3GSM: Handsets Getting Ever-More Elaborate
What a change in the wireless industry over the past three years. It used to be that we could attend a trade show such as this 3GSM, and report back to Techdirt what some the coolest new handsets were, or some innovative new feature that was added to a handset. It was easy when the features were more limited. Examples included the first smartphones, color screens, SD slots, MP3 players, or cameras. But no longer can one casually identify any single handset or handset innovation - the place is rife with them and single handsets can house many features. The 'wow' factor after looking over the Samsung, Nokia, SonyEricsson, Motorola booths alone is off the scale, and that's just the tip of the iceberg, since lesser brands and ODMs are producing flashy handsets in droves too. As Carlo noted, though, the phones at the show aren't necessarily freshly launched. Some phones have music, some video, some 4G networks, some VoIP, or hard drives, others have 8MP cameras with 6x optical zoom, sliders, flips, rotators, keyboards, and on and on. Others are skinny, others are light, and some, like a Bang and Olufssen-designed Samsung model, are all about fashion. We'll have to leave it to sites like Phonescoop to cover this fertile sector. There's a handset for everybody here - the only problem is: will they be offered by your carrier in your country?
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
