The summer of the Superphone

The iPhone 3GS, the Palm Pres, the Nokia N97, the HTC Ion Phone and new Blackberries – what Om Malik calls Superphones

Some of their characteristics:

Hardware

• Display with at least 320 pixels on the short axis
• 3G connectivity or greater (plus additional radios as appropriate…Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, etc.)
• Location-sensing technology (GPS, high-resolution signal-strength-based location, or equivalent)
• Hardware-accelerated graphics subsystem

Platform

• Integrated web browser that supports current desktop development standards
• Published native developer SDK that allows programmatic access to the specialized hardware/software features listed above.

Distribution

• Integrated process for certification and searchable catalog distribution of third-party applications. (App Store)

Comments

[Jeff Ventura]

Superphone is a fine moniker, but really, what we're talking about is the next iteration of computing platform. It's the 80's desktop OS/platform war all over again, right in your pocket.