I’ve just stepped back into the house after a little trip to London for the MoDaCo event. The day went very well with lots of excellent sessions from Microsoft and Orange plus games from Astraware and give-aways galore! I’d have to say this was probably the best event I’ve attended, it was at the Orange offices in Paddington and we all got to see some very big surprises. All the usual HTC devices were on show however Orange displayed a truck-load of new Windows Mobile devices. Sure, we’d expected to see the Orange SPV M3100 and C700, but Orange also showed off a few devices we weren’t expecting.
Read on for the full report!
THAT flip-phone, the Smartflip, the Star Trek, the StrTrk, whatever you want to call it, was given another name – the Orange SPV F600. Yes, it was on display. Whether we’ll see it here in the UK I’m not sure, but it had all the usual marketing gumph surrounding it and could’ve been put straight into an Orange shop without much of a problem.
A new kid was on the block too – the Orange SPV C100. This is squarely aimed at the “normal” user. At first glance I didn’t think much of it – the low-res (176×220) screen wasn’t a good starting point but then…. then I remembered something I said a while back…
Let me explain – you see most people reading this are what’s called “advanced” users. Some of you may know about how to use Exchange with you device, or how install CAB files, or how to add shortcuts, email, rename files on your phone or tweak the registry. However, there’s a vast untapped market out there – people who just want “a phone” – something that’ll make calls, send texts and do picture messages from time to time. Sure, you’ll want that extra functionality there to try out like web-browsing, ringtone changing, background editing and so on – users may not use them all, they may use them a bit or they may just go on to use them quite a lot indeed. The functionality is there ready for them and – at the end of the day – they’re using Windows Mobile.
The C100 has a new SIM+ card in the back too – the first and only device I’ve seen it on. It gives the user 128Mb of space without the worry of getting the right SD/MiniSD card. It’s not designed as a replacement for the regular memory card but rather as an added bonus for “regular” users who’ll then be able to get added content on their C100 without getting the “device full” message straight away. Phone numbers and details are stored in vCard format – not the “One name, one number”-style featured in regular SIM cards
The Samsung i320 also put in an appearance. Except – it’s not strictly just an i320. Yep it’s now been announced that the i320 we saw is in fact the Samsung Blackjack. I’d heard about this a couple of months back but unfortunately I couldn’t talk about it. It’s a 3G capable device with a forward facing camera for video calling and a rocker control pad. Again I can’t say how close this is to release but it is very thin indeed and the screen is bright and crisp. The OS had been tweaked to take advantage of the QWERTY keyboard and the scroll-wheel worked well.
Whatever way you look at it, the next few months should prove to be extremely exciting for Windows Mobile.
Oh, oh, and everybody who attended got one of these….
Note – Additional photos from here at MoDaCo.com (Sporkguy / © Nick Brickett Photography 2006)