Daily mobile: zzzPhone doubts, ‘08 mobile players

February 6th, 2008, 2:55 pm · 1 Comment · posted by Sonya Smith

BRING ON THE ZZZZZZ’S: Most tech blogs large and small are intrigued by a new company, zzzPhone, that lets customers create and then order their ideal phone. Most wrote a comparison to Dell’s made-to-order computers, but three blogs went beyond. Engadget gets first mention just for its headline: “Made-to-order cellphones: dubious quality included free of charge.” While Ricky at SMS Text News just asked if anyone would be willing to order one of the phones as a test, Ewan at the same blog takes the bait and ordered a phone for $149. And finally, today Jack Cook from Mobility Site joins in to criticize all the other coverage and answers his own question in the headline “Is the ZZZPhone a Scam?….YES!!”

700 MHz AUCTION NEARING END: The zzzzPhone concept is interesting, but its not that much more interesting than this Information Week article by W. David Gardner that says the FCC is speeding up bidding on the 700 MHz auction and it could all be over in a few days. Total bidding for all licenses was $18.9 billion, according to the story.

WATCH THESE COMPANIES: The Mobile weblog’s Leo notes research firm IDC’s study that identifies the 10 “Emerging Mobile Players to Watch in 2008.” The blog links to the IDC press release and the companies named. It looks like it helps to be in Massachussets, Virginia or California. After looking up each company two are from MA, the VA and CA.

MORE 3G iPHONE HYPE: Seems like everyone is upset about no 3G iPhone announced at MacWorld Expo that AT&T’s announcement today of expansions to its 3G network got everyone all excited again for the 3G iPhone, which AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson has already mentioned as a product coming this year. Glenn Fleishman writes at the Mac-based blog TidBITs a really informative piece discussing all U.S. cell phone carriers and the different decisions made by each in terms of what data connections to offer:WiMax, EDGE, 3G, WiFi, etc.

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