August 5th, 2008
LiMo, dude, where's my Internet?
The LiMo Foundation was very proud to deliver 7 new LiMo phones this week in time for LinuxWorld.
I checked them out. There’s one problem with all of them.
They’re phones.
The iPhone, the device these guys claim to be competing with, is not a phone. It’s an Internet terminal, and a phone. It is primarily a data device. And not little dribs of data, either, but great heaping gobs of it.
These phones aren’t, not really.
- The Motorola Motozine (shown) is basically a camera, with a standard phone attached to it. Hello, Moto? Goodbye, Moto.
- Four of the new phones are variations on the NEC 901, pushed by Docomo in Japan, and again these are phones. They think texting is a data service. Browsing is a data service.
- The other two phones, from Panasonic, come a little closer. The display is hinged so it can be viewed horizontally or vertically. The brag is this is a mobile TV phone. Close, but dude, where’s my Internet?
Basically, LiMo gave LinuxWorld a song-and-dance, talked about new partners, threw some chaff, but they did not deliver what we’re looking for, a mobile Internet terminal that can go head-to-head against the iPhone.
The problem of carrier control is a global one. Japanese carriers are no less prone to charging by the eyedropper, and demanding big chunks of the resulting revenue, than American carriers.
Apple made AT&T swallow the Internet and like it. AT&T has benefitted. For other carriers, or phone makers, to catch up they have to recognize this fact.
It’s not a phone. It’s a data terminal. Think browsing. Not texting, not TV, not cameras. Make this page look good, and you’re at least talking my language.
Until then, sayonara LiMo.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. You can follow Dana on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 08/05/08
