Although CES is still going on this week in Las Vegas, I wanted to give you some input on two mobile products that stand out from many of the others: the Samsung Galaxy Note and the Nokia Lumia 900. Both go on sale in the U.S. in the next month. Both are smartphones, but each represents something very different in the market.
First, the Samsung Galaxy Note. Samsung uses the Galaxy sub-brand for their smartphone and tablet products (out of all the myriad of consumer electronic products they produce). The Galaxy Note is actually what I’d call a ‘crossover’ device like the term used in cars that ‘crossover’ between a standard car and a SUV.
The Samsung Galaxy Note has a 5.3” display which is larger than any other smartphone but is smaller than their 7” and 10” tablets. Because the Galaxy Note has a cell phone included, it’s closer to being a smartphone than a tablet, but I think people are going to think of this as being a ‘small tablet’ rather than a ‘large smartphone’.
What makes the Galaxy Note interesting is their incorporation of a stylus that they call an S-pen. It pulls out from underneath and enables the user to draw almost anything on the display with their built-in graphing software. At CES (and other tradeshows around the world), Samsung has hired a number of local graphic artists to do illustrative characters sometimes colloquially referred to as ‘caricatures’. Some of the resulting images are absolutely outstanding.
All of the artists used by Samsung at CES simply showed up and went through a one-hour training session and were set loose. They are making illustrations of the attendees. The results, done in about 10 minutes, are sent to their processing counter where they print a t-shirt with the image on it (they also email it to you). This has been one of the hottest things for people to do at CES with many standing in line for hours just to get their illustration and t-shirt.
The Galaxy Note is a full tablet and a smart phone built into one small device. It has advanced LTE data communications capabilities and runs Android.
I believe this is innovative because of the way in which they have implemented the pen and software. It makes using a pen ‘cool’ again – remember how we used a little stylus with the original PalmPilot?
I plan to use a Galaxy Tab to take notes in meetings … not too big and, yet, not too small. I’ll likely call this my Goldilocks tablet. I think this may result in a number of people using it as their fourth mobile device: 1) smartphone, 2) notepad, 3) tablet and 4) laptop. Yes, it will be a while before most people will do that, but there is something important going on here in the mobile landscape due to the Samsung Galaxy Note – both in the 5.3” form factor and by including a stylus and good software to utilize it.
The second very interesting new product is the Nokia Lumia 900. This marks Nokia’s ‘re-entry’ into the U.S. market. A few years ago, they used to have something like a 30%-40% market share but lost out due to not having relevant smartphone products for a number of years. The Lumia 900 is based on Windows Phone 7, includes advanced LTE and, overall, is a very sound and solid product.
The reason this is important to Nokia is that it allows them to gain respect in the U.S. smartphone market again. This unit should be a delight to use for anyone who uses Microsoft Office as it has mobile versions of Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint built-in. They have taken Phone 7 and added a number of unique features, such as the way they manage people: all of the interaction you have with friends, co-workers and family are easily shown by selecting each one.
They also have a unique, exclusive partnership with ESPN to provide live feeds of sports information. They have gotten some other third-party developers, like The Weather Channel, to build some custom screens.
There’s still more things to see at CES, so I’m out the door after writing this Wednesday morning. Pay attention to the Samsung Galaxy Note. It’s enabling the re-introduction of the stylus into mobile handheld computing. You’re going to see pens showing up more utilizing a number of different technologies. It’s a trend.
And, don’t be surprised to see AT&T selling quite a few of the Nokia Lumia 900’s.
With over 125,000 people here at CES, you’d never know the U.S. was still in recovery mode. Being at CES is like what I hope the U.S. economy will be like in a year or two – growing and exciting again.
Written By:
J. Gerry Purdy, Ph.D.
Principal Analyst
Mobile & Wireless
MobileTrax LLC
gerry.purdy@mobiletrax.com
404 855-9494
Dr. Purdy writes a weekly column via eWeek, a leading online & digital publisher with millions of readers. Some of these columns are distributed via Inside Mobile with approval from eWeek.