Mon Apr 06, 2009 1:28 am
T-Mobile, the nation's fourth-largest wireless carrier after AT&T, Verizon and Sprint, plans to aggressively push into consumer homes with communications devices that will use Google's new Android smartphone software.
The Bellevue, Wash.-based company will sell a home phone early next year and a tablet computer soon after -- both running Internet search giant Google's Android operating system.
Its home phone will connect to a docking station that recharges the battery, while another unit will handle data synchronization.
The tablet computer will resemble a small laptop and integrate a seven-inch touch screen instead of having a traditional keyboard. It will be able to handle basic computing jobs like checking the weather or managing data across handhelds in the home.
The carrier's use of Android to advance its ambitions shows how blurry the line has become between mobile phones and computers.
Last October, T-Mobile was the first carrier to launch a Google phone, the G1, based on Google's Android platform, an operating system that handles the basic functions for smartphones.
While starting off slowly, Android has attracted more interest lately among handset manufacturers and carriers.
Last week, Samsung committed to shipping a number of Android-based phones this year, with T-Mobile and Sprint likely to offer the smartphones in the United States.
Motorola is expected to sell a handset running Android by October.
Taiwan-based HTC makes the T-Mobile G1 and said it planned to make other Google phones in the future.
Carriers see consumer electronics eventually being linked together -- handhelds, photo frames, digital cameras, security systems, webcams and TVs -- hopefully through its software and networking services.
Verizon, with its new Hub phone, and AT&T, with its HomeManager, sell similar products that merge the delivery of information and phone calls on a computer-like devices.
AT&T said it will test selling netbooks -- small, low-cost laptops -- for just $50 to people signing long-term contracts for its wireless data services. Verizon announced a similar plan to sell netbooks -- with devices hitting store shelves as early as next quarter.
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