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MOBILE IMAGING REPORT - THIS WEEK'S TOP STORY:
 
November 28, 2007
Holiday Handsets -- Here & There
 Over the course of the last two months, the top four U.S. carriers have introduced two-dozen new megapixel-class camera-phones in time for the holiday season -- seven each from AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless, and just three from struggling Sprint Nextel. Across the Pacific in Japan, on November 1st NTT DoCoMo all by itself unveiled 23 new camera-phones available in a total of 75 colors for its subscribers' shopping pleasure.
A quick review of these holiday handsets once again highlights the gap between what's available here and what's available there. That gap, unfortunately for us, never seems to shrink. Nearly half the new U.S. phones -- 10 of the 24 models -- have just 1.3-megapixel cameras with little to recommend them except perhaps the full or "light" Qwerty keyboards found on seven of them. Don't get me wrong -- the two- and three-megapixel models offered here are a decent bunch of phones with a couple of solid features, but they just don't measure up to the Japanese handsets, on any level.
AT&T Mobility
The standout model from AT&T, from a mobile imaging perspective, is an HTC model called 'Tilt' for the way the screen slides away from the Qwerty keyboard and sits at a 45° angle, like a mini-laptop. The tilt has a 3MP auto-focus camera that can capture CIF (352 x 288) video and has panorama and burst modes as well as a self-timer, and EV, white balance, metering mode controls. There's a relatively generous 2.8-inch, QVGA, 65,536-color screen, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and USB as well as GPS and AT&T Mobile Music, Video, and TV. All-in-all, a nicely loaded handset, albeit a bit hefty for the pocket at 112 x 59 x 19 mm and 190 grams as well as for the wallet at $299.99 with a two-year contract.
[The rest of the MIR Weekly is available to subscribers on our password-protected website.]
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In In this Week's MIR Briefing
This week's final MIR looks once again at the gap between the handsets offered to subscribers by U.S. carriers and those offered by carriers in Japan. Effective next week, summary coverage of Mobile Imaging will be folded into the FIR Executive Information Service. If you are not already a subscriber, you can become one, either on an individual or site license basis. For more information please contact Heidy Bravo, HBravo@futureimage.com.
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This Month's Additions to the Mobile Megapixel Monitor
The Mobile Megapixel Monitor (MMM) provides up to the minute reference information on all camera-phones with megapixel or greater resolution currently for sale in North America, or announced for sale in the near term. The MMM lists all the key imaging-related specifications for tracked products, including manufacturer; model; carrier; price; availability - shipping or date promised; style (form factor); dimensions (inches & ounces); dimensions (millimeters and grams); sensor type (CMOS or CCD); sensor resolution (actual pixel count); optical zoom factor; digital zoom factor; flash; video capture capabilities (maximum size, frame-rate, duration and format); display type; display size; display color depth; additional camera features, such as rotating camera or lens cover; support for removable memory and format; connectivity options such as Bluetooth, USB, or IrDA; and a photo of the device.
Camera-phones added in October 2007:
- Motorola RIZR Z6tv from Verizon Wirless
- Samsung SGH-t539 'Beat' from T-Mobile
- Kyocera M1000 'Lingo' from Cricket
- Palm Centro from Sprint Nextel
- Samsung SCH-u700 'Gleam' from Verizon Wireless
- HTC 8925 'Tilt' from AT&T Wireless
- LG 'Rumor' from Sprint Nextel
- Motorola RAZR2 V8 from T-Mobile
- Sharp Sidekick LX from T-Mobile
- Motorola Sidekick Slide from T-Mobile
- Motorola ROKR Z6m from Alltel
- HTC Touch from Sprint Nextel
- UTStarcom (HTC) SMT5800 from Verizon Wireless
- UTStarcom (HTC) XV6800 from Verizon Wireless
- Samsung SCH-i760 from Verizon Wireless
- Samsung SGH-i617 'BlackJack II' from AT&T Mobility
- BlackBerry 8130 'Pearl' from Verizon Wireless
- Samsung SGH-a517 from AT&T Mobility
- Motorola W490 from T-Mobile
- Pantech Duo C810 from AT&T Mobility
Camera-phones added this month:
- LG CU515 from AT&T Mobility
- LG VX8800 'Venus' from Verizon Wireless
- LG VX10000 'Voyager' from Verizon Wireless
- Samsung SGH-T439 from T-Mobile
- Samsung U900 'FlipShot' from Verizon Wireless
- Samsung SGH-a747 'SLM' from AT&T Mobility
- LG 'Shine' from AT&T Mobility
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