E-TEN prepping dual-SIM glofiish DX900?
[Via the::unwired]
Posts with tag e-ten
It wasn't too long ago that Acer was finalizing paperwork to acquire E-Ten, and now that it's moving on, we're hearing that the company should be launching its very first (aw, how cute) smartphone in around eight to ten months. According to the firm's president, it's aiming to introduce the handset "near the end of this year or early next year," and it will indeed "be Microsoft-based." Gianfranco Lanci also suggested that smartphones could represent up to 10-percent of the company's revenue within the next few years. Notably, the outfit is apparently planning to move its phones via mobile network operators, and while it typically takes six to nine months to sweet talk a carrier into marketing a new smartphone, it hopes to use its "existing relationships with telecommunications companies to speed up such sales." Sadly, we're not given any clues about what carriers it's aiming for, but it won't be too awfully long before we're sure to find out.
It's barely been a month since Acer dropped a big chunk of cash to buy up 75% of Packard Bell, but it looks like the company still had plenty of money left to throw around, as it's now parted with a hefty $290 million to buy up 100% of Glofiish smartphone-maker E-Ten. According to Acer itself, the boards of both E-Ten and Acer approved the deal unanimously, and they expect the acquisition to close sometime during the third quarter of this year. Any other details, however, are expectedly light, including any word on how future devices would be branded, with Acer chairmen J.T. Wang only saying that the "acquisition of E-TEN increases Acer's global footprint by giving us a strong and highly credible presence in the mobility segment." No word on any future moves by Acer just yet but, given its recent spending spree, we wouldn't be surprised if it tried to expand that "global footprint" even further.
After teasing us with a lustful peep from their V900's marketing collateral, E-TEN had the good grace to make their newest Glofiish official. Their first handset to offer mobile TV does so without hesitation -- DVB-H, DVB-T, T-DMB, and DAB broadcast media are all supported on that generous VGA display. These consumer oriented Windows Mobile phones pack an unspecified GSM radio, HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS underneath an E-TEN developed touch-based user interface. Presumably, E-TEN has a TouchFLO-like layer to hide the consumer-unfriendly ugliness of Microsoft's increasingly dated and finger-meat hating mobile OS. Also announced is E-TEN's new Glofiish M810 with HSDPA, WiFI (b/g), and GPS with full QWERTY in tow. More on these with their unveiling at GSMA. 

Despite a seemingly successful (and continuing) run with Quanta on 2.5G goodies, E-TEN has announced that it's working with ODM Arima on its 3G lineup. The first device to bear the fruit of Arima's labor will apparently be the glofiish X800 with HSDPA, VGA display, and Windows Mobile 6 -- so we've gotta say, the new kid on E-TEN's block is doing alright for itself. The company says that it plans to introduce four new smartphones by the end of the year, though it's unclear at this point exactly how many will get WCDMA under their hoods (our vote: all of them).
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