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Quiet CTIA Lets Smaller Phone Brands Stand Out

NEW ORLEANS –

Many of the big names
in cellphones were absent from the main
show floor, but that enabled smaller brands
to stand out at CTIA Wireless 2012.

Handset vendors such as Motorola and
Research In Motion (RIM) didn’t put in an
appearance, and companies such as Samsung
and Nokia appeared only in small
meeting rooms off to the side of the main
exhibit space.

For their part, HTC, LG, Huawei and ZTE
largely displayed products shown at the Mobile
World Congress and didn’t announce
U.S. plans for those models.

That let such companies as Doro, Plum
Mobile, Unnecto and Alcatel One Touch (see
story on p. 122) garner a greater share of attention
from show goers.

Here’s what these and other suppliers unveiled
at the show:

AT&T expanded its selection of 4G LTE Windows
Phone smartphones with the $49.99 Samsung
Focus 2, which became available May
20 to join the carrier’s two other LTE Windows
smartphones, the $99.99 Nokia Lumia
900 and $199.99 HTC Titan II. All use the
Windows Phone 7.5 OS.

The Focus 2 is Samsung’s first 4G LTE
Windows Phone, and AT&T is the only U.S.
carrier to date offering LTE-based Windows
Phones, said Jeff Bradley, AT&T Mobility’s devices
senior VP.

The 0.43-inch-thick, 4.3-ounce phone
features a 4-inch Super AMOLED screen,
1.4GHz processor and 5-megapixel camera.
The phone also features 720p video capture,
front-facing VGA camera, hands-free messaging
via speech-to-text and text-to-speech
conversion. Another feature is a mobile Wi-Fi
hot spot to connect up to five Wi-Fi devices
to the AT&T network.

Like AT&T’s other Windows phones, the Focus 2 also features 4G HSPA+21 technology so that
data speeds don’t slow dramatically to 3G speeds when
used outside on of AT&T’s current 35 LTE markets.

Doro

, the Swedish supplier of cellphones designed for
seniors, unveiled its first baby-boomer smartphone and
talked up plans to expand distribution to tier-one carriers
in North America.

The 3G Android-based smartphone is the Doro PhoneEasy
740 with touchscreen and slide-down dialing keypad.
The phone is loaded with Doro Experience software to
provide a straightforward user interface, large icons and
applications selected especially for seniors, including
health and news apps, the company said. The software,
which can be installed on any Android or Windows smartphone
or tablet, also enables remote assistance over the
web from family members.

The phone is targeted to baby-boomer seniors
interested in new technology, whereas older
seniors are targeted with easy-to-use
feature phones, the company said.

Other PhoneEasy 740 features
include slide-down dialing keypad
emergency button with GPS location,
5-megapixel camera with camera light,
extra-loud sound and high-contrast display for
easier reading.

The quadband GSM, 850/2100MHz W-CDMA
phone also features Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, MicroSD
card slot, compass and accelerometer.

As for future distribution plans,
CEO Jerôme Arnaud said the company
“expect[s] to deliver a broader range of
products to all top-tier mobile carriers in
the U.S. and Canada as part of our North
American expansion plans.”

HTC

added 4G LTE and a faster processor
to its Droid Incredible for Verizon Wireless. HTC also
displayed its HTC One V for the first time in the U.S. Both
phones use the Android 4.0 OS.

The Incredible offers a 4-inch display, 8-megapixel rear
camera, and mobile hot spot like its 3G Android predecessor
but adds 4G LTE and dual-core 1.2GHz processor,
replacing a single-core 1GHz processor. It also upgrades
the OS to Android 4.0 and features the latest generation
of HTC’s Sense user interface, Sense 4.0.

Other enhancements include the extension of Beats
Audio audio-enhancement technology beyond phonestored
music to all music and audio applications, and
it gets Nearfield Communications (NFC), which can be
used with Android Beam to share web pages, apps, contacts
and YouTube videos by tapping two compatible
phones together.

The Droid Incredible 4G LTE will be available to Verizon
subscribers in the coming weeks at a price that wasn’t
announced.

For its part, the HTC One V is positioned as having
“broad appeal” and will be available this summer through
a variety of U.S. carriers. Earlier this year, the company
said it would be available from C-Spire, Cincinnati Bell,
MetroPCS, U.S. Cellular and Virgin Mobile.

The One V features a 3.7-inch screen, 1GHz processor,
aluminum unibody, HTC Sense 4 user interface, and
a suite of upgraded camera capabilities that are also included
in the step-up One X and One S.

Huawei

brought its LTE-equipped Ascend D and P1
and 10-inch MediaPad FHD tablet, all shown at the Mobile
World Congress with Android 4.0 OS. No U.S. plans
were announced.

The Ascend P1 LTE features a dual-core 1.5GHz processor
and 4.3-inch Super AMOLED qHD 960 by 540
touchscreen. The Ascend D LTE features a dual-core
1.5GHz processor and 4.5-inch HD touchscreen.

The tablet has Huawei’s proprietary K3 1.5GHz quadcore
processor and HD display with 1,920 by 1,200
resolution. It has 4G HSPA+ cellular data at speeds up
to 84Mbps but will also support other wireless-network
standards such as 4G LTE, Huawei said.

LG

brought its hybrid Vu phone/tablet with 5-inch 4:3
screen and stylus, the Optimus 4X HD quad-core phone
with quad-core processor and HSPA+ technology, and
the Optimus 3D Max with 4G LTE to the show following
their debut at the Mobile World Congress. No U.S. plans
were announced.

The Optimus 3D Max is LG’s first LTE-equipped 3D
phone.

PCD

unveiled the Pantech Verse TXT8045 messaging
phone, a 2G phone with slide-down QWERTY keyboard.
It became available on the U.S. Cellular network on May
11 at $29.99 after $50 mail-in rebate.

The Pantech Verse features a vertical slider QWERTY
keyboard, 2.4-inch QVGA display, 2-megapixel camera/
camcorder, music player, external speaker, stereo
Bluetooth, MicroSD slot supporting 32GB cards
and no Wi-Fi.

Plum Mobile

, the cellphone brand launched
only 1.5 years ago, brought its first tablets to
CTIA Wireless 2012.

The company is owned by CLC Miami,
a distributor of AT&T and T-Mobile
phones to retailers for 20 years.
Plum, which initially marketed dual-SIM
phones to Latin America and select European
countries, is now targeting the
U.S. market, said CLC chief financial
officer Yamiletz Nunez.

Plum’s tablets are the 7-inch Debut
and 5-inch Might, both providing traditional
circuit-switched cellular calls via built-in speaker
and microphone. Both feature capacitive touchscreen
that can be used with a stylus, and both feature dual SIM
card slots.

The Debut is an Android 2.2 model upgradable to 4.0.
It features 800MHz processor, Wi-Fi and 3G HSDPA 7.2
cellular data technology. It operates in GSM/EDGE and
HSDPA mode in the U.S. 850/1900MHz bands and foreign
900/1800MHz bands. A 3G CDMA version for U.S.
850/1900MHz bands is also in the world.

The 5-inch Might features quadband GSM/EDGE and
3G HSDPA 7.2 operation in the U.S. 850/1900MHz
bands and in the foreign 2.1GHz band.

The Might’s features include 650MHz processor, Wi-Fi
and Android 2.3.6 OS.

Additional details were unavailable.

ZTE

displayed its V96 LTE Android tablet and flagship
Era Android phone for the first time in the U.S. at CTIA,
where the company promoted plans to bring a full series
of 4G LTE devices to the U.S. in 2012. U.S. plans for the
devices weren’t announced.

The quad-core Era, shown at the Mobile World Congress
in March, features HSPA+ technology, quad-core
Nvidia Tegra 3 1.3GHz AP30 chipset, Android 4.0, 4.3-
inch qHD 960 by 540 pixels display, 8-megapixel camera
and MHL port.

The V97 tablet, also shown at the Congress, features
Android 4.0 OS, 4G HSPA+42Mbps and 4G LTE technology,
dual-core 1.7GHz processor, and 10.1-inch 800
by 1280-pixel multi-touch touchscreen.

“ZTE will dramatically expand its smart device capabilities
and heighten its brand awareness in the United
States in 2012,” said He Shiyou, executive VP and head
of the company’s terminal handset division.

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