Cowon+Samsung+android+a skinable UI on top like HTC sense but instead user created :D

Reagarding Superaki's post here, I don't agree that MP3s / DAPs and phones will eventually be rolled into the one device. Well, certainly not until they make a battery that lasts more than a few days as my experience with smartphones is that they are all battery hogs and there's no way in hell I would use the same smartphone to play music as I would for my phone.

NOKIA N8 playes more than 50 hours with a simple 1300 mAH battery,also see iphone 4 features too.

^That is indeed enough to satisfy anyone, but think of it like this: You dont just use your cellphone for music. On your s9 you have 50 hours for music and thats it. It will be reduced if you watch videos though but thats not a major problem. On a phone you maybe browse wifi, play some games call people and have the phone on standby. Then there will be a major reduction in music playing time. But as you do the other things it might still be worth it.

I used my nokia 5800 (which basicly is a smartphone, symvian s60) for my media need for allmost a year and it worked good (though it lacks in the SQ department the music browser is actually better the the S9). But lets say Im out camping. Then my phone battery would go out after maybe a day or two and I wouldnt be able to charge it. The S9 could last much longer though.

I don't think battery time is a valid argument against combining phone and mp3 player.

Battery technology is getting better and better, looking at LiPo's and newer battery types which I can't recall anymore without any explosive hazards and even less memory effect/long term degradation and as many phones already offer music/3.5mm jack, intended to be used as main mp3 player. On top of this the chip technology is getting smaller and smaller, so there is less power consumption and heat, I'm sure the next generation cowon will have memory and processors on <32 nm technology. Finally you can always decide to turn off wifi, bluetooth and even gsm/3g (airplane/offline mode) if you want to extend battery time.

Maybe slightly off topic, but why not make the entire backplate from solar panel material so you can extend battery life even more? this is done on some cellphones/portable devices already.

Like mentioned by Siekira, I also fantasized about a collaboration with samsung; a lot of functionality and huge durablity and sturdiness(own experience :D). I think this would make a great combo.

Just some little extra thoughts from my initial post when I tried to make a thread before seeing this one:

As most mobile phones have a 3.5mm jack with reasonable audio support, I can see the market for dedicated mp3 players declining, and I myself would also like to have an all in one device next time I buy, yet I don't want to be ripped off by apple for a shitty media player with phone and crapOS. I think the perfect device would be something like the S9, or more like the J3, with phone functionality (dual sim would be nice), with a metal back, AMOLED (something like the new samsung, super AMOLED which requires one layer less so the picture is even better ,at least 5 mp camera, wifi, something like android, windows CE/mobile, linux mobile and flash support so the customizin g possibilities are endless. I would easily pay 500 euro for such device, I hope cowon sees as well that they need to start making mp3 players with great quality sound but also with phone functionality ( and everything else the smartphone offers nowadays).

What do you think?

I think people portraying Apple as eeeevil on this board is increasingly tiresome, and I wish people would knock it off already.

That being said, a hybrid phone/MP3 player has potential...but I don't trust Cowon to fulfill that potential.

Agreed, whilst I've never owned an Apple product, nor am I likely to, they make fantastic products for a massive customer group. Whilst their products may not suit some folk, like me, they are not massively succesful by chance.
But back to the Cowon mobile discussion, I think for them to survive in the future and maintain a presence in the global market, they have to diversify. There's no way any manufacturer can survive with what is becoming an increasingly disappearing product.
I've worked with young people in education for many years and they surely are the core market of mobile music. I can tell you, seeing a student with a DAP is increasingly rare, mobiles are very much becoming the focus of all their entertainment needs.

If Cowon could do a phone right, I'd love it. But, TBH, I doubt they'd pull it off correctly. Look how long it took for the company to finally get a player right (S9),........the J3 and i9 both befitted from it, yeah,......... I just don't feel like being a beta tester for another phone is all.

To be fair, I'd say the X5 and A2 were mostly right in their day...mostly...

i dont like apple because if you buy a 32 gb player and fill it up with just music (99 cents a song) it will cost you over 6,000$

...or you could buy CD's, or look into free music, or...

It turns out that buying an iPod doesn't bind you into an iTunes-only contract with Apple. Strange, I know...

A spare battery for your 5800 (Nokia BL-5J) weighs less than an ounce and is tiny and DX has some low cost ones. You want to bring a whole separate player along instead, that you also can't charge out there? Almost all phones (other than Iphones) let you swap the battery like that. Cowon players generally don't.

I have to wonder why anyone thinks Cowon should make a phone. They can't build in enough quantity to get economies of scale like the phone mfgrs. The attractions of old Cowon hardware wouldn't apply to a phone. Cowon has never been all that good at firmware. The one thing they have going for them is a tradition of good sound quality. So should the question really be: should the phone makers put good DAC's and headphone amps into their phones, like Cowon does in its DAP's? Of course the answer is yes. But if that happens, there's not much point to DAP's any more, except very basic ones.

I agree. And these guys are deaf to customer complaints, or they dont understand English.
Cell phone? You must be joking. These guys can't even display how much space I have on my SD Card!

I prefer to leave Cowon Players Intact and Think in improve a Skipe Gadget in cowon models that have internet and wifi capabilities.

Some places doesn't have cellphones companies reaching but probably there are some wifi zones

Besides it's less expensive talk by VoIp

Think About It

I would buy, only and if only:
1-android
2-mini usb connection (the standard one and not the crap that they had in S9 but like the one they have in cameras or blackberry) so that I can actually take my phone without worrying about not being able to find wire if I lose one. NO PROPRIETARY CRAP.
3- includes flash and flash card option.
4-qwerty keyboard (touch screen version and or physical version)
5- has aws frequency support

If cowon can do all of this then please do not waste time making one. I can already buy a good phone with all the above qualities and more.

Question:"what kind of company is cowon?!
 

generally we have to type of companies:
Hardware,software
EXP:
Apple: %20 hardware %20 software %60 advertisement.
Microsoft: more software less hardware
Oracle or Adobe or...: just software
my point is now what kind of company is COWON?!(software or hardware?!)
if they what to produce a smartphone at least they have to be one of these.
cell phones are very complicated devices a just assembler won't be able to design one.
Exp:
Nokia: %80 hardware %20 software
Samsung:hardware
blackberry: Both
Apple:both
Motorola: hardware
HTC: hardware
Microsoft:software
Google:software
LG: hardware
etc.
so now where does COWON fits in?!
best that I can describe : %5 hardware 3%software %92 unknown(I mean as a smartphone company )

Think cowon should not produce a phone for more and better reasons as it should produce a phone. Looking at the market there is to much competition allready and next question would be what would be the market position? High end like iphones or Samsung Galaxy S etc or just a gimmic like the nokia music phones..... So if they make one, better think twice what they want to establish. ---> EMINEM: Look, if you had one shot, or one opportunity To seize ... You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow ...:P

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?

I say I don't wish Cowon would go into phone business b/c they are so close to attaining the goal of best SQ and best UI, something that the Chinese are doubtful of doing anytime soon.

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.

Yep. Dedicated mp3 players pretty much lost their use to smartphones. I honestly hope Cowon is going that direction. Hopefully they'll look at my thread as well:
http://iaudiophile.net/forums/showth...321#post299321

I'd rather keep my device separate from the phone. The only time I will consider this convergence worth it is when batteries longevity improves immensely.

My SE Walkman Phone, N95 and my current blackberry phones all have media options which are great but one negative for all three is the fact that it felt tacked on even with the dedicated tactile buttons on the walkman and n95. It felt clumsy and less intuitive then a dedicated pmp/mp3 player.

My current blackberry phone provide some decent sound and looks great on the screen but my battery is reserved for browsing, push email and phone calls and I'm not a big fan of using that battery power up as smartphones are already power hungry as it is.

In regards to the OS, I think android is probably their best bet but how many of you are willing to spend an extra 200+ on top for phone calls? Is it profitable to sell it just outright? Will they have carrier support and plans for the phone?

Android is changing rapidly everyday and as you can see a lot of manufacturers are having a hard time keeping up especially with a custom UI. I can't see myself enjoying a cowon vanilla android device and I guess it comes down to how up to date they keep the d3.

It'll certainly look better as a proprietary OS for a cowon phone (just look at the s9/j3 and it customisation) but nowadays it seems apps/eco-system are more important than just audio quality. look at the ipod touch as a good example of that and its eco-system.


The other options could be to join in a partnership with a hardware manufacturer such as RIM, NOKIA, SAMSUNG? and offer their knowledge into the audio arena. A good example of this is the collaboration of Carl Zeiss AG and NOkia. I'd certainly a buy Blackberry Cowon device! (But again the battery life does play into consideration)

battery life is getting better and better all the time,, just look at the x7 last year over a 100 hours of music on one charge wasnt heard of! if they could knock a phone out a bit like motorolla defy scrach proof water proof great camera and iaudio sound id pay the extra instead of having to carry mp3 player phone ect

I am unsure about Cowon making a phone/player given the poor user interface on their products. Now if it had a great battery life, most cell phones don't, and the signature Cowon sound and if, big if, they could somehow not miss the mark on the interface, not likely given the track record (O2, V5, etc..)... then a big resounding yes.

I don't see it happening. I put up with the little issues and sometimes awkward interface because I want the best sound I can get.

Just my 2 cents....

I'll rather have separate devices. And actually this boils down to individual users.

Most users will put up with lousy battery life on a smartphone for the sake of convenience.
I personally would want my phone to waste as little as possible battery life on stuff that do not need to be done on a smartphone. On a normal day usage, my usage on a phone at the end of the work day reaches near 50%. This is without watching video, listening to music, and playing games.
On a day where my job request me to go around sites, it is normal for it to go to around 40% at the end of the day

Solar panels,on back+ sides+bezel of screen (front part which is not screen) + kinetic energy which will recharge your cowon whenever it moves in your pocket and whenever you put it in a lit place, extending battery life!

potential problem solved!

I'd love a cowon to be a cellphone, but it would have to be at least the J3 as far as UI standards go or else it would never make it in todays market of people that care more about that than audio quality.. But man, my J3 as a cellphone? omg I could only dream of something so amazing! I'd actually like it better than an android player because of its music playing capabilities. and video i guess.. they'd have to beef it up quite a lot with better hardware though or else it would be slow and buggy thanks to the signal combined with all the music and video playing.

If it will be able to play music or video as long as s9 or j3 can, it will be great!

I would definitely buy one as long as the price is within reach. Probably lower in price than the iphone.

I would keep them apart because of batterylife, as simple as that!

keep the phone part simple, calls in, calls out, text messages.
o and seperate phone\music power modes.

i seem to remember the old nokias (which had really crap inefficient batteries) lasting quite a while between charges.

so long as they dont try and fit the entire internet and every possible communication system into it it'd work pretty well considering batteries last ten times longer now and we have 100x more transmitters in the city.

thumbs up for the solar panels (new high 97%+ efficiency type not the old brown casio calculator type)

add all that up and power wont be an issue.

and yes i'd buy one in an instant if they included the same sound quality i have on my j3, in my eyes an x7 with call and text function would suit nicely.

please don't bother
 

Are you all using the same cowon software as me? The S9 where all the tracks change to xml.info files when you delete a track on the player? The volume button that changes tracks in music mode? The S9 where 90% of the perfectly loaded artwork disappears after a delete? The jet audio programme that only rips every other track even though you have every track ticked? The quality of their software is simply shocking, substandard stuff that we all put up with because we want Jeteffect and we don't want the Apple experience. I think the chance of Cowon making a phone that works is pretty slim. If someone added Jeteffect to my HTC phone, which never fails to work, I'd buy it tomorrow.

Yes, if they teamed up with HTC and android

Only if they don't botch the player like they did the D3...

A Cowon player with simple phone / sms function would be definitely a pick.

I think they should, but hopefully not in the same way as the D3.
Here's what they need:
Android Market from the start, without having to sideload.
Same amoled display, same resolution, but in a 4" screen.
USB, not proprietary cables.
TI OMAP 4
HDMI-out
Developer friendly-CM9 on this would be heaven.
Plus anything else youd find on the average smart phone.

Cowon hooked up to a major amp w/some 15's pounding and then my buddy calls in the middle of the song hmmm ...... not cool. Maybe if I can go airplane mode.

exactley...will they keep it simple and fast with great battery life...of course not, they'll try n reproduce a generic smartphone and underpower it.

^I hope the first part comes true otherwise I might jump ship.

Anyone know of any Korean sites which Cowon (may) visit for input? From what I can tell they don't make use of the resource which this site could provide for their future/present releases and it would be good to try and port some of the useful info from here to a korean site if necessary.

For me a phone takes a backseat to music and is usually only needed rarely so I would definitely be onboard with the following as long as it uses android:

It would be stupid to release it without android since that way most the work of implementing a pmp with phone is already done from the software side of things.

With BBE Sound now releasing an iOS app (hopefully a 'droid version will follow at somepoint), the only way Cowon can hold onto their international audience is with a convergence with 3g capability. From what I understand, there isn't even anything that special about the Wolfson chip which is used in the D3 etc since several other mainstream devices use it too so it could very well be the BBE implementation which gives Cowon their edge. I know they mainly focus on their domestic market, but surely even there, people would rather carry one device rather than two?

Does anyone know if iphone/ipods are popular in korea since that would perhaps increase the likelihood that Cowon will see the BBE iOS app (for only $5!) as an incentive to do the obvious.