At CTIA Wireless this year, 4G phones are becoming a reality, Android superphones are sweeping the show and eReader phones are surfacing.
Now at least two 4G phones are heading for the U.S. by the end of the year—as Samsung Mobile showed its first 4G phone–the Samsung SCH-r900, which joins the HTC Evo shown yesterday by Sprint.
The Samsung SCH-r900 CDMA phone will be offered by MetroPCS, using its LTE 4G network to be rolled out in the second half in certain markets including Las Vegas.
Sprint and MetroPCS could beat most if not all carriers to market with 4G as Verizon is not expected to offer a 4G phone until mid-2011 (according to many reports citing the Wall Street Journal).
Samsung is also planning to work with Skiff to bring built-in eReading to its smartphones and it will team up with media companies such as Paramount and Viacom to offer full-length movies and TV shows by direct download, Samsung’s mobile phone business leader JK Shin, said in a keynote address, according to Reuters.
Samsung also said its up and coming Wave smartphone will be the first phone DivX Certified for HD video playback at 720p resolution. It will be joined by a Samsung Galaxy S Android powered phone–also expected to receive HD certification. The Galaxy will offer a 4-inch Super AMOLED screen and “blazing fast performance,” said Samsung and it is expected to be available at the end of the year.
Also at CTIA, T-Mobile said it will upgrade its 3G service to High Speed Packet Access Plus (HSPA+) technology through most of its national footprint, for data speeds up to three times faster than 3G. Its new HSPA+ network will cover more than 185 million people in 100 metropolitan areas, by the end of the year.
The carrier will also begin selling its first netbook, the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 today both online and in T-Mobile stores in select markets including Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and Miami for $199.99 with two-year contract and data plan. The Mini 10 runs Windows 7 with an Intel Atom processor N450, and weighs three pounds with an 8-hour battery life.
T-Mobile started rolling out HSPA+ last fall in Philadelphia and has since added major areas of New York City, New Jersey, Long Island and suburban Washington, D.C., with deployment in Los Angeles coming “very soon.”
Source: Samsung, T-Mobile, Reuters
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