ZTE to roll out 4G handphones in 2012

ZTE Corp, the world's No.5 cell phone maker, plans to launch 4G handsets in the second quarter of 2012, aiming to grab more market share by expanding its product range.

ZTE, which competes with Nokia Oyj , Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd , sees its mobile phone shipments rising 30-40 percent annually over the next three years.

The Shenzhen-based company shipped 35 million handsets in the first half, on track to achieve its target of 80 million units for the year, which would be a third higher than last year.

"We will be rolling out 4G phones in advanced countries first. We are talking to more than one overseas network carrier now," Ding Ning, president of ZTE's handset division, said in an interview.

4G, which refers to the fourth generation of cellular wireless standards, succeeds 2G and 3G technologies currently used in most mobile phones globally.

ZTE, which is due to launch its Skate smartphone on Hong Kong running Google Inc's Android 2.3 and sporting a Qualcomm Inc chipset, has been grabbing market share from more well-known global names with popular products such as Blade.

ZTE ranks behind Nokia, Samsung, LG Electronics Inc and Apple Inc with a 3 percent share in the global mobile phone market in the second quarter, research firm Gartner said.

Ding said the company had seen good sales in emerging markets, such as Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia, and was unfazed by economic doldrums in the United States and Europe.

ZTE plans to introduce handsets that run on Microsoft Corp's mobile operating system later this year, Ding said.

With top Chinese Internet companies such as Baidu Inc and Alibaba Group recently launching mobile operating systems, Ding said ZTE had no immediate plans to come up with its own platform.

HTC unveils 4G tablet, Jetstream

Taiwan's leading smartphone maker HTC has unveiled its first tablet device with 4G telecommunications technology.

Fourth generation - 4G - technology provides high-speed broadband wireless services and higher quality image and data services.

The HTC Jetstream is due to hit the US market on coming Sunday, offered by telecom giant AT&T for $699.99 with a two-year contract.

The tablet will be equipped with a 10.1-inch (26 centimetre) screen and use Google's Android 3.1 platform.

Analysts are not expecting big sales as the next generation telecommunication technology, Long Term Evolution (LTE), has yet to penetrate the market significantly.

Samsung Galaxy 4G coming on T-Mobile

CES might be over, but the 4G phones keep trickling in. As a part of its aggressive 4G plans, T-Mobile announced that the Samsung Galaxy 4G will launch in the first half of 2011.

Speculations for the Samsung Galaxy 4G on T-Mobile aren't clear, but it’s expected that it will have a Super AMOLED display-not the newest Super AMOLED Plus display. At CES, Verizon unveiled an unnamed LTE phone with a 4.3-inch display as well as a phone on AT&T, the Infuse 4G, with a monstrous 4.5-inch display. According to Samsung, Super AMOLED Plus displays have an increased number of sub-pixels by 50 percent and perform even better in bright light than the first-gen Super AMOLED displays.

Samsung Mobile is trumpeting the arrival of "something big" on Feb. 13, which coincidentally is the week of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The rumor mill is buzzing about a dual-core processor, an 8-megapixel camera and built-in NFC support are just a few of the exciting features the next-gen phones could sport.

The moniker "4G" implies faster and T-Mobile's HSPA+ network is certainly faster than its 3G network but right now, it is quite uneven in terms of coverage. And T-Mobile's claims that its 4G devices can achieve "theoretical" download speeds of 21 mbps have yet to be proved in our own speed tests. When we tested the T-Mobile G2's data speeds in several neighborhoods in San Francisco, we found the "4G-like" speeds of T-Mobile's HSPA+ network in roughly half of them. The fastest speed PCWorld achieved was 14 mbps and that was with the T-Mobile webConnect Rocket USB modem.

T-Mobile has also announced at an investor event that it plans to heavily promote its "4G" wireless network, improve in-home device coverage, and by offer low-priced smartphones.

Motorola to release 4G Phones in 2011

Motorola in its new form, to be known as Motorola Mobility, will go the way of Acer, rather than Apple in releasing new tablets in 2011.

Apple founder Steve Jobs has jabbed at 7-inch screens, emphasizing the nearly 10 inches on iPad. Several others have said they are going with 7-inchers. But Taiwan-based Acer said last month it will offer both 10.1- and 7-inch touchscreen displays.

Motorola Mobility will follow Acer. Current co-CEO Sanjay Jha, who will lead Motorola Mobility, said, “We’re planning to participate quite fully in the tablet category. Motorola Mobility will specialize in mobile devices and set-top boxes.”

He said Moto’s research shows 10-inch tabs are for business and 7-inch tabs are “fun” devices more easily carried by consumers. According to Jha, Motorola is planning to release 4G phones in 2011.

Jha hinted a new “competitive dynamic” will disrupt Motorola's relationship with Verizon in the first quarter that will have a significant negative impact on Motorola. “Whether the comment is an indirect reference to Verizon Wireless getting an iPhone or an official 3G/4G-capable iPad that's compatible with the carrier's network out of the box is unclear. To combat the threat, Motorola will continue to focus on the mid- to high-tier smartphone market.”

Schaumburg, IL.-based Motorola, which pioneered the mobile phone and is now benefiting from its smartphone Droid with Google's Android OS, will spin-off Motorola Mobility on Jan. 4 as it creates two publicly traded companies. The rest of Motorola, which sells tech to government and corporations, will become Motorola Solutions and trade on the New York Stock Exchange as MSI.

Meanwhile, the new Motorola Mobility, which will trade on NYSE as MMI, said next year it will offer another new device with mobile capabilities. Reuters has reported that this new device will combine set-top boxes and cell phone technology. The device will be featured in January at the Consumer Electronics Show.

Daniel Moloney, president of Motorola Mobility, says the technology will allow consumers to view any content anywhere on different devices. "It's one consumer proposition that will come sooner rather than later," he told the Reuters Global Media Summit.

After being sold a separate gadget offered via service providers, the home streaming product will eventually be integrated into set-top boxes.

Moloney rejoined Motorola last summer, having served as president and chief executive officer of Technitrol, an electronic component manufacturer. He previously was executive vice president at Motorola Inc. and president of Motorola’s Home and Networks Mobility business, which evolved into Motorola Mobility. Moloney then worked with video and WiMax.