References

1. ^{^} Rhapsody (www.rhapsody.com)

Editors of Apple iPhone sites like TiPB^[1] 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^[2]. 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^[3]. 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^[4]. The Sanyo Zio^[5] 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^[6] 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^[7] 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^[8] 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^[9], 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^[10], the Motorla Defy^[11], and the Motorola Citrus^[12] 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^[13] 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.

Matthew Miller started using a Pilot 1000 in 1997 and has been writing news, reviews, and opinion pieces ever since.

Biography

Matthew Miller

Matthew Miller started using a Pilot 1000 in 1997 and has been writing news, reviews, and opinion pieces ever since. He is one of three hosts on the MobileTechRoundup podcast and runs the Nokia Experts website. Matthew started using mobile devices in 1997 with a US Robotics Pilot 1000 and has owned over 100 different devices running Palm, Linux, Symbian, Newton, BlackBerry, Mac OS X (iPhone), Google Android, Palm webOS and Windows Mobile operating systems. His current collection includes a Nokia N900, Nokia N97 mini, Apple iPhone 3GS, Google Nexus One, HTC EVO 4G, Apple iPad, MSI Wind, MacBook Pro, and many more, along with tons of accessories and classic devices like the Apple Newton MessagePad 2100 and Sony CLIE UX50. Matthew co-authored Master Visually Windows Mobile 2003, was a member of the Nokia Nseries Blogger relations program, and is a member of the invite-only Microsoft Mobius mobile device evangelist group. He can be found on various discussion forums under the user name of "palmsolo".

References

1. ^{^} TiPB (www.tipb.com)
2. ^{^} Bravo, Flipside, and Flipout (www.androidcentral.com)
3. ^{^} Samsung Showcase (news.google.com)
4. ^{^} Samsung Transform, Sanyo Zio, and LG Optimus S (www.androidcentral.com)
5. ^{^} Sanyo Zio (www.androidcentral.com)
6. ^{^} LG Optimus S (www.androidcentral.com)
7. ^{^} LG Optimus T (www.androidcentral.com)
8. ^{^} HTC Desire (blogs.zdnet.com)
9. ^{^} Samsung Mesmerize (www.androidcentral.com)
10. ^{^} previously mentioned (blogs.zdnet.com)
11. ^{^} Motorla Defy (www.androidcentral.com)
12. ^{^} Motorola Citrus (www.androidcentral.com)
13. ^{^} Motorola Spice (www.androidcentral.com)