ctia 2012

SAN DIEGO--A year ago at CTIA (now known as MobileCon), Huawei announced plans to become a top-five vendor in three years' time. A year into its push to crack the U.S. market, Huawei is only baby steps closer to reaching its goal.

When I met with Huawei in San Diego earlier this week, company spokespeople said that consumers' brand awareness grew from 6 percent in 2011 to 9 percent in 2012.

The 3 percent growth isn't much to crow about, not when brand awareness hovers at 49 percent in the South Pacific region, 29 percent in northern Latin … Read more

SAN DIEGO--CNET has spent enough time with LG's new flagship, quad-core LG Optimus G to portend great things for LG's image, especially now that the Android 4.0 powerhouse will come to both AT&T and Sprint.

There's just one early snag. Yesterday, I spent some time with the 13-megapixel camera. The controls all looked fantastic, and are part of a redesigned OS. However, I wasn't happy with some of the photos I took for practice.

It definitely didn't help the camera's cause that I shot all photos in a closed demo room … Read more

Verizon Wireless plans to launch voice over LTE services by late 2013 or early 2014, according to a networking executive for the carrier.

Consumer trials will begin in late 2013, with service to follow, likely in the subsequent year, Nicola Palmer, vice president of network and chief technical officer for Verizon Wireless, said in an interview with CNET. The target date is a bit more specific than previously announced, with Verizon Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo calling for a rollout in 2013. The company was originally expected to launch the service this year.

Voice over LTE, or VoLTE, moves the … Read more

Verizon Wireless said today that it would surpass its year-end goal of blanketing 400 markets with 4G LTE two months ahead of schedule.

On October 18, the company will have covered 417 U.S. markets with its super-fast wireless network, extending its overwhelming lead over the other carriers. Its 4G LTE was the focal point of the carrier's presentation at the MobileCon wireless trade show this week.

Despite the speedy work, it's sticking with its target of completing the full upgrade by the end of next year, in which its 4G LTE coverage will be comparable to its … Read more

Sprint Nextel expanded its lineup of 4G LTE devices, nabbing the LG Optimus G quad-core smartphone, the LG Mach QWERTY slider, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 tablet, and a 4G USB stick.

Apart from the previously announced LG Optimus G, Sprint announced the new devices at the MobileCon wireless trade show today. No pricing or availability information was available.

The brand-new LG Mach features a full QWERTY keyboard and is expected to be a more affordable device. The smartphone runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, has a 5-megapixel rear camera and VGA front-facing camera, and is … Read more

T-Mobile added another Windows Phone 8 handset today by announcing the Nokia Lumia 810. A variant of the previously announced Lumia 820 that's optimized for T-Mobile's network, the Lumia 810 will be available "in the coming weeks."

The Lumia 810 will deliver a 4.3-inch display, interchangeable covers in cyan and black, an 8-megaixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, a 1.2-megapixel front-facing shooter, Nokia Music and Nokia Maps, and support for T-Mobile's HSPA+ data network. The carrier did not announce pricing, but like the earlier Lumia 710, it should come in at under $100 … Read more

The day before MobileCon kicks off in San Diego, T-Mobile and LG prime the mobile pump by unveiling the LG Optimus L9.

Running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the midrange handset also features a 4.5-inch qHD display made with Corning Gorilla Glass 2, a 1GHz dual-core processor, and a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash and 1080p HD video recording.

There's also a large 2,150mAh battery onboard, and LG's Quick Memo app. There's no pricing or availability information yet, but we're hoping to learn more when we (hopefully) see the phone tomorrow at MobileCon.… Read more

MobileCon, the rebranded mobile show that used to be known as Fall CTIA, runs October 9 to 11 in San Diego, CA. As before, the show will have a strong IT and enterprise focus, but we'll still see consumer goodies crop up in the form of new handsets.

What we won't see is the mass press conference spectacle of January's CES or the absolute circus of February's Mobile World Congress at the quieter MobileCon. Instead, expect news generated in private meetings and unexpected press releases for new smartphones.

Although AT&T already announced its fall lineup … Read more

For consumers who have an iPhone, but yearn for the feel and touch of a physical, BlackBerry-esque QWERTY keyboard, SoloMatrix may have the solution.

Its product, Spike, is a protective case that has a hinged physical keyboard, which can be overlaid on an iPhone's display.

This lets users type away on a tactile keyboard, without the need for wires, docking, Bluetooth, or an app to download. You can help fund (and consequently preorder) Spike through its Kickstarter page.… Read more