Edited by author 11-27-2003 06:42 AM
Questions?

Ron Schaeffer, product manager, rushes anxiously to the deadline...


The last screen is "the enhancements."
The list is long. USB connectivity is, oddly, one of them.

The "digital zoom" is a feature most people usually regard as nonsense. With the camcorder option, it isn't: you can, always, edit your photos frame by frame, but not your video.

First question: "What about Russia?"

Hugh Brogan, sans moustache and looking thinner... says he's done about $10m worth of business there.

Second question: "You're a generally conservative company; but operators are very wary about GSM/GPRS through to WiFi - so are you looking to build that into future phones?"

Brogan: 802.11? Certainly we're looking at it. There's lots of opinions from various sides. technically, we have a solution on how to do it! - the US seems to be the market that would be most relevant in right now. Bluetooth seems to be the wireless LAN solution preferred in europe right now.

We have the capability, we know how to do it; all we need is for a customer to ask us to do it, and then we can go forward.

Question: Murphy. "your original business plan was about the plastics; can you keep your business model if you move into feature phones?"

Brogan: "It's a question we've struggled with! The radio in here (the X) and here (the M550) is the same. The display is different. And the M550 is the same as the S300; we have a high degree of commonality."

Question: Operator orders; can you confirm?

Brogan: I can't confirm the size of the order from TIM (Italian operator) apart from admitting that it's not an enormous order! - but it's not significantly smaller than the orders they are placing with Nokia and others).

Question: This was quicker than the Z100. Is that because the operating system is better?

Brogan: Yes, a lot of stuff in this Symbian OS made things easier for us.

Question: Does it take SD or SDIO cards?

Schaeffer: It's SD; because there's no physical spec for SDIO larger than SD.

And now, we're off for a technical session, down stairs. I'll try to stay with you! - but this excellent Vodafone Mobile office card which is keeping me attached to the Internet may lose the signal in the centre of the atrium here at the Imagination Gallery.

The price? Ah yes; unsubsidised, TIM is asking E500, approximately in Italy.