New Smartphone Makers Back Windows Mobile

[Jerry Raia]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=10015' target='_blank'>http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=10015</a><br /><br /></div><i>"A pair of Taiwanese companies have signed a technology agreement to develop 3G and 3.5G smartphones around the Windows Mobile OS, adding to the growing pool of companies developing mobile phones around the Microsoft software. E-ten Information Systems and Arima Communications will combine their technical expertise to deliver at least four new Windows Mobile-based smartphones to global markets by the end of this year, they said in statements to the Taiwan Stock Exchange."</i><br /><br />I sure hope "global markets" includes the states. Many times we are sitting here looking at some new device and reading it is only available in far away places. Well far away if you live in California. :lol:

[Mike Temporale]

I agree - I would like to see more manufacturers target the north american market. However, I'm still happy to see more people come on board. So even if these don't make it over here, it's still good news for the platform. :)

[macattack]

As far as I'm concerned, ETEN can keep their junk in their own hemisphere. My last PPC-PE device before jumping onto the Smartphone bandwagon was the ETEN M600, which was the cheapest, lowest-grade hardware I've ever owned (and I've owned A LOT of PDAs/phones.) Voice quality was abysmal, each and every firmware update had serious issues, the touch screen couldn't hold calibration even after being replaced by the factory, and manufacturer support was incredibly slow.

Maybe the Arima collaboration will yield improvements, but until they prove they can build world-class hardware, I hope ETEN doesn't drop any more duds on the U.S. or Canadian shores.