Post CTIA Wireless and the news came, not thick and fast, but in dribs and drabs. Leaks from Sony Ericsson came first, with images of the P5 ‘Paris’ handset dripping out one at a time – seemingly in the hope of creating a big stir for a device not quite as thrilling as the XPERIA X1 – closely followed by long-time rival Nokia and their wannabe iPhone-killer the ‘Tube’. The first handset to use the S60 Touch OS that filled us with such indifference back at MWC, ‘Tube’ is in fact not to be the Finnish company’s flagship but merely a footsoldier first on the scene. Considering by ‘first’ we mean Q1 2009, it might end up a footnote instead.
As for the iPhone itself, the glee of last week’s presumed 3G confirmation courtesy of Walt “godfather of tech” Mossberg turned out to be a relatively damp squib, with Walt telling everyone that, actually, he’s got no insider information and was just theorising like the rest of us. Then we all remembered that we expected the 3G iPhone in June anyway, and none of it really mattered.
Meanwhile, more Android hackery pleased the tweaking masses as first Nokia’s N810 Internet Tablet and then HTC’s TyTN II got a dose of the Google OS. Of course, HTC are too busy counting their money – after reporting an increase of earnings to $1.08bn in the first three months of this year – and preparing for their mysterious special event in London, UK, on May 6th, where rumor has it they’ll be announcing the first official Android device of their own, the Dream. Rest assured, PHONE Mag will be there reporting on the whole event.
New devices that you can actually buy were pretty short on the ground, but we had some exclusive hands-on footage of Velocity Mobile’s 111 and 103 Windows Mobile smartphones (with the 103’s achingly lovely VGA screen doing the company proud) together with a video demo and gallery of the Samsung Access serving up AT&T’s new Mobile TV. Accessory fans also got a sneak preview of the upcoming Aliph Jawbone 2 – slimmer, slicker and still just as corrugated – thanks to the FCC.
I’m almost disappointed at not having any big Motorola news to wrap things up with, so instead I’ll turn to Palm who have neatly filled the “oh lord what is that company doing?!” niche this week with the news that their total losses last quarter amounted to $57m. Of course, it’s not that their range is made up of a well-selling but cheap smartphone and a load of past-their-prime smartphones that pale compared to the latest BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and, oh yes, Apple offerings. It’s the US debt market, stupid, that’s the problem! Expect to hear this excuse trotted out regularly over the next twelve months, as other companies clutch desperately at whichever straw they can.
