Our newest sibling site, NokiaExperts.com has linked up an article suggesting Nokia and Verizon’s previous iClonic efforts were just generations one, and now they’re preparing to transform and merge into… A Nokizon (Verkia?) uber-iPhone killer?
It seems that Verizon may have deep hard feelings against the Apple and iPhone exclusivity deal and appears to be making a deal with Nokia to create a 4G LTE (long term evolution) touchscreen device for the US market.
The backstory here is that Apple reportedly went to Verizon first with the iPhone and was rejected, so despite the recent rumors (and Verizon’s rather sad little surveys), there’s no reason to think Apple will be helping them out any time soon, hence… Vernokiazon?
No word on specs or release dates or whether it will have phaser functionality and arrive on unicorns or anything yet, but in all seriousness, Nokia puts out amazing specs (see the n97) and Verizon has a great network, so is it possible that whatever they put out could join the Android G1, BlackBerry Storm, WinPho 6.5/7, and the Palm Pre in the long list of “iPhone Killers”.
[NokiaExperts.com via TheStreet, thanks to The Reptile for the tip!]
CrackBerry.com is reporting that BlackBerry maker RIM has finally settled on a name for their version of the App Store: App World.
See, it’s not a place to buy applications, it’s a planetary system where apps spawn and live SIM lives, and… argh. Who knows?
RIM is expected to spin it ’round their sun some time tonight. Given that BlackBerry’s can only store applications on the tiny sliver of internal RAM left after the OS and filesystem have taken their share (estimated to be 50-100 megs as opposed to 7-15GB on the iPhone), it’s likely to be a small, small App World after all.
To be fair (not that we want to remove our tongue from our cheek any time soon), RIM has to respond to the App Store, just like Google did with Android Market, Nokia is doing with the Ovi Store and Microsoft is doing with SkyMarket, and Palm will do with the Pre. Apple has again changed the game, and if the other players can’t out-innovate, to keep up they must at least replicate.
So, anyone going trade in their iPhone Apps and run back to RIM come launch time?
Smartphone Experts’ always-on-the-go editor-in-chief Dieter Bohn is in Spain and on the floor, ready to send us back any and all news from Mobile World Congress this week. Of course, Apple isn’t there, and most general-purpose smartphone shows are pretty happy to pretend the iPhone doesn’t exist, so while we won’t see anything in the way of new hardware or firmware, we have heard some rumors about pretty big software announcements. (Hint: rhymes with socs2go).
For those interested in what the competition is iCloning doing, keep an eye on these Mobile World Congress sections of PreCentral (including GSM Pre!), WMExperts (including the Touch Diamond 2 and Pro 2), Android Central (pending), and Nokia Experts (pending).
See anything that should make Apple nervous?
Yep, they’re not just iClone’ing phones anymore. The App Store is on everyone’s must rip list, and what else? It rhymes with iPhone and works a lot like MobileMe…
According to WMExperts, it’s Microsoft’s new My Phone (née SkyBox).
Okay, so the name re-un-de-breaks Microsoft’s usually mind-boggling branding — we’re guessing it harkens back to My Computer and My Documents of yore — and including not only PIM data but text messages, photos, videos, and device backup, is something we’d really like to see in the next version of MobileMe.
Our own editor-in-chief, Dieter Bohn, will be live and on location in Barcelona for Mobile World Congress, so we expect he’ll send back all the details, but with everyone at Microsoft already using Exchange (heck, even Apple licenses it!) we have to wonder where My Phone fits in, what if any similar features ActiveSync might get as a result, and why it is exactly Microsoft insists on producing so many products with more overlap than a hair weave?
Posted on Monday, Jan 19, 2009 by Rene Ritchie
File Under:News; Tags: app store, iclones, mobileme, skybox, skyline, skymarket, windows mobile, windows mobile 6.5, winmo
Welcome to 2009, where Microsoft will — at some point later this year or next — release versions of what Apple released in 2008!
Our frenemies over at WMExperts have the details, and we have the snide remarks:
SkyMarket looks to be the App Store done Microsoft’s way. Does that mean each app will ship in Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, Really Professional, Ultimate, and 8 more server SKU’s?
SkyBox, which if MobileMe is “Exchange for the rest of us”, makes SkyBox “MobileMe for the same of you?”. We can only guess it’s a repackaging of Hosted Exchange and Live! services, so join in on the Sync Toy/Live Sync/Live Mesh/Azuze MPD-brandfusion. It will, reportedly, run on non-WinMo devices (which is actually a Very Nice Thing).
SkyLine, either a business version of SkyBox(!) or a Mobile clone of iDisk, depending on who’s reading the tea leaves.
Microsoft, like RIM, Google, and Palm have to go in this direction. Apple opened a floodgate with the AppStore, no doubt about it, so while we poke some friendly fun, we also hope this gives Apple more competition, like the new Palm Pre, so that Apple has to up their game and give us iPhone faithful more functionality faster than we might otherwise get.
Anyone racing to pick up an HTC FUZE and try it out?
Android Central (via Gizmodo) brings us the latest in a long — long — line of… er… iPhone inspired smartphones. This one, however, will be running the Google mobile OS:
The OPhone is 1mm bigger than the original iPhone, has a dedicated camera button, 5MP camera, flash, microSD slot and 3.5mm headphone jack. Yeah. Sounds pretty flippin’ sweet to us too.
TiPb will reserve judgement until it launches, but it will be interesting to see Android on hardware other than the slider-trackball-touch G1. Won’t it?
Stephen Fry, the British comedian and technology commentator who was once partner to TV’s Dr. House, Hugh Laurie, recently annihilated RIM’s BlackBerry Storm on Twitter, and now is back to give an even grander beat down to the mobile industry in general, a 4 star Bold review, a 1 star Storm review, and an iPhone OS 3.0 wish… er… demand list. Daring Fireball, however, points us a couple paragraphs of particular interest:
Apple have shown that there is a huge demand for exciting, innovative, lovable and imaginative consumer devices. All the rivals have to do is to … is to what? To produce cut price lookalikes or truly to pioneer and innovate? Well, the latter is what they should do, but the former is what most of them will do of course, because these dumb firms never ever learn. They are afraid to be good. They will blame stockholders, consumers, anyone but themselves.
Don’t you sometimes long to be CEO of a company like Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Nokia or Microsoft? So that you can say to your coders, your designers, your development teams and your software architects: “Not [redacted] Good Enough. I haven’t said ‘Wow’ yet. I haven’t gasped with pleasure, amusement or admiration once. Start again. Not [redacted] Good Enough.”
Can’t say I’d do any different were I blessed/cursed with being such a CEO. How about you? Any advice for our iCompetitors?
Moments after Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone at Macworld 2007, Nokia showed off the “Tube“, an iClone so convincing some thought they’d simply managed to score a demo unit. While the “Tube” eventually faded into a “comes with music” device, and Nokia has now zigged instead of zagged with the N97, BGR has just come across a slide that shows Nokia’s iClone plans may still be alive and unwell.
What is it? When will we see it? Since the N97 isn’t even shipping until June-ish 2009 (likely just in time for a WWDC launch of the iPhone 3.0 — iPhone HD?), who knows when we’ll see this new device. All we can hope for is that is doesn’t cosign itself to mindlessly cloning iPhones past, but actually tried to innovate something more for the future.
If they do, what you want to see on the Nokia next-gen touch?
No, it’s not Deja Vu. No one has reset the Matrix (we think…) It’s just another Apple follow-along. To paraphrase Bertrand Serlet: Waterloo, start your photocopiers!
Not content with merely iCloning the iPhone look with the Bold or touchscreen with the Storm, during the Blackberry Developer Conference today, RIM basically repeated Apple’s iPhone SDK Roadmap Event announcements from back in March, note for note.
App Store? Check. Push Notification Service? Gotcha. Integrated Development Environment? Why not! iFund? App-solutely!
Scott Forstall, was that just the sound of you flinging your iPhone 4G through the screen of your 30″ DisplayPort Cinema Display? I think it was.
Check out the live blog now at Crackberry.com, and if you miss it, they’re sure to have all the news and roundups shortly thereafter.
This week: Apps, Flash, Unlocking, iPhone 2.2, and the iClones. Tune in!
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