Tempo’s here. Just don’t call them smartphones
- posted by Michael Walsh on February 16th, 2009
- (3)
So, from one day to the next, we move into an entirely new market.
Acer is already one of the world’s leading notebook manufacturers and undisputed champion of the newly-hatched netbook segment thanks to the Aspire One.
And now they’ve launched their handhelds – oops, I mean Tempo Smartphone Series.
OK, here’s the deal. Mobile phone manufacturers (Nokia, Blackberry & Co.) have had this product/market all to themselves so far, and how do you “upgrade” a phone? You give it a few email features and web-applications and call it a “smart”phone. You upgrade the product and do the same with the name. Makes sense right?
So what happens when a computer vendor turns its attention to phones? They don’t call it smartphone, do they? (think iPhone..) Why not? because they’re looking at it from a different angle.
Think about it for a moment. What “computer companies” are constantly trying to do is to downscale technology they’re already good at. And as the usefulness of a mobile computer is dependent on how well it functions in a mobile environment, a place where there are no standard surroundings and the facilities at hand (i.e. power supply, resting surfaces, etc) cannot be guaranteed, the smaller the technology becomes, the more “mobile” the device gets.
So, when the world’s second-biggest mobile computer vendor takes the netbook theme to its logical conclusion – two hands mobility becomes one-hand mobility and the game moves on. Don’t pass this off as a passing phase. Tempo (I had a say in that name so don’t mock it) is the start of a whole new chapter in Acer’s mobile story.
But are they smartphones? Or should we invent a whole new category?
More pictures on my Fickr page.
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Ferry wrote, on February 17th, 2009:
Wow! Great!
Will it be available in Indonesia?
What OS does it use?
Any spec details available?
Ferry wrote, on February 17th, 2009:
answering to my own question:
details can be found here http://www.acer.com/smartphone/
Morris Lee wrote, on March 25th, 2009:
well, I was thinking about how would this stand a chance when nvidia Tegra takes place, HD playback, small games, mouse and keyboard support, awesome user interface possibilities, super long battery hours.
hopefully acer will think about using the tegra chip!