It's Hand-Held to Hand-Held Combat

It seems as though every cell phone company is about to announce or release a new generation of smartphones -- and the rapid development pace is facilitating the adoption of worldwide networks.

Apple's(AAPL Quote - Cramer on AAPL - Stock Picks) announcement of its second-generation iPhone is expected in a month. Research In Motion(RIMM Quote - Cramer on RIMM - Stock Picks) just announced its super-high-speed Blackberry Bold.

We've been promised similar new smartphone products from Google(GOOG Quote - Cramer on GOOG - Stock Picks) (the system it's working on has been dubbed the Gphone), Garmin(GRMN Quote - Cramer on GRMN - Stock Picks) (nuviphone, which we've seen but not been allowed to touch), Sprint(S Quote - Cramer on S - Stock Picks)/Samsung (the feature-packed Instinct), SonyEricsson(SNE Quote - Cramer on SNE - Stock Picks)(ERIC Quote - Cramer on ERIC - Stock Picks) (we saw the Xperia at CTIA last month) and many, many more.

Verizon, Sprint Will Lose the Smartphone War

Without having tested any of these future phones, I can report that, for the most part, they have one major feature in common: They are all designed to use worldwide GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA networks.

The key word in the last sentence is "worldwide."

The GSM standard is just that -- it's the only cellular standard everywhere on the planet except for here in North America.

In the U.S., our two major GSM cellular providers, AT&T(T Quote - Cramer on T - Stock Picks) and T-Mobile(DT Quote - Cramer on DT - Stock Picks), have to compete with companies like Verizon(VZ Quote - Cramer on VZ - Stock Picks) and Sprint/Nextel, which use the completely different -- and totally incompatible -- wireless systems CDMA and TDMA. These two standards have not been widely adapted anywhere else in the world.

I will not debate which system is the best, or which has better coverage in a specific area. Quality has nothing to do with what's happening. The reason they're choosing to design for GSM is based on quantity.

« Previous Page

1 2 3

Next Page »