iPhone to face Motorola’s “unbelievable video capabilities” mobile phone
By Ruben Francia
Apple’s iPhone, which is due out next month, will face strong competition from Motorola as its set to unveil next week a mobile phone with “unbelievable video capabilities”.
Speaking at the Software 2007 conference in Silicon Valley, Motorola Chairman and CEO Edward Zander described the device as a media monster with unbelievable video capabilities. He said it would show 30 frames-a-second, full-motion video, having an SD card slot for storing media. However, He declined to provide other details.
Nonetheless, Zander explained that phones such as these meant that Apple would have to react to Motorola’s strategy, rather than force a change. Motorola was already heavily invested in making phones increasingly relevant outside of calling alone, he said.
When asked how the company is preparing for the iPhone’s debut, he said, “I think it’s going to, in some cases, reinforce what we have been trying to do and are doing with the mobile Internet.”
iPhone and Motorola’s mobile phone are seen to stimulate the overall market for feature-rich mobile devices. Applications such as multimedia and video and pictures and music are going to happen on these devices.
He believed that the future of computing is on mobile, connected devices rather than on traditional desktop PCs.
PC-like features are being ported over to cell phones with increasing frequency, pushing the phone down the same path that led to the PC’s dominant role in home and office technology, Zander said. “We’re making a bet that what happened to PCs will happen to these (smart phones).”
Apple aims to ship 10 million iPhones next year, targeting the same market for phones with e-mail, cameras and music players Zander is after. Their sales may grow 43 percent this year, to almost $6 billion in the US alone, according to researcher Strategy Analytics.
The new device would initially be targeted at the European market, where faster, so-called “third generation” (3G) networks are more widely available than in Motorola’s home US market.
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