February 5, 2012

A New Era in Mobile

The BlackBerry Thunder

A new era in the mobile world is expected to begin on Monday with news from Apple of the next version of the iPhone. The importance of this cannot be underscored enough. On the heels of the iPhone announcement, BlackBerry is poised to release the oft rumored BlackBerry Thunder - their first release of a full-faced touch screen smart phone. Both devices are expected to accelerate increasing web traffic from mobile devices. They are also expected to operate on the faster 3G networks. The guys over at CellFanatic.com have posted a mockup of the Thunder along with initial specs: hybrid CDMA EVDO Rev C, GSM HSPA for international traveling Full Touch Screen 4 Simple Keys: send, end, menu, and back Hybrid device supporting many carrier technologies Available exclusively on Verizon Wireless in the United States Available exclusively on Vodafone in Europe Tentative Model Number is BlackBerry 9500 Enter the next iPhone. The second version of the iPhone would have the following … [Read more...]

Google’s Android Mobile Platform

A new player will be entering the mobile market space to help other phone manufacturers compete with Apple and BlackBerry. Google's mobile platform, called Android, is building upon some of the strength's of Apple's iPhone. Some features such as the 'slide to unlock' capabilities have been copied and enhanced allowing users to unlock their screen using a preset pattern as opposed to a left-to-right swipe. More significantly, it appears Google is establishing its' own Application Store modeled after Apple's imminent release of their own iPhone App store. The concept is that people can go to a secure, trusted place to download and install software for their phone. Some software will be free while others will cost users to download. The Apple model provides 70% of proceeds to go directly to the developer while 30% covers the hosting, purchasing, marketing and download bandwidth costs that Apple will incur. Google is expected to adopt a similar cost structure. Google's Android operating … [Read more...]