I really thought that AT&T would bring Android MIDs -- with Dell’s help — to the network, but I was wrong. Instead, AT&T will see no less than five Android voice handsets arrive by the end of June, although the Dell MID I expected is a full-fledged smartphone.
This morning the carrier made the announcement, along with some other updates. Motorola will provide a MOTOBLUR device in 2010, while an exclusive handset from HTC will also appear. Qualcomm’s BREW isn’t dying the slow, painful death I thought it might — it has new life in the “mid-range Quick Messaging Devices” that make up around 30% of handset sales for AT&T. BREW is getting standardized with a new SDK to help developers create apps more efficiently.
Like the T-Mobile news of yesterday, AT&T is plowing along with their own 7.2 Mbps HSPA network upgrades. In fact, the plans have accelerated with on software and backhaul improvement in six cities: Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, and Miami. AT&T expects 25 of the top 30 markets to join in by mid-year.
Not mentioned at the press event but related: Lenovo showed us their first smartbook — the SkyLight — and said that they expect the device to be sold with AT&T service. We’ll have a video of this device up shortly.
{"source":"https:\/\/gigaom.com\/2010\/01\/06\/att-jumps-on-the-android-train-and-speeds-up-the-tracks\/wijax\/49e8740702c6da9341d50357217fb629","varname":"wijax_c4617efcad107c831d74cdeb4b0923eb","title_element":"header","title_class":"widget-title","title_before":"%3Cheader%20class%3D%22widget-title%22%3E","title_after":"%3C%2Fheader%3E"}