QVGA Phones
I've mentioned this in passing in my comments, but I wanted to write about it and keep forgetting. A few weeks ago I was in the Best Buy and saw this incredible phone, the Toshiba VM4050 on display. It has a 2.2" quarter VGA (QVGA), 260K colors (18-bit) TFT display. It is *incredible*. I mean, I was completely hypnotized by how big and bright the display was, no picture online can accurately do it justice.
The thing is that this phone is pretty unique at the moment here in the U.S., but more phones like this are coming and they're going to make a huge impact. Check out this glowing last paragraph about these types of phones from Mobenta's report at Brew (this is what reminded me about this phone):
Handset manufacturers also made a great showing at BREW 2004, touting their newest generation of BREW handsets. Motorola, Kyocera and Samsung all had strong booth presences, as well as some truly awe-inspiring phones to show off. Each phone maker is bringing a hot new QVGA handset to the U.S. market in the next few months -- and all of them are likely to be available from Verizon Wireless, although no manufacturer would confirm or deny. Motorola was packing the new V710, a gorgeous high-end device with QVGA, Bluetooth, video camera and MP3 functionality. The form-factor is sleek black-and-silver, a real Demolition Man-style accessory. Kyocera's Koi, on the other hand, is coming straight from Japan -- complete with a unique pivoting screen that locks into place on a beveled hinge. Its 1.2 megapixel camera can be accessed from either open or closed modes; in closed mode the phone looks just like a digital camera when held horizontally, complete with a shutter button where your right forefinger rests. Samsung's a790 is a striking, ultra-angular device, featuring a stark black keypad that is trimmed with blocky silver buttons. It kind of looks like it was designed by HAL 9000.
These phones are going to know the socks off consumers. I've pretty much come around on my opinion about flip phones after seeing these enormous screens. With a flip you can get bigger and bigger screens, yet, they're protected when not in use and you can still have a full-keypad to use as well. It seems that Nokia and I were both way off about this. ;-)
Go check out one of these phones yourself and you'll see what I mean, QVGA is going to rock the mobility world in the same way that color first made an impact a year or so ago. It's that much of an improvement, believe me.
-Russ