Asus launches 'world's fastest' smartphone
Asus has unveiled its latest smartphone, which, it claimed, is the “fastest business PDA phone in the world”. — Under the Asus P565's shell is an 800MHz Marvell processor that Asus said will help the phone deliver “system performance beyond anything else on the market”.
Context & Ripple Effects
Asus had already established a PDA-phone line with the P525 quad-band PDA phone in 2006. The P565 extends that presence by making processor speed the central business-device claim.
The launch also comes as Asus is pushing low-cost Eee PCs and participating with Intel in WePC, giving the company parallel routes into portable computing rather than a single product category.
First-order effects
- Asus positions the P565 against other business PDAs on system performance, using its 800MHz Marvell processor as the product’s primary differentiator.
- Marvell gains a prominent handset design win whose marketing explicitly ties the device experience to its processor.
Second-order effects
- Competing PDA makers face pressure to answer speed claims with comparable processor specifications or benchmarks, shifting business-phone comparison toward measurable performance.
- Asus’s simultaneous activity in netbooks and PDA phones makes it a more direct competitor for buyers choosing among portable computing form factors.
Third-order effects
- If processor speed becomes the standard sales argument for PDA phones, component suppliers gain more influence over handset positioning and product-refresh cycles.
- The P565 points to a broader convergence in which mobile devices are marketed less as communications tools and more as compact general-purpose computers.
The trend: Portable-device competition is moving toward PC-like performance claims, with chip choice becoming a visible part of the handset brand.