Should Cowon make a cell phone/media player?

[austinv]

Gadgets have been converging for years... cell phones, MP3 players, cameras, PDAs, etc. Most phones can play audio and video, but not very well. What if Cowon made a phone with audiophile grade quality - would you buy it?

[JunglePimp]

Yep... they should. And yes, I would buy it (though seeing as how this kind of a phone would be really expensive.. I'd have to save up for it). There was a thread on the same topic earlier as well.. let me see if I can find it.

[doniago]

Possibly, if Verizon carried it and Cowon got over a few of their standard annoyances, like their previous resistance to ID3 tagging.

It could be very contingent on storage capacity and OS though. I need my phone to also function as a PDA.

[austinv]

Adding to the problem is what standard they should use. USA is about half GSM (AT&T, T-Mobile) and half CDMA (Verizon, Sprint). Most of the world uses GSM. South Korea being one exception.. they are CDMA too. I'm on Sprint so that's all good. But I doubt Sprint or Verizon would pick up anything from Cowon no matter how good it is, there's already tons of models from brands that people recognize. And both Sprint and Verizon have closed networks so you can't just buy a CDMA phone for either network, they are all locked to one or the other. So if your a smaller company and you want to sell an unlocked phone it has to be GSM.

No I think the most likely scenario is that Cowon would develop a CDMA phone for South Korea and we'd have to find someone that could import them and hack the firmware to work on Sprint or Verizon. But that seems like a long shot.

Maybe Cowon could take an existing GSM design from HTC, like the Nexus One or HD2 running Android, and give it a premium makeover with a custom iAudio UI and upgraded audio components and casing material. But considering the phones go for $500 on their own I imagine this could get very expensive.

[doniago]

I actually have a Verizon phone that can use GSM as well (Samsung Saga).

I definitely wouldn't buy a hacked phone.

[TheDarkSide]

I'd buy a Cowon phone in a heartbeat!!!!

[ripvanlink]

I hope Cowon does not go into the phone business b/c it would take away focus on what they already are doing. I'd like to see them really concentrate on improving their already good SQ, rather than resting on their laurels. I'd also like them to improve on their already not bad UI and take it to its next level. If I got my wish, I'd like to see them exceed HifiMan and S:flo2 SQ and become the best player going. Wouldn't that be great? Best sound and best UI?

[el maco]

Originally Posted by ripvanlink

I'd like to see them exceed HifiMan and S:flo2 SQ and become the best player going. Wouldn't that be great? Best sound and best UI?

HifiMan SQ is certainly covered already. I'm not expecting anything special from S:flo2 either but I think Cowon could improve the rolled off bass that occurs with certain headphones. The user interface department, on the other hand, could use a lot of improvement... Not to speak of lacking basic functionality like dynamic on-the-go playlists etc.

Still, I think Cowon smartphone would make sense. That's the way the market is going. A dedicated DAP will be a niche product segment in the future. Why carry around multiple devices when your phone can handle all of the tasks.

[JunglePimp]

If Cowon sticks to a teleservice that is US-based, it won't have a lot of sales..

[TheDarkSide]

It wouldn't be a US based phone alone, as phone manufacturers tend to tweak hardware so they operate in different countries. Then there's world phones, those are a whole 'nother story.

[Peaceful1]

Yes, one of the best brands that fits cowon situation now is HTC.
as we all know in near past(before 2006) HTC was a OEM and ODM so they use to make products for other brands and they were very successful ,even cowon as a Korean brand with the backup of other great names like Samsung they could find a seclusion.
In a few years ago I imagined cowon as a company that makes stuff a few step further than it’s time like the successor A2 or other products but they don’t have that kind of stuff anymore cowon has that backup to make a phone.
We don’t have any phone that acts like a player and has all their options they take lots of time in scanning the memory lack of supporting tags like players , great deferens in SQ, low battery capacity or … , if they want to make such stuff there are products like “Nokia Xpress music” or “Sony Ericson W series” and others it could be better for cowon if it more act like a complex of a smart phone and a player not a phone that plays songs with good options like others (as a phone) with so much lacks that convince you to take your player with you even if there is no other space in your pocket

[number5toad]

Verizon might pick up a Cowon phone if it ran Android, they're really pushing Android devices lately.

I guess I'm on the fence, I don't want a phone / media player with great audio quality so badly that I'd just buy whatever Cowon put out, but Cowon is about the only manufacturer that would convince me to buy such a device.

[JunglePimp]

As it is a pmp+smartphone would be very expensive, and adding android would shoot the price up really high. May be an OS version and an OS-less version would suit the customers better.

[TheDarkSide]

Originally Posted by JunglePimp

As it is a pmp+smartphone would be very expensive, and adding android would shoot the price up really high. May be an OS version and an OS-less version would suit the customers better.

JP, using Android as the OS would lower the cost, not raise it - Android is free to use,.....no?????

[JunglePimp]

Originally Posted by TheDarkSide

JP, using Android as the OS would lower the cost, not raise it - Android is free to use,.....no?????

Oh oh, if that is the case then you might be right. I was linking this to the fact that archos 5 with android costs more than the non-android one... and why didn't anyone point out in the chat when I said the same thing..