Thursday, December 2, 2004
Motorola MPx: Launch Schedule & Memory Configuration
Posted by Jason Dunn in "THOUGHT" @ 03:00 PM
I'm in Seattle at Microsoft's Mobius conference, and we just had a presentation from a Motorola representative where he confirmed that the Motorola MPx will be released before the end of the year...in SE Asia. :? He did, however, indicate that the phone would be available in other markets "shortly". I'm not sure what that means, but I'll venture a guess we'll see it released in North America in Q1 2005...let's hope that's not too far off. That's the good news - what follows is the bad.
He confirmed that the MPx would come with 32 MB of RAM, which I find shocking. I openly asked him if they expected the product to be a success with that much RAM, and he believed it would be. He said that the reason why they didn't go with more RAM was that it was a trade-off between the hardware and the battery life and size. I believe this was the wrong decision and that users would have sacrificed a bit of battery life to get 64 MB of RAM.
How does the RAM break down? On the demo unit I saw, 23.79 MB of of the 32 MB is useable after a soft reset with 1.19 MB in use for storage, and 10.17 MB in use by programs. I'll do the math for you: that's only 4.37 MB free for storage and 8.06 MB free for programs. I was shocked by the 10.17 MB of RAM in use after a soft reset with no other software running. It comes with a 64 MB Flash ROM chip, of which 59.45 MB is available for user storage. Interestingly enough, the Flash ROM shows up as "ResidentFlash" in the File Explorer. There's a normal memory slider, which puts to end the rumour that the MPx was going to have 32 MB of RAM purely for application execution, and that 100% of the storage was going to be in Flash ROM. If that was really the case, this device might have been decent with 32 MB of RAM.
I'll wait for a shipping unit before making a final judgment on the device, but based on the current memory configuration, I have a hard time seeing this device being successful in the market. I'm fully aware that Motorola wasn't aiming at the power user market, and are instead focusing on communications, but given the amount of RAM space Pocket Inbox, Pocket Internet Explorer, and all the other communication apps need just for "slack" (temporary files, etc.) 32 MB is absolutely insufficient. It's a shame, because the hardware is the most innovative thing we've seen so far on the Windows Mobile platform - but with the current memory configuration, this device will be a colossal flop.
He confirmed that the MPx would come with 32 MB of RAM, which I find shocking. I openly asked him if they expected the product to be a success with that much RAM, and he believed it would be. He said that the reason why they didn't go with more RAM was that it was a trade-off between the hardware and the battery life and size. I believe this was the wrong decision and that users would have sacrificed a bit of battery life to get 64 MB of RAM.
How does the RAM break down? On the demo unit I saw, 23.79 MB of of the 32 MB is useable after a soft reset with 1.19 MB in use for storage, and 10.17 MB in use by programs. I'll do the math for you: that's only 4.37 MB free for storage and 8.06 MB free for programs. I was shocked by the 10.17 MB of RAM in use after a soft reset with no other software running. It comes with a 64 MB Flash ROM chip, of which 59.45 MB is available for user storage. Interestingly enough, the Flash ROM shows up as "ResidentFlash" in the File Explorer. There's a normal memory slider, which puts to end the rumour that the MPx was going to have 32 MB of RAM purely for application execution, and that 100% of the storage was going to be in Flash ROM. If that was really the case, this device might have been decent with 32 MB of RAM.
I'll wait for a shipping unit before making a final judgment on the device, but based on the current memory configuration, I have a hard time seeing this device being successful in the market. I'm fully aware that Motorola wasn't aiming at the power user market, and are instead focusing on communications, but given the amount of RAM space Pocket Inbox, Pocket Internet Explorer, and all the other communication apps need just for "slack" (temporary files, etc.) 32 MB is absolutely insufficient. It's a shame, because the hardware is the most innovative thing we've seen so far on the Windows Mobile platform - but with the current memory configuration, this device will be a colossal flop.
