Iriver’s new Wave Home concept may have been the company’s showstealer at this year’s CES, but it wasn’t the only one to bear the new Wave label. The lesser-known Wave Internet Phone will run head-to-head with the iPod Touch by piling PDA-like features into a tiny, flexible device that’s lacks everything but a cell modem.
I had a chance to play with the Wave Phone briefly, and while it was still just a prototype with bits of leftover Korean still seeding the menus, the interface left much to be desired for a do-it-all mobile device. Web surfing, especially, struck me as pretty dismal compared to the high bar that’s been set by Apple’s nearly untouchable Touch.
But the biggest barrier for the Wave Internet Phone might be that name. Though it does leverage Wi-Fi to offer phone service within the home, I suspect consumers may take it the wrong way and view it as a phone that only works in the home, rather than as a portable media player and Web surfing that device that has the bonus of working as a phone too. It’s all a matter of perception, and in the case of the Wave Phone, I suspect it might be working the wrong angle.
Still, the iPod Touch remains crippled as a phone unless you jailbreak it and install special software, so the Wave Phone may find its niche with just the right marketing push. Iriver plans to debut it in Korea within the next few months, with a price that translates to about $200 USD. No word yet, though, on whether or not it will make it stateside.
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