Two days back, when Levono launched its much awaited Android 2.1 powered LePhone in China, what caught my attention was the design of the mobile phone. Though, Levono has unveiled the phone in CES 2010 held in Jan this year, soon after its launch in China, I decided to take note of some peculiar things about this phone:
- If you have seen traditional mobile phones, then they all have one of these particular form factor. But if you closely look the LePhone, the entire design is in round shape, which makes it more interesting to handle.
- It is powered by Android 2.1, but has its own UI on top of Android OS. Quite Interesting!
- It doesn’t support Google Applications (Surprising!). Instead, it support Baidu’s Chinese Applications (A Phone for China)
- If you have gone through video and already experienced Android 1.5 sluggishness, then LePhone device appears very fast.
- Finally, the way QWERTY keyboard was attached to phone makes it potential candidate for other external controller devices like Gaming Console etc.
But for me, the real question is how far this Mobile OS and devices fragmentation will continue? Nowadays, when you get to see soft launches of devices based on Android platform or even WinMob (Microsoft Kin) etc, it creates very fragmented outlook for entire Smartphone (also for mobile application) industry. If Lenovo buys Palm, then we would be expecting Lenovo Mobile OS (On the lines of Samsung Bada) soon. An Application Store, the proposed Mobile OS and now a smartphone device, Lenovo is surely shifting its focus to handhelds. Wait & watch!
