We had a very eventful week in the mobile world, as we saw a bunch of new hardware, cool new programs and a few surprises. Microsoft’s introduction of the Kin devices was the biggest story of the week until Verizon Wireless introduced the hot Droid Incredible. Apple, Palm, and Sony Ericsson also made some waves. Read on after the jump for a thorough breakdown for the last few days.
Oh hai, Droid Incredible
It wasn’t super unexpected, but Verizon finally introduced the Droid Incredible this week and the Android-powered handset looks like a winner. It has a large 3.7-inch WVGA capacitive screen, Android 2.1 with Sense UI, 8-megapixel camera, WiFi, 3G, and all the other goodies you’d expect from a device like this. It’s only going to cost $200 with a new, two-year contract and it does look like the cream of the Android crop – at least until the EVO 4G hits.
Is it worth switching carriers for? Our resident Android-head Blake has a Nexus One on T-Mobile and pondered this question in a post.
If you’re sporting a feature phone, and you want to get your very first smartphone, I’d say, sure you should definitely consider the Incredible. If you’re on T-Mobile (NYSE: DT), and you just got the Nexus One, there shouldn’t be too much reason to switch. Why? Because there’s really not much incentive. There’s a lot to lust after with the Incredible, but it’s just not enough.
The handset drops near the end of the month and I have a sneaking suspicion we’ll have a thorough review up pretty darn soon.
Microsoft’s Kin handsets
Microsoft brought out the hip this week with the introduction of the Kin 1 and 2. These touch-screen devices are aimed at users who can’t go five seconds without contacting friends via e-mail, text or social messaging. Both handsets have NVIDIA’s Tegra 1 chipset, a capacitive touchscreen and Zune software for the media. The Kin 1, which was code-named “Turtle,” kind of looks like the Palm Pre with its small, sliding form factor. The Kin 2 is more of your typical sliding QWERTY device, but it sports a whopping 8-megapixel camera that can record video and it has double the amount of internal storage.
So, what makes these things so social? Well, I’m really pumped about the Kin Studio, which automatically uploads all your photos and videos to the cloud. According to Will Park, there’s also:
The “Spot” feature is allows you to share content easily by dragging web pages, photos, etc. to the little green spot at the bottom in the middle. You can shoot content over to people directly, or onto Facebook and other social networks (Myspace, Microsoft Live). Finally, the “Loop” home screen is peppered with live information from your friends’ Facebook, your news feeds and Twitter updates, so you can see what’s happening at a glance.
It’s an interesting play for Microsoft because the feature phone market is still pretty big and this gives the company something to do with Danger. I’m just questioning how big the market is for social-networking heavy young folk that don’t want a smartphone. Check out our hands-on videos of both devices.
New iPhone coming in June?
We got word that Apple has booked a conference center in San Francisco and this just paves the way for the introduction of the next iPhone. We also heard that AT&T is not letting customers take vacation for certain periods in June, which was how it operated during the releases of the previous iPhone handsets.
BFD, you say? I have a feeling Apple’s really going to knock it out of the park with this hardware upgrade because it has to. The Droid Incredible is, well, incredible and many other devices make the iPhone 3GS look like old stuff. I’m hoping for a bigger, better screen, beefed up WiFi, a 5-megapixel camera, front-facing camera, and a few more surprises.
What say you, dear IntoMobile readers? What do you absolutely need in the next iPhone upgrade?
Opera Mini, Palm’s for sale and Sony Ericsson makes a profit
In a bit of a surprise, Apple approved the Opera Mini browser for the iPhone this week and the app has been very well-received around the world. As you can see from the video above, the main advantage is that Opera’s server-side technology means your browsing may be faster than with Safari. I’ve played with the Mini browser a bit on the iPod Touch and, while I like the browser competition, I don’t think I’ll be switching anytime soon. I just don’t like the way it auto-zooms and text is just a little wonky.
Pass that hat around to enough people and you just may have enough cash to buy poor struggling Palm. The company has reportedly put itself up for sale this week because the phoenix-like rise of webOS never seemed to happen. What would you be buying? The company buying Palm would get a decent brand, the excellent webOS and a litany of patents in an increasingly litigious space. Rumors are that HTC, Lenovo, Motorola or even Huawei may snap up the company and most analysts predict it will cost at least a billion – a lot more if there’s a bidding war, obviously. We’ll watch this one closely, folks.
In a solid sign of an economic turnaround, Sony Ericsson posted its first profitable quarter in nearly two years. Shutting down plants and laying off employees sure helped the company make $28.4 million, but the average selling price per handset went up $18 from the year before. I’m not too bullish on the Vivaz Pro, X10 Mini, and X10 Mini Pro, so Sony Ericsson should enjoy this while it lasts.
Weekend time friends
Feel free to check out the review of the Motorola Cliq XT I wrote – there are some interesting things in that handset, although it failed to truly wow me. Might as well use this to pimp my Twitter – @marinperez = and follow @IntoMobile for all the hot scoops. If you haven’t noticed yet, we continue to bust our humps over the weekend, so keep it tuned here.