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Phones With New OSs, HD Video, e-Reading Debut

BARCELONA, SPAIN —
Operating system (OS) platforms
proliferated here at the
Mobile World Congress, where
Microsoft unveiled its Windows
Phone 7 smartphone OS, suppliers
unveiled a lot more Android-
based phones, and Nokia
and Intel merged their Linux platforms into a new OS for a variety of
mobile and home applications.

Samsung also unveiled the fi rst phone
based on its open Bada OS for downloading
third-party applications.

In other developments at the show:

• Two more phones that record and
store HD video turned up from Samsung
and SonyEricsson, joining a SonyEricsson
model announced earlier this year.

• More phones turned up with fast
1GHz processors, including one model
each from HTC and Samsung.

• Motorola unveiled its latest Android-
based phone, which is its fourth
for the U.S. and eighth worldwide. The
full-touch 3G Cliq XT will be available
through T-Mobile USA in March.

• T-Mobile unveiled its first HSPA+
device, a USB laptop stick due in March
in the U.S. to deliver theoretical peak
throughputs up to 21Mbps.

T-Mobile also debuted the HTC HD2
Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphone, due
in the spring and said to offer the largest
touchscreen on the U.S. market at
4.3 inches. The large screen makes it easier
on the eyes to read e-books downloaded
through an included Barnes &
Noble eReader application, view
movies downloaded via embedded
Wi-Fi from Blockbuster’s
fi rst smartphone video-download
application, and view live and ondemand
TV via cellular through
MobiTV’s application. The HD2
will be T-Mobile’s 10th 7.2Mbps
HSPA phone.

In OS announcements, Microsoft
said Windows Phone 7
phones will be available in time
for the fourth-quarter holidays, enabling
consumers to take advantage of a user interface
that borrows from the company’s
ZuneHD portable media player. Handset
makers that will offer Windows Phone
7 phones are Samsung, LG, SonyEricsson,
HTC, HP, Dell, Toshiba and Garmin
Asus. U.S. carriers that will offer the
phones include AT&T, Verizon Wireless,
Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile.

For their joint announcement, Intel and
Nokia said their merged Linux-based OS,
called MeeGo, is designed for use on a variety
of devices, including smartphones,
pocket-sized mobile computers, netbooks,
tablets, connected TVs and in-vehicle entertainment
systems. MeeGo’s release is
scheduled for the second quarter, with devices
launching later in the year.

In offering its own
OS, S amsung unveiled
the 3G HSPAequipped
Wave, a fulltouchscreen
phone
whose open Bada platform
enables third-party
developers to create
applications that can be
downloaded through a
Samsung store. The device
features 1GHz processor,
720p HD video
storage, virtual 5.1 surround, Bluetooth
3.0, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n and 3.3-inch Super
AMOLED display. It will be available
internationally in April. The company
has no plans to bring it to the U.S.

For its part, SonyEricsson showed its
second phone with HD-video recording.
Like the full-touchscreen Vivaz announced
earlier this year, the Vivaz Pro
features 720p HD-video recording and
playback, VGA video output and Symbian
S60 smartphone OS, but the Pro
adds a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.
Both models come in versions that operate
in 3G HSPA mode in the U.S.
850/1900MHz bands and in the overseas
2100MHz band. A version banded specifi
cally for markets outside the U.S. operates
in 3G HSPA mode only in overseas
900/2100MHz bands.

The Vivaz Pro will be available
in undisclosed markets in
the second quarter with 3.2-
inch 16:9 touchscreen, Wi-Fi
and DLNA certification.

SonyEricsson’s second and
third Android phones are the
Android 1.6 Xperia X10 Mini
and Xperia X10 Mini Pro, both
with 600MHz processors. They
will join the previously announced
Experia X10, also Android-based.
All three are available in versions that
will operate in 3G HSPA mode in the
U.S. 850/1900MHz bands and overseas
2100MHz band. The Mini and Mini Pro
are smaller versions of the X10. The X10
and X10 Mini are full-touch models, and
the X10 Mini Pro adds slide-out QWERTY
keyboard.

The Xperia X10 was due in the U.S. in
the first quarter, the company previously
said. The Mini and Mini Pro are due in
unspecifi ed markets in the second quarter.

New phones with 1GHz processors include
Samsung’s Wave, and HTC’s Desire,
one of two new HTC smartphones
— including the Legend — using the latest
2.1 version of the Android OS. Neither
HTC model is available for use in
U.S. 3G markets.

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