26
Aug
2010
Funky and Functional: The Nokia C6
When it comes to entry level and mid range mobiles, there is no doubt that Nokia is still one of, if not the top performer in terms of market share. They have held this title for years and their ability and consistency in launching mobiles that are able to satisfy the needs of their consumers have allowed them to take a firm grip on the market for the longest time.
However, they have been struggling a bit in the Smartphone business. They are being toppled by the BlackBerry’s and the iPhone’s out there. One device that should be able to bridge the growing gap is the Nokia C6.
Style
One thing going for the C6 is that it definitely falls into the category of eye candy mobile. The device really looks good and exudes a type of appeal only a Nokia can deliver. It comes in two different colours – black and white – which are both equally charming.
The Nokia C6 has an impressive 3.2” touch screen display which makes use of the TFT resistive technology. The device also sports a QWERTY keyboard which slides out from the left side of the device (or the bottom once you rotate the mobile).
This added feature makes the Nokia C6 a bit on the bulky side with dimensions of 113 x 53 x 16.8 mm. The mobile has a total weight of 150 grams.
Substance
This mid range device has everything you’d need from a Smartphone. It supports 3G HSDPA as well as Wi-Fi internet connectivity. The operating system installed on the C6 is the same old Symbian OS (version 9.4) which is backed up by a 434 MHz ARM processor.
The Nokia C6’s built-in snapper is pretty impressive at 5 Megapixels. It also comes with an LED flash and features geo-tagging as well.
26
Jul
2010
Android Market is Fragmented, Needs Work
While it is quite true that the Google Android operating system is indeed the most widely used smart phone mobile platform in the world, it is also the most fragmented (not counting the Symbian operating system of course).
The reason for this is due to the fact that so many handsets of different configurations are using the Android OS. Phones that come with varying touch screen sizes, display resolutions, internal memory, RAM, processor speeds and various other hardware configurations run Google’s open source mobile OS. This makes it hard to come up with a new version of the Android that would run on all mobile phones.
Add in the fact that the firmware updates that Google releases are different from operator specific updates that are compatible with users who are under a contract or tariff, and you have a mobile platform that needs some serious reworking.
Looking at this, it shows a bit of a reason as to why the previous Russian rumors about the 3.0 Gingerbread requiring strict hardware standards have popped up: because Google actually needs it. While it would be too much of a requirement for all Android devices to have 4 inch touch screens and 1GHz CPUs (as stated by the rumor), Google does need to set a new bar.
The hard part here is actually declaring some Android devices as incompatible with further updates. Which means that there will be phones stuck with running the older versions of the OS; it’s a big price to pay if Google wants to standardize the platform and help the OS’ market grow.
As it is, users of Android smart phones are taking a big gamble with each app purchase as some apps simply do not work on specific phone models –not Android OS versions. The lack of uniformity in the user experience for Android owners will have to be fixed is Google’s platform is to fully succeed.
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