Cellular's Competitive Heat Turns Up

By Joseph Palenchar On Aug 22 2011 - 4:01am

NEW YORK – The competitive heat in the wireless industry turned up in tandem with August temperatures.

Research In Motion was out to get its mojo back in the face of declining smartphone share by expanding its selection of touchscreen smartphones with faster processors and other enhancements in what it called its largest-ever worldwide product launch.

For its part, Sprint said it would drive 4G smartphones into more hands with its plans for a $99 4G phone from Samsung.

And Chinese supplier Huawei tried to burnish its technology image by unveiling its thin 1GHz Vision Android phone with aluminum-alloy unibody construction and curved touchscreen.

Here’s what the companies plan:

BlackBerry: Five new touchscreen phones mark the debut of the company’s BlackBerry 7 OS. The first phones with the QNX OS are due next year.

All five models feature color touchscreens, and three add hard QWERTY keyboards. All also offer such improvements as 1.2GHz processors, 720p HD video recording, and dedicated 24-bit high-resolution graphics processors.

The products include the Black- Berry Bold 9900 and 9930. Both are the thinnest BlackBerry smartphones ever, at 0.41 inches deep, and both are the first Bolds to add a touchscreen to supplement their BlackBerry QWERTY keyboard. They’re also the first BlackBerry phones with built-in near-field communications (NFC).

As previously reported, the two new Bolds feature dual-band 802.11 Wi-Fi, with Wi-Fi b/g/n at 2.4 GHz plus 802.11a/n at 5GHz, brushed stainless-steel frame, optical trackpad, 8GB onboard memory, MicroSD slot and 5-megpixel camera.

The other three RIM products are the BlackBerry Torch 9810, which features a 3.2-inch touchscreen and slide-out QWERTY keyboard, and the all-touch BlackBerry Torch 9850 and 9860. The latter two offer the largest-ever displays on a BlackBerry, at 3.7 inches.

The quintet will roll out worldwide through 225 carriers and others starting in August, RIM said. Three of the models will be available from AT&T, and all will be AT&T’s first 4G 14.4Mbps HSPA+ BlackBerry phones. All of the AT&T models will also operate in foreign 2.1GHz HSPA+ networks. Pricing wasn’t announced.

The first of the new BlackBerry phones from AT&T will be the Torch 9810 slider, which the carrier will offer on an exclusive basis at $49 beginning Aug 21. The second-generation Torch will replace AT&T’s firstgeneration Torch, which also comes with touchscreen and slide-out keyboard. Pricing wasn’t announced.

In comparing its new Torch 9810 touchscreen slider to the first-generation Torch, AT&T pointed out that processor speed doubles to 1.2GHz, included memory goes to 8GB from 4GMB, RAM increases 50 percent to 768MB, and the display goes to 480 by 640 VGA.

Sometime later this year, AT&T will offer the Black- Berry Bold 9900 and the all-touch BlackBerry Torch 9860, which will be AT&T’s first all-touch BlackBerry smartphone. Pricing wasn’t announced.

The Bold 9900 is also destined for other U.S. carriers, as is the Bold 9300. Previously, T-Mobile said it would offer the Bold 9900 on its 1700/2100MHz 4G HSPA+ network with international 4G roaming on the 900MHz and 2.1GHz bands.

For its part, Sprint announced plans for Aug. 21 availability of the BlackBerry Bold 9930 at $249 and BlackBerry Torch 9850 at $149.

Verizon announced Aug. 25 availability of the Bold 9930 at $249.

Both Sprint models and Verizon’s Bold 9930 will operate in 3G CDMA 1X EV-DO Rev. A mode in the 800/1900MHz bands in the U.S. and in the 3G HSPA bands in foreign markets. They also operate in quadband GSM/EDGE mode.

Sprint: The $99 Samsung Conquer 4G, Sprint’s 25th 4G device, will be the carrier’s first 4G smartphone to launch at less than $100 when it arrives in stores in late August.

Despite the low price, the phone sports Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS, 1GHz Qualcomm processor, dual cameras, and Sprint ID., which lets users download packages of apps, widgets, shortcuts, ringtones and wallpapers.

The device will be available Aug. 21 through Sprint’s direct and indirect channels.

Other features include 3.5-inch 320 by 480 touchscreen, 3.2-megapixel rear-facing camera with flash and zoom, 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video chats, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, included 2GB MicroSD card, stereo Bluetooth and 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot capability, supporting up to five Wi-Fi enabled devices.

Huawei: Although a timetable for U.S. availability wasn’t announced, Huawei said it will roll the Huawei Vision in selected markets beginning in September.

Vision features carousel user interface, Android Gingerbread 2.3 OS, 1GHz Qualcomm processor, aluminum- alloy uni-body choice of colors and curved touchscreen.

Vision, which measures only 9.9mm at its thinnest point, features 720p video recording, 5-megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, stereo Bluetooth and Wi- Fi 802.11b/g/n.