Irvine, Calif. –
Alcatel One Touch, a part of Chinese company TCL Communications, is increasing
its exposure in the U.S. with the launch by Virgin Mobile of the $99 Android-based
Venture, Virgin’s lowest-priced Android to date.
Alcatel One Touch,
based here, entered the U.S. market in 2007 by selling to regional carriers,
and in October 2011, Alcatel sold a phone to a national carrier for the first
time. That model was the Sparq for the T-Mobile network, said Personal
Communications Devices (PCD), which handles the logistics for the Alcatel
Venture.
The launch of
Alcatel’s Venture through New Jersey-based Virgin, a Sprint prepaid brand, is part
of an Alcatel plan announced at International CES to expand the Alcatel product
portfolio here in 2012.
For Virgin, the
launch of the Alcatel Venture at $99 brings an Android smartphone to a new
opening price, joining the $279 Triumph, $129 LG Optimus V, and a $179 HTC
model, Virgin said.
The new phone will
be available at
on March 15 and at retail stores sometime after that, Virgin said. The phone
features Android 2.3 OS, 2.8-inch touchscreen QWERTY keyboard, 2-megapixel camera
with LED flash and video capture, Bluetooth 3.0, included 2GB MicroSD card and
a memory-card slot supporting 32GB MicroSD cards.
At CES, Alcatel unveiled
the One Touch 995 Ultra with 4.3-inch touchscreen, 1.4 GHz processor, 5-megapixel
camera with flash and autofocus, HD video recording and an HDMI port.
