Vodafone and LG first in line for WinMo 6.5
Published: 3 September, 2009
READ MORE: LG Electronics | Vodafone | Handset | Windows Mobile
As reported, Microsoft is to debut release 6.5 of Windows Mobile, and a range of phones to support it, on October 6, but LG has jumped the gun on the coming-out party, announcing three handsets running the new OS, as part of its "most aggressive smartphone to date". Details are sparse, but LG has signed up Vodafone as an exclusive launch partner for one of the products, the GM750, in seven European countries.
Although LG has a rising number of high end phones, packed with hi-tech specifications, (right up to 12-megapixel cameras and HD video), it lags behind many rivals in terms of 'true smartphones' (with full-blown, multivendor operating systems). As downloadable applications become de rigeur, it plans to redress this balance, and we should see a two-track strategy for the high end market, similar to Samsung's. This will consist, on one hand, of media-oriented 'superphones' running LG's optimized and proprietary software platform; and on the other, smartphones running Symbian, WinMo and, before year end, Android.
Both line-ups will be carefully segmented to a wide range of user profiles and geographies, as LG extends its portfolio rapidly to try to catch up with Samsung's breadth of coverage. For instance, the three new WinMo smartphones will range from a high end, touchscreen/slider device for professionals, to a midrange candybar touch design (the GW550) for the main growth market of 2010, the 'affordable smartphone' (a mid-featured, web-optimized handset with an open OS).
The two catalogs will be unified somewhat by the common link of LG's innovative S-Class 3D user interface, which arranges widgets on a revolving cube-shaped homescreen, and by its multi-OS LG Application Store, opened in July and promising 2,000 apps by year end.
While most OEMs give WinMo a firm second or third place in their smartphone roadmaps, LG has highlighted it, committing last year to developing 50 handsets and MIDs with the OS in 2009-2011 (though it has some way to go - it says it will launch 13 WinMo 6.5 products by the end of this year, and has put out a few WinMo 6.1 phones already, but this still leaves over 30 gadgets to come).
It is not clear whether the world's third biggest phonemaker will go along with Microsoft's new 'big idea' to increase its impact on the cellphone market, putting a 'Windows Phone' logo on 6.5 products (in its press release, LG pointedly said it planned 13 "LG-branded" Windows products this year).
The first three phones for the updated OS are the GM750, GW550 and a third unnamed product. The GW550 is one of LG's only high end candybars, with a slide-out Qwerty keyboard, but the only one with any real detail behind it is the GM750, a touch slider with Qwerty, which Vodafone will carry as an exclusive. The third will be a full touchscreen-only design. They will come to Europe first, closely followed by the US (no carrier details yet) and Korea, and then go global at the turn of the year.
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