Shaking Up The Mobile Market
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday May 5, 1997
THE Panasonic EB-G500 is the first GSM mobile phone on the market to offer "vibration alert" as an option controlled by an ON/OFF button on the phone body.
This set-up differs from that on phones from the likes of Motorola and Nokia, where vibration alert is a menu function and a feature of the optional batteries.
The EB-G500 vibration alert emits a steady heavy buzz (Panasonic calls it a "subtle vibration") to notify the user of an incoming call.
With just a flick of the switch to "vibration" mode, a G500 user can avoid those "is that my mobile ringing?" situations in a busy cafe, and even boldly leave the phone on during a remastered Star Wars screening.
The EB-G500's other main attraction is the Voice Memo option, which can record up to 20 seconds of conversation by using the memo button.
Voice Memo playback is conducted in stand-by time so it doesn't eat up too much battery power, and recording quality is of an acceptable voice-mail quality.
This Panasonic mobile handset is a relatively small phone weighing 215 g, with a fairly large 36-character display.
The standard battery included offers 50 hours stand-by and 150 minutes talk time, which easily survives a busy social Sunday.
The universal on-button (the round circle framing a vertical dash) symbol is located within the "end-call" key, making it easy to initially mistake the larger "OK" button for the power button.
The EB-G500 features Call Waiting/Call Hold, which alerts the user of a second caller by a series of sharp beeps, but the handset also automatically stores the number of the last (and only) unanswered call.
The handset allows for four levels of diversion (All Calls/If Busy/No Answer/Unreached) to another number, as well as Call Bar to restrict all calls, international calls, incoming calls, or any calls when roaming. The unit offers Phone Book and Fixed Dial functions, and can be equipped with Short Message Service, which is relatively new to Australia and can be customised in one of 13 languages.
The choice of phone colour is limited to either champagne gold or metallic blue, and the keypad features typically Panasonic big glassy buttons.
A sturdy and sensible phone from the company recognised for consumer electronics, the EB-G500 retails for $815. The nearest competitor model is the Ericsson 388. The EB-G500 is the consumer electronics company's third entry into the GSM mobile phone market.
Panasonic's mobile phone product manager, Harry Muto, said the previous two models gave Panasonic a 3 per cent market share. "With the 500 we are expecting a rise to 5 to 7 per cent market share, getting close to 10 per cent."
© 1997 Sydney Morning Herald