Panasonic says it will start selling Android-based smartphones in Japan next year, overseas in 2012
Panasonic may not be new to cellphones, but it has sat out of the smartphone explosion of recent years -- an oversight that it's now apparently looking to correct. Speaking at a news conference today, the head of Panasonic's mobile division, Osamu Waki, said flatly that the compmany " misjudged the speed at which smartphones would be taken up in the Japanese market," and that "with the rapid shift to Android, we want to catch up quickly." Exact details on how it plans to catch up are expectedly still a bit light, but Panasonic's phones will indeed be based on Android, and it apparently hopes to differentiate them by emphasizing their networking capabilities with other Panasonic products. As for when the first ones will roll out, Panasonic plans to kick off sales in Japan sometime next year, with overseas markets set to follow in 2012.
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone, Other Tags: engadget, entry, explosion, japan, japanese, kick-off-sales, markets, news-conference, panasonic, Rapid, result, shift, smartphone, smartphones, the-smartphone
BlackBerry Torch teardown offers few surprises, much like the phone itself (video)
The new BlackBerry flagship has been put through one of the more important ceremonies of acceptance into the smartphone world: a teardown . The CrackBerry crew have disassembled a Torch to see what makes it burn and produced some glamor shots of naked hardware for us to gawp at in the process. As you can see by the exploded shot of the phone above, most internals are either integrated or soldered down, but this undressing does afford us an opportunity to take a look at the biggest novelty in this new BlackBerry, namely its slider mechanism
Categories: BlackBerry, Mobile Phone Tags: bb 6, BlackBerry, internals, like-the-phone, past-the-break, qwertyslider, the-smartphone, torndown
Garmin: revenue from phone segment in Q2 was ‘below our plan’
Garmin's second-quarter results hit the wires this week, and overall, the company seems to be pretty healthy; its automotive, outdoor, aviation, and marine businesses all posted growth, average selling price was up, and shipped units grew a solid 8 percent year-over-year. If you read a little deeper, though, there's one segment that undelivered -- smartphones, a joint venture the company shares with ASUS -- which contributed $27 million in revenue in the last three months.
Categories: Mobile Phone, Other Tags: entry, garmin, garminfone, initial-pricing, q210, the-competitive, the-smartphone, waltz
BlackBerry users running out of loyalty: 50 percent plan to defect to iPhone or Android
Nielsen has its own angle on the smartphone numbers game out today, and the results vaguely resemble the numbers from Canalys . Perhaps more interesting than the ever present market share tug-of-war (Nielsen pegs Google, RIM, and Apple at 27 percent, 33 percent, and 23 percent in sales to new smartphone subscribers, respectively) a note on brand loyalty turns out ugly for BlackBerry: while 89 percent of iPhone owners plan on getting another iPhone, and 71 percent of Android buyers plan to re-up, only 42 percent of BlackBerry owners plan to stick around
Categories: Android, BlackBerry, Mobile Phone, Other Tags: BlackBerry, blackberry 6, blackberry6, engadget, game-out-today, numbers, planning, result, rim, the-smartphone
How would you change HTC’s EVO 4G?
It may be America's first 4G smartphone, but if we had to guess, we'd surmise that not everyone sees it as perfect. Even if we ( almost ) did
Categories: Android, htc, Mobile Phone, Other Tags: america, engadget, entry, epic, evo, evo4g, googleandroid, htc, proportions, smartphone, sprint, the-smartphone, toss-it-over
Droid X ad pokes fun at iPhone 4 antenna troubles
The world of corporate cheap shots has today been enriched in its number with one supersized ad for one supersized phone. BGR reports that Motorola took out a full-page spread in the New York Times on this final day of June, which was ostensibly dedicated to promoting the positives of its mighty Droid X. But Moto has also followed in the footsteps of Nokia in making a not so subtle jab at the latest king of the smartphone realm
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: droid, droidx, iphone, motorola, past-the-break, positives, problem, smartphone, subtle, the-smartphone, york
HP says it’s in the smartphone market, after all
HP CEO Mark Hurd certainly caused a few sad faces yesterday when he told investors and analysts that HP " didn't buy Palm to be in the smartphone business ," and it now the company is trying to walk that back a little -- rest easy, folks, because there are definintely more webOS smartphones on the way. Apparently what Hurd was really trying to say was that HP is excited about using webOS as the foundation for all types of smaller web-connected devices , and smartphones are just a part of that universe -- a part HP intends to pursue
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: backbone, engadget, faces, faces-yesterday, footprint, hewlett-packard, hewlettpackard, investors, mark hurd, phone, reach, rest, smartphones, the-smartphone
T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide coming June 2 for $180
So T-Mobile's myTouch 3G Slide -- the QWERTY-enabled version of the venerable myTouch 3G -- has been priced and dated, and we're happy to see that "expected to be available in June" has turned out to mean the very beginning of the month; June 2, to be exact, in your choice of red, white, or black.
Categories: Android, htc, Mobile Phone Tags: engadget, excuse, massive, mytouch-3g, mytouch3g, notion, processor, qwerty, slide, slider, the-smartphone, the-unenviable, unenviable
Google partnership has GM OnStar exploring Maps, open APIs and more
In a move that could shape the mobile landscape -- or simply suck down cash, of course -- General Motors just revealed that Google was its mysterious infotainment partner . In the final hours before Google I/O , we sat down with GM VP Nick Pudar to tell us what the future thus holds for OnStar
Categories: Android, BlackBerry, Mobile Phone Tags: after-the-break, app, automobile, automobiles, car integration, check, chevroletvolt, chevyvolt, gm onstar, googlemapsnavigation, honk-the-horn, onstar, the-smartphone, tire, Volt
NVIDIA puts its Tegra 2 eggs in Android’s basket, aims to topple Apple’s A4
Microsoft's Kin One and Kin Two might not turn out to be the most auspicious devices for Tegra's debut in the smartphone arena, but NVIDIA seems to be learning from its mistakes. Admitting that the company committed too strongly to Microsoft with the first-gen iteration, Jen-Hsun Huang has now said that the second generation of Tegra will look to Android devices first and foremost
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone, Other Tags: financials, news, nvidia, nvidia ceo, nvidiategra, nvidiategra2, result, smartphones, Switching, tegra2, the-smartphone, viable