Samsung & Motorola slug it out in dual-handset battle

[Bugwart]

Both Motorola and Samsung should have GSM/CDMA dual mode handsets available for Unicom's GSM 1x launch. LG looks to be the third handset maker to bring out a dual mode phone according to this article: Samsung & Motorola slug it out in dual-handset battle

The jostling for position additional confirmation, as if any were needed, that the GSM/CDMA arena is seen as a potentially enormously lucrative niche for mobile manufacturers, with other operators such as Indosat in Indonesia, India’s Tata and Reliance Infocomm and Verizon Wireless in the US all known to considering the adoption of dual-platform services.

[GoodmanR]

Well, Moto said the a840 would be released in China before the US, so I guess we will see. I wonder what samsung has in the works, my guess would be an a790 with GPRS.

[twopiece]

Will be interesting to see if Motorola comes out swinging at the start of the summer. Their statements sound overly confident but we shall see.

[GoodmanR]

Originally Posted by twopiece

Will be interesting to see if Motorola comes out swinging at the start of the summer. Their statements sound overly confident but we shall see.

We have all been waiting for Motorola to come out swinging, anywhere, and in any way for two years and they haven't. I don't get it. I really don't understand what is wrong with that company. Firstly, they completely screwed up the the last two years or so. They offered lame CDMA and GSM phones for the most part, making the T720 their flagship model. Then they completely botched the v600 launch, taking five months longer than they should have to finally get a full global release. Now, it looks like they are doing the same with the V710 (although that is probably the fault of Verizon). I just don't get it.

[WirelessBeachBum]

From my talks with the Motorola rep, he says that, they do understand where they have had problems in the past, but hinks things are turning around for them. Key parts of the conversation were:

The upcoming launch of cdma/gsm phone.
Updating the PTT phones for Verizon
new Bluetooth phone launch
and their working relationship with Qualcomm for software development for the qualcomm chips, they feel they have the bugs worked out now, and can move forward with more reliable CDMA models

And my favorite is they are considering bringing back the StarTAC brand. Although I was surprised they expect the starTAC brand to be a middle of the line model...In my opinion they should make the starTAC the high end phone like it used to be...if anything just to pay homage to the folks who paid 2k for one of the original starTACs.

[Bugwart]

Here is the first Samsung phone for GSM 1X. Samsung SCH W109 GSM 1X phone

The handset was on display at Samsung's booth at Expo Comm Wireless Korea 2004.

One of the paragraphs translates as:

Not only CDMA subscribers can now use voice in GSM network, but Unicom's GSM subscribers can also use the CDMA data services (like BREW, MMS and gpsOne) while roaming in the CDMA network: