Five announcements I'm hoping for at MWC

Zara Rabinowicz column.jpg

Mobile World Congress is here again, and geeksters worldwide are anxiously counting down the days to see what’s new on the mobile scene. I’m very excited- in fact I have even been judging one of the categories, but that doesn’t mean I’m any closer to predicting what we’ll hear when we’re there. Already we’ve been leaked info on the pimped up Tocco, the potential combo of Android meeting Archos and Sony Ericsson’s revelations about similar looking phones in their C905 range. But what would I really like to see revealed- there?

3D phones

We’ve had 3DTV’s, 3D Webcams, so how about the mobile market waking up to the potential of 3D phone calls and mobile content? Considering the whole issue with 3DTV’s is getting the viewing space correct, surely working with such a small frame would limit the loss of vision you get when you step outside the peripheral field? I don’t know if I’d want to chat in 3D but I’d certainly like the novelty of having this option. We’ve seen prototypes spring up in Japan,such as the recently announced Ketai H001, but I’d love to hear news of a UK release date, and one that worked autostereoscopically rather than with 3D glasses.

4G devices

3G this, 3G that, 3G BlackBerry. Yes, I’m glad download speeds have been souped up to such an extent but there’s no denying the words 3G just don’t mean what they used to. We’ve seen 4G devices lurking in the shadows for a while now, but so far there have been no handsets featuring this. We’ve been teased by it becoming available in Shanghai and Russia, but then it disappeared again, and though PR people murmur about it, it doesn’t appear to be on the horizon..yet. Current 3G technology provides around 2Mbps of wireless connection, with 4G purportedly 100Mbps. Well, we can dream…

fennec_logo-150x150.jpgA Firefox Mobile OS

Typical. My column is in its first draft and my concept idea goes and gets announced. Either that makes me wonderfully psychic, or it was obvious they were going to step into the market. Firefox has released an OS called Fennec, which so far is only available for the HTC Touch Pro, but will potentially work on any Windows Mobile phone. I predict followers leaving Windows and surging towards Firefox- but will their new OS be able to live up to our inflated expectations? I want it fully customizable with the same Add-ons we all know and love when using it online.

Motorola to get back into the game

It seems like ages since Motorola have done anything noteworthy. Yes, we know everyone adored the Razr and the Rokr did pretty well, but other than the vastly overpriced Aura they’ve been a little quiet lately. We did like the Motosurf at CES, but we want more from them- we know they can do it!

A mobile with super-long battery life

Yes, battery life may have improved greatly, but I’d like to see a mobile you only need to charge once a week. My device always seems to fail at the least convenient time, so it would be great if they could somehow ramp up your standard Li-on, perhaps by including some solar cells?

Zara Rabinowicz writes for Shiny Shiny and thinks a 3D phone would be fab.

Zara Rabinowicz

2 comments

  • I’m looking forward to Fennec, but cam imagine there being a lot of teething problems and they won’t have be able to cope with the demand!

  • One way to achieve 3D GUIs without autostereoscopic displays is to use eye-tracking. TAT – The Astonishing Tribe (of Android G1 fame) has just released a new concept video that shows the potential impact of eyetracking on mobile UIs.



    Have a look and get inspired!

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