Mobile World Congress 2008 - The Incremental Show

so i wasnt the only one that thought something was missing then re my ns and es whatever post in the forum!

Although it didn't warrant much of a mention on AAS I thought the story that DID get the whole show talking was the announcement by SE of a Windows Mobile phone - and a nice looking piece of kit too.

Personally, I don't think it's as significant as some are making out. As SE themselves have said, they are basically responding to feedback for the North American business sector. It isn't going to be a big seller. It won't be a major part of their portfolio. They just want a foothold in that market segment and their UIQ devices weren't doing it. They aren't even making it themselves.

But it did seem to be the announcement everyone was talking about.

I did actually comment before the show that I couldn't see where the "next big thing" was going to come from.

We've had hi res screens, we've had GPS, we've had touchscreeens, huge amounts of storage etc.

I can't really see what's left to add to a mobile phone? The FM transmitter thing looks like being quite useful but hardly a biggy. Maybe the smartphone world has finally matured and we are just going to see small, incremental improvements for a while, rather than huge leaps forward?

I also find funny how you guys managed to ignore the biggest news on the show - the SE X1, and this article is just another example.

You tend to talk alot of the iphone, although it also is not Symbian, and sometimes you mention some winmo devices. However, this time you choose to ignore completely something than can be so important in the smartphone world...

AAS is getting more and more biased everyday..... 😞

AAS is All About Symbian, not All-About-Symbian-and-Windows-Mobile-just-for-good-measure, so no, it's not being biased to not mention a phone which runs Windows.

Although, granted, the SE X1 probably was the biggest talking point of the show.

Mobile World Congress 2009 certainly hasn't been a washout

Should read 2008....

As for AAS being biased, I like a Symbian site to focus on Symbian phones

Yep, this site is very Nokia it must be all those free phones these dudes get. I agree the X1 looks nice even though it is really an HTC device. Nokia just churn out the same old song over and over. By the way I use a E51 and N82, just thought I would get this in before the storm. Having said that I do fancy a breath of fresh air. The N96, yet another rehash. As pointed out all will have to wait till 2009.

I don't see why a Symbian site would report on a Windows Mobile device, even if it was the biggest news of the show. I was merely pointing out that, when it was mentioned that there wasn't one "big" story that this didn't seem entirely true as most tech websites seemed to have locked onto the launch of a WM device by SE.

Of course, I wasn't at Barcelona (dead jealous!) so it could be no-one THERE was talking about it. But that wasn't the impression from the outside.

I think that Femto cells were the big talk of the show ... After a lot of announcements, finally there were real products shipping real soon, and that means better indoor or company-wide 3G-coverage after all.

There is something to be said to refine a product before building another layer on it. Improved Li-On battery capacity is around the corner, hardware with HD-video support is already here, 3D graphics are established but mostly unused. Software design patterns to develop origami like user-interfacing exist. But time is needed to permeate all layers of a design and convert classical thinking into new directions. To turn a tentative approach into a desparate plunge to reach the other side first.

The Sony Ericsson may look sexy, but:

1) it wasn't THAT big a story in the grand scheme of things
2) it's largely a concept device, running a version of Windows Mobile that's not even finalised yet and with very little of the interface finished. It won't be in shops until at least 2009, you mark my words
3) as others have said, it's nothing whatsoever to do with the focus of this site 8-)

Steve

Please guys...AAS is talking about the iphone ALL THE TIME...its the iphone running Symbian???????

On other hand, does the fact that SE, the second biggest player in Symbian world after Nokia, decided to make a smartphone not with Symbian UIQ but with WM, not worth mention on AAS???

Cmon...what kind of news site is this??? Again...

And again...the freakin iphone is mentioned all over the place, even in this article...be SERIOUS

All the major news sites talked about the x1....it was on top of digg.com for sometime, etc...hardly a non-issue

I can't see anything wowish in Sony-Ericsson X1...
IMHO some ppl are trying very hard to make it something its not.

Can't.... resist..... defending..... the site.......

8-)

The iPhone is the device that has shaken up the entire industry like it's never been shaken before. Which is why we often mention it in passing.

The Sony Ericsson X1 is a concept Windows Mobile device that only breaks ground because of who makes it. The Toshiba G900 has all the same features, and form factor. And had it a year ago. The X1's pretty, but not special.

The X1/XPeria is really nothing special technically, the only thing nice about it is the screen resolution and size which Nokia could learn from. Windows Mobile is a major drawback, being bloated, buggy, and inefficient. Just like all Microsoft's other software. So, it's got a qwerty keyboard, so what? The touch aspect is not WinMo, it's custom stuff Sony are building on top. All in all, Nokia will produce something much better, sooner. Still at least the X1 will keep Microsoft fanboys happy for a little while longer 😊

SonyEricsson is clueless, I guess they rebranded a HTC manufactured device.

I have to say AAS could have mentioned the X1 mainly because it's going to be sold by a company that's been there from the beginning of Symbian and is the biggest UIQ phone producer (even if UIQ is cr*p).

The G900 had all the features of the X1 apart from:
- good size
- good looks
- additional finger friendly front screen controls
- Oh and WinMo 6.1 is hopefully less buggy (especially if the phone is made by HTC who should be able to get the drivers right - the G900 had a lot of bugs).

What Nokia should learn from it:
- SLIDE OUT KEYBOARD!!! Of all the form factors Nokia introduced why not add one that WinMo owners LOVE - I bought an N95 in March last year because I got sick of being a beta tester [if you know what I mean] but the one thing I miss is the keyboard (no the E90 is too big).
- better resolution for internet browsing (I think iPhone users browse the internet more because of the screen size, not necessarily a better browser).

About S60 Touch:
- I think the addition of basic pen input would be better than nothing. Make it a feature pack and let the consumers choose. Then make it better by adding features in updates and future phones.

I agree with the mentioned comments about AAS being An iPhone loving Nokia Biased.

I'm disappointed about not even mentioning the X1 which was the spot light of the show, even though it aint any of a revolution, but we should mention that its a big new that its the first SE device implementing WIN Mobile, SE which is a major player in manufacturing Symbian UIQ devices, also its a very challenging device to the Nokia's flagship phone.

so what if its not symbian " that was such a funny excuse " , No great special features "thats an even funnier excuse" my god its better than the iPhone which is jumping all around AAS. "which i don't mind telling us about it but also try to mention other challenging phones such as X1" unless fear the challenge the union of the "SE and WinMob"

Although i love AAS and do keep on following it, the AAS should also talk about other challenging devices and compare it to symbian flagships phone such as Nokia's flagships, therefore i believe that AAS would turn to be the most ultimate website for us to follow the top end gadgets of time being, with a little more concerns on Symbian since its AAS.

I would have to start by saying that news and other stuff from AAS is always interesting read. I have followed this site for a long time and have appreciated the comments regarding phones, albeit sometimes you feel the bias for S60.

While it may be true that SE has seemingly lagged behind in terms of development of both the UIQ and the other SE phones, it still remains a solid brand in terms of design and useability. I cannot forget how many times the flagship phones of Nokia have been reviewed and branded as "best phone" by your reviewers, only for them to realize after a few months of actual consumer usage that there a real and BIG problems with the phones. Mind you I am tired of the Nokia phones either hanging or encountering major issues (N90, N73, N95, E90, etc.). I have tried them in real world and I would say you guys do manage to miss the mark too. Oh, and it did amuse me to see how AAS literally was stunned by the UI of the iPhone (after everyone pooh pood the device prior to launch).

But this is not to say that SE is better than Nokia. It's just that we have to have some real sense of fairness whenever we deal with SE and other brands. With that said, I would like some real insights from AAS on the XPERIA X1 as I believe you guys know a lot about phones than us ordinary consumers.

Before everyone hangs me, I would have to end by saying that I am currently using an E90 and the iPhone. It seems that this combination is the best compromise with each one building on each other to afford me a complete package of business enterprise and multimedia possibilities. But still I would love to just have in one phone a huge screen (that's the iPhone), passable camera, organizer, e-mail (with capacity to view powerpoint and excel charts please) and a good phone receiver. And from the looks of it, the X1 simply claims all these. We will just have to see how the SE tackles the issues with WinMo that we, ordinary consumers, have seen in the real world.

Good day mate!

I really don't get it. If you think AAS is biased, why do you take the time to write comments on this site?

As for the X1, it's just a niche product (aimed at business users and/or the US market). And I must agree with Steve, we probably won't see it until 2009. So why it created such a fuss on some sites during the MWC is beyond me. Maybe because it was one of the few 'new' things, as Nokia is said not to have innovated enough, and so on...

And I think SE chose the easy path here. An OS that needs no developing from them, and a device presumably manufactured by HTC (which are probably also the ones behind the customized WM interface - btw, they're also prepping TouchFLO 2). Yes, it looks nice, and yes, the resolution is ok (it's actually not at all 'new', being used in Japan for a while now).

It's nice to see a bigger brand with a WM product, but seriously...All About SYMBIAN is biased in not reporting about a WM device? Really??!

I'm a total S60 Fanboy and quite happy with AAS reporting but that's not what I want to comment about.

WMC 2008 has been a huge disappointment for me. I was really hoping for some groundbreaking announcements. The N96 was pretty big but, being more of an E kinda guy, I'm feeling decidedly short changed. Where's the FP2--16GB--5Mpix--E(91?)???

I very much doubt you'll see anything E9x based this year. I think that its going to be more about midrange E series (presuming there is some).

I am interested in seeing what they release, it might even have soemthing that could turn me towards the E series.

Hey, I took the time to write to AAS as I thought people were sensible enough to read an honest opinion about the site.

I would reiterate that I find AAS an insightful read as it is, to my mind, the most knowledgeable site for Symbian. Now, I also doubt if you can find any site that is totally unbiased about anything. To me, anything Symbian worth the news can and have always been found in AAS. I credit the writers about the depth of discussion and analysis of news and other stuff. In fact I have based my purchase of phones on AAS site news and have often found the analysis spot on, save for some (not so nice) revelations in real world usage.

I am biased for Symbian even though there is some catching up in terms of WM based programs I would love to have. A lot of stuff come from State side, so it may take some time before Symbian can have the same amount of stuff that WM or even Palm has (now don't get me wrong as I find the Palm OS dated and irrelevant already).

As I have always been an loyal user of the Nokia communicator series (all of them in fact - just shows you I AM BIASED for the series), I would like to see some comparison of the E90 versus the X1, as the other sites do make the point that it is positioned versus the communicator series (a mistake of SE perhaps).