Slashdot Mirror
Rumors of Google and Dell iPhone Rival
An anonymous reader writes "Speculation is mounting that Google is plotting the launch of a mobile phone in partnership with computer giant Dell.
Senior industry sources claim the two companies will reveal their plans at next month's 3GSM telecoms conference in Barcelona, although Google insiders deny an announcement is due in the near future."
Ain't necessarily so.
Specifically, Google has put a lot of weight behind Android. If Google sells an 'own brand' phone - even if it's a Google/Dell own brand phone - then that kills all other Android phones stone dead, because none of the other serious mobile phone vendors will want to be using a competitor's OS. So Google, who aren't stupid, are not going to do this.
This rumour is one of two things:
I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.
Anyone with taste will tell you that experience shows that being tasteful is almost detrimental to the success of anything...
"anything-that-plays-music" is a competitor to the ipod the same way beer is a competitor to wine. you can argue they're diferent classes of beverage, but it doesn't change the fact they're competitors.
just because apple's marketing is way more efficient at creating hype, doesn't change the fact that the iphone has _hundreds_ of competitors that apeal to the "i just want a phone that makes calls" crowd, and bunch of competition on the smartphone area.
one guy here at the office offered me an iphone he brought from US, but i turned it down for a motorola ming, smaller, does everything the iphone does plus more, costs less, there's a lot of homebrew and commercial apps and is not chained to itunes. so yes, the ming IS a competitor. so are the N95, treo, blackbery, etc.
same for the ipod. i only have one because i bought used for less than half the price of a new one, otherwise i would have bought something else.
believe it or not, apple doesn't have a monopoly on cool gadgets.
What ? Me, worry ?
I think most of us would have. Linux has always been gaining ground and improving. While Mac has made a massive comeback by making some real solid tech. MS on the other hand has just sat around making lock out tech and trying to convince everyone that anything MS did not start is a dangerous piece of hippy technology. Saying someone else sucks only works for so long before people start asking questions.
Kind of OT, but could we please stop tagging articles with "whatcouldpossiblygowrong"? Aside from the fact that is stopped being funny after the 2nd or 3rd time, it kind of negates the purpose of having a tag if every single article gets the same tag.
adding a projector into the phone...
as described by Microvision's statement that they are in talks with a major company. Could you imagine a phone with a projector? I sure could... and I want one.
Ummm... wtf? We do the exact same thing here in the US. For example, when my wife needed a replacement Razr (something blew internally), I saved the SIM card and stuck it in an old Nokia we had lying around. My wife continued to use the Nokia until her new Razr arrived. I popped the SIM card in the replacement phone, and she was up and running again.
I made sure to store her phone #s to the SIM card as well, so that she would have them on the other two handsets. I backed the other data up using a USB mini cable, which I was then able to plunk into the new Razr when she got it.
We may be lagging with Japan, but I really don't understand your comparison with Europe.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
You're lying on so many levels. Let us count the ways:
1. iPhone is not available in Japan because it doesn't support wCDMA/EVDO
2. iPhone can't be tethered.
3. iPhone doesn't have 3G.
4. Japan's fastest network maxes out at 2.4Mbs (and is not symmetric: 2.4 down, 144kbps up)
5. Japan doesn't use euros.