A few vendors of mobile devices are dropping hints of new handsets making their debut at the Cebit trade show in Hanover, Germany next week, and the selection includes phones that pack even more features, like megapixel digital cameras and multimode connections, into ever-smaller devices with ever-longer battery lives.
Most of the new handsets being launched at Cebit will target existing Global System for Mobile Communications and General Packet Radio Service networks. Handsets designed for new third-generation (3G) networks remain few.
Imaging is playing big in many of the new mobile phone launches at the show, which officially opens March 18 and closes March 24.
New Camera Phones
The German subsidiary of Vodafone Group is introducing one of the industry's first mobile phones with an integrated megapixel CCD camera. The camera, Sharp's GX30, offers a resolution of 858 by 1.1 megapixels.
Other new features include an internal, 18-bit color display that can show up to 262,000 colors--four times the quality of the GX20--and support for both Bluetooth and infrared. The phone measures 3.8 by 1.96 by 1 inches and weighs 3.5 ounces. Its battery gives users up to 200 minutes of talk time and 220 hours of standby time.
Not to be outdone on the pixel front, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications is unveiling its new S700 phone, with an integrated 1.3-megapixel CCD digital camera and a 2.3-inch 262K TFT color screen. The triband GSM-GPRS phone also features a new swivel-opening design to support all types of functions--whether making a call, writing a text message, browsing the Net, or taking a picture. The handset, which measures 4.3 by 1.9 by 3.8 inches, is scheduled to ship in the fourth quarter.
Sony Ericsson is also launching the K700 camera phone with a lower-resolution camera. In addition to the new camera phones, Sony Ericsson is showing a new connector device that lets users send images and audio from their mobile phones to TV sets and digital projectors. The MMV-100, which plugs directly into the TV set or projector, connects to mobile phones via wireless Bluetooth technology. Users can transfer content from their phones to these larger screens by simply pressing a button.
Hoping to capitalize on the trend toward mobile devices with integrated high-end digital cameras, Koninklijke Philips Electronics is demonstrating a variable-focus lens system that can focus on objects and create sharp pictures in ways similar to the human eye. The new lens doesn't require mechanical moving parts--which are still used even in high-end digital cameras--but works instead by manipulating two fluids in a tiny transparent tube.
Here's how it works: When the sides of the tube are charged with a small electric current, one of the two fluids is drawn to the edges while the other fluid fills up the remaining space in the tube. The place where the two fluids meet functions like a lens. By changing the current, the fluid lens can be shaped hollow, curved, or anything in between, allowing it to focus on objects that are far away or within fractions of inches.
Ideal for small mobile devices, the fluid lens measures .12 inches in diameter by .088 inches in length. It consumes virtually zero power.
Multitasking Handsets
Siemens Mobile, the wireless division of Siemens, is preparing a prototype phone in the shape of a pen that lets users write letters and numbers on any surface and enter the data directly into the device. The PenPhone is aimed largely at heavy users of Short Message Service, who today face the tedious task of keying in messages manually by pressing buttons for each character.
The PenPhone features handwriting-recognition technology, in addition to standard features of a GSM mobile phone. It can recognize whatever letters or numbers a person writes on any surface, translating the handwritten words or numbers directly into an SMS, which appears on the display. The device is 5.6 inches long with a diameter of .76 inches.
Nokia plans to highlight a product launched in February at the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes, a company spokesperson says. The Communicator 9500 is one of the first mobile phones to support Wi-Fi connectivity. The triband GSM phone will support the 802.11b Wi-Fi standard, as well as Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution, or EDGE, and GPRS data communications technology. It runs on the Nokia Series 80 software platform, which is based on the Symbian operating system.
Echoes From Cannes
As for third-generation handsets, remarks made by two of the industry's leading players at the recent 3GSM World Congress indicate European consumers may have to wait a bit longer to use the new high-speed mobile service.
At the conference, Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin said his company, Europe's largest mobile operator, will not be able to roll out 3G to the masses until 3G phones are as good as the 2G and 2.5G ones used by millions of customers today. Sarin said 3G handsets currently available on the market are too bulky, get too hot, and have a short battery life.
Hitting back at accusations that inferior phones were holding up the launch of next-generation networks, Jorma Ollila, Nokia president and CEO, said in Cannes that the world's largest mobile phone maker has suffered from a "chicken-and-egg" situation: It has to wait for carriers to build enough stable networks before it can test its devices adequately.
So visitors shouldn't expect to find many, if any, new 3G phones launched in Hanover. But then again, competitive markets are always good for surprises.
