Google, Verizon to unveil 4G devices at CES
updated 03:40 pm EDT, Wed October 6, 2010
Verizon exec hints 4G Android focus at CES 2011
Verizon's wireless chief Lowell McAdam dropped more hints during his presentation at CTIA today with claims that there would be Android devices running 4G at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. He mentioned that there would be "some products" unveiled with Google CEO Eric Schmidt also on stage. Smartphones and tablets would likely be part of proceedings, McAdam said.
He didn't name what would arrive, but the resulting products were also due to ship sometime in the first half of 2011.
The most likely candidate so far is the Motorola Stingray, a 10-inch tablet that might be hardware upgradeable to 4G and use an NVIDIA Tegra 2 chip to support 1080p video playback. Other candidates include the ICD Ultra and an HTC tablet, although no mention has been made of 4G for the HTC hardware.
The addition of LTE-based 4G may give Android a technical edge over the iPad depending on whether or not Apple supplies Verizon devices of its own. It can run at up to 12Mbps downstream and has both the high upload speeds and low latency to make tasks possible on cellular that aren't options for 3G, such as streaming HD video or live two-way games and video chats.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2001
uh-oh
I thought Apple was all about being on the cutting edge. How come the iPhones aren't already supporting LTE? Isn't this the time where Apple should say "3G and CDMA are dead! We're jumping whole-hog into LTE!" and drop all that dead technology support?
You know, like how they did with USB and how they dropped floppy drives!