LAS VEGAS—Not to be outdone by anyone at the year’s annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES), AT&T came out swinging at its Annual Developer’s Conference today.
Ralph de la Vega, AT&T’s president and CEO of Mobility and Consumer Markets, announced that AT&T will support all of the major smartphone platforms by the second half of the coming year, including five new devices from the likes of Motorola, Palm and HTC.
According to de la Vega, AT&T will launch an Android device from Motorola, another from HTC, as well as an Android device from computer maker Dell. Additionally, AT&T will host two new devices from Palm. While details on the devices were slim, the devices represent a big step for AT&T as the last carrier to pick up the booming Android platform.
In an effort to bring applications to some of those mid-range devices, de la Vega said that AT&T has developed a unique Brew platform with Qualcomm called Brew MP. He said that by the second half of next year, 90 percent of the carrier’s mid-range and quick-messaging devices will be running the platform in an effort to spur application development for this underserved market.
The fun didn’t stop there. De la Vega also announced that AT&T will now support Windows Marketplace, Ovi Store, Android Marketplace and the Palm Apps Catalog on its network with a new application storefront strategy.
CES officially starts tomorrow, with the wireless carriers playing host to a number of pre-emptory press events today. Both Verizon Wireless and AT&T are hosting their developer conferences today.
AT&T’s event took advantage of the Pearl Theater at the Palms Casino to showcase keynotes from de la Vega; John Donovan, AT&T’s CTO, as well as a talk by David Christopher, chief marketing officer for AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets.
Check www.wirelessweek.com for updates on the news from CES.
