Tuesday, October 4, 2011

First Flexible Smartphone aimed to roll in 2012



 It is said that a good product sells itself. Building and holding to this momentum when your product flies off the shelves is any businessman`s dream. Common sense makes it evident that it is much more difficult to keep the momentum going than to create it. Having said this, I could not help thinking about the mobile and handset companies that lost or are losing at this moment the race to the likes of Apple and Google. The iphone raised the bar so high that nobody could jump it, let alone come close to it, for a good while.  Android`s meteoric rise surprised everyone, including itself. Their competitors are scratching heads trying to come up with something that will keep them running… at least. Those that are close to the top contenders understand very well that unless they set the next challenge, the game will soon be over. 

Samsung, presently considered Nr.2 in the smartphone race, hopes to  break through at the corner and force the others in the shades, and it looks like it has the right product cooking in the oven for this: a super futuristic prototype device set to come out in 2012. After seeing the iphone back in 2007, I confess, I thought none of the subsequent copies, no matter how well executed and masterfully sold, can beat it, convinced that at least in the short run, nothing as extraordinary could come up on the markets... up until this year, June 2011 to be precise. This past summer Samsung unveiled a prototype device likely to become the first Flexible (mass produced?) smartphone. It makes you wonder what`s next: the first liquid phone? Irony aside, judge for yourself:








The second trick that Samsung wants to break through with involves the ecosystem front, following the formula: super cool device+ever expanding ecosystem of developers, apps and users=success. Just recently Samsung announced the Tizen project as its open source, standards-based software platform, destined for “multiple device categories, including smartphones, tablets, netbooks, in-vehicle infotainment devices, smart TVs, and more.” Thus, it is quite clear that Tizen will be here to intimidate and threaten the Android`s meteoric rise and dominance. Meego is gone, Symbian succumbed, Windows Mobile is far, far behind before any Nokia brand can save it, RIM is losing pace, it looks like Tizen could, given some time and developer effort, gobble up share from the rest to get itself very close to the top. We`ll see.

Samsung is trying to build a momentum, especially that in the back, the Galaxy S II phone sells relatively well.  Trying to catch up on all fronts such as premium handset to threaten Apple and  friendly/open OS to build community, looks like  too much, too late, but again, only a few years ago, who thought Apple would become the Nr. 2 company in the world(by market value)?  

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