Latest Models Aim to Raise Users’ Must-Have Quotient
Several new smart phones are on the horizon with the aim of unseating the current two-in-one leaders.
The Samsung I300 will be available through Sprint PCS this month, and it’s expected to cost about $500. Although made by a firm big in phones, it looks like a hand-held with its large vertical screen and no keypad for the phone function. It uses the Palm operating system and has a stunning color screen that will be a joy if it doesn’t suck too much juice from the battery.
In November, LG InfoComm will launch the LG/TM910, an improved version of its earlier smart phone, the LG3000.
Highlights of the TM910 include analog capability for coverage backup, the ability to handle data at 144 kilobits per second when the networks are ready to offer it, e-mail with images and support for Bluetooth technology to dispense with headset cords, etc. It still uses LG’s proprietary operating system, so it won’t sync with most third-party organizing software.
Nokia also is planning to sell a U.S. version of its Communicator phone (Nokia model 9290 here), which has been available overseas for some time. The device is rectangular and opens like a hot-dog bun to reveal a generous-size keyboard and color display screen.
It works on the Symbian operating system, but is capable of doing some editing and viewing of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents. It comes with an amazing 18 megabytes of user memory that can be upgraded to 66 MB. Nokia’s smart phone will cost $700 or more when it arrives in this country next year. It’s unclear which U.S. carriers will sell it, but it will work on networks run by Cingular and VoiceStream.
Further into the future, this country might see some smart phones using Microsoft’s Stinger platform, an operating system related to the PocketPC platform, but built for the limitations of a smart phone. It’s been licensed to Samsung, Mi-tsubishi and overseas phone maker Sendo, but so far no one’s talking up a U.S. entry.
*
Elizabeth Douglass covers the telecommunications industry. She can be reached at elizabeth.douglass@latimes.com .
