Audiovox Unveils Its First EV-DO, PTT Phones

By Joseph Palenchar On Jan 19 2004 - 8:00am

Audiovox expanded its portfolio of wireless-phone technologies with the introduction here of its first first push-to-talk (PTT) phone, its first PDA-phone equipped with CDMA 1x EV-DO high-speed data technology and its first cameraphone with built-in photo flash.

The company also announced plans for its first GSM phone.

The PTT phone is the CDM-8425/8475, a trimode CDMA 1X bar phone available with either Java or BREW download capability, GPSOne, voice-activated dialing, Web browser, USB interface, built-in speakerphone, color LCD, vibrating alert and polyphonic ringtones. It will be available to carriers in February.

The EV-DO phone is the PPC5050 dual-band CDMA 1X phone. Not only is it the first Audiovox phone equipped with EV-DO technology, but it's the company's first PocketPC-phone to use Microsoft's PocketPC Phone Edition technology to integrate phone and PDA features. Audiovox's first PocketPC phone, the Thera, didn't use Phone Edition software.

EV-DO technology delivers data at a theoretical peak stationary rate of 2.4Mbps, with expected stationary peaks of 1.1Mbps and an average 300-400kbps in a moving vehicle.

The PPC5050 features 400MHz Intel processor, 64MB memory, GPSOne, 3.5-inch 65K color touchscreen, text messaging to any e-mail address, SD/MMC slot, IrDA and MP3 player. The 6.2-ounce device deivers up to 5 hours of talk time or 200 standby hours on its 1,500mAh lithium-ion battery. It's available to carriers.

The camera phone with flash is the clamshell CDMA 1x trimode, due to carriers in March. It lacks PTT but features Java or BREW, GPSOne, voice-activated dialing, WAP 2.0 browser, USB interface, built-in speakerphone, polyphonic ringers and two-color LCD screens. It weighs 3.2 ounces.

The planned GSM phone, the GX28, is a camera-phone with high-speed GPRS data, triband (850, 1800, 1900MHz) operation, and dual 65K color LCD displays. The built-in 350K-pixel camera features digital zoom, flash, and auto timer. It also records full-motion video and plays back video in the H.263 and MPEG-4 formats. Other features include picture caller ID, photo phone book and 2MB flash memory. A ship date was unavailable.