App fans will be grinning at news from Verizon (VZ), Motorola (MOT), Sony Ericsson (SNE) and HP’s Palm (HPQ) about new devices.
A Moto 4G phone from Verizon and a Palm tab known as the PalmPad debut at next month’s Consumer Electronics Show. And then there’s the PlayStation phone that reportedly will debut in February at the Mobile World Congress.
John Stratton, chief operating officer at Verizon Wireless, confirmed in an interview with Spencer Ante in Wall Street Journal that it will have a 4G smartphone from Motorola for its just-launched Long-Term Evolution network. Previously, Verizon only disclosed details about its 4G modem.
“We’ve got LTE smartphones on the horizon,” Verizon’s Mr. Stratton said. “Motorola will be right there.”
He said Motorola has become a key partner. “Over the last 13 months, they have done a very good job in supporting our business and have worked their way up into almost a preferred vendor,” Stratton said. “They have been driving our Droid strategy.”
Ante said this represents “an important vote of confidence in Motorola,” which splits into two companies next month.
Moto investors are worried that the company has become too reliant on Verizon, which is expected next year to begin selling its first iPhone from Apple (AAPL).
Verizon has said it will display tabs and phones for LTE next month at CES. The devices will appear in stores in the first half of 2011.
On the tab front, “dark horse” Palm from HP will be taking aim at Apple’s iPad with its new PalmPad, which will debut at CE, according to FoxNews.comClayton Morris at Fox said three versions will be shown at CES. He said the PalmPad resembles the iPad, but is slightly thinner with rounded edges similar to an Amazon (AMZN) Kindle.
He wrote: “The consumer version of the PalmPad will run on Sprint’s (S) fast 4G network, but otherwise it has hardware specs nearly identical to Apple’s iPad.”
A fourth student version of the PalmPad will be shown later in 2011.
Morris said: “I’ve always felt that Palm’s WebOS, with its card-style layout, lends itself to a tablet experience better than any other mobile operating system. And I say that as an unabashed iPad fan.”
Finally, Pocket-lint reports that Sony Ericsson will debut its PlayStation phone powered by Google’s (GOOG) Android at the Mobile World Congress. The phone for gamers initially will be available in April in the United Kingdom.
Pocket-lint said: “The infamous PlayStation phone has been rumored for some time, with devices starting to appear in spy shots on the Internet in the last couple of weeks. According to previous leaks, the phone will come in a slider design similar to the PSP Go and feature a dedicated gaming pad and the hallmark PlayStation square, cross, triangle and circle buttons.”
Sony recently said it will launch a PlayStation app for iPhone and Android.
