The shape of phones to come
By David Flynn | smh.com.au | 23 February
The new Nokia N97 demonstrating the Nokia Ovi Store
Not to be outdone, mobile makers are taking the best of the iPhone and adding bells and whistles.
We've seen what will quite likely be your next mobile phone. It's got a touchscreen display so you can dial numbers, flick through your address book and check everything from email to the weather with a nonchalant swipe of your finger.
That screen is large enough to browse the web to check your favourite sites, update your Facebook page or catch up on videos downloaded from the internet - tasks made easier thanks to high-speed mobile networks which run faster than many home broadband connections.
Your next phone also has a direct link to an online software store - a gallery packed with thousands of tiny yet useful add-on programs, many free and most costing about $5 - to load up your mobile with games, restaurant guides, online banking and more.
The phone even ties in with online services such as photo galleries, your calendar and address book.
We can make this prediction not because we have a crystal ball but because we've been to the Mobile World Congress techfest which is held each year in Barcelona.
This is the mobile phone industry's annual pilgrimage but with the crowds, parties, glitz and glam of a world-class motor show.
Unlike what you'd expect from the Geneva or Tokyo motor show, however, there's little in the way of wacky far-out "concept" phones in Barcelona. That's especially the case this year, with the economic downturn making customers question the cost of moving from their current, if somewhat dated and worse-for-wear mobile, to the latest high-tech, high-touch handset.
Instead, the focus is on phones that can hit the shelves in 2009 packed with enough features, excitement and sheer shiny newness to help customers justify the upgrade.
And for 2009, that means phones which look and work like the iPhone - finger-friendly touchscreens, superb web browsing, music and video playback, even online application stores. The same recipe which made the iPhone a runaway success for Apple is set to be shared by phones running a cut-down mobile version of Windows.
Phones from giants such as Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and LG. Even phones powered by Google's own Android operating system, the first wave of which arrived in Australia this month in the form of the HTC Dream. In short, everyone's aping Apple.
Microsoft, which faces a mobile rematch of the "Windows vs Mac" war, is gearing up for a new wave of Windows-powered phones due in the second half of this year.
These introduce a slick touchscreen interface optimised for tapping and swiping your finger over the screen.
The new phones will all sport a tiny Windows key to summon a main "start" menu for launching programs, as well as a streamlined "home" screen with instant access to emails, text messages, missed calls and upcoming calendar appointments, along with
"widgets" to display anything from the weather to the status of any auctions you're tracking on eBay.
A pared-down version of the Internet Explorer web browser helps web pages viewed on your mobile phone look the same as your desktop or laptop PC.
The new Windows phones will also come with an online service named My Phone to provide automatic backup of the phone's address book, SMS messages, photos, videos and even music to a secure website run by Microsoft. This means you won't lose everything that's stored on your mobile should the phone be lost, stolen or damaged beyond repair.
"Ten years ago, all you had on your phone that really mattered was your address book," says Microsoft's director of mobile services, Todd Brix. "Now you've got the address book and perhaps a calendar, all the photos and maybe some video that you've taken, and hundreds of SMS messages.
"People also have a devil of a time getting information off their phone," Brix says.
"Something like 77 per cent of people who own camera phones can't figure out how to get photos off their phone. The approach we've taken with My Phone is to mirror everything onto the web and from there you can download photos to your PC and delete them from the phone, so you've got room to take more photos."
(This becomes especially important with the new crop of cameraphones unveiled in Barcelona, which average 8 megapixels and soar as high as 12 megapixels - a level once reserved for Digital SLR cameras.)
Microsoft says the My Phone service will eventually tie into your Hotmail email account, web-based photo album and other Windows Live services.
And, like Apple, Microsoft intends to launch an online software store through which users of Windows phones can download free and paid-for software straight onto their mobile.
The Windows Marketplace for Mobile will arrive mid-year and be available for all recent model Windows phones as well as the new crop.
But Microsoft isn't the only company looking to help users get more from their mobile phone. Similar software stores are planned for BlackBerry smartphones and Google-powered Android phones.
But Nokia's Ovi Store - part of the company's Ovi family of online services - looks to be the most impressive.
Nokia's executive vice president of services and software, Niklas Savander, says: "This is not just a place to find applications. It's a smart store. It actually suggests things you might like and adds social location dynamics to show you relevant applications. It shows what your friends have bought. And it changes the inventory based on where you are."
For example, the GPS receiver built into an increasing number of Nokia mobile phones will suggest applications based on your location.
Set foot in a different country and you'll see a set of recommended downloads such as tourist guides and quick language lessons, currency convertors and guides to the local public transport system, restaurants and bars.
"Ovi Store learns what you use and also where," Savander says.
"It would be very unlikely that two users would have exactly the same content appearing on their phones".
David Flynn travelled to Barcelona as a guest of Microsoft.
First published by Smh.com.au on February 23 2009
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