Huawei muscles into smartphone sector

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Huawei today unveiled two smartphone devices at CommunicAsia in Singapore.

Chinese telecom vendor Huawei Technologies said it is planning to enter the smartphone market in the “second half of 2009” after showcasing two handsets at the CommunicAsia telecoms event in Singapore.

One of the handsets, the U8230 is powered by the Android operating system, while the other device, known as the C8000, runs off the Windows Mobile platform.

The Android-powered device allows users to switch between full and half Qwerty keyboards and to navigate programs via a 3.5-inch LCD touch screen. The device uses the Google Chrome Internet browser which supports applications such as Google Map, Google Search and Google Talk.

The device is also fitted with a battery that has a capacity of 1500 mAH, the longest battery capacity of any Android-powered handsets currently available, according to Huawei.

Meanwhile, the C8000 features a 3-D menu graphic user interface and an “independent display adapter” which allows the user to view video files and DVD-quality pictures on a 2.8 inch touch screen. Huawei said the device is capable of playing video files continuously for six to eight hours.

“Having joined the Open Handset Alliance in 2008, Huawei is rapidly moving forward with the development of cutting-edge high-end handsets, especially smartphones powered by Android and Windows Mobile operating systems,” said Glory Chueng, the spokesperson of Huawei Terminals.

“Huawei is looking forward to working with our customers to bring them to market later this year,” he added.

Huawei said it plans to launch a series of touchscreen handsets that support WCDMA, CDMA, and TD-SCDMA standards in the second half of 2009. The company added that its sales of regular handsets were also “gaining momentum” with shipments of CDMA handsets recently surpassing the 50 million mark.

Huawei is the latest technology company to move into the fast growing smartphone market. In February Acer launched eight models of smartphone during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, while Dell is also widely rumoured to be planning to enter the sector.

While the smartphone sector appears to becoming increasingly cluttered, recent data from US-based analyst In-Stat suggests there remains huge potential for growth, with 3G networks still in their infancy compared with 2G. Indeed, In-Stat estimates that just 11% of total cellular subscriptions worldwide are 3G, with the figure expected to rise to 28% by 2013.

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READERS' COMMENTS

windows mobile
Posted by Mobile Developer on Thursday 25 June 2009 at 22:09 UAE time


This is no surprise to me. We are going to see a flood of new smartphones this year and next and windows mobile will get a lot of them. The reason is because of the long and stable history of windows mobile and it is a proven business model.

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