February 20, 2009 by Tap
It seems that this year's MWC was a bit of a let down as far as Android was concerned with most manufacturers paying lip service but not actually delivering. Here's a quick roundup of who did what.
LG
According to T3, the rumour is that the KS360 will be relaunched using Android this year. Other than that, Marketing Manager Jeremy Newing confirmed that two other Android phones would be released later this year. No other details were available.
Huawei
Chinese handset maker Huawei Technologies was kind enough to show off a non-working mockup of a phone at it's MWC booth and confirmed that it was planning on releasing Android phones possibly in Q3 this year.
Samsung
They had already confirmed that they weren't going to demo anything at MWC but in a statement to Reuters, Won-Pyo Hong, head of product strategy, said that the firm would start selling more than three Android phones by the end of the year.
General Mobile
In the runnup to MWC General Mobile had confirmed that they would be launching their dual-SIM DSTL1 at the show. As it turns out, they were one of the few manufacturers to deliver. Check out the hands-on video on engadget.
Acer
At the end of last month there was speculation that Acer would be getting in on the Android act when they started to distribute invites to their 'smartphones launch' at MWC. Unfortunately this all proved to be unfounded although when engadget pressed an Acer rep for information he did make reference to two mysterious "Android secret models".
HTC
Of course the prize has to go to HTC who, together with Vodafone, revealed their next handset, the HTC Magic.
January 29, 2009 by Tap
General Mobile, known for their dual sim phones, has confirmed that they will demo their first Android compatible phone at this year's Mobile World Congress. Fans of General Mobile may already have spotted the DSTL 1 Imaginary on their website but there hasn't been any specific mention of Android support up until now.
Android Authority has now confirmed that the DSTL 1 will support Android and will ship during Q3 this year. Basic specs provided by Android Authority (different from what's displayed on the General Mobile website) are as follows:
- Dual-SIM cards with dual-Standby mode
- 624MHz Marvell PXA 310 processor
- Tri-band GSM/EDGE support (900/1800/1900MHz)
- 3-inch WQVGA touchscreen display, 260k colors
- 802.11b/g WiFi support
- Bluetooth
- 135g (4.75oz), 112 x 54 x 16mm (4.4 x 2.1 x .6 inches)
- 5 megapixel autofocus camera with flash (made by Sharp)
I have to say this is a sleek looking phone. That said, these are still mockups created, I suspect, before they were planning on using Android so some changes are inevitable. It will be interesting to see if the front-facing camera remains on the production modelx.
Via: General Mobile | Android Authority