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Topic: Mobility

24 hours and we saw 12 Android smartphones on six US carriers

Summary: Google Android is taking off like wildfire and at CTIA we saw a rather startling number of new devices announced from all four major carriers and a couple regional carriers. Most of these devices are low to mid-level devices that should appeal to the masses.

Matthew Miller

By for Smartphones and Cell Phones |

Editors of Apple iPhone sites like TiPB must be heaving a great sigh of relief knowing that they only have to cover one major smartphone release per year after seeing that Android site editors just heard about a whopping 12 new Android smartphones coming from five carriers in the last 24 hours. If you look at all the other recent and currently shipping products, not to mention some coming soon, Android site editors like my buddy Phil are having to work like mad to stay on top of everything. I felt overwhelmed just seeing the news of all these Android devices coming through my email and Twitter feed so I turned to Android Central, who are on site at CTIA, to read all about the new devices and even see some hands-on video with devices.

AT&T

Three new Motorola handsets are coming to AT&T, the Motorola Bravo, Flipside, and Flipout. These three are entry to mid-level Android devices, which seems to be the standard for AT&T in almost all cases, except for the Samsung Captivate.

The Bravo has a 3.7 inch display and will be available for $129.99. The Flipside has a slide-out full QWERTY keyboard and 3.1 inch display with a price of $99.99. The Flipout has a funky flip out QWERTY keyboard and small 2.8 inch display with a price of just $79.99.

Cellular South

You know a platform is getting popular when the smaller regional carriers start picking it up and now we see Cellular South getting ready to offer their own Samsung Galaxy S variant, the Samsung Showcase. There is no pricing or available date, other than before the holidays, but it does have the 1 GHz Hummingbird CPU, 4 inch Super AMOLED display, 5 megapixel camera, and Android 2.1 operating system.

Sprint

Sprint also announced three new devices, the Samsung Transform, Sanyo Zio, and LG Optimus S. The Sanyo Zio has a full 3.5 inch touchscreen and mid-level specs with a price of $99. The Samsung Transform looks similar to the Sprint Samsung Epic, with lower specs and the same kind of slide-out QWERTY keyboard at a price of $149. The LG Optimus S is a fairly traditional looking device with a 3.2 inch touchscreen with Android 2.2 and a price of just $49.99. Again, these three are low to mid-level Android device for Sprint.

T-Mobile

T-Mobile USA only announced one device in the last 24 hours, but this follows their current rollout of the T-Mobile G2 and future myTouch device. The LG Optimus T looks to be similar to the Sprint version (note the T for T-Mobile versus the S for Sprint) with very few details released. It will have a couple of colors, be loaded with Android 2.2, and a 3.2 megapixel camera, but we do not have a price or solid release date.

US Cellular

I previously took a look at the excellent HTC Desire on U.S. Cellular and was very impressed with the device and their service offering. In another great move for this regional carrier, they are rolling out the Samsung Mesmerize, which is another of the Samsung Galaxy S devices. The Mesmerize will launch on 27 October for $199.

Verizon

It must be the law of threes at CTIA as Verizon Wireless also announced three new Android devices, all from Motorola. The Motorola Droid Pro, that we previously mentioned, the Motorla Defy, and the Motorola Citrus were revealed at CTIA.

The Motorola Droid Pro is a sweet looking front facing QWERTY keyboard Android device with good specifications and an appealing form factor. The Motorola Defy is a semi-ruggedized Android smartphone with a 3.1 inch touchscreen and Gorilla glass on a water and dust resistant shell. The Motorola Citrus is an entry-level Android device powered by Android 2.1.

No assigned carrier

Motorola also announced the Motorola Spice device with no news of a US carrier. It may be headed to Brazil and actually has a cool form factor, vertical QWERTY slider like a Palm Pre Plus, that many here would probably appreciate.

It is pretty amazing to see all of these devices announced on all the carriers at one event and shows you how flexible Android can be in covering the entire spectrum of smartphone buyers.

Topics: Mobility, Hardware, Samsung, Smartphones, Telcos

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23 comments
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  • Some will fail miserably. Others will do just OK. Still

    others will succeed. Over even the failures and the just OK models will count as numbers towards Android sales vs iPhone. However I'd still rather be Apple than all these other hardware OEM's. Apple makes money on it's hardware and won't be fighting with all the other OEM's in a loosing price war. Apple makes money on it's contracts with AT&T. I think Apple makes money on Apps and iTunes songs, movies and TV shows. Now Google might do OK with what ever money it makes from licensing Android and ads I suppose but I'm not feeling it for the OEM's. If you think writers are going to have problems with all the Android models imagine the consumer. I see several vendor's phones getting lost in the mix.

    Pagan jim
    James Quinn
    Reply Vote

    • RE: 24 hours and we saw 12 Android smartphones on six US carriers

      @James Quinn,

      Yea but there is another side to it. These guys won't just be fighting each other. They will be fighting Apple too. This will lead to collaboration which will be a challenge for Apple to contend with. The folks at Apple seem to be pretty sharp, let's see if they're up to the task.
      bmonsterman
      Reply Vote

      • No reason for them to collaborate

        All the Android vendors are trying to distinguish their devices, why collaborate? Their own handsets are competing with each other. It's already really quite a mess. Do I want a Motorola, HTC, Samsung, etc.? And then what model.
        @bmonsterman
        GoPower
        Reply Vote

    • RE: 24 hours and we saw 12 Android smartphones on six US carriers

      @James Quinn
      You tend to forget that not everyone is willing to spend $400 on a cell phone or even $200. This is where choice is a big deal. For some people they want something that looks and smells like a smartphone but only want to pay $50 for it and will forego most of the features because they really don't care about it. For that segment, no matter how much you add to the phone its lost on them because they genuinely don't care. In the case of iphone, that group will never buy into an iphone. But if you came out with a stripped down $50 iphone they would buy it. But since such a thing will never exists and it does on android, they will buy the android phone.

      Now what this does is increase market shares. And when market shares increase, software development increases and then more companies collaborates with android to do business.
      rengek
      Reply Vote

    • They did OK in the past.

      @James Quinn
      If the market could support 85 flip style phones for years when that first came out and people flocked to it (remember the original monochrome phones). There are tons of slideouts, etc. The market is moving from basic to smartphones (especially with prices coming down to $49 with the more modest lineups), why can't all the vendors make money with a very diverse number of phones that are smart when obviously they made a lot of money with a very diverse number of phones that weren't smart in the past..

      Just like in the past, many models will come and go but I don't see why the players will. It will probably help their bottom lines for a few years. Margins on "dumb" phones was razor thin because they had truly become commodities.

      TripleII
      TripleII-21189418044173169409978279405827
      Reply Vote

    • Jim is just a diehard CrAppleholic!

      @James Quinn Jim just put a rotten apple as your user icon, break out your favorite book "iMein Kampf" by Steve iHitler Jobs to swear your allegiance as a genuine dyed in wool iNazi. Oh.... and you could do it for all the rest of your ZDNet user names as well. That way any new readers won't wrongly think CrApple is so loaded with deaf, dumb and blind CrAppleholics, they'll know it!<br><br>#1 - CrApple has no hardware, no factories, in fact no hard assets to speak of besides retarded fans like you. They even contract to have their stores built and lease them back. The only property they actually own is their Cupertino Campus.<br><br>#2 - Might as well call all iphones LG or Samsung phones. Because that's who builds all their cheaper, rejected or discarded parts they won't dare use in their own phones. CrApple iPhone is just a re-branded phone you know? Just like Cadillac is a re-branded Chevy. iLemonPwnd4 really does fit this non phone maker company like CrApple anyway!<br><br>#3 - They really aren't even a real phone manufacturer. Nor should any of their phones be purchased thinking they can actually make and complete any calls. Calling on an iPhone is like buying lottery tickets, only a few are likely to actually do what you buy them for. CrApple only fakes it like they actually make any hardware and without any factories of their own would die if we got in a war or suppliers just decided to stop selling them parts and having the Chinese put them together. Gee..... maybe that's why they call CrApple products so "Magical and Revolutionary"? It's like as if they're all being sold as InFomercial exaggerated fantasy phones. <br><br>Meanwhile the truth is they are all fake Chinese reject parts that real phone manufacturers are about to toss in the trash bin. Before selling them to CrApple at major profit. Why do you think few of them can actually make any calls. They just look nice like a Rolex you'd buy off a street vendor in Tijuana, Mexico. But they really look like a real one don't they? haha.... <br><br>#4 - Carriers and OEM's (real phone makers like Samsung and LG. Who are the largest selling phone makers on the planet today you idiot.... and supply something like 85% of all internal mobile device parts) are making MONEY off every iPwnd4 sold, whether it drops calls, gets cracked, for having both Antennagate and Glassgate going on right now. So they could care less about the piddly arse market share sold as CrApple phones! .....just so you know in the Grand Scheme of Mobil Phone Makers? CrApple isn't even listed in the top 5! haha.... ;)
      i2fun@...
      Reply Vote

  • same phone, different name

    Samsung wants to beat everyone to the finishline first and release their phone for everyone. I only hope Samsung plans on providing upgrades for all of them.
    Maarek
    Reply Vote

  • RE: 24 hours and we saw 12 Android smartphones on six US carriers

    Typical apple fanboi answer, try and explain away the fact that Android is stomping the iphone sales. lets disregard that apple picked the crappiest carrier, AT&T and have exclusivity that is killing market share. not to mention the device is fundamentally flawed and under powered. Is iOS more polished than Android, absolutely, for now. But looks are easy to gain ground on, and functionality wise Google has all ready beat Apple. Thats my problem with Apple, i only have one choice. With iphone4 flawed as it is i am forced to settle or wait for the next one. having multiple hardware vendors is a great thing because i get to choose what device i want. if i want a mega screen i can get that too. do i want to switch carriers, still covered. Apple iphones are still the hype because they are a marketing machine, but once you get passed the hype its really just a dumb downed android with a prettier face. give me functionality over form any day. i like the real world, not the world as allowed by Steve. :)
    aggiejon04
    Reply Vote

    • Apple is all marketing and hype? Yeah. OK. Uh-huh.

      @aggiejon04
      Apple got to be the second highest-market-valued company in the world solely on hype and marketing, eh? Don't know what "real world" you're in, but in mine, things don't work that way.
      Userama
      Reply Vote

      • RE: 24 hours and we saw 12 Android smartphones on six US carriers

        @Userama
        Yup, further to fall.
        Everyone i know running Macs run VMs for Windows (can't do everything you need in MAC yet, have to run back to WIndows?:( )
        AppleTV, can't do anything but itunes/netflix/youtube - fail
        Flagship - iphone4, fundamentally flawed, underpowered and slow (doesnt have HSPA+ support).
        Every "cool" feature my iphone friends show me i have in android. and the "Steve World" i refer to is what you are allowed/not allowed to do with your device. keep it locked down, i prefer open systems.
        aggiejon04
        Reply Vote

      • Obviously, you value quantity over quality.

        @aggiejon04 Enjoy.
        Userama
        Reply Vote

      • RE: 24 hours and we saw 12 Android smartphones on six US carriers

        @Userama
        Quality can be defined in many ways. Just because something is perceived as more stable and expensive doesn't make it of higher quality. Quality of a computer can also mean the one that is most useful and functional. PCs have far more software than Macs. And if you use the arugment "I can run windows on my mac"...well yes that is true but you are running it under a layer of a virtual machine so there is always that level of translation. Its kind of like learning a second language but in your head you always do a translation from one language to another. So in terms of high performance macs running VM will never be better than a PC running native windows. And so there goes your quality argument.

        If you build a car but never allow it to be used more than 1 hour/week and say the car can last decades because its of higher quality then you are wrong. Just like iphones that can only run on one carrier (poorly at that) and dictate to the developers how and what can be developed on the iphone in a pretty awful development language. Objective C is pretty lame when compared to far more robust platforms out there.
        rengek
        Reply Vote

      • RE: 24 hours and we saw 12 Android smartphones on six US carriers

        @aggiejon04
        running a VM to run windows, consider that that is not a possibility the other way around, becomes an argument for Macs
        AppleTV, what else do you want it to do?
        HSPA+ support? are you forgetting that there are no phones of any kind with HSPA+ yet?

        I'm actually an android user, but had to point out the flaws in your logic, though I prefer android and their open system.
        kevinrs1
        Reply Vote

  • Could you define further?

    You refer to some of these phones as "mid-level Android devices" How do you define mid-level and what differentiates a high-end Android device from a mid-level device?
    Freddy McGriff
    Reply Vote

    • Modest specs

      @Freddy McGriff
      Some are 500 to 600 MHz, lower resolution screen, 3MP or lower camera, VGA recording, etc. Call them the "netbooks" of Android phones. Fully functional, just more modest performance and price.
      Take the Optimus 1. 3.2" screen, HVGA resolution, 3.2Mp camera. Can't touch the EVO or Droid specs, but $49.

      TripleII
      TripleII-21189418044173169409978279405827
      Reply Vote

  • Funny how all the wintards have turned into Android lovers

    Before Android they were all always telling us what a piece of crap linux was or is, ROFLOL. And of course they're in complete denial as to who started the smartphone craze!

    Will they all dump their Android phones once Win Phone 7 comes out?
    GoPower
    Reply Vote

    • Don't confuse Touch-Craze with Smartphone craze (nt)

      @GoPower (nt)
      croberts
      Reply Vote

      • RE: 24 hours and we saw 12 Android smartphones on six US carriers

        @croberts <br>well, right now, for touchphones, besides the iphone, there are touchphones that suck, and android phones. Oh, and a high end blackberry.<br>WM7 has taken so long to come to market, few idf any people still have any windows mobile devices, they have transitioned either to iphone, android or blackberry. WM7 is going to be hard to sell to consumers.
        kevinrs1
        Reply Vote

    • LOL - so true! (nt)

      @GoPower
      jasondlnd
      Reply Vote

  • They are not "Android Phones".

    They are phones that happen to run android.

    There is a difference. The former implies that Android has become an OS brand that people purposely want, and the latter implies that people want these phone because of features they offer which really have nothing to do with Android specifically.
    croberts
    Reply Vote
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