Low Cost Treo...Could be better!
Ed Hardy says that if he were to design a low cost Treo, he would remove the keypad. Bad ...BAD move.
If you ask me, Ed has been looking at way too many touchscreens:p
Problems
1. A low cost phone, needs to be durable. That can never happen with a touch screen.You end up shining the screen way too many times to ensure that it stays usable.One drop of the device, and jitters are gonna run up ur spine.
2. Low cost, means higher usage. Most guys using a touch screen phone, get bored of it within a year MAX. Try using a toothpick to type/write out an SMS, and i guarantee you, Graffiti or no Graffiti, boredom sets in!
3.Touch screens are not touch-recognised the way keypads with their raised relief are. Hence there is a large dependency on sight along with touch for proper operation. The use of a stylus increases sight dependency due to the higher level of accuracy required.Hence it is not possible to touch type on a touchscreen as you would, on a keypad.
4.No SD memory card slot. Its like saying that to reduce the price of a desktop, we are gonna pull out the CDROM or FDD(floppy disk drive). I use an SD card with my Nikon so I would like to be able to suddenly show off those pics on my phone. My personal opinion, is that SD memory slots are gonna be standard on most phones, the way CDROMs are standard on PCs today.
Solution
1.Keep the Keypad, dump the touchscreen.
2.Remove the Wi-Fi
3.I agree with the move for a cheaper processor. Its what I would do with my desktop, anyway.
4.Reduce the onboard memory,as per cost requirements.The idea here is to keep the phone flexible, keeping options open for additional memory. Anyway, onboard memory is a lot more costly rather than an SD memory slot(some may disagree!).
5.Bring the form factor closer to a phone, rather than a handheld. I would prefer the slider form factor.
This is my idea of what Palmone needs to break into the low cost phone segment.
If you ask me, Ed has been looking at way too many touchscreens:p
Problems
1. A low cost phone, needs to be durable. That can never happen with a touch screen.You end up shining the screen way too many times to ensure that it stays usable.One drop of the device, and jitters are gonna run up ur spine.
2. Low cost, means higher usage. Most guys using a touch screen phone, get bored of it within a year MAX. Try using a toothpick to type/write out an SMS, and i guarantee you, Graffiti or no Graffiti, boredom sets in!
3.Touch screens are not touch-recognised the way keypads with their raised relief are. Hence there is a large dependency on sight along with touch for proper operation. The use of a stylus increases sight dependency due to the higher level of accuracy required.Hence it is not possible to touch type on a touchscreen as you would, on a keypad.
4.No SD memory card slot. Its like saying that to reduce the price of a desktop, we are gonna pull out the CDROM or FDD(floppy disk drive). I use an SD card with my Nikon so I would like to be able to suddenly show off those pics on my phone. My personal opinion, is that SD memory slots are gonna be standard on most phones, the way CDROMs are standard on PCs today.
Solution
1.Keep the Keypad, dump the touchscreen.
2.Remove the Wi-Fi
3.I agree with the move for a cheaper processor. Its what I would do with my desktop, anyway.
4.Reduce the onboard memory,as per cost requirements.The idea here is to keep the phone flexible, keeping options open for additional memory. Anyway, onboard memory is a lot more costly rather than an SD memory slot(some may disagree!).
5.Bring the form factor closer to a phone, rather than a handheld. I would prefer the slider form factor.
This is my idea of what Palmone needs to break into the low cost phone segment.