Sony Ericsson’s K530 3G smartphone is another example of technology convergence in the mobile phone market. It can rapidly become a personal navigator with the addition of the previously reviewed plug-in Sony Ericsson HE-100 GPS Enabler. In what one might call a double up of convergence, the HGE-100 is actually a stereo headset with a GPS receiver built-in.

The K530 is intended provide personal GPS navigation capabilities however, for in car use the voice navigation may be more useful as the 2 inch screen is much smaller than specialist GPS car navigation devices. Sony Ericsson highlight its application to fitness training through recording speed and distance and provision of a visual analysis on screen afterwards. Further details of GPS capabilities are provided in our previous review of the HGE-100 GPS Enabler.

In recognition of the bright future for location based services (LBS) for GPS enabled mobile devices such as the K530, more services such as Microsoft Live Search for Windows Mobile with its location-aware local search are being provided each day. SiRF, which provides the GPS chipset for the HGE-100, will actually soon be holding the Location 2.0 Summit which will explore the future direction of technologies for LBS.

The K530 has a large array of on-board capabilities including;

• 2 mexapixel x2.5 digital zoom camera
• Access NetFrontâ„¢ Web browser
• Video recording
• Media player
• Video calling
• Email
• Picture messaging (MMS)
• Sound recorder
• Text messaging (SMS)
• 3D games
• Java
• FM radio
• Video streaming
• Bluetoothâ„¢ technology
• Modem
• Synchronization
• USB mass storage
• USB support

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Further Reading

Nokia have their market leading GPS enabled N95 smartphone and 6110 navigator. Mio have the A701 GPS phone and the A702 GPS Smartphone which incorporates SiRF’s SiRFDiRect Dead Reckoning technology.

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