CeBIT 2000: A summary
We promised you that Symbian, wireless and MP3 players would be the highlights of CeBIT 2000, and we were right. Now that our time in Hannover is nearing to a close, here is ZDNet's round-up of the most ground-breaking announcements that we witnessed over the last few days.
Friday's star of the show was Samsung's curiously named Yopy handheld device, which is reported to be the first Linux PDA. The open source approach this device takes means it has no wireless capability, and uses an ARM processor.
On the WAP front, Motorola exhibited six new triple-band WAP handsets, including the world's first triple-band GPRS WAP handset. Nokia also launched three new mobile phones, two of which will be Internet-enabled WAP models. In addition, the 'new and improved' Nokia 9110i Communicator was demonstrated with added WAP capability.
The biggest surprises have come from Symbian, which managed to secure myriad deals with some heavyweight partners. On Wednesday we saw the launch of Quartz -- a wireless computing platform for handsets. The proposal is for this to be used in a Motorola phone, which is due to be released in the first half of 2001.
Ericsson took the prize for the funkiest gadgets to be found at CeBit this year. Last week saw the launch of its first MP3 player for mobile phones, which clips onto the bottom of the handset powered by the phone's battery--pretty funky for a mobile manufacturer. The company also exhibited CommuniCam, a clip-on digital camera that is promised to be sold as a commercial product.
The most contentious issue at the show was undoubtedly LinuxCare's assertion that we would see Office ported to Linux. The assertion was shot down by an indignant Microsoft spokesman within 24 hours -- no change there then.
We hope you enjoyed our CeBIT comments and coverage on ZDNet.
For full coverage see ZDNet UK's CeBIT 2000 special.
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