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February 11, 2008
New UIQ 3-based phones take touchscreen mainstream: G700 and G900 |
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Announced on February 10, 2008, the new Sony Ericsson G700 and G900 mobile phones are Symbian OS v9.1, UIQ 3.0-based and expand Sony Ericsson's UIQ 3-based phone family to seven. Both phones take touchscreen functionality to mainstream market segments and use compact-touch, finger-tip control for personal organizer features.
The G700 and G900 are UMTS phones with a "stick" form-factor. The G700 has a 3.2 megapixel camera and the G900 is differentiated by a 5.0 megapixel camera and WiFi connectivity.
Both phones have physically smaller screens than previous Sony Ericsson UIQ 3-based phones which affects application design and control. Some compact-touch UI suggestions from our partners are presented below.
About the G700 and G900
The Sony Ericsson G700 uses touchscreen functionality for everyday organization – contacts, calendar, notes, pictures and favorite websites are accessible by compact-touch, fingertip control or using stylus input. Handwriting recognition enables end-users to write notes or draw on the phone's desktop.
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G700. |
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G900. |
The Sony Ericsson G900 uniquely uses the QVGA touchscreen in combination with the 5.0 megapixel camera – decide where to focus the camera by touching the screen. Web browsing is enhanced by WiFi and the touchscreen can be used to zoom-in or pan around the web page.
As with the G700, contacts, calendar, notes and pictures are accessible by compact-touch, fingertip control or using stylus input.
The G700 and G900 are available in selected markets during Q2 2008.
UIQ 3 open platform
Sony Ericsson believes in the benefits of developing in a rich, open architecture and is fully committed to Symbian OS and UIQ.
The G700 and G900 are Symbian OS v9.1, UIQ 3.0-based phones and their announcement expands Sony Ericsson's UIQ 3-based phone family to seven, increasing the addressable UIQ 3 application market for developers and broadening the UIQ 3 platform into bigger, more mainstream market segments. |
Reporting in February 2008, the research firm Canalys announced that Symbian's market share in converged device OS's for 2007 is 67%, demonstrating how powerful this open operating system is. The UIQ 3 platform is based on Symbian OS and provides great freedom of choice for end-users to personalize their phone, increasing ARPU opportunity for operators and expanding business opportunities for developers and content creators.
Developers are able to program in both C++ and Java ME (CLDC 1.1), and take advantage of hardware accelerated 3D graphics supported by the OpenGL ES API.
Smaller screensize and other considerations
The G700 and G900 have physically smaller touchscreens (2.4 inch) than previous Sony Ericsson UIQ 3-based phones (2.6 inch) affecting application design and control. As these two phones take touchscreen functionality into a mainstream market, applications need to be "compact touch friendly" with simplified UIs. The classic Sony Ericsson jog dial has been replaced with 5-way navigation key.
Here are some compact-touch UI suggestions demonstrated by "before and after" screenshots from some of application partners:
- Use different standard UIQ controls
HandySafe by Epocware.
- Use "Grids" for main/sub-functions and larger "buttons" for further choices
Worldmate by Mobimate.
- Use larger fonts for compact touch accuracy and sub-icons for commonly used functions
DreamConnect by DreamSpring.
More information:
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