Casio Comes After the iPhone
11:27 pm, February 1st, 2009, Lonnie Lazar
Can this Casio phone give the Palm Pre a run for its money?
It features dual screens. On one side is the traditional screen many cell phone users are accustomed to, with a full phone keyboard. But twist the screen around, fold it down, and the phone becomes a touchscreen multimedia device similar to the iPhone.
With a 5 megapixel camera, microSD card slot, Bluetooth connectivity, and video recording, it’s got features and specs Apple’s mobile computing device can’t touch. It’s scheduled for Japan release in February, though there’s no word yet on pricing.
They’ve sold a lot of watches over the years, haven’t they?
Via DVICE
Posted by Lonnie Lazar in News, iPhone | Comment on this article
I love my G-Shock. It’s the ultimate watch. Atomic, solar, 200M, etc.
But… You can’t beat the iPhone without a superior OPERATING SYSTEM.
The iPhone OS has been developed from 1986 (as NeXTSTEP) through today. That’s over twenty years.
Do you really think Casio has built their first OS ever, and somehow it beats Apple’s?
Get real.
PH, on February 2nd, 2009 at 6:54 am
I love their watches. It’ll be interesting to see their newest phone. My husband has their older tough model. It’s been dropped and splashed in water and it still works! Wonder if the new model will be “tough” too?
Lori, on February 2nd, 2009 at 7:50 am
Notice the “AU by KDDI”. The phone is Japanese, and as such has I doubt it is really a threat to the iPhone. In the cut-throat japanese phone market, it’s just another fish in the pond. It will probably do loads more than the iPhone is capable of while costing a lot less. The claim of “dual screens” is not quite correct, because the screen really just swivels into a horizontal position. This is because the Japanese love watching TV on their phones.
To those who think that “sure, nice features, but the OS probably sucks,” remember again that this will be released in the japanese cell phone market. To have any kind of street cred, your phone has to have a good OS. It is nearly a given. My Japanese phone (free with my plan) that I kept for three years after buying in 2004 had a more intuitive OS than any phone released in the US that doesn’t run OSX.
That said, I don’t think the iPhone is doing well in japan. I don’t have any numbers on me, but once the novelty wears off I doubt it will have much appeal over there. The Japanese love to text, nay, they nearly exclusively text, and the iPhone virtual keyboard is less then great for texting.
Dann, on February 2nd, 2009 at 9:44 pm
They sell a lot of cameras, too! One of my first digicams was a Casio QV-8000 with outstanding features back in 2000, and my latest is also a Casio. Not to mention the hispeed digicam EX-F1…
So, at least the camera section of the Casio phone is a real competitor to the iPhone’s.
tinbert, on February 3rd, 2009 at 12:42 am