I carry the iPhone, G1, Nokia N95, HTC Fuze and Blackberry Bold in my backpack for regular usage and testing of applications and our platform on multiple device operating systems. But I’ve settled on just the HTC Fuze and iPhone for carrying around in a given location.
Nothing beats the browser and large screen of the iPhone of course. And the selection of applications now available for the iPhone is of course unmatched.
The HTC Fuze is great small-sized Qwerty keyboard email device that works well as a voicephone (better than the very similar G1 for either in my opinion). Why not just the iPhone? If you’re emailing all day the soft keyboard doesn’t cut it. Plus the two megapixel camera is a bit dated. And I find the voice quality and it’s utility as just a phone to be not spectacular. The “two primary device” phenomenon is not unique to me. It seems to be the rule in Silicon Valley.
But there’s a newly announced device that I think stands a good shot at being my, and perhaps many other people’s, single mobile device. Its the forthcoming Nokia N97. It features a big (3.5″) screen, 640×340 resolution and a Qwerty keyboard. Plus like the Nokia 95 it has GPS capability and its smaller than the N95.
The bigscreen and high resolution may enable it to supercede carrying around an iPhone for browsing. The big wildcard of course is how many applications will be available for it running Symbian. I’m hoping that something like our platform that allows developers to build great native Symbian apps, while at the same time targeting other device operating systems, can enable this and other more advanced devices to compete with the iPhone as a showcase for a diversity of exciting applications.
1 Comments | Posted by admin
