What a difference a few years makes. Today, many are wondering how long Apple can continue to be successful if the next iPhone doesn’t have a display over 3.5 inches. Virtually all smartphones running Google’s Android OS have larger ones than that, some going above 4.5 inches.

And it doesn’t stop there. Samsung and LG are exploring even bigger touchscreens. For example, AT&T is about to release the Samsung Galaxy Note, a hybrid phone/tablet with a 5.3-inch display.

The reason for the rapid increase in screen size: what people are using their phones for has changed dramatically. In the mid-90s and before, these devices were primarily used for voice calls and text messaging. Handsets back them could be tiny, because most people only used the display to read short text messages or see who was calling them.

Today, people use their smartphones to access the Web, play games, watch video, exchange email and texts, and even access Office files. For all these tasks, the bigger the screen the better.

With the steady gain in display size, we’ve given up some portability, but we’ve gained tremendous functionality — and the tradeoff is worth it.

Related Articles on Brighthand

• Samsung Galaxy Note Can Now Be Pre-Ordered from AT&T
• Take an Early Look at the LG Optimus Vu Tabletphone

To give you an idea of what HTC did wrong last year, I compiled a list handsets it released in 2011: ThunderBolt, Rezound, Titan, Radar, Arrive, Amaze 4G, EVO Shift 4G, EVO Design 4G, EVO 3D, Rhyme, Vivid, Sensation, Inspire 4G, Status, Droid Incredible 2, Trophy, 7 Pro, and Merge. I think everyone would agree that this is too many.

But Motorola wasn’t much better.  How about the Droid 3, Droid RAZR, Droid Bionic, Droid Pro, Admiral, Atrix, Atrix 2, X2, Photon 4G, XPRT, Pro+, Electrify, Titanium, and Cliq 2. Too many of these were too similar, like the X2 and the Droid Bionic.

Samsung seems to have figured this out, and put most of its attention last year on the Galaxy S II. Still, it came out with other models that — predictably — didn’t sell nearly as well. Anyone remember the Samsung Continuum? I didn’t think so.

Apple epitomizes the “less is more” philosophy. It releases one (1) smartphone each year. While it’s possible that’s taking things a bit too far, it’s far better than HTC having to split its focus among 18 or so new models.

There’s a complicating factor here: the wireless carriers. Companies like Verizon and AT&T want exclusive phones, and they put pressure on device makers to provide them. In the U.S. the handset producers absolutely depend on the carriers, so it’s hard for them to resist this pressure.

Even so, companies have to cut down on the number of models — producing a dozen or so each year that don’t sell all that well isn’t a good strategy, either for them or their customers. Just think about support and system software upgrades — the fewer models a company has to deal with, the more time they can spend on each one. That leads to happier customers and bigger profits.

Related Articles on Brighthand:

• HTC Will Release Fewer Smartphone Models this Year
• Nokia Has Sold Over 1 Million Lumia Windows Phones
• Apple iPhone Outsold Android Last Quarter in the U.S.

.

I heard that Intel was unveiling a reference design for a handset running one of its chips, but I brushed it off — Intel has done this multiple times before and nothing has ever come of it. The definition of “Reference Design” is generally “something that is never going to see the light of day”. I was sure there were many more important developments to cover.

Fortunately, Brighthand‘s newest contributor, Andy Patrizio, set me straight. Intel’s announcements went beyond a mere reference design, to the fact that it has lined up Motorola and Lenovo to make smartphones running Intel chips. For the first time, a handset built by a major company with an Atom processor is going to be on shore shelves.

Lenovo  
The first Intel-based smartphone from Lenovo is going to be the K800. Details are scanty, but it will have 4.5-inch screen, an HDMI video-out port, and NFC.

The bad news is that Lenovo is a Chinese company, and it’s currently thinking locally. The K800 will be introduced by China Unicom at some point in the spring. A broader release later is a possibility, though.

Motorola
Motorola isn’t talking specifics, other than to say that it and Intel have entered into a multi-year contract to work together on more than one device.

What I find most interesting about this is that Google is in the process of acquiring Motorola. So if the company commits to using Intel x86 processors on future smartphones, it means Google must also be serious about Android running on the x86 architecture.

While Google has committed itself to bringing its mobile operating system to Intel chips last fall, at the time I questioned at the time how serious it was. Google experiments with a lot of projects, and many go nowhere (anyone remember Google Wave?).  With its soon-to-be subsidiary Motorola committed to the project, however, I have to believe Google is going to be firmly committed to it.

ARM vs. Intel
Currently, every smartphone (and tablet) used a chip designed by ARM Holdings. I know what you’re thinking “No, Qualcomm made my Droid’s chip” or “My iPhone has an Apple A5 processor.” See, ARM doesn’t manufacture chips, it designs them and then licenses these to a range of other companies, who then make actual hardware.

Why do they do this? Because ARM is very, very, good at designing low-power processors that are well suited for mobile devices. Better than any other company. Up until now, even better than Intel, who dominates production of processors in desktops and laptops.

Despite Intel’s best efforts, its Atom line has been too big a drain for very portable computers. A few years ago, I had one of the original Ultra Mobile PCs that ran Windows on an Intel processor — it had a battery life that could be measured in minutes. I’m sure you’d hate a phone that could barely last an hour.

Which is why handset makers have turned to ARM and its licensees Qualcomm, NVIDIA, Samsung, etc. to get the brains for their devices. But it sounds like Intel is finally turning things around. Its Menlow 32nm system-on-a-chip (SoC)  appears to finally be giving ARM some real competition.

With Google apparently backing this development, the days of the ARM monopoly may be coming to an end.

Related Articles on Brighthand:

• Intel’s Smartphone Designers Step Up, Finally Score a Hit
• Android OS To Be Optimized for Intel Atom Processors

.

The basic issue is that there hasn’t been a breakthrough in battery design in many years. Lithium-ion has been the state of the art for almost as long as I can remember. There have been refinements, but no dramatic improvements.

We’re used to electronic components getting smaller over time.  That’s not really happening with batteries. Until someone finds a significantly better option than Li-Ion, the only way to make a battery hold more juice is to make it bigger.

At this point, you might be asking, if we can’t make batteries smaller, how is it that the battery lives of the latest devices are going up without a corresponding increase in size? For example, the Motorola Droid Bionic comes with a 1735 mAh battery, while the Motorola Droid X2, which came out last spring, has a 1540 mAh battery. And our review of the Droid Bionic shows that the newer model has a better battery life than the earlier one. These two handsets are almost exactly the same size, so where is the extra battery life coming from?

And the Answer Is…
The solution is something I’ll confess I didn’t think of. As I said, we’re used to electronic components getting smaller. And that’s happening with all the parts that go into a smartphone… except the battery. So as the processor, internal storage, camera, etc. all shrink, that leaves room for bigger batteries. The percentage of the internal space devoted to batteries is going up, but the overall form factor of the handset remains the same, or in some cases is even getting smaller, like with the newly-announced Motorola Droid RAZR.

This is really only a stop-gap measure, though. I’m sure there are chemists out there working every day to come out with a better type of battery than lithium-ion. There’s billions of dollars to be made by the one that can significantly reduce the size requirements for batteries.

Related Articles on Brighthand:

• Motorola Droid Bionic vs Motorola Droid X2: Which Droid Is Better?

Let’s take a look at another smartphone that’s undoubtedly going to make a big splash in the U.S. this fall, the Samsung Galaxy S II. Despite all its other high-end features, including a dual-core processor, the latest version of Android, an 8 megapixel camera, etc, it has a WVGA (800 x 480) screen, not a qHD (960 x 540) one. Another almost perfect handset.

But take a look at the specs for the Droid Bionic:

• Android OS 2.3 (Gingerbread): CHECK
• 1 GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 Dual-core Processor: CHECK
• 4.3-Inch, qHD Touchscreen: CHECK
• 4G LTE: CHECK
• HDMI Video-Out Port: Check
• microSD Slot: CHECK
• Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, etc: CHECK

Motorola delayed the release of the Droid Bionic from Spring to Fall, and I’m starting to think this wasn’t because it had some kind of flaw, but because it otherwise would have crushed its competition, reducing sales of such devices as the the Motorola Droid Incredible 2 and Droid X2 to nil.

I’m basing my comments on the specs for this model as they were when it was first announced in January. As Motorola took this smartphone back to the drawing board in the Spring, we don’t know what its exact specifications are going to be when it is released. I’m assuming these are going to be at least as good, and maybe even better.

The Motorola Droid Bionic is definitely going to hit Verizon’s store shelves next month, and the debut could be on September 8. The price is expected to be $300 with a two-year wireless contract.

When the debut happens, Brighthand will certainly review this smartphone, and we’ll let you know if it lives up to its promise.

Related Articles on Brighthand:

• Motorola Droid Bionic Appears Briefly on the Verizon Homepage
• Verizon’s Release Dates Leak Out for Motorola Droid Bionic, Samsung Stratosphere, Others

-

Doing a bit of reading between the lines, it becomes clear that this deal is going down for one simple reason: Google wants Motorola’s patent portfolio to help defend itself from lawsuits from Apple and Microsoft.

The best evidence for this comes from the other makers of Android-based smartphones. Google must have pre-warned them about this deal and defending this operating system from patent lawsuits must have been at the top of the agenda, as evidenced by this statement from  Peter Chou, the CEO of HTC:

“We welcome the news of today‘s acquisition, which demonstrates that Google is deeply committed to defending Android, its partners, and the entire ecosystem.”

The heads of LG and Sony Ericsson also released very similar statements.

It’s a Bad Business
The smartphone business is sees its share of cutthroat tactics, and an increasingly popular one is the patent lawsuit. Rather than competing on who makes the better software and handsets, some companies have taken to seeing who can find the best lawyers.

The basic issue is that the patent system in the United States is about as broken as it can be. The U.S. Patent Office is woefully underfunded and understaffed, so every day companies are given patents that are too broad, or for things that are obvious. The companies than turn around and use these bad patents as the basis for a lawsuit against one or more of their top competitors.

Worst-Case Scenario
Now that we know the real reason for Google buying Motorola, we’re still going to have to deal with the unintended consequences. When one company makes both the operating system and some of the most popular devices running it, there’s plenty of potential for problems.

The setup that works best is for one company to develop the system software and then license it to hardware makers. This way there’s little chance of favoritism. For example, all that Microsoft cares about is that there are lots of computers sold  running Windows, it makes no difference to Steve Ballmer who makes these.

If you want ann opposite of what can go wrong, Palm, Inc. once made the Palm OS and made the Palm line of PDAs. The other companies that licensed this operating system, most notably Sony, frequently complained that Palm gave itself unfair advantages, such as adding features to the OS specifically for Palm’s own hardware.

Google has promised that this won’t happen with Motorola Mobility. It’s new acquisition is going to be run as a separate company which will keep its own name. Andy Rubin, Senior Vice President of Mobile at Google, said, “Google remains firmly committed to Android as an open platform and a vibrant open source community. We will continue to work with all of our valued Android partners to develop and distribute innovative Android-powered devices.”

But going forward, Google is going to have to be very careful about no showing favoritism to Motorola Mobility. It has to avoid even the appearance of favoritism. If it doesn’t, Samsung, HTC and LG, and others are going to have some serious complaints, and might even stop making Android-based devices if they don’t think they can compete against Google’s own hardware division.

That’s a worst-case scenario I know. But it’s important to think about how events can go wrong some time in the future if you want to avoid them.

Related Article on Brighthand:

• Google Shakes Up the Smartphone Market by Buying Motorola Mobility

.

I was happy to get a chance to try out the Droid 3 (however briefly) because the original Droid was my primary smartphone for many months last year. I liked it, but I could also see room for improvement. Motorola has included just about all the enhancements I wanted.

The most obvious of these is a larger display. This is a 4-inch qHD touchscreen, up from the 3.7-inch WVGA display in the first two models in this series.

And there’s now a better keyboard. The Droid 3 sports five rows of keys, including a set dedicated to numbers.

Thanks to the dual-core processor, performance on this model is sweet. I had just time enough with this handset to perform my favorite stress test: I tried some Flash video, which worked beautifully.

The downside of the various hardware improvements is size. This is a bulky smartphone — it’s roughly as big as my original Droid is when it was in its protective case.

There wasn’t time for any more testing, as I needed to box the Motorola Droid 3 up and send it off to Adama D. Brown, who will be writing the full review. Keep an eye on Brighthand in the coming days for his thoughts on this cutting-edge smartphone.

.

Far and away the best costume was the steampunk Boba Fett, who you can see at left holding the new Droid R2-D2.

There was also a trivia contest, from which I was eliminated almost immediately. I thought I was a big Star Wars fan, but I wasn’t even in the right league. I was expecting questions like “Name Han Solo’s Wookie first mate,” and instead the questions were more like “How tall is Admiral Ackbar’s mother-in-law?”

More about the Motorola Droid R2-D2
Last night’s event was all about a special version of the Motorola Droid 2. This has a new look to match the lovable little astromech from Star Wars, but inside is one of the latest Android OS-based smartphones.

It’s a slider with a 3.7-inch WVGA display and a landscape-oriented keyboard.

Because it has the latest version of Google’s operating system, the web browser supports Adobe Flash. This OS also comes with email software, music and video player, and other communication and entertainment applications.

The Droid R2-D2 comes pre-loaded with some Star Wars-related apps, themes, and sounds — yes, the default ringtone is R2-D2 beeping for attention.  

This smartphone can connect to Verizon’s 3G (EV-DO Rev. A) network, and it includes Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

It also has a 5 megapixel camera with a flash, 8 GB of on-board storage as well as an 8 GB microSD/SDHC memory card.

Get It Now
The Motorola Droid R2-D2 costs $250 after a $100 mail-in rebate and with a two-year new or renewed contract. This includes a Star Wars-themed media dock and wired stereo headset.

Verizon has ordered a limited number of these devices, and when they are gone, they are gone. So if you want the world to know how big a Star Wars fan you are, get your Droid R2-D2 today in a Verizon store or this carrier’s website.

.