Boeing is known as the company that makes airplanes, although they’ve branched out in quite a few other markets as well. But perhaps this one is the most surprising. They are going to release an Android smartphone by the end of the year that promises to be extremely secure, and to be used by intelligence agencies and firms.
They say the competition offers similar secure phones for $10,000-$15,000, but they are going to significantly drive the price down, although not to the mass-market price points, considering these will still be very customized smartphones that will not sell in volume:
“We are going to drive down towards a lower price point, but … not mass-market price point,” he said referring to iPhones, BlackBerries and other consumer market smartphones. “We believe that there is significant interest in the defense side as well as the intelligence side and in the commercial world as well,” Palma said.
Everyone wants to use a touchscreen smartphone these days, and Boeing has seen this trend and they want to take on this niche market. Somehow I doubt this phone will have Android 4.0, even though it’s scheduled for late 2012. But in this sort of market things move slowly, especially when they want to make it extremely secure, so the best bet is on Gingerbread. But perhaps with the next gen version they’ll be able to make an ICS smartphone, too.
[Via NationalDefenseMagazine]