Friday, April 10, 2009
The Smartphone Wars

Walt weighs in on the smartphone wars. Who will dominate this new handheld platform, and who will attract the most users and third-party apps?

Walt weighs in on the smartphone wars. Who will dominate this new handheld platform, and who will attract the most users and third-party apps?

Walt gives his first impressions of the new BlackBerry App World. The store has hundreds of apps available at launch, and RIM says it expects around a thousand to be available in its first week. Like Apple’s store, RIM’s offers both free and paid apps that download directly to your device.

Walt gives his first impressions of the free Kindle e-book reader application for the iPhone.
Yesterday at CES, Walt and Katie Boehret got their hands on some as-yet unseen gadgets, including waterproof military laptops, games that teach kids how to play real musical instruments and yes, those uber-hip 3D glasses.
Walt Mossberg is the author and creator of the weekly Personal Technology column in The Wall Street Journal, which has appeared every Thursday since 1991.
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.