Huawei launched Android mobile Phones

Huawei Technologies on Friday revealed details on its newest smartphone running on Google’s Android operating system, in the latest show of the company’s aim to boost its profile and its penetration of new markets with low-priced Android phones.

Huawei

Huawei’s touchscreen Ideos X5

The touchscreen Ideos X5, which runs on Android 2.2, will go on sale in Singapore, Hong Kong and New Zealand this month, Victor Xu, chief marketing officer for Huawei’s device division, said.

The phone will be priced at $250 to $300 and will also launch in other markets, including North America, he said in webcasted remarks, without giving a time frame for those markets.

That price range is more expensive than an earlier version of the Ideos phone, which Huawei launched in September and said would have a recommended retail price of between $100 and $200 for pay-as-you-go customers. But it’s still about half the price of certain Android phones popular in the U.S. Verizon Wireless, for instance, lists the full retail price of Motorola’s Droid X smartphone as $569.99, though it doesn’t actually sell the phone without a data package.

Huawei has launched about 10 Android smartphones and will launch 10 more smartphones in 2011, beginning with the Ideos X5, Xu said. Huawei has sold more than 1 million units of the earlier Ideos phone, driven by sales in the U.S. and Japan, he said.

The Chinese company shipped more than 3 million Android smartphones last year and over 120 million units of all handsets and other devices, Xu said. Huawei has an Android tablet device called the S7.

Despite these offerings, Huawei remains far from becoming a globally recognized handset maker. Huawei-branded phones accounted for 1.3% of the 348 million mobile phones shipped globally in the third quarter, ranking the company at eleventh place, according to market researcher IDC. Nokia phones ranked first with a 32% share, IDC said.

IDC’s figures, however, don’t include phones that are made by Huawei but branded with the name of a mobile operator, which is a common practice for the company especially in developed markets.

Separately on Friday, Huawei’s cross-town rival ZTE said it plans to launch a tablet called ZTE Light LTE this year, adding to a series of Android tablets from the company. It didn’t give any details. ZTE, which like Huawei is based in the Chinese city of Shenzhen and is mainly a maker of telecommunications equipment, has also been pushing to sell more of its Android devices in developed markets.

Dell Venue Smartphone Android 2.2 launched at CES 2011

Dell made an official announcement on Dell Venue, a new Smartphone running on Android 2.2 Froyo at CES 2011; Venue has 4.1-inch AMOLED touch-screen with curved Corning Gorilla Glass to reduce breakage.

Dell venue also features first generation 1GHz Snapdragon processor, but the Dell Venue comes with the pre-loaded Stage UI, Swype keyboard, Flash 10.1-ready to optimize web browsing and an 8-megapixel camera facing the back of the phone.

As with the Dell Streak 7, which also launched on Thursday, the Venue comes with access to Android’s applications and widgets from the Android Market online, which the Stage interface makes relatively easy to navigate.

Though wireless carriers have yet to be officially associated with the Venue, it will be a GSM device, likely making it a fit for T-Mobile or AT&T.

Pricing and release date is yet to be revealed but expected to be released soon.

Android Honeycomb requires minimum dual-core processors | Consumer Electronics Show | CES Las Vegas

Although Google hasn’t confirmed hardware specifications for its tablet-optimized version of Android (a.k.a., Honeycomb), reports from hardware manufacturers out of this week’s Consumer Electronics Show are confirming rumors that Honeycomb will require dual-core processors. This shouldn’t be a problem for many of the tablets being announced this week with everything from dual-core Atom processors to Nvidia Tegra 2 chips to Qualcomm’s dual-core Snapdragons making appearances.

What about the Samsung Galaxy Tab or those cheap Chinese tablets that tech junkies have grabbed up as disposable iPad alternatives? They’re stuck at Android 2.3 if they’re lucky enough to get a system update or savvy enough to root the device and upgrade themselves.

The new dual-core chips from Nvidia and Qualcomm, although not widely reviewed or benchmarked (expect that to change as many devices bearing them are being showcased at CES this week), seem to have all the right specs to let Android tablets and high-end smartphones take on the iPad without breaking a sweat (at least in terms of performance). Gaming, 3D, and Flash-heavy websites will all be able to take off with these new processors (and their tightly integrated components from GPS to WiFi).

However, one has to wonder if Android, like many Linux distributions, has foregone lean and mean in favor of rich features and gadgets for consumers. Larry Dignan asked the other day, “What happens if Honeycomb sucks?” Has Google actually pulled a Windows Vista, adding so much eye candy and background nonsense that a dual-core processor is necessary? And will it take a second generation tablet-optimized Android iteration to recover performance?

Unfortunately, although pricing on these new dual-core, Honeycomb-ready tablets will undoubtedly be competitive with iPad, the system requirement will, for now, preclude the cheaper entrants into the market from running a tablet-optimized OS. This won’t concern the technorati and early adopters, but tablets have the opportunity to be a serious leveling force in a world that increasingly requires rich Internet connectivity from the palm of one’s hand.

Moore’s law ensures that cheap dual-core tablets will get here sooner than later, but if Google confirms the dual-core requirement, then it’s effectively delaying the transformational effect that really cheap tablets could have in the way we view personal computing.

samsung rolls out its galaxy player with Android 2.2 Froyo OS

Samsung is about to debut the new Galaxy Player, an Android-based music and applications device that will be similar to the Galaxy S smartphone, but without the cellular connection. Samsung has confirmed it will unveil the media player at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next month, according to Samsung follower, Samsung Hub.

The Samsung Galaxy Player

The device will have a front-facing VGA camera forSkype and other webcam applications, as well as a 3.2-megapixel camera on the back. It will be 9.9 mm thick with a 4-inch Super Clear LCD screen with WVGA resolution.

The Galaxy Player will run on the Android 2.2 Froyo operating system, and it will have built-in WiFi and Bluetooth 3.0. It will come with 8-GB, 16-GB and 32-GB storage capabilities and will feature a 1 GHz processor.

Samsung did not respond to the E-Commerce Times' request for comments by press time.

Going Up Against Apple

The Galaxy Player fits niftily as a competitor to Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPod touch -- basically a smartphone without phone capabilities. This will complete Samsung's match-up with major Apple mobile devices. Samsung already competes head-to-head with the iPhone and the iPad.

While the iPod may have slipped as a major consumer device, the iPod touch -- and now Samsung's Galaxy Player -- addresses the gigantic tween market. Parents of teenagers are not quick to sign up for pricey smartphone plans for their children. However, a dumbphone on a family plan combined with an iPod touch or Samsung Galaxy Player completes the digital picture.

Freedom From the Data Plan

The absence of the smartphone's data plan may be the biggest competitive feature for the Galaxy Player.

"This is a good device for people who want a strong mobile computer that can provide gaming, mobile Web and email without the monthly data plan," Chris Hazelton, research director for mobile and wireless at the 451 Group, told TechNewsWorld. "The trade-off is you need to find WiFi when you need the network. Then what you get is access to 100,000 applications from the Android market."

Over the course of a year, there are plenty of savings to take by avoiding the smartphone's monthly bill.

"You can roll the dumbphone into a family plan and use the media player like a smartphone. The iPhone was a game changer, and you're seeing smartphones that are challenging the iPhone," said Hazelton. "The iPod touch has a similar grip on the market -- even more so -- and this is what is coming from the competition to challenge Apple."

Parents will like the device because they can apply parental controls. Kids will like it because they can get around the controls.

"It's a good device for kids because you can have control over the content they download -- even if they can get around it," said Hazelton. "Plus, they can do voice calls through Skype or other voice applications."

The Need to Match Apple

Ultimately, the difference in cost between dumbphones and smartphones will be in the monthly contract.

"As the price of subsidized smartphones continually decreases and the difference in cost between a dumbphone and a smartphone becomes negligible, the only real barrier to entry left is the data plan," said Michael Morgan, senior analyst, mobile devices, for ABI Research.

"However, it may be Samsung that needs these devices more than the market does," he told TechNewsWorld." With these media players, Samsung's device portfolio mimics that of Apple's with a phone, media player and tablet."

As Samsung completes its mobile device picture, Apple will have little to tempt the Android user from switching systems.

"With children using these media players, perhaps one day they will aspire to have a Samsung smartphone instead of an iPhone," said Morgan. "While at the moment, Samsung's content library is not the equivalent of Apple's iTunes or App Store, this could be built up over time, particularly if they port Android over to these devices and offer access to the Android application store.

Two new iPhone game applications

Microsoft has released two new iPhone game apps today and an Android music streaming application.

The “decision engine” has revealed the holiday themed applications in time for Christmas. The first application, named Snowboard Hero, is available for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad owners. The game allows you to snowboard on four steep runs. The second application, named Powerboat Challenge, is available for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad owners. The game is a simple powerboat challenge that allows players to complete courses and upgrade their boats to bigger engines.

Microsoft has also developed an Android application that streams 100 different holiday tunes. The application is available until January 2, 2011. Although iOS and Android are covered, the software giant seems to have completely forgotten about Windows Phone 7. The applications are available on rival platforms but not Microsoft’s own. Some commenters on Microsoft’s Bing blog pointed out the admission. “Where is the WP7 stuff??? Kind of ironic that I need to own an Apple product to use a Microsoft one” wrote one, “Where’s the WP7 love…kinda feelin’ left out,” wrote another.

CES MOTROLA ANDROID PHONE

Motorola get hard time and crisis few years ago. Many of their products do not really successful in the market. But around these 2-3 years, Motorola Android and Smartphone technology becomes one of top popular Android based phone with affordable price in many countries.

Two of their successful Android series are motorola android DROID and CLIQ. Those two series adopt stylish touch screen technology for the monitor. However, Motorola realizes that this design has been used by many vendors in the market. Thus, they present you Motorola CES Back-Flip.

This new CES motorola android phone combines QWERTY keyboard and full touch screen monitor in united folds and equips it with navigation touch pad behind the screen. Using this, you can access menu from the back of the handset screen.