Samsung BizBee

25th November 2008
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What is the Samsung BizBee? A phone? Sort of. But really the word "BizBee" refers to a new sub-brand that Samsung have created to sell messaging smartphones.

Does this sound silly? Well, remember that "BlackBerry" is actually a sub-brand of RIM (Research in Motion). We suppose that Samsung want to make the "BizBee" brand well known in the same way.

"Samsung BizBee" represents a range of mobile phones that offer full business connectivity and functionality wherever the user might be. And that means a lot more than taking phone calls, it means the ability to surf the web, read emails and work with documents. And although Samsung have not explicitly said that the BizBee concept will run on Windows Mobile, the first BizBee phone certainly does.

So, what fabulous new handset have Samsung come up with to promote the BizBee range? Step forward.. the Samsung i780. Wait a minute.. haven't we seen this phone somewhere before? Yes - the Samsung i780 was announced a year ago in an industry where a year equals a product lifetime. Fortunately, the i780 is an excellent phone, but it is just a shame that Samsung couldn't come up with something completely new.

The Samsung BizBee i780 isn't exactly the same as the original i780, because it has now been "refreshed" (or if you prefer, "warmed over") with Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional. That's on top of a smartphone that combines a 320 x 320 pixel 2.6" touchscreen and QWERTY keyboard, comes with WiFi, HSDPA and GPS support.

We don't really like the "BizBee" name, but we have said for a long time that Samsung need to make their range easier to understand, and BizBee will certainly help.

Samsung will start running their BizBee campaign this month, initially in the UK, Nordic countries, Spain and the Netherlands, although no exact date for the launch to the BizBee i780 has been given. Hopefully this means that existing Samsung i780 users will also be able to upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.1 at the same time.