When the Nokia N82 came out I heard a lot of people, N95 owners in particular, say that even though the shiny monoblock offers no significant new features, the sole fact that it is a candy bar was enough reason to pick it up. As someone who was given a Nokia N95 as a present, let me reassure you that even I would have never considered purchasing the device soley for the reason that I don’t like the slide form factor.
The logic is simple: I’ve always owned what the industry likes to call a candybar; they typically have increased build quality, are smaller and have fewer moving parts which can only mean fewer things to break. A majority of the devices Nokia sells are candybars.
Japan on the other hand is different. KDDI recently released their Spring 2008 collection and one form factor recently caught my eye and immediately won a spot in my heart. From this point on I’ll call this form factor mobiletron, analogous to the 80’s cartoon Transformers.
Mobiletron places a strong emphasis on the screen. While we’ve been struggling with 320 x 240 pixels in Europe for what feels like 3 years now, the Japanese have had 800×480 displays for a year. Mobiletron mimics clamshells in the sense that you need to flip open the device to use it. What separates Mobiletron from the clamshell form factor however is the fact that the screen can rotate much like a tablet pc does and lay flat on the keypad enabling a rich video viewing experience. The input mechanism of Mobiletron is a regular old T9 keypad, but thanks to the clam shell properties the buttons are large and there is even enough space to have dedicated application keys.
To understand why Mobiletron is popular in Japan you have to understand their usage habits. In 2005 Japan set a precedent by having more people access the internet on their mobile phones than on personal computers. These large 3 inch screens with their gargantuan resolutions and are protected from scratches and falls by a T9 keypad encourage the consumption of information. The Mobiletron form factor enables larger buttons and therefore you’re seeing an entire generation of authors who have written a novel on their mobile phone and published their work onto the internet for other Mobiletron users to read.
It is said that to see where the wireless industry is headed you just have to look to the east. While we don’t cover too much of what happens in Japan, mainly because their ecosystem is vastly different and incompatible with our reader base and the small fact that none of us can read Japanese, we’re not blind to the technical marvels that get produced in that small island nation.
Why are we in Europe lagging so far behind? Will the iPhone form factor begin to dominate?
I certainly hope not, but I’ve already begun mining for energon in Finland with little success.
Update: Oh and the Mobiletron I’m talking about, there are a few models, but if you want to see the one that peaks my interest check out the Sharp SH905i.