keyboard), the T-Mobile G1 (tempting, but can I cope after the pain that was the HTC Tytyn 2 – I need a keypad, not qwerty!) and maybe some variation on the HTC Diamond. Garrh – none are ideal – don’t people like physical keypads on smartphones anymore? I’m hoping that HTC comes out with a successor to the Touch Plus with the enhancements that I’m after. Maybe even one running Android… That would be ace, though sounds like they’ll be banking on the G1’s success for a while…

Any recommendations from anyone out there? How’s the new SE Experia X1? What about the Samsung Omnia? Or should I just stay with my existing phone, try to negotiate a discount on the tariff and hold out for the duration of the economic crises/credit crunch/soufflé deflation of the financial markets? Thoughts on a comment appreciated.

This post was inspired by my learning some new features on the HTC designed skin on Windows Mobile, ‘Touchflo’, that really makes me enjoy using it as a camera too.

Oh – T-Mobile is an agency client, but I don’t know anything you don’t and I couldn’t leak it on here if I did… Consider yourself disclaimed.