Vodafone talks up Samsung F700, plays down 3G-less iPhone
Vodafone's pretty proud of the fact that it has landed an exclusive agreement to offer arguably the most desirable product presently sitting in Samsung's lineup -- the be-all, end-all Ultra Smart F700 -- and it's not afraid to flaunt the fact. Addressing media this week, the carrier's talking up its blockbuster holiday offering (of which the F700's arguably the flagship) and taking emphasis off the iPhone, which seems to be about the only freaking device left off Voda's 25-plus handset launch schedule at this point. Echoing sentiments voiced by Nokia shortly after the iPhone's announcement, Vodafone exec Jens Schulte-Bokum points out that they "believe [3G] is necessary to deliver a compelling music and Internet experience," a feature conspicuously missing from Cupertino's version one. He goes on to say that the iPhone initially "won't support 3G," though it's not clear whether he's referring to the device that's already out or the one that'll be launching in Europe any day (or week or month) now. Of course, he says they "like the iPhone" in the same breath, so we certainly wouldn't rule out carrier involvement here -- but for the moment, the F700's their baby.[Thanks, Jon L.]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
akatsuki @ Sep 13th 2007 8:32AM
I think the keyboard and 3G are both huge advantages...
smith1 @ Sep 13th 2007 10:15AM
Have you ever used the iPhone keyboard ? It is fantastic after you learn to use your full fingerprints and not worry about about touch overspill. My typing speed now exceeds what i used to achieve on my BBerry.
All this anti-touch talk reminds me of the anti-mouse talk in the '80s. I'm old enough to remember the vocal majority saying the mouse was just a silly gimmick and how it highlighted a GUI interface was just a toy.
In 5 years most hanhelds will be multi-touch.
akatsuki @ Sep 13th 2007 10:31AM
Yeah I have used it. I tried and tried for a long time, and there is no way my speed or accuracy ever got up to blackberry speeds. Also, I had to stare at the screen the whole time and couldn't touch-type. Try typing out about 3 pages of legalese without looking and compare accuracy and time.
And the auto-replacing dictionary sucks if you need to type in multiple languages or use technical/legal terms. The iPhone has one advantage in supporting the display of japanese text, but you can't type back in Japanese and it hates romanji. It hates legal terms and abbreviations even more.
I have yet to see anyone who actually was decent at typing on a blackberry be faster on an iphone for any substantive e-mail.
thudson @ Sep 13th 2007 4:27PM
@smith1
Regardless of the learning curve or speeds, tactile keyboards will always be favored simply because the fact that it brings another sense (touch) into the typing process. Once you can feel the keys you can take your eyes off the keys and still be mostly confident of what is being typed.
--Travis Hudson, MWW Group on behalf of Samsung
Mark @ Sep 13th 2007 11:54AM
A well-designed touchscreen UI is great because it can be as revolutionary as the mouse was, but a touchscreen can't replace the keyboard.
And enough with this fanboyism about "multi-touch" - just how much of the iPhone's UI multi-touch in day-to-day use? Are you zooming in and out of photos all the time or something?
akatsuki @ Sep 13th 2007 8:06PM
The greatest problem with the F700 is it is non-US. I don't understand why all the keyboard phones have to be so thick when they can get regular sliders down to 10mm.