Creative and ZiiLABS announce TRINITY concept smartphone
Remember the story a few weeks ago about the Zii Summit 2009 in December and rumors of a new Zii-optimized Android mobile phone platform? Well, the Zii Summit kicked off today with a slew of new products and services including the formal announcement of the ZiiLABS TRINITY, a new smartphone concept running Google's Android and Creative's Plaszma operating systems and powered by ZiiLABS' ZMS-05 processor. A 3.5/4G handset, the TRINITY is notably capable of playing back and outputting 1080p full HD video and delivering rich, 3D accelerated, Open GL ES graphics in the user interface, applications, and games. These media-intensive capabilities are fully handled by the ZMS-05 processor with all conventional OS and application tasks done by the main ARM-based CPU.
The TRINITY sports a 3.1" OLED capacitive touch screen supporting multi-touch and boasting a WVGA resolution. Other features include 256MB of DDR RAM, X-Fi audio technology, a Mini HDMI port for 1080p video output, a 5MP autofocus camera and VGA front facing camera, WiFi (b/g), Bluetooth 2.0 and GPS, MicroSD and USB 2.0 support, and a 1130mAH battery. The device also includes a composite video output for displaying SD video.
It is important to note that Creative and ZiiLABS have created the TRINITY as a "market-ready" concept platform that they do not intend to manufacture and sell themselves. Instead they are planning to sell the complete hardware schematics and software kit as a customizable package to OEM and ODM manufacturers for them to bring to market. They are calling the package the Zii Development Kit "3G Phone Edition," stating they envision individual manufacturers to use the TRINITY as a reference and customize hardware components and features in their own products. In addition, Creative also launched a range of software services called ZiiLife to support all Zii-based products including the TRINITY smartphone.
I was pretty excited by the initial rumors of the Zii smartphone and the potential media and graphics capabilities that the Zii technology would bring to the table. With today's announcement, I am even more excited as I think the TRINITY sounds awesome on paper.
However, we have yet to see a demonstration of the actual capabilities of the device. I am also a little surprised Creative and ZiiLABS are taking their stated approach and not creating and selling a complete product themselves. Although it is a lower risk option for them financially, they could run the risk of partners producing products that do not meet their quality standards. I am looking forward with great interest to see a demonstration of the TRINITY smartphone and which companies will consider buying the Zii Development Kit and making a product like the TRINITY a reality.
[epiZENter.net]
