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Hisense Unveils Sero 7 Tablet Pair Through Walmart

ljohnston — Thu, 23 May 2013 20:50:11 +0000

New York — Hisense launched its first branded tablets for the U.S. market here Thursday, announcing two Wi-Fi-only SKUs that will be sold exclusively through discount store giant Walmart.

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New York — Hisense launched its first branded tablets for the U.S. market here Thursday, announcing two Wi-Fi-only SKUs that will be sold exclusively through discount store giant Walmart.

The tablets include the Sero 7 LT (light), which carries a $99.99 suggested retail, and the Sero 7 Pro, which carries a $149 suggested retail.

Both models will be available starting Friday at more than 3,000 Walmart stores across the country.

Peter Erdman, Hisense consumer electronics VP, said the company opted to launch the first tablet iterations through Walmart, but expects to broaden distribution on second-generation models coming at an unspecified time in the future.

The company is also working to offer an LTE cell-enabled product, but no service provider partners were announced.

Erdman said Hisense has ambitious goals for building the brand, and will begin a campaign this year that leverages print, co-op and online vehicles, in addition to the extensive support that the Walmart presence brings the brand.

The Sero 7 LT and Pro versions each employ 7-inch LCD touchscreens. The LT version will offer 1,024 by 600 resolution and the Pro version will be 1,280 by 720.

At the heart of both tablets are Nvidia processors — a 1.6Ghz dual-core version in the LT and a 1.3GHz Tegra 3 T30 quad-core processor in the Pro.

The Pro model also includes Bluetooth wireless connectivity and nearfield communication (NFC) wireless linking capability for use with similarly equipped Hisense TVs.

Both versions support HDMI cable tethering with MHL support.

For imaging, the LT version includes a 0.3-megapixel front-facing camera, while the Pro version will feature a 5-megapixel autofocus rear-facing camera with flash and a 2-megapixel front facing camera.

The Pro also offers 8GB of internal storage capacity to the LT’s 4GB. Both offer 1GB of RAM. Extra storage can be added via MicroSD (up to 32GB) cards on both models.

The LT uses an Android 4.1 operating system and the Pro offers Android 4.2.

Both devices were also engineered for long battery life, Hisense said, with LT offer up to four hours of movie playback time per charge, and the Pro offering seven hours of movie time (10 hours of browser viewing).

Kevin O’Connor, Walmart VP and general merchandising manager, said both tablets will carry the chain’s Vudu movie-streaming and download service app, along with apps for Walmart.com and Sams.com shopping, Facebook, Pandora, Kings Office and other popular apps carried in the Google Play store.

“Today’s announcement from Hisense underscores our commitment to give customers access to a range of high-quality tablets at low prices,” O’Connor said. “This is just one example of how we are working with leading technology companies to expand our current assortment of brand-name tablets, as well as bring to market new products that deliver on quality and price.”

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May 23 2013 - 4:43pm

HP Rolls Out Rove Portable AIO PC

Steve Smith — Thu, 23 May 2013 19:35:00 +0000

New York — Hewlett-Packard continued its spring computer roll out today introducing new laptops, desktop towers and a 20-inch portable all-in-one PC.

HP hopes the Rove will help bring families together.

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New York — Hewlett-Packard continued its spring computer roll out today introducing new laptops, desktop towers and a 20-inch portable all-in-one PC.

The central theme among all the products is touch, with the majority of notebooks and desk-bound computers sporting touchscreens.

The portable all-in-one PC, dubbed the HP Envy Rove, is designed as a standard AIO, but with the ability to be laid down flat on a table so it can be used by several people at once, said Xavier Lauwaert, HP’s product marketing worldwide desktops manager.

The Rove also has three hours of battery life, allowing it to be used as a massive tablet. However, Lauwaert sees the Rove being used more as a portable electronic game board.

“I think this could do for [board] games what the Kindle did for reading. We want to bring people around technology and not have them all sitting separately using their devices” he said.

The Rove weighs about 11 pounds and has a 10-point touch display. It runs a full-powered Intel fourth-generation processor and Intel HD graphics.

It will ship in July; pricing has not been set.

Lauwaert said HP has gone the extra mile to bring touch to all its new AIOs, the Pavilion Touchsmart 20 and 23, by bringing them in at an affordable price. The two have respective prices of $619 and $749 and will ship on June 5.

“This is the democratization of touch. Touch was always at $900 and above, but not anymore,” he said.

Both models use AMD fourth-generation processors, have 2TB of storage and come with 25GB of free Cloud storage.

HP is also not ignoring the traditional desktop format. On the high end is the new Envy Phoenix 800, $1,099, gaming PC. It comes with Nvidia discrete graphics and optional liquid cooling.

The line steps down to the Envy 700, $599; Pavilion 500, $489; Pavilion 400, $399; and the HP 110, $289.

All ship on June 5.

In the notebook space, HP led off with the TouchSmart 14 Ultrabook. Shipping on June 26 at $699, it features a 14-inch 3,200 by 1,800 FullHD screen, 10-point touchscreen, fourth-generation Intel processor and Beats Audio.

Other models include the Envy TouchSmart 15 notebook, $529, and Envy 17, $699.

HP also rolled out a student-friendly notebook, the Pavilion TouchSmart 11. This model, $399, has an 11-inch screen and is powered by an AMD A4 or A6 processor.

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May 23 2013 - 3:33pm

CTIA Panel Sees Adversarial Relationships Waning

Doug Olenick — Thu, 23 May 2013 12:59:12 +0000

CTOA 2013 Las Vegas — Relations between wireless carriers, retailers and handset vendors have been adversarial for a long time, but that’s changing.

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Las Vegas — Relations between wireless carriers, retailers and handset vendors have been adversarial for a long time, but that’s changing.

That was one of the themes emerging from a panel discussion at the CTIA convention on the challenges and opportunities facing wireless retailing and the consumer buying experience.

The participants in the discussion represented different points in the industry’s supply chain, including RadioShack, Walmart, T-Mobile and Samsung. The moderator was David Sprosty, a retail consultant who was Best Buy Mobile’s CEO and chief executive of Sytemax’s North American retail business.

The executives also discussed such topics as how retailers can remain profitable despite churn, charge-backs and organized fraud rings, and how the industry can combat buyer remorse in the face of a wide array of handset and service-plan choices.

In discussing relationships between carriers, retailers and vendors, RadioShack wireless VP Tony Andrews pointed out that “for so long,” relationships among the three players “have been adversarial in many ways.”

Walmart VP Mehrdad Akbar noted that, historically, carriers went to retailers and said, “Here’s the plan and the phone.” That approach, however, doesn’t work with retailers with the scale of a Walmart, he said. Today, however, retailers, carriers and vendors are collaborating more to understand one another’s pain points, he said. Relations “are much better compared to a few years ago.”

For his part, Sprosty said he has seen “a lot of positive changes” since the time six or seven years ago when he debated a carrier over who owns the customer. He also remembers when carriers would not let retailers see handsets a few months in advance of when they would go on sale.

As for carrier-vendor relationships, the interests of the two parties still diverge somewhat, said T-Mobile USA senior VP Doug Chartier. Handset vendors make their money when a handset is sold, but “carriers make money over time,” he said. Carriers are therefore focused on giving consumers the product that’s right for them so the customer sticks with the carrier, he said.

However, Samsung national retail VP Daniel Liberman contended that for vendors, it is also “extremely important that the customer has a great experience over the life of the device.” The goals of all three parties in a cellular transaction “don’t need to be different,” he said.

Akbar agreed. “This has to be about the customer,” he said. “We measure our success not with the transaction but with the customer loyalty” so that customers become Walmart advocates, he explained.

All three parties, Sprosty said, are having a “healthy dialogue” to improve the customer experience by selling the right product and right service plan to a consumer to reduce buyer’s remorse. This in turn helps carriers reduce churn and retailers to suffer fewer profit-robbing charge-backs.

Sometimes, “we encourage people to drive a Rolls Royce when they should be driving Minis,” said RadioShack’s Andrews. But helping consumers choose the right devices and plans, and supporting customers after the sale, will help devices stick, he said. RadioShack, he pointed out after the discussion, offers 24/7 call-center and online customer support.

With the rise of smartphones, Andrews said, “our cost of goods effectively doubled,” so making devices stick is critical to avoiding churn-induced charge-backs.

Retailers and carriers can help reduce customer remorse by “making it simple to research online,” Chartier said. That will help consumers “do a lot of prequalifying on their own.” Seventy-five to 80 percent of buyers go online first to do research before coming into a store, he noted.

In other comments, Chartier said the industry should prepare for “big changes in the MVNO space.” Next year, he said, “you’ll see big brands not historically in wireless” jump in because wireless can help them connect more with their customers.

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May 23 2013 - 8:58am

MVNO TracFone Building Retail Stores

Doug Olenick — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:46:06 +0000

CTIA 2013 Las Vegas — No-contract MVNO TracFone Wireless, whose subscriber base rose to 23.2 million at the end of the first quarter, plans to further expand its subscriber base by establishing retail stores that exclusively sell its prepaid brands.

TracFone’s booth at the CTIA convention is designed to look like the independently owned stores that exclusively sell TracFone’s no-contract brands.

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CTIA 2013 Las Vegas — No-contract MVNO TracFone Wireless, whose subscriber base rose to 23.2 million at the end of the first quarter, plans to further expand its subscriber base by establishing retail stores that exclusively sell its prepaid brands.

The Miami-based company is working with master agents to set up retail locations owned and operated by independent parties. The stores go by the name Simple Mobile Solutions.

TracFone, which owns the store name and provides the store buildout, set up five stores in New York City and five in Miami in the past month. The company plans to launch up to 30 more by year’s end and expand beyond that in 2014, said Tim Garrett, regional senior VP for indirect-channel marketing.

Stores will be located to fill in gaps between the locations of retailers that sell TracFone-owned brands, Garrett explained. The stores will be located “a reasonable distance” from TracFone’s existing retail accounts in locations where the competition consists of carrier stores, he explained.

The Simple Mobile Solutions stores will also enable consumers “to see all the brands the way we see them,” provide focused support for TracFone brands, and enable subscribers toi go to a physical location for support instead of calling or emailing customer service, he added.

The five TracFone brands sold in the stores are TracFone, Telcel America, Simple Mobile, Net 10 and Safe Link Wireless brands. TracFone also offers Straight Talk no-contract service, but it is available exclusively through Walmart.

Here at the CTIA convention, TracFone built a booth that looks like the interior of one of its stores with displays for each of the five brands.

The MVNO is the nation’s largest no-contract MVNO and fifth largest cellular-service provider by subscriber base, COO Paul Kozma said.

And it’s getting bigger. This week, the company entered into an agreement to buy no-contract MVNO Page Plus and its 1.4 million subscribers. About a year ago, TracFone purchased no-contract MVNO Simple Mobile and its more than 1 million subscribers.

As an MVNO, TracFone itself doesn’t operate a network but resells service from networks operated by the four national carriers.

In the first quarter, TracFone increased its number of net new subscribers by 127 percent to 839,000, bringing its subscriber base to 23.2 million, up 15.4 percent from the year-ago quarter.

Revenues were up year over year by 39.8 percent to $1.5 billion; the average subscriber’s minutes of use were up 30 percent year over year to 526; average revenue per user rose to $19 from $16, and the churn rate fell to 3.7 percent from a year-ago 3.9 percent.

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May 22 2013 - 8:44am

ZTE Attributes Sales Gains To No-Contract Segment

Doug Olenick — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:44:18 +0000

CTIA 2013 Las Vegas — Handset vendor ZTE USA is in a strong position to benefit from continued growth in the no-contract cellphone market, having already established a strong foothold in the segment through major no-contract carriers and MVNOs, said Waiman Lam, senior director of wireless.

Waiman Lam, senior director of wireless for ZTE USA

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CTIA 2013 Las Vegas — Handset vendor ZTE USA is in a strong position to benefit from continued growth in the no-contract cellphone market, having already established a strong foothold in the segment through major no-contract carriers and MVNOs, said Waiman Lam, senior director of wireless.

With industry forecasts calling for continued strong growth in the no-contract market, and with ZTE stepping up its no-contract focus, ZTE handset sales are positioned for continued strong growth, Lam contended.

Studies forecast that in 2013, one in four cellular subscribers will have a no-contract plan, growing to one in three subscribers in 2014, he said.

Most of the 23 ZTE devices currently available to U.S. consumers are sold with no-contract service from such service providers as AT&T, Aio Wireless, Boost Mobile, T-Mobile, MetroPCS, Cricket Wireless and TracFone Wireless, Lam told TWICE. Most of the devices are smartphones, but the selection also includes several feature phones and a handful of data devices.

The company has already grown its unit share of U.S. no-contract smartphone shipments to 17 percent in the first quarter from a year-ago 8 percent to 10 percent, making ZTE the third largest supplier of no-contract smartphones, Lam said in citing research from ITG Market Research.

Strategy Analytics found ZTE’s handset sales grew 85.7 percent in units in the first quarter compared to the year-ago period, Lam continued. He attributed the growth to the company’s increasing share of the no-contract market.

ZTE’s no-contract growth also helped push the company into fourth place in combined U.S. shipments of smartphones and feature phones in the first quarter, up from fifth place in all of 2012, as measured by Strategy Analytics, said Lam. ZTE’s unit share was around 5-6 percent during those periods, he noted.

The company’s handset shipments have grown rapidly in the past three years, making handsets account for 95 percent of the company’s U.S. dollar volume, which includes telecom infrastructure, Lam said. In 2012, total revenues grew by more than 100 percent to $1 billion following more than 100 percent growth in 2011, Lam said.

Handset sales are also growing because the company began in 2012 to build up

its selection of mid- to high-tier smartphones to complement its low-tier selection, Lam said.

Despite its surging sales of no-contract phones, the company will continue to offer phones for the postpaid contract market, he noted.

ZTE excels in the no-contract market, whose service providers sell no-subsidy and low-subsidy phones, in part because of Chinese manufacturing, logistics and design-process efficiencies that enable it to make smartphones “more affordable but not inferior to other OEMs,” Lam said.

The company delivers quality and performance because it procures innovative technologies from such U.S. companies as Qualcomm, Intel and Google, he said.

Other reasons for ZTE’s no-contract success include the company’s quick time-to-market response and the ability to customize solutions for carriers and MVNOs, Lam contended.

The no-contract market itself is growing for multiple reasons, including sharp service pricing, consumer desire to forego service contracts, and the rising quality of no-contract smartphones to match the quality of contract smartphones, Lam said.

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May 22 2013 - 8:42am

RockDoc Expanding Distribution To Carrier Stores

Doug Olenick — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:40:07 +0000

CTIA 2013 Las Vegas — Startup audio supplier RockDoc, which began selling RockDoc by Pitbull portable digital-media speakers in late 2012, came to the CTIA convention to expand its distribution to carrier stores.

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CTIA 2013 Las Vegas — Startup audio supplier RockDoc, which began selling RockDoc by Pitbull portable digital-media speakers in late 2012, came to the CTIA convention to expand its distribution to carrier stores.

Rapper, songwriter, and record producer Pitbull is an equity owner in the Kennesaw, Ga., company.

The company sells a trio of RockDoc by Pitbull speakers through online retailers and select brick-and-mortar electronics stores, including all Fry’s and CompUSA locations. The company plans to expand its CE-channel distribution this year and expand its product selection in the fourth quarter to include wired and Bluetooth mono and stereo headsets and more speakers.

To expand distribution to carrier stores, RockDoc teamed up with AlphaComm Enterprises of Lawrenceville, Ga. AlphaComm offers private-label accessories to carrier stores and also sells stereo and mono wired and Bluetooth headsets and a portable Bluetooth speaker under the Quikcell brand and on a private-label basis to big-box retailers, said Tracy McAllister, marketing and business development senior VP.

AlphaComm is in discussions with RockDoc to bring RockDoc’s products to more CE retailers, she added.

RockDoc’s trio of portable battery-operated palm-size speakers include two models with embedded memory and MicroSD card slots. The third model is a Bluetooth speaker with memory-card slot.

The products include the $49-suggested RockDoc Boom with 6-watt stereo output, 4GB of embedded memory, 64GB MicroSD slot and headphone output. The $39-suggested RockDoc Power is a mono speaker with 3-watt output, 4GB embedded memory, 64GB MicroSD slot and headphone output.

The $59 RockDoc Bluetooth features Bluetooth, stereo drivers, 64GB MicroSD slot, 6-watt output and headphone output. It has no embedded memory.

All three feature rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, USB charging port and AC adapter.

To promote the line, the company will step up promotion through Pitbull’s social-media outlets and RockDoc’s own social-media outlets, said Bob Anderson, sales and marketing director.

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May 22 2013 - 8:39am

Sprint Readies Tri-Band LTE Data Devices, Phones

ljohnston — Tue, 21 May 2013 21:00:35 +0000

CTIA 2013 Las Vegas – Sprint came to the CTIA show to announce its first three mobile data devices that will tap into three Sprint LTE bands to provide improved performance and stronger in-building coverage as the carrier deploys LTE service.

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CTIA 2013 Las Vegas – Sprint came to the CTIA show to announce its first three mobile data devices that will tap into three Sprint LTE bands to provide improved performance and stronger in-building coverage as the carrier deploys LTE service.

The three data devices will be available sometime in the summer. The carrier also expects tri-band LTE smartphones from Samsung and LG to be available to Sprint subscribers before the end of the year.

The devices and phones will access 4G LTE service in the 1.9GHz and 800MHz bands as well as in Clearwire’s planned 2.5GHz LTE band.

Sprint’s 1.9GHz spectrum is the company’s primary 4G LTE band, with LTE service available in 88 markets nationwide. Another 170 additional markets will go online “in the coming months.”

Sprint will bring LTE to its 800MHz spectrum starting later this year, using spectrum obtained by turning off its 2G Nextel network on June 30.

The carrier said 2.5GHz spectrum in which Clearwire is planning to deploy LTE will be used to provide increased speeds and capacity in densely populated cities, Sprint said without mentioning a timetable for Clearwire’s rollout.

The new tri-band data devices are the MiFi 500 LTE mobile hotspot from Novatel Wireless, the international-capable NETGEAR Zing Mobile Hotspot, and the plug-in NETGEAR 341U USB Modem. Pricing and exact availability dates weren’t provided. All also connect to Sprint’s 3G CDMA network.

Novatel’s hot spot connects to up to 10 Wi-Fi devices and features 1,800 mAh battery with an average of up to 10 hours of use on a single charge. It also features GPS functionality over Wi-Fi.

Sierra Wireless’ NETGEAR Zing Mobile Hotspot is Sprint’s first CDMA/LTE mobile hotspot with international roaming capabilities via GSM. It is also Sprint’s first LCD touchscreen hotspot. It connects to up to 10 Wi-Fi users and features 2,500 mAh battery for up to 10 hours of typical use.

The NETGEAR 341U USB modem features 3G CDMA and built-in LCD screen display to monitor connection status, signal strength and data usage with a quick glance. No software needs to be installed on mobile devices to use it.

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May 21 2013 - 4:59pm

Industry Execs Debate Key Wireless Issues

ljohnston — Tue, 21 May 2013 20:34:29 +0000

CTIA 2013 Las Vegas — Executives in the wireless industry and other industries debated issues of privacy, smartphone data security, distracted driving and the changing employer-employee relationships resulting from the growth of wireless data, during a CTIA keynote panel, here, Tuesday.

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CTIA 2013 Las Vegas — Executives in the wireless industry and other industries debated issues of privacy, smartphone data security, distracted driving and the changing employer-employee relationships resulting from the growth of wireless data, during a CTIA keynote panel, here, Tuesday.

The panel praised the potential for new business opportunities enabled by wireless data. But privacy is a growing issue with many consumers as mobile phone apps and telematics systems collect information on user locations and habits to serve up promotional offers, perform remote vehicle diagnostics, and push content and services to vehicles and to consumers’ phones, the executives contended.

The bring-your-own device (BYOD) trend among enterprises is creating issues over who owns data on a personal phone used for business and an enterprise’s rights to monitor personal devices, added Allison Cerra, global marketing and communications VP at infrastructure supplier Alcatel-Lucent.

Car infotainment systems that access apps stored on smartphones and tablets are challenging car makers to better control the information that the apps serve up to in-dash screens, said Mary Chan, president of the global connected consumer at General Motors. “We’re working with app developers to determine what is an appropriate amount of information” to deliver to vehicles, she said. GM worked with Apple, for example, to integrate an iPhone’s Siri voice control and response technology with integrated hands-free Bluetooth in such a way as to present only appropriate information to minimize driver distraction, she said.

Automakers must also find ways to prevent vehicle data from transferring from one owner to subsequent owners, Chan noted.

Although privacy is less of an issue with younger consumers, even most older consumers are very or somewhat comfortable in sharing location and other information if they get free services in return, Cerra pointed out. Many consumers are preference-seekers who want retailers to “know them” some of the time but not all of the time, she noted.

Chan agreed, contending consumers will willingly opt to share information in return for services such as getting pushed alerts that it’s almost time to replace a car battery or perform other vehicle maintenance. Such services incentivize people to share information, she said.

Target executive VP/chief information officer Beth Jacob pointed to the potential for pushing information to shoppers’ phones when they are in store to, for example, present information on special in-store offers or list the in-stock food items that are gluten-free.

In such cases, wireless is capable of sending data to consumers that’s relevant in the context of the location they’re in, said Peggy Johnson, executive VP and global market development president at Qualcomm Technologies.

As for mobile-device security, Gerri Martin-Flickinger, Adobe’s senior VP and chief information officer, said the wireless industry is probably five to six years away from bringing desktop and workstation security to mobile devices. Emerging security threats are “scary,” particularly in enterprises, she said.

In other comments GM’s Chan said she wants Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) technology to proliferate in carrier networks so OnStar employees can simultaneously talk to a car’s driver and deliver data.

Qualcomm’s Johnson said current wireless networks in 10 years will carry 1,000 times the data they do now and that “it will be tough” to keep up with demand despite the addition of new spectrum and new technologies such as LTE-Broadcast, small cells and the like.

And Target’s Jacob said the retailer has implemented a digital savings program in which consumers can pick from hundreds of offers, share them with Facebook friends, and redeem the offers in store by scanning their phone.

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May 21 2013 - 4:32pm

Use Of Cell-Embedded Tablets Growing Slowly: NPD

Doug Olenick — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:33:29 +0000

Port Washington, N.Y. — Only 12 percent of tablet owners used cellular-embedded tablets to connect to the Internet in the first quarter, an NPD Group survey found.

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Port Washington, N.Y. — Only 12 percent of tablet owners used cellular-embedded tablets to connect to the Internet in the first quarter, an NPD Group survey found.

Nonetheless, the number of cellular-embedded tablets with active cellular subscriptions grew 48 percent in the quarter compared with the year-ago period, NPD said.

“Most consumers haven’t found that key application convincing them to add a cellular connection,” said Eddie Hold, VP of NPD’s Connected Intelligence research. “Another setback is that many tablets purchased today do not include a cellular modem, which further limits the directly addressable market for mobile operators.” Carriers, he said, “need to focus on tethering and mobile hot-spot solutions in order to grow the market [connecting tablets to cellular networks] more rapidly.”

Sales of connected tablets are currently dominated by AT&T and Verizon Wireless, given that most consumers purchase connected tablets from their current smartphone provider, he said. Both carriers were also early sellers of the iPad, he noted.

The launch of mobile share plans last year helped the two carriers strengthen their market share, he noted. Nonetheless, “these tablet users can prove to be far more fickle in their ongoing need for cellular tablet connections, and all carriers need to work hard to show the value and benefit that comes from an always-on tablet solution in order to defend — and expand — their all-important tablet base.” The carriers need to find “key-use scenarios for mobile tablet use,” he contended.

The survey also found that when a cellular-embedded tablet has been activated, users consumer on average 850MB of cellular data per month, less than the average 1GB on smartphones. The cellular-equipped tablets, however, consume about 10GB of data per month via Wi-Fi, or 2.5 times the Wi-Fi data used by smartphones, NPD also found. The higher Wi-Fi data consumption by tablets compared with smartphones is the result of higher video consumption on tablets, or about 4GB per tablet per month, NPD said.

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May 21 2013 - 12:30pm

Kyocera Expands Waterproof Smartphone Series

Doug Olenick — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:38:40 +0000

Las Vegas — Kyocera expanded its Hydro series of dust-proof, waterproof Android smartphones with the launch of two models that join a current model.

Kyocera Hydro XTRM.jpg: Kyocera’s Hydro XTRM 4G LTE Android smartphone features military spec 810G shock resistance and IP57 dust- and water-proofing certification.

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Las Vegas — Kyocera expanded its Hydro series of dust-proof, waterproof Android smartphones with the launch of two models that join a current model.

The company plans “soon” to further expand the series, a spokesperson told TWICE.

The phones tap into a consumer need for waterproof phones, said the spokesperson. Most insurance plans don’t cover damage from water, he noted.

Kyocera unveiled the two phones on the eve of the CTIA convention at the Ice Bar in the Mandalay Bay hotel. The company launched its first Hydro smartphone last year through prepaid service provider Boost and expanded the phone’s distribution earlier this year through prepaid provider Cricket. Boost Mobile.

Compared to the original Hydro, the new Hydro models feature larger higher-resolution screens, Android 4.1 OS, dual-core processors instead of single core, and other enhancements.

The two new models are the Hydro Edge, a 3G CDMA Rev. A phone due from Sprint and Boost Mobile sometime during the summer, and the Hydro XTRM, which combines 4G LTE with 3G CDMA and adds military spec 810G shock resistance. The military spec certifies that the device will survive after being dropped 26 times from 4 feet.

The XTRM is available today through U.S. Cellular’s online store at $29 and will be available in retail stores on May 24. The Edge could retail for around $130 through prepaid provider Boost and could retail for less than $50 with one of Sprint’s postpaid plans, a Kyocera spokesman said.

Both models feature IP57 dust- and waterproof certification to withstand dust, water sprays from rainstorms and sprinklers, and total submersion in up to 3.28 feet of water for up to 30 minutes.

Like their predecessor, both models feature Smart Sonic Receiver technology, which eliminates a traditional speaker by transmitting vibrations directly from the phone’s front panel to the eardrum when the phone is placed against the user’s ear or against an area of the head close to the ear. The technology dramatically increases the clarity and intelligibility of incoming calls in noisy environments, the company said.

Eliminating the speaker also delivers cleaner aesthetics and contributes to waterproofing, the company noted.

The Edge features Android 4.1 OS, 1GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 4-inch capacitive impact-resistant IPS LCD touchscreen with WVGA (800 by 480 pixel) 233 ppi display, 1GB RAM, 4GB ROM, 32GB memory card slot and 1,600 mAh lithium-ion battery. The rear 5-megapixel camera/camcorder features LED flash and such enhanced camera features as autofocus, panorama mode, HDR (High Dynamic Range), facial recognition, smile/blink detection and burst-mode settings. The Edge lacks front camera.

Other Edge features include 3G mobile hot-spot capability supporting up to eight Wi-Fi-enabled devices simultaneously, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, and stereo Bluetooth 4.0 + LE/ EDR.

The 4.5-ounce phone measures 4.9 inches by 2.5 inches by 0.39 inches.

The shock-proof Hydro XTRM features Android 4.1, 1.2 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 1GB RAM, 4GB ROM, 4-inch impact-resistant IPS WVGA (800 by 480) touchscreen display with 233 ppi, 5-megapixel rear-facing camera/camcorder, 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, 2,000 mAh lithium-ion battery, 32GB memory card slot, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Wi-Fi hot-spot capability supporting up to eight devices, and stereo Bluetooth (4.0 + LE/EDR). Detailed camera capabilities were unavailable.

The 4.9-ounce phone measures 4.88 inches by 2.52 inches by 0.42 inches.

The original Hydro’s features include Android ICS OS, 3G CDMA Rev. A technology, 3.5-inch HVGA 480 by 320 IPS LCD display with 164 ppi, 2GB ROM, 512MB RAM, included 2GB MicroSD card, 1,500 mAh battery, 3.2-megapixel fixed-focus rear camera with 30 fps WVGA video capture, LED flash, no front camera, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1+E

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May 21 2013 - 10:36am