HTC is showing off a 4G phone-sort of-on its Website, with the words, "The first to 4G, again," and the promise of more information Jan. 6. Is it headed for Verizon?
It looks like HTC has a new 4G phone up its sleeve, or maybe under
it. New on the HTC Website is the squarish silhouette of a smartphone,
cloaked in a black drape alongside the words: "The first to 4G, again."
A button, directing fans to a page where they can be alerted to details as they emerge, adds, "Find out January 6."
The Taiwan-based phone maker outfitted Sprint with the country's first
4G-enabled phone, in the HTC Evo 4G, and supplied T-Mobile with its
first 4G phone as well, in the newly launched myTouch 4G. Is this one
of the 4G phones that Verizon Wireless plans to introduce at January's
Consumer Electronics Show?
Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg is scheduled to deliver CES opening keynote
Jan. 6, and during October's CTIA 2010 event, Verizon President and COO
Lowell McAdam reportedly confirmed that at CES, the carrier will unveil
six smartphones designed to take advantage of its new 4G LTE (long-term
evolution) network. Verizon powered up the network Dec. 5 offering
coverage to 38 metropolitan areas and 60 airports, along with two USB
4G modems, the Pantech UML290 and the LG Electronics VL600.
A smartphone (or several) was sure to follow, and on Dec. 20 Verizon hinted at as much,
posting to Twitter: Jan 6 at #CES: #Android and #
LTE - could it be like peanut butter and chocolate? YUM!
The cloaked HTC phone is likely to be joined on stage by an Android-running Motorola device. Verizon COO John Stratton said
Motorola will be right there when it comes time to unveil its new 4G smartphones, the Wall Street Journal reported Dec. 22.
The Motorola phone is rumored to be called the Tegra 2 code name Etna
and also headed for AT&T, where it has instead been dubbed the
Olympus.
Android and Me reports that test
units of the Tegra 2 are running Android 2.2 with MotoBlur, though
Motorola is expected to be working on 2.3, or Gingerbread.
On Dec. 22, Motorola announced its
plans to purchase startup Zecter,
which makes syncing and cloud-based solutions that Motorola says will
further enhance users experiences with its MotoBlur user interface. The
MotoBlur brand, however, is a thing Motorola has said it will include
in products but not go out of its way to advertise. "
We have decided to
focus on the value proposition of products and not MotoBlur as a brand
name in its own right," Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha said in July.
The global smartphone market grew by 50 percent year-over-year,
according to an Oct. 26 report from ABI Research. Driving the market
were strong sales from Apple, HTC and Research In Motion. Between the
second and third quarters, reported ABI, HTC saw shipments grow from
3.3 million units to 5.3 million units.
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