LAS VEGAS--AT&T Mobility yesterday unveiled several new embedded devices--ranging from a dog collar to an intelligent pill cap--during a press event held at the CTIA Wireless 2010 conference. The company emphasized that these products, which were demonstrated by Glenn Lurie, president of AT&T Mobility's emerging devices division, are just an example of the potential from this new category.
During the luncheon event, AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega reiterated some of the messages he highlighted in his keynote address Tuesday--how the U.S. wireless industry leads in mobile broadband, mobile applications and smartphone penetration--and also talked about how AT&T believes that emerging devices could drive 10 times the growth in wireless in the next 10 years. "This is an area that is exploding," de la Vega said. During the fourth quarter, AT&T reported that it had connected 1 million embedded devices to its network.
The new devices mentioned by Lurie include a pet tracking collar, a truck tracking pallet (for shipment tracking), a low-cost 3G gaming device from Zeebo, Vitality Glow Caps intelligent pill cap (which uses light and sound to remind users to take their pills), and the OpenPeak tablet computing device, which Lurie called "a game-changing device."
Specifically, the OpenPeak tablet will have 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. Consumers will be able to use the device for social networking, downloading books, navigation, email, instant messaging and photo sharing. The tablet is 9 inches by 5 inches and weighs 1.15 pounds. Pricing information was not available, but the device is expected to launch later this year.
Also at the event, de la Vega once again mentioned that the company is upgrading its network to HSPA 7.2 and will consider deploying HSPA+ on a market-by-market basis before it migrates to LTE in 2012. De la Vega first mentioned the possibility of deploying HSPA+ in some markets during an interview with FierceWireless earlier this month in Atlanta.
For more:
- see this press release
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