GreenBkk.com Tech | Led by Atrix, no shortage of new Androids

Led by Atrix, no shortage of new Androids

By Mark Milian, CNN

Attendees at the Consumer Electronics Show last month were eager to get a first look at the Atrix from Motorola Mobility.

(CNN) -- The Verizon iPhone train started rolling this week, but Apple's main smartphone competitors aren't about to be left at the station.

This week, cellular carriers released details about a trio of upcoming smartphones, all of which run an older version of Google's Android operating system.

AT&T announced a March 6 release deadline for the Atrix 4G, a Motorola Mobility "transformer" phone that grabbed the spotlight at the Consumer Electronics Show last month.

With a speedy dual-core processor inside, the Arix can be used as a media center or limited-function PC when connected to a television or monitor using a dock accessory. Motorola will also sell a laptop shell that allows the Atrix to essentially convert into a sort of netbook, complete with a keyboard.

New details about the much-anticipated Atrix came on the same day Verizon Wireless began letting current customers pre-order the iPhone 4, formerly exclusive to AT&T in the U.S.

At $200 with a two-year contract, the Atrix will be among the first to run on AT&T's faster data network and carry the "4G" branding. (For $500 with a contract, you get the phone and the laptop dock; the latter is also sold separately for $500.)

The Atrix, an AT&T exclusive, will be available for pre-order starting on February 13.

On the same day, AT&T will begin selling another so-called 4G phone.

The second-largest U.S. carrier by subscribers announced the launch date and a $100 price tag, two-year agreement required, for HTC's Inspire 4G. That info came on Tuesday, kicking off a big week for smartphone news. The Inspire has a 4.3-inch screen -- the same large size as the Evo 4G.

The new device will be the inaugural smartphone to offer AT&T's Mobile Hotspot service.

Having long struggled to support the bandwidth needs of its millions of smartphone subscribers, AT&T lags behind competitors in offering this feature. Customers will have to pay an extra $20 per month to use the feature, which adds 2 gigabytes of wireless internet usage, the carrier said on Wednesday.

T-Mobile USA, the fourth-largest U.S. network, said on Tuesday that it expects to begin selling the Galaxy S 4G from Samsung Electronics this month. It's similar to Samsung's several other Android handsets, but this one is compatible with T-Mobile's faster data network.

All three of these new smartphones, strangely, come with a seven-month-old version of Android, called Froyo.

Since releasing that version, Google launched another called Gingerbread, which powers a Samsung-made phone called the Nexus S. Google held a news conference on Wednesday to say developers are close to releasing the first device that will run the next Android, called Honeycomb, this month.

Credit: CNN (www.cnn.com)