Look On Smartphones
Before you read this I would like to warn you that this is a rant post.
Today’s Rant
In today’s society the Smartphone wars is at its peak and it is bound to intensify as technologies and new concepts are tested and brought to bare. This post or what I prefer to call “rant” looks back on how it was, how it is now, and what could it be in years to come in mobile communication devices, Who won, for now at least and who lost the initiative.>
So It Begins
I remember when Motorola was synonymous with cellphones, now however when anyone mention Motorola most people would think of it as the late comer particularly in the Smartphone category were in fact it was they who pioneered the cellular age. Eventually as new forms of technology quickly gain phase, Motorola got knock out by Nokia, unlike Motorola’s cellular units Nokia’s offerings were more trendy and consumer friendly than Motorola’s rough, heavy analog cellphones. Nokia’s feature cellphones rode the waves but like Motorola it did not capitalized on its house hold name and ignored its possible competitor until it was too late. In the beginning Apple’s quest was seen marginal at best being a newbie in the mobile communication industry and as a fact it never even competed with then the Nokia giant. Apple did have a good base consumer loyalty from its Mac followers and from their ipod releases, back then digital Mp3 was the thing in the music industry and making it small and techie as compare to the old style walkman type contraption, the ipod was an instant hit. Cellphone companies like Nokia already started adding digital music player on their featured phones but apparently consumers want more than just call, text, play and who knows what else. And when Apple announced they were contemplating on releasing a Smartphone this has turn heads in the industry, it should be noted that there were already smarthphones available in that market, unlike the pre-Iphone years these smartphone seems to fall short. The Smartphone concept started in early 70’s but it wasn’t until a company Ericson later became Sony-Ericson and now just Sony made the first Smartphone available in the market in a global scale though it should be noted that the 1st Smartphone prototype however came from IBM now Lenovo. While the first mass adoption was i-mode back in 1999 by a Japanese firm NTT Docomo.
Raise the Flags My Children
I noticed that every six or so months, leading brands on mobile communication devices release a new device to compete with its rivals, and more often reviewers such as myself have a field day with it. These devices are categorizes into three tier. High end, Mid range and Low end devices and while major brands tend concentrate on the first two tiers, local brands or the not so much famous usually dish out their own versions and claimed the mid-range and the low end tiers. Their usual sales pitch is High-end with Mid-range price, but most however would prefer to call it ‘you get what you pay for deals’….
High end mini versions and everything else
While many people are itching to get their hand on the latest high end smartphone out in the market today but the fact is, not all will ever have that luxury to do so and as the market is being flooded by wave and wave of more or less latest versions of Smartphone with catching phrases such as “more affordable price”, “great specs” and so on. Some Manufacturer opted for the next best thing and in recent releases they have been dishing out mini versions of their high end Smartphone which they delightfully called mini versions, Samsung has a long list of mini versions of their flagship units since Galaxy S, but not to be out done, in the case Samsung, it seem to be exploiting every available range of customers they could think of, releasing varieties of smartphones other than the regular flagship and its mini versions. Lately however, Apple seems to recognized this obvious competition, not to mention losing possible customer in a long run, released a tad cheaper version of their latest iPhones. Sony on the other hand had different approach to its flagship mini version as seen on Sony’s Xperia Z1 Compact. While a lot of mini version from Samsung, Apple, LG and many others tend to have a down-grade version of the Flagship. Sony’s Xperia Z1 Compact however is not, except for its size, which I personally think is the proper way to go, same goes with the Xperia ZR though a bit down the notch, but seems to offer no compromise accept for its size. Personally I think mini version should be limited to only its size and should have the same bells and whistles of it original piece. Xperia Z1 Compact is the best example and it only has one fatal flaw, as it sports a non-removable battery. Which I think should be ban in all mobile Communication devices, of course this is just my opinion.
How Odd, The Road To True Octa-Core
Octa-core Processor for mobile devices came in as rumors for then Samsung S4 but when Samsung S4 came out, it turn out to be a combination of 2 quad-cores, ergo according to Samsung they got an octa-core, but this is barely a true blooded octa-core. Samsung says that having two processor will not overly burden the device as compare to a single octa-core processor device. But oddly enough while major global brand seem to guff off or shun octa-core processors to an extent, local brands however manage to dish out true octa-core devices. Like MyPhone’s Infinity, Cherry Mobile’s Cosmos Z2 and Omega Infinity, Starmobile’s Diamond X1 and Octa. Odd thing is that these units cost barely half of what the leading brands offer.
So what give?
Close To Indestructible As Possible.
Ingress Protection
Since the mobile communication wave started, durability in any possible environment is always an issue but few took on the challenge and it never really caught on as a standard for some reason. That was until Smartphones came into the sine and why not smartphones are expensive than your regular featured phone particularly among flagships and the bottom line is you really need to protect your investment, so it’s no surprise the certain industry cater to this niche, and there are plenty of companies that offers such add-ons just to protect your coveted investment. Now however some mobile device manufacturer stride to come up with products that introduces physical protection to its long list of specs sadly not many manufacturers are keen to it. But that may change as companies like Samsung and Sony are already offering ingress protection rating to the very least its flagship smartphones as standard, personally I prefer devices with such specifications though I’m not the outdoor type but I think all mobile communications devices should have a physical degree of protection, after all accidents happen and you really need to protect it. That’s one of the reasons why my first smartphone was defy XT from Motorola as it was the most will protected readily available smartphone back then it should be noted that Samsung had the Galaxy xCover series which seem pretty promising though sadly not available in the Philippines or to say the least I haven’t seen one yet. Sony Ericson had the Xperia active which serve as my 2nd option if Motorola’s Defy XT wasn’t available, which wasn’t the case.
At the beginning of this year I was contemplating on buying another Smartphone with even higher degree of everything possible, so I thought of buying Samsung S4 active but that plan was shrugged when my brother gave me Xperia Z. The Xperia Z is Sony’s first attempt to level the playing field dominated by Apple and Samsung and put its mark as one of the world leading mobile communication device manufacturer and it worked well, experts agree that with Sony’s then latest offering the Xperia Z was its full pledge flagship smartphone that took on Iphone and galaxy S series head on. Like my old Defy XT the Xperia Z has an IP marked and higher than my old moto device, its also a lot bigger and more powerful under the hood, its also the first smartphone to my knowledge that sports back to back glass which give you a fragile impression despite of having been rated IP this unit is not shock proof though which it should be, anyway its now a standard in Sony that all of its flagship smartphone should have an IP Rating. Samsung latest offering the Samsung Galaxy S5 picks up where the Galaxy S4 Active left off. The S5 predecessors the S4 and S4 active put a lot of question on Samsung’s logical way of thinking, as to why can’t they just build one by combining the best quality of both S4 and S4 active. Their latest flagship the Samsung S5 answered the question and Samsung announced that the IP rating will be a standard to all of its future flagship smartphone, pretty much like Sony. Make you wonder if others company like Apple or LG bites on the trend or as song goes another one Bites the Dust.
Rugged And Built Like A Tank
Ingress Protection might become a standard in the coming years but a mobile devices marked as Ingress Protected may not be what most people tough it to be. Personally, I’ve meet people that have a wrong notion regarding IP rated devices and admittedly I too thought that way when I first look at these Smartphones with such ratings, and why not when it was cunningly advertised that way, more or less, certainly some youtube review seem to point that way. But what people should know is that ingress protection rating can be sum up as limited resistant, like resistant to dust and water which is limited to certain depth or time, these are the characteristics of ingress protection but if you really want to go beyond this, you need to go rugged. Rugged smartphones are already available though sadly not in this country. And I would certainly love to buy one if not for a few issues, most rugged smarthphones posses outdated specifications. So basically majority of the full blooded rugged smartphones have the specification of a mid-range phone like JCB Toughphone Pro-Smart or RugGear’s Apex Pro, odd thing about the Apex Pro is that it cost about PhP 30,000+ based on their website, given a choice I’d rather go with Samsung’s latest S5 with better specs and has the same basic IP protection, though not rugged enough but can be easily remedied by buying an add-on to ruggedized the thing. Not to be out done a few companies though not well known came up with crazy combinations for their rugged smartphones like the Runbo x6 which the manufacturer describe as water proof, walkie talkie, phone, NFC, android smartphone with UHF, quiet a mouth full so to speak not to mention the name that sounds like Rambo one can’t really expect less from Chinese manufacturer, other manufacturers add in Mil-STD or military standards to their devices like NAUTIZ X1 and Torque’s Kyocera. Despite their obvious advantage there is a problem with rugged smartphones and that’s the price if you’re not too particular about the specs. But with that being said one can actual “ruggedize” your current smartphone by using rugged accessories available in the market, that is to say if there is one compatible with your unit, as far as I can tell only High end smartphones have compatible rugged accessories in the market.
New Concepts Build Your Own Smartphone
As the flooding continues not too many people noticed that these devices brings more or less what the manufacturers thought consumers want on their smarthphones, but more often consumers buy stamtphone that offer unwanted extras which they don’t actually need or use. Nowadays however people tend to buy the latest smartphones without thinking much of what they bought, which is good if you have a constant flow of funds, despite knowing the fact that in a few months time you’ll be bombarded with new version and the cycle goes on. At times we go for the compromise unit like having the mini version, for practical reasons. Basically, what I’m trying to say is that I cant really buy a smartphone the way I want, because the smartphone I want does not exist, not yet for now.
But what if I can build my own smartphone like the way I build my PC a year ago, wouldn’t that be a nice change? Think of it this way, if you can built a smartphone you chose the stuff you put into you smartphone, if you need better camera, you change the camera with something better and you don’t need to buy an entire new smartphone out in the market today just so you can have a better camera than your current device. Take the processor for example, you have a dual-core processor, and you need to have a more faster processor, the usual modus today is for you to buy a new device with faster processing capability. In this case however you only need to replace your processor to something cooler like a full blooded octa-core, by just replacing a component of your smarthphone, you cut cost and save that well earn money for something important. How is that for a change? Modular smartphone could be the next big thing in mobile communication.
So far there three companies I know who are trying to get into this new concept of Modular Smartphone, two of which came from China while the third is Google know as the Project ARA which is admittedly more exciting than the Chinese modular versions, and though it may take a few months since its announcement and eventual sorting of the final product, it promises to be more exciting than everything going on in mobile communication arena. If successful leading brands today may not be the leading brands for long, saying this it reminded me how the PC and MAC wars and the stagnation of Nokia by sticking to the old feature phones until it was to late.
What is the point of all this ranting.
Basically, nothing and chances are what you’ve read so far you already know.
But surely there might be some kind of point in all of this, Right?
Actually, there are only three points I need to point out and I already mention one.
Second, I need to write something for this month.
Third, is that as the market is swamp by new mobile devices, we as consumers often fall for the trap of the “whats in” , whats hot and whats new and whats not. But in all cases its not what it crack up to be. I gues I should some this up as. When buying a smartphone, think multiple times, weight your options, check your wallet and know your needs and wants and finally check your environment. I think this topic should be the next post on Rants.
