Quickies
tech
BATTLE
Design DANNY MALLER
OF THE SMART PHONES By E MI LY BLOOMQUIST It seems like everyone on campus has one these days. Smart phones are almost a way of life. Searching the web, updating your Twitter account, and using your apps to do virtually anything. So, to those of you who haven’t already hopped on the bandwagon, this will be your go-to resource for finding the smart phone that will work best for you. Of course, there are hundreds of phones to choose from, but we will focus on the Apple iPhone 4, the Motorola Droid X, and the Blackberry Curve. According to the Nielsen quarter one report for 2010, RIM, the company that owns Blackberry, controls 35 percent of the market. Next is the iPhone with 28 percent of the market, and finally the newest of the three, Android phones, control nine percent of the market. This is to be somewhat expected, since both iPhone and Droid are in their early years, and Blackberry has been sold since 1996. Most importantly, I’m sure you want to hear about price. If all of the phones are ordered online, here are the current prices. iPhone 4 starts its 16GB at $199.99, with a two-year agreement and its service provider. Droid X also sits at the $199.99 price with a two-year agreement. The Blackberry Curve can be purchased through your carrier for free (after the online discount), of course again, with a two-year contract. Each of these phones require a minimum of the $30.00 a month data plan in order to access the web, so that will be tacked onto your monthly phone bill as well. 12|I should have left my phone at home because this is a disaster.
$199.99
$29.99
$199.99
Verizon
AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular
AT&T
155
104
137
9.9
13.9
9.3
854x480
320x240
960x640
3G & HotSpot for up to 5 devices
3G & Wi-Fi
3G & Wi-Fi
8 Megapixel HD Video
2 Megapixel
5 Megapixel
Touchscreen
Full QWERTY
Touchscreen
70,000 HD Video
9,800
225,000 HD Video