Disqus
I wrote an article a week ago about trends that are going to be seen at MWC, but which in isolation don’t matter – essentially I was saying technology for the sake of technology does not a good Mobile make!
I touched up touchscreens, memory, and camera megapixels as three “measures” of devices these days, that when maxed out, should propel (according to much tech bumpf) the handset to super-stardom.
Well now the dust of MWC has settled, and I’ve had time to digest the handsets that appeared – it’s pretty much the same story, only perhaps with addition of:
- Screen size - yep, that diagonal measurement in inches (!) seems to matter a lot to device vendors. Sure, stuff lots of pixels in there too, but make the screen MASSIVE. Hell, make it so big you can block out the sun when you hold the device to your ear!
- Video handling – again comes the year that video playback could be the “big thing” – well with Mobile devices that can record in “HD” (I’ll believe that when I see it [the quality]), it apparently is a very important thing…
But again, all of this is for nought if the User Experience is shocking. I’ve watched a stack of handset demo videos that various people have shot over the last few days, and my overriding feeling was one of half-baked Ux, compounded in some cases by a series of really juddery GFX on things like screen transitions.
But what say you, readership? Were you enthused by the Mobile Tech on offer? Do you care that one handset has got a really fast chipset, or that another has got more than 10 Megapixels in it’s camera?
Maybe you do, maybe you don’t. My MacBook Pro has TWO graphics cards, and a multi-touch trackpad – but they’d be nothing without the User Experience that comes with using it. Methinks some vendors at least have lost sight of Ux, in search of more silicon in their devices…
About The Author
Ben Robinson
Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.
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