T-Mobile SDA II Smartphone Spotted at CeBIT

[Kris Kumar]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://ppcw.net/?itemid=2289' target='_blank'>http://ppcw.net/?itemid=2289</a><br /><br /></div><i>"When walking around the T-Mobile stand again, I found the previously announced T-Mobile SDA II and SDA II Music in a vitrine, a little bit hidden and not really in the focus (also most of the staff din't knew T-Mobile have dummies on the booth) of T-Mobile. Anyway - I'm happy to present you here the first pictures of T-Mobile's latest Windows Mobile Smartphone developments: the SDA II Music with 1.3 Megapixel camera and the SDA II without camera."</i><br /><br /> <img src="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/Kris-Mar2005-SDAIIMusic.jpg" alt="User submitted image" title="User submitted image"/> <br /><br />Arne Hess over at PPCW.Net has had the pleasure of meeting the latest T-Mobile Smartphone offerings, the SDA II and SDA II Music. So it looks like T-Mobile is quite happy with the sales performance of the SDA series and has now decided to launch the updated series. The updated series will feature a 2.2" QVGA screen with 320x240 pixels. The SDA II Music will feature a 1.3 Mega pixel camera and the SDA II will not have a camera. While looking at <a href="http://photo.ppcw.net/index.php?gallery=./Events/CeBIT/CeBIT%202005&amp;image=DSCN3039.JPG&amp;lang=en_us">this photo</a> I noticed that the specification states that the SDA II Music will be a Quad-band phone, but according to the official T-Mobile <a href="http://www.t-mobile.de/presse/cebit2005/handys/1,8370,12042-_,00.html">press release,</a> they are Tri-band models. :? You can check out the other photos over <a href="http://photo.ppcw.net/index.php?gallery=./Events/CeBIT/CeBIT%202005&amp;startat=50">here.</a> Please pray for the release of this series in America. :drool:

[vincenzosi]

Please pray for the release of this series in America.

Don't hold your breath. At the CES Show, I was talking to one of the MS Smartphone reps and told him how much I would love to have one of the current SDA offerings in the US. He said that T-Mobile is just not interested in introducing these models in the US, while Cingular is chomping at the bit to get their models out there.

Now, unless something has changed since January, I have a feeling we're just going to get more of the same from TM, which is nothing but Sidekicks and Blackberries.

[wshwe]

T-Mobile USA has always suffered from poor device selection. :cry: T-Mobile can charge more to provision Blackberries and Sidekicks than for plain vanilla Internet access.

[vincenzosi]

It's not just that; T-Mobile USA seems to be very much low-end consumer oriented. They just don't carry a whole lot of high-end devices or data-centric devices. The Blackberry is more to placate business customers than anything else, and the Sidekick is all but useless to most power users.

They've defined their market very narrowly and they pursue that narrow market very aggresively.

[Jerry Raia]

Yes but will it employ the same security features as the Sidekick? :roll:

[vincenzosi]

I'd only care about that if Paris bought one and went to see her Brazilian VJ friend :shocked!:

[aristoBrat]

T-Mobile USA has always suffered from poor device selection. :cry: T-Mobile can charge more to provision Blackberries and Sidekicks than for plain vanilla Internet access.
Analysts seem to be saying the same thing.
A major factor in the data revenue growth in the fourth quarter was a net increase of 112,000 BlackBerry customers during the quarter, bringing the end of year total to 411,000.

Even the CEO's talking about data.
"This has been a highly successful, award winning year for T-Mobile USA," said Robert Dotson, President and CEO of T-Mobile USA. "Our ongoing commitment to quality and value was the key to attracting the 4.2 million net new customers we added in 2004 and in increasing our customer base by 32% since the end of 2003. Combining this growth with consistently strong ARPU -- including strong data ARPU -- demonstrates the quality of our subscriber base, and our commitment to the Get More promise.
http://www.forbes.com/businesswire/feeds/businesswire/2005/03/03/businesswire20050302006002r1.html

[aristoBrat]

At the CES Show, I was talking to one of the MS Smartphone reps and told him how much I would love to have one of the current SDA offerings in the US. He said that T-Mobile is just not interested in introducing these models in the US, while Cingular is chomping at the bit to get their models out there.
Considering that current WM smartphones can't easily access all links on T-Mobile's "t-zone" portal or correctly reply to a SMS sent from another carrier, I'd guess that T-Mobile US has a bit of infrastructure work that they need to do before they could even think about rolling out a WM smartphone. :(

[vincenzosi]

The SMS reply bug is a nuissance, but I don't think T-Mobile's infrastructure is at fault, it's just the phones themselves.

Bear in mind that T-Mobile hasn't introduced a branded WM handset yet.

[aristoBrat]

The SMS reply bug is a nuissance, but I don't think T-Mobile's infrastructure is at fault, it's just the phones themselves.
Hmm, I thought the opposite. Since the phones themselves work fine on every other GSM network (AT&amp;T, Cingular, Rogers, O2, Orange, VODAPHONE, and all of T-Mobile's European networks), it seemed more logical to me that T-Mobile's US network was the issue. I supposed that Windows Mobile could have special instructions for how to send SMS on each of those networks, but that seems to fly in the face of the standardization that makes GSM as interoperable as it is. (i.e. any phone feature should work on any roaming network)

Bear in mind that T-Mobile hasn't introduced a branded WM handset yet.
Keep in mind that T-Mobile's branded Pocket PC 2003 Phone Edition has this issue too.

[vincenzosi]

Keep in mind that T-Mobile's branded Pocket PC 2003 Phone Edition has this issue too.

That's weird; none of my dealers have told me anything about it and I'm sure I would've heard about it by now... Which phones are having the issue?

[aristoBrat]

POCKET PC PHONE EDITION 2003 AND HP IPAQ H6315
INTERCARRIER SMS REPLIES UNSUCCESFUL
TROUBLESHOOT - HOT BULLETIN
DATE: 1/20/05
TO: Customer Care

MAKE/MODEL: HTC Pocket PC and HP iPAQ h6315
Software Version: All software versions
Bulletin Version: BL- 13

ISSUE:
Intercarrier text message (SMS) replies from T-Mobile subscribers to National and International carriers may not reach the recipient.

• This issue only applies to messages where the user has selected the REPLY option to respond to the text message.
• The reply message appears to be sent successfully, with no indication to the T-mobile customer that the reply message was not delivered.
• If a subscriber creates a new message, rather than replying to an intercarrier message, the message will send successfully.


CAUSE:
The Pocket PC Phone Edition 2003 and the HP iPAQ h6315 have a software bug which results in the intercarrier SMS reply to be sent to the wrong SMS Service Center Number.

The correct SMS Service Center Number is used when the customer creates a new text message.

IMPACT and STATUS:
• This issue impacts intercarrier REPLY messages only sent from T-Mobile customers to National and International subscribers.
• This issue does not occur when the T-Mobile subscriber writes a new text message.


RESOLUTION:
Upon receiving a message from a non-T-mobile customer, the user should save the originating address and compose a new text message to send to that user as needed.

[vincenzosi]

CAUSE:
The Pocket PC Phone Edition 2003 and the HP iPAQ h6315 have a software bug which results in the intercarrier SMS reply to be sent to the wrong SMS Service Center Number.

The correct SMS Service Center Number is used when the customer creates a new text message.

That description seems to make it sound more like an MS issue...

Who knows. Once carriers start branding handsets they like to pass the buck back and forth between the carrier and the manufacturer...

Thanks for the heads up though.

[Kris Kumar]

Thanks for mentioning the SMS reply problem. That definitely explains why I haven't been able to reply to messages from my sister and friends in India.

[Sven Johannsen]

and our commitment to the Get More promise.


Who is supposed to "Get More?", the customer or T-Mobile?