Tegra 2 phones will be here sooner than you’ll realize. LG was the first to announce they are going to make Android phones with Tegra 2 and some leaks show evidence that LG already has a Tegra 2 phone, called LG Star internally. Ready to go early 2011, it will come with 1080p video recording, HDMI and a 8 MP camera. Oh, and let’s not forget an “almost” stock Android version (Gingerbread I’d assume) – whatever that means.
LG is finally doing what I was hoping they’d do if they wanted to be taken seriously in the smartphone market by early adopters who set the trends for popular smartphones.
1. They needed to make a phone with the best specs, at least as good as whatever their competition is having, not try to catch-up to Samsung and others like they’ve done for years. They are going to be one of the first companies with a dual core phone, if not THE first one on the market. You can check this off the list, then.
2. In a market where most, if not all manufacturers are making phones with skinned versions of Android, they could be the “brand that makes stock Android phones”. Not only would this make them a favorite of early adopters (granted they also make high-end phones with good design and build), but it would also cut their development costs, and we all know LG could use it. It seems they are doing this now, so you can check that off the list, too.
3. They need better built and designed phones. The Star seems like a big improvement over their previous phones that screamed “cheap”, however I still think they’ll need to improve in this area even more. I think they are starting to get it, so I’m sure that will happen. Also, it’s not like the Galaxy S from Samsung has such a good build quality either, but they are both learning to build them better, so I think we can check this off the list, too.
I was surprised at how quickly Samsung started being considered one of the now 3 major players in the Android smartphone world, together with HTC and Motorola. If LG shows the same commitment as they seem to be showing now, I thin they are on their way to become the 4th major and serious Android manufacturer.
Who will be the 5th? At the slow rate Meego is progressing (still in Alpha and looks unpolished and far from finished) I think it’s going to be Nokia – hopefully. They are missing a huge opportunity here. The more time they waste the harder it will be for them to come back, even if they adopt Android later on. HTC, Samsung, Motorola, and now LG with their 1 million Optimus One hadsets sold in 40 days are showing that they are soon going to become very rich companies BECAUSE they use Android. Imagine if Nokia started selling Android phones since 2008. Their stock price and profits would’ve certainly looked a lot better now. Oh well, we can only hope they’ll see the light soon.