iPhone killer

A sleek steel body, a blackberry-like QWERTY keyboard, 3-inch VGA screen, multiple-panels, and loads of other features, that’s Sony Xperia X1, the new mobile phone from Sony Ericsson, its answer to the likes of iPhone and Nokia N96. But priced at Rs45,500 or roughly half a lakh, will this product find takers? Anil Sethi, President, Sony Ericsson India argues that it’ll, because of the value proposition it offers.

But if the recent experience of the much-hyped Apple iPhone is anything to go by, the road ahead will not be easy. The company did not spell out how many units of the Xperia it plans to sell, but it is optimistic. The company will be selling the phone through its premium stores.

So what’s unique about the phone? Ramanath Bhat, the man behind the phone, says it’s the pre-loaded panels. There are 9-interactive panels which sit on the touchscreen interface of the phone. “I’m doing business now, home now, the phone doesn’t adapt. We’re doing panels now. Whatever you’re doing, you can set the panel. It’s the ability for user to change the user interface of their mobile phone based on how they lead their mobile life. It’s not being addressed by any of our competitors; it’s the first time the user interface power is given to the user”.

Another Mobile Samsung :

To hear Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer talk about Samsung Electronics’ new upgraded smart phone, T*Omnia, Korean consumers will soon get the mother of all smart phones on the planet. “The T*Omnia is at the forefront of this new generation of mobile devices,” declared Ballmer at a Seoul ceremony unveiling the phone on Nov. 3. “I like the T*Omnia phone because it brings together communications, productivity, multimedia, and entertainment in a way that meets the needs of both consumers and mobile professionals.”

The T*Omnia, an upgraded version of the Samsung Omnia that has been available in Asia and Europe for more than two months, will be introduced only in the Korean market from around Nov. 20 by SK Telecom, Korea’s largest mobile carrier. It certainly offers more features than the iPhone. It includes mobile TV and 5-megapixel camera with auto focus and image stabilizer as well as Microsoft Outlook, Wi-Fi, GPS, fast Internet access through 7.2-megabaud per second HSDPA and Bluetooth support. But the real reason why Ballmer speaks highly of the phone is that it runs on Window Mobile 6.1 to allow users to swap any Window-based files seamlessly with their PCs.

Samsung is negotiating with a U.S. carrier with an aim to roll out the phone in America by the end of this month. But it is not clear wether U.S. consumers will have access to the upgraded phone or its old version, which has a slightly smaller touch screen with lower resolution. The new version has a 3.3-inch LCD (versus a 3.2-inch screen) with a much higher 800X480 resolution (versus the earlier 400X200).