Samsung unveils 8GB hard-drive phone

Samsung has taken the wraps off a mobile phone that boasts what it says is the biggest hard drive seen on such a device to date.

The "candy bar"-style device, the SGH-i310, will pack 8GB of storage and run Windows Mobile 5.0. Samsung is hoping the device, which can hold more songs than an iPod Nano, will take off with music fans. In addition to its large hard drive, the device will let users sync playlists from their PC as well as store documents, photos and other information in the phone's internal memory.

Credit: Samsung

Samsung's SGH-i310

The i310 is the fourth of Samsung's hard-drive phones: The device was preceded by one model packing 1.5GB of storage and two offering 3GB. For those needing more storage than the i310's hard drive can offer, the phone's memory can be expanded using micro SD cards.

The phone also packs Bluetooth, a 2-megapixel camera and USB 2.0. The i310 will officially debut at the CeBit trade show in Hannover, Germany, this week and is expected to go on sale in European markets in the second half of this year.

While phone manufacturers have made no secret of their ambitions to steal a little of the iPod's portable-music market share, recent research has cast doubt on consumers' attitudes toward using their mobiles as music players. According to a study by RBC Capital Markets, 70 percent of consumers have no interest in playing music on their mobiles.

Jo Best of Silicon.com reported from London.

[itispals]

Mobile Wars

More than competing with iPod, i think Samsung would be competing with Sony Ericsson. As the article had rightly mentioned, Music lovers mostly use authentic music systems compared to mobile phones acting as music players. Probably the trend may change in the coming years.
"for cool new gadgets info visit <a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.buckleupnow.com" target="_newWindow">http://www.buckleupnow.com</a> "

[itispals]

Mobile Wars

More than competing with iPod, i think Samsung would be competing with Sony Ericsson. As the article had rightly mentioned, Music lovers mostly use authentic music systems compared to mobile phones acting as music players. Probably the trend may change in the coming years.
"for cool new gadgets info visit <a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.buckleupnow.com" target="_newWindow">http://www.buckleupnow.com</a> "

[chuchucuhi]

what will happen

The phone companies will lock down the phone and only let you store information if you send it to the phone using their network and data services. I like limits that are being pushed but cell phone companies never make fun easy.

[john55440]

Samsung's YP-Z5 & Amazon.com?

What sounds interesting to me, is the Samsung YP-Z5, and the unconfirmed digital subscription music service that Amazon.com is apparently going to offer. The former supports Microsoft PlaysForSure, so I imagine that they will work together.

In any event, every little nugget of competition against iPod is good for the consumer.

[j3st3r]

Sounds good on the surface

So long as transfering data to and from the phone is as simple as plugging in a usb cable I'd put my hand up for a decent phone/player.
The advantages are;
-one device to do the two jobs
-ease when changing battery (no sending it back to the manufacturer so you can be drilled)
The disadvantage would likely be the battery. I'm assuming that even the best mobile phone battery will be hammered by a HDD. We could see a return to measuring the battery life in minutes, well until it's worked out how to cram a heap of flash memory in at least.

[J.G.]

Two words

Battery life. Users will not sacrifice battery life for playing music or
taking pictures.

Sure they'll sacrifice battery life... I do!

For the business or person always on the go... yeah battery life is priority.

But I sacrifice battery life all the time for conveinace of all-one-solutions.

I want to get rid of my iPod/phone/camera(for easy less profesional shots)... so something like this will sit at my side in the morning plugged into the wall, into my power charger in my car, and beside the computer at my desk. One word... conveinance. Not everyone is untethered all the time and this phone is for us! I'll try and pick up this or another similar feature rich phone when i'm in Europe this spring...

[MikeEvans]

20 Gig Samsung phone coming soon

According to Samsung's head of telecoms, they have a 20 Gigabyte smartphone coming later in the year:

<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://mobilementalism.com/2006/03/10/samsung-hints-at-20-gigabyte-mobile-phone/" target="_newWindow">http://mobilementalism.com/2006/03/10/samsung-hints-at-20-gigabyte-mobile-phone/</a>