Verizon Wireless COO John Stratton said Motorola will "be right there" when it unveils its 4G smartphones. Motorola only makes Android phones. Do the math.
Verizon Wireless will sell a 4G smartphone from Motorola
in 2011, which by default means Google's Android platform will power the
handset.
Verizon COO John Stratton
told the
Wall Street Journal
"Motorola will be right there" when it comes time to roll out handsets
based on the company's 4G network in 2011.
Motorola only produces phones based on Android these
days, ending any speculation about what platform its 4G phone will run
on. Backed by Verizon's multimillion-dollar marketing strategy, the
phone maker's popular Droid line has revitalized a once flagging
company.
Verizon Dec. 5
launched its 4G network, which uses the LTE (long-term evolution) technology to
accelerate data across wireless Internet connections, in 38 cities and 60
commercial airports.
LTE can approach land-based cable modem and fiber optic speeds.
An early test of Verizon's network by Gleacher & Co analyst Mark McKechnie
yielded 11M bps to 22M bps of downstream data and 7M bps to 15M bps of upstream
data.
This speed jump over current 3G deployments means faster
access to the Web and mobile applications for the consumer, which benefits all
of the entities in the mobile ecosystem, carriers, phone makers and
applications developers.
An official announcement of Motorola 4G Android phones
from Verizon seems almost certainly slated for the 2011 Consumer Electronics
Show early next month.
Verizon in a Twitter tweet Dec. 20
compared Android and LTE to the popular combination of peanut butter and
chocolate. Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg will be delivering the a keynote address
at CES Jan. 6.
The news has Android-focused blogs speculating that
Verizon's intended 4G handset could be the rumored Etna device.
Android and Me said Etna is the codename for the Motorola
Tegra 2 phone, which is also headed to AT&T with the codename Olympus. The
blog
shows
the phone looks like a cross between the Droid X and the Defy.
"Test units are running Android 2.2 with Motoblur,
but we have heard Motorola is already working on Android 2.3," the blog
added.
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