Apple and the Mobile World Congress
The Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, over the second week of February 2010, brought forth displays and announcements from a wide variety of manufacturers and developers of mobile devices and mobile software.
Noticeably absent, however, were representatives from Apple. Yet, despite their absence, Apple's iPhone was still a major player in the conference, as other manufacturers scramble to design competing devices and applications.
A major factor being considered by many of the developers at the conference was the popularity of Apple's App Store. Many companies are planning to team up to create an open source coding system that will allow developers to create applications which can be easily converted to a wide variety of devices from many manufacturers. Through this coding system, they believe they can compete with the huge number of downloads from the App Store.
In the meantime, Google is making huge strides in the world of mobile smartphones. The Google designed mobile operating system, Android, is currently available on only a few handsets; however, at the Mobile World Congress, HTC introduced two new handsets, dubbed Desire and Legend, which run Android. They are designed with improved touch screen technology in an attempt to rival Apple's famous multi-touch iPhones. Sony Ericsson also introduced the Vivaz Pro, yet another smartphone running Google's Android.
Google also revealed new Android applications, including advanced translation functions. They demonstrated an application using optical character recognition to translate a photo of foreign-language writing into English.
And, to compete with Apple's maps and Google Earth applications, Motorola and Asus introduced cell phone handsets with advanced GPS capabilities. Motorola has joined forces with Navteq to develop their handset, while Asus joined with the GPS market leader, Garmin, to produce a combination GPS and phone that will use the Windows Mobile operating system.
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