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Multiple Firsts Greet Cellphone Market

NEW YORK – Cellular retailers have a lot of firsts to
promote going into the dads and grads selling season.

T-Mobile, for example, announced mid-June availability
of its first smartphone with dual-core 1.2GHz
processor, the superphone-class Android-based
HTC Sensation 4G; and U.S. Cellular launched its
first Android-powered global smartphone, the HTC
Merge.

For its part, Pantech just
launched its first U.S.-market Android
smartphone, available on
the AT&T network and targeted to
first-time smartphone users.

For consumers who don’t plan
to step up to entry-level smartphones,
Verizon adopted Qualcomm’s
Brew MP platform for
basic cellphones. Brew MP
runs more robust downloadable
apps compared to the
apps previously available for
Verizon’s basic cellphones.

Verizon Wireless also
launched its third 4G model,
the Android-based LG Revolution.

Here’s what the companies
unveiled:

Pantech:

Known mostly for
feature phones and messaging
phones, the company launched
the Android 2.2-based Pantech Crossover, priced at
$69.99. It features slide-from-the-side keyboard, 3.1-
inch touchscreen, 600MHz processor, 3-megapixel
digital camera/camcorder with fixed-focus lens, 4x
camera zoom, preinstalled 2GB microSD card, five
customizable home screens, voice recognition, accelerometer,
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, and embedded mobile
Wi-Fi hot spot.

The device, which became available June 5, is a triband-
HSPA handset that operates in 3G HSPA mode
in AT&T’s 850/1900MHz bands and in foreign 2.1GHz
bands.

The phone will be among the phones promoted this
summer on the Dew Tour, a national sports tour. Pantech
is the tour’s official handset sponsor.

T-Mobile:

Mid-June availability is planned for a
superphone-class smartphone with more processing
power than the carrier’s current smartphones.

The HTC Sensation 4G, available exclusively on
T-Mobile’s network at $199, will be the carrier’s first
phone with a dual-core 1.2GHz processor and first
with 4.3-inch screen. It features HSPA+ 4G technology
with theoretical peak download speeds of
14.4Mbps.

The touchscreen-only device, which runs on the
latest Android OS version (Gingerbread 2.3), is expected
to be available as early as June 12 in select
Walmart stores and by June 15 in T-Mobile’s direct
channels and select national retailers and dealers.

The device features 4.3-inch 950×540 qHD display,
aluminum unibody construction, and a variety of entertainment features, including access to the HTC
Watch service to download movies and TV shows
for purchase or rental. Other entertainment services
include the brand new HTC Listen service, which
enables over-the-air music downloads,
and the T-Mobile TV service
for streaming of live TV programs
an on-demand TV.

Other features include DLNA
compatibility, Qik video chats over
cellular and Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n,
and 8-megapixel rear-facing
camera/camcorder with 1080p
video capture, and VGA frontfacing
camera.

U.S. Cellular:

The Chicagobased
carrier expanded its Android
smartphone portfolio to
seven models with the launch
of two models, including the
carrier’s first Android-powered
global smartphone, the HTC
Merge.

The second phone is the LG Genesis, a clamshell
phone with two touchscreens. It’s available on an exclusive
basis to the carrier.

Both smartphones are priced at $149, and both feature
Android 2.2 OS, Wi-Fi hot spot capability, and
8GB memory cards. The Merge is available, and the
Genesis becomes available to consumers on June 9.

The HTC Merge is HTC’s first Android-based
CDMA world phone. It operates in U.S. 850/1900MHz
3G CDMA Rev. A networks, in overseas 2.1GHz 3G
HSPA networks, and in U.S. and overseas GSM/
EDGE networks.

The Merge features slide-from-the-side QWERTY
keyboard, 3.8-inch capacitive touchscreen, and
800MHz Qualcomm processor.

The LG Genesis is a clamshell phone with two
touch screens. An exterior 3.5-inch touch screen features
virtual QWERTY keyboard with Swype text-input
technology. When the phone is folded open along
its hinged side, an internal 3.2-inch touch screen appears
along with a wide, hard QWERTY keyboard for
faster typing.

Verizon Wireless:

To make basic cell phones
more attractive to consumers, the carrier adopted
Qualcomm’s Brew MP platform, which runs more robust
downloadable apps compared to the apps previously
available for cellphones that lack a smartphone
OS.

Brew MP, which stands for Binary Runtime Environment
for Wireless Mobile Platform, runs apps on lower
end chipsets with lower speeds and lower memory
capacities while supporting Java and Adobe Flash.
It offers more smartphone-like apps compared to the
Brew app platform now used by Verizon.

AT&T launched its first Brew MP phones this year
following a 2010 announcement that it planned to
adopt the Brew MP platform.

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