My thoughts revisited the SmartPhone market this morning when I read in the WSJ about Sony’s new super phone “Satio”coming in about six months. It’s another followup on the impending launch of the Nokia N97 which I’ve been following since it was first announced. We can add the Palm Pre to the mix too. Then next week the launch of the Apple iPhone 3.0 and potential iPod updates too.

How all these new phones will compare? Will they cater better to my changing mobile needs and what I value? I also wonder how they will fare in different countries. My market research in the past in India would provide a very different outcome to my more US centric personal thoughts below.

In launching these products do they understand how my usage behavior has changed in the last year. While they aren’t launching these products just for me I want to know if I’d give up my iPhone for any of them? My guess is I won’t. And that is the biggest challenge any of these have. In this I’m not referring to the price, or the plan, or general availability. My first test is simply is it better for my needs. After that all the other challenges and cost elements come into play.

How my needs have changed.
1. Reading: A year ago I read very little on the iPhone. Yesterday I bought an iPhone developers book using Kindle on the iPhone. It was over $20.00 from Amazon. Why. It was available immediately. I can read it anywhere etc. And based on other books I’ve read on it… likely to meet my needs. I still can’t bend the pages but that will come. I also read many papers today on the iphone. Including the unofficial SFChronicle which provides the local sports. Probably 3 or 4 I access daily. I’ve dropped everything but the WSJ at home.

2. Internet: I have many favorite searches ready for one click perusal. I’ve found this very interesting when tracking things I want. Eg Craigslist housing for lease. Plus if I am watching TV and I happen to hit a commercial… reading and weblinks become more important. Or back to the newspapers. (BTW I am still poorly served by shared weblinks)

3. Communication: Twitter and Twitterfon in particular provide an interesting and effective way to communicate. All DM’s are received by SMS. I often check into twitter when between things or waiting for something. I would not buy a phone today that didn’t provide me with an adequate “open” messaging format like Twitterfon/twitter.

4. Bluetooth: The iPhone 3.0 has bluetooth that connects to my car stereo finally. So I’ve been enjoying that for months. That’s where my iPod function gets the most use. Outside the plane trips where I usually have some video / movies loaded.

5. Camera: I see the Sony is likely to have a 12 megapixel camera. Cool but so what. While I want a better camera what’s interesting to me is I snap many photo’s just off the screen. I often share these in one way or another. The camera is must less important to me than reading and web browsing. I need it and want a good one. It no longer inflences my overall decision. That’s also true of music.

6. Apps (for some it may be games) definitely make a difference. The number that I use everyday is actually increasing (skewed to journalism and communication - twitter / skype). I use maps more than ever. Weather updates are also always on the phone. I can’t wait for turn by turn directions! I expect soon. I actually like being asked. Can this app use your location. That means it is likely to serve me better.

7. Games: I don’t find much time for games. I’ve played and bought a few. There’s two dozen on the phone currently.  Perhaps I just haven’t found the one’s I’d like.

So what about these new phones?
Will I like them? I might if they are more tactile than the iPhone. Although touch technology continues to improve and “feel” is coming. Yet most importantly to me is it’s no longer about making calls. I carry my iPhone for completely different reasons. It’s part of a being in touch, real-time world of updates and broader connectivity.

Add to that the plan and competitive position that ATT / Apple have seem to struck as a bargain between them and it’s unlikely that these phones will find a place with ATT. They will remain too expensive to compete or appear only in very limited quantities.

Still, with past passion for Nokia not quite forgotten I’d love to put my hands on a Nokia N97 and find that I don’t miss my iPhone.

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• Buzzmachine post on Google Wave and perspective of newspapers. New ways to create context live.
  Nice summary from the newspaper perspective on how the Wave format makes content. Jeff Jarvis says he sees it as a new way to make news. I think it is broader than that. Most importantly it provides a view into how we could be working and brings to life many of the "desires" we've had for a long time. I look forward to replacing my wordpress blog with a wave server that I control.
  (tags: googlewave twitter realtime collaboration jeffjarvis)

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• The Ten Ways Twitter Will Permanently Change American Business | (They missed Phweet! but see telecom threat)
  "Twitter may not replace the landline, the cell phone or voice and texting communications but it will certainly supplement them as a way to get around telecom data plans. Tweeting inside a browser does not have the same data cost for the telecom user that texting does which adds another huge non-metered communications opportunity for businesses and consumers. It opens the question of what large cellular services providers will do when conversations move away from their ability to track them. TwitterBerry accounts, used on RIM (RIMM) Blackberry handsets make it nearly impossible for messages to be tracked by data use."
  (tags: phweet twitter business)
• @euan great post- "Social networks are all about finding stuff" | unforutnately changes in Twitter #fixreplies make it less effective today.
  By changing #fixreplies Twitter made it more difficult for me to observe the collective memory in action. An @reply from someone I'm not following to a friend of mine for a info like request will no longer be seen by me. For me that response tells me something about where the interest is and what engages others. It doesn't change Euan's observation it just makes Twitter less effective for finding things.
  (tags: @euan twitter #fixreplies socialnetworks search)
• iPhone, Web Offer Lonely Planet A New Life @gigaom great pointer and example.
  The socialization of content continues. This is the best example yet I've seen of integrating the hard copy with the world of mobility and travel. This opportunity doesn't only apply to travel books rather to almost all books.
  (tags: iphone travel books ebooks)

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Tim O’Reilly’s Google Wave summary is as good as any I’ve seen. I loved his description below for it was exactly how I felt when I saw the demo. Since then I’ve seen more cautionary posts and comments. Yet this demo was as good for me as seeing David Gelertner’s post many many years (2001) ago on the need to manage the flow or timeline.

Most importantly, it left me thinking… as a manager (if I was managing in a large organization) how would we shift from where we are today to this new world. For it was obvious, that gWave or similar services are going to happen and they will provide the organization with perceptible benefits even if we can’t measure them from a prototype today. I think GoogleWave provided something tangible, a view into a world that will likely shift many of us in the way we iterate and work. Should set off a few scenario discussions in more than one organization.

Google Wave: What Might Email Look Like If It Were Invented Today? - O’Reilly Radar

When I saw Wave for the first time on Monday, I realized that we’re at a kind of DOS/Windows divide in the era of cloud applications. Suddenly, familiar applications look as old-fashioned as DOS applications looked as the GUI era took flight. Now that the web is the platform, it’s time to take another look at every application we use today, and ask the same question Lars and Jens asked themselves: “What would this look like if we invented it today instead of twenty-five years ago?”

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• "Google Wave Preview" The most impressive revolutionary demo I've seen in ages! Pull so many of my thoughts and desires together and all in real-time.
  GoogleWave looks set to be nothing less than a revolution. You simply have to watch the demo as it integrates email, blogs, chat, community and conversation. I wrote down two items as I watched it. Did gWave just kill MSOffice? Doesn't this make Skype Multi-Chat completely redundant? and then I went to look at Google's stock price.
  (tags: gwave googlewave email collaboration)

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• The Case for Working With Your Hands - NYTimes.com | I certainly can identify with this article.
  This is a great article for sharing the benefits of working a trade. I particularly like how he puts it in terms of knowledge. I'm perhaps also a little envious that he restores old motorcycles. I had a friend once who retired to working on Racing Porsches. That's often appealed to me too.
  (tags: work education nytimes knowledge)
• Twitter Might Start Adding Comments & Location-Based Information to Each Tweet | I was told same thing months ago.
  "Twitter's API lead told Robert Scoble that Twitter might soon add location-based information to every tweet. Currently, users can set a location on their profile, but individual tweets are not geo-coded in any way." GeoCoding each tweet will make geo-location services possible without the tyranny of phone numbers.
  (tags: twitter location geotagging)

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• Not Nice…Necessary | Tara @missrogue Hunt's take on why Twitter 'Rawks' resonates.
  Clip: "It’s the connection I feel to the people I follow when they make me smile, or feel sad or feel passionate about something. It’s the constant display of humanity sliding by on my screen daily. I know when someone thousands of miles away is feeling frustrated at work. I feel the elation a virtual stranger is feeling when he finishes that race he’s been training for forever. I share that funny moment that person I miss hanging out with has…and can feel closer to her for it.

  The other stuff is gravy. If it weren’t for the interesting tidbits and connections I feel emotionally to the people on Twitter, I wouldn’t tune in so religiously and catch the great New York Times article or the fact that one of my favorite artists is coming to town. If all I got was customer service on Twitter, I’d only tune in when I had an issue. But because of the ambient intimacy of the connections…the real human experiences being shared daily, I may also tune into the ‘commercial breaks’…"

  (tags: twitter socialmedia socialnetworking tarahunt web2.0 missrogue)