Smartphone Thoughts: My CES Experience: Part 1

Next up was the Digital Experience show over at Caesars Palace. This was no disappointment - all the top companies in one room. As I made my way through the floor I talked with representatives from Fujitsu, Sling Media, HTC, Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericson, Palm, Canon, Nikon, HP, and more. It was a great chance to make contact.

The Samsung rep that I talked with promised that we will still see a Windows Mobile 6 update for the original BlackJack and that it would be released in the not too distant future. I have to be honest, I didn't believe her and I told her so. There has been too many promised release dates for me to post yet another promise. As we all learned from the front page post the other day, they finally managed to release the update. Hat's off to Samsung on finally getting it out the door.

I talked with Sony Ericson about Windows Mobile and when I could expect a SE WinMo device. They didn't seem too impressed with my questions. I did compliment them on the design and style packed into each of their devices, but it didn't seem to make much difference. ;-)

HP had a lot of different products on display and it took me 3 or 4 attempts before I found the Windows Mobile person. I wanted to learn more about what they might have been thinking when they released the 510 device. (For those that don't recall, this was that voice command Smartphone that shipped with a low resolution screen and a small memory footprint.) She was nice enough to explain that the device was aimed at executives that don't need high res and are looking for a business class device. I think it's fair to say that Apple has shown the world that style does matter, even for people who you think might not care about it. She also informed me that HP had no immediate plans for a follow up device, but there will be something at some point in the future. However, most devices are going to focus on the touch screen for the foreseeable future.

This touch screen centric focus was also carried over to the folks at Palm. They couldn't understand why I didn't want a touch screen. They didn't even have the 500v Smartphone on display. To their defence, it's not available in North America, but I would have thought they could still show it off.

I came across a company by the name of Ceiva, who was displaying a number of visually stunning digital picture frames. The highlight of these frames was a 19 inch model that would pull pictures off a local network share. This is exactly what I've been looking for. It's the perfect size for hanging on a wall and with it's network aware aspect, you don't have to worry about connecting the frame to your computer on a regular basis just to update the pictures.

JuiceCaster was another pleasant surprise at the show. They offer a pretty slick mobile application that runs on a large selection of mobile devices and allows you to automatically upload pictures and videos to their site. From there it can be instantly shared to your facebook or flickr accounts. And yes, they even support Windows Mobile devices.

Another noteworthy company was Griffin Technology. They had a number of cool car accessories on display, including a pretty neat dual USB AC adapter. Making it much easier for me to charge my Smartphone and Zune at the same time. You know, sometimes it's the simple things that make a world of difference. Griffin's products were clean and simple in design, yet very functional.

That rounds out part 1 of my CES trip. Stay tuned - there's still more to come!