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View Full Version : Winner and loser trend for 2004.


Air
01-07-2004, 06:01 AM
aha, all you handheld experts and pundits wanna be it's time to write down trend for 2004. Here is mine.

-iPOD is big, VERY BIG. It has nice look and the music stores actually has some nice music worth buying. It's an icon.

-All ugly handheld design is out. Only the sleek, cute, stylish and smart looking gadgets will become a hit. Put wrong company logo or imperfect plastic mold, it's a guarantee to walmart discount bin. The ultimate love child: cute as an ipod, smart as a PPC. (it will sell a million a year just like iPOD)

-Price is not the top factor anymore, economy is picking up. $99 handheld is out, It's $249 and $499. Toward the end of the year, market will heat up culminating with a release of $1200 smartphone that can't be purchased anywhere but ebay for $2200. Ugly cheap looking handheld made by Dell and palm are definitely out.

-2004 is the year of microdrive. 64MB is cool for 2001. But this is 2004, we need Gigabyte of space for multimedia. 128MB is NOT good enough for a handheld. Expect to see a PPC with removeable microdrive.

-The first sleek handheld that can do one click video rip and display wins the game.

-The first cute handheld with WiFi selling for $299 also wins the game.

-PDA gaming will gain traction in 2004.

-Sleek smartphone is in for 2004. Think SE 505is. In 2004 Smartphone is not about being smart, it's about being sleek and clever. Whoever argues against this doesn't know jack about smartphone top chart.

-Convergence is a dirty word. The correct word is cool phone.

-the good ol' PDA is over. The soul will be grafted into all those funky consumer gadgets gaining new hardware abilities.

-GPS, TV receiver, microdrive, various screen size, keypads and inputs, camera, wireless

-XML UI and widget are the next hottest thing on PDA. The first platform that implement this correctly wins the game.

-It's still about spec, but in moderation, design and functionality comes first. Brute but clueless spec list like h5550 is out.

-It is still about square tablet, but different sizes, design and color. No built in thumboard, no integrated keyboard, and no sharp angles. It's 70's minimalism again.

:mrgreen:

there happy 2004.