A little under a year ago we saw an extensive leak of forthcoming Dell smartphones, including the Thunder and Flash, and now thanks to Android Central and WPCentral, we’ve been treated to this year’s Dell roadmap detailing not only their future phone plans, but their tablet ones too.

This time there are a lot of devices, but not a lot of detail, and all the cool names seem to have been used up too.  Let’s start with some tablets.  Running Android Honeycomb, we’ve got the Gallo in Q2, the Sterling in Q4 and the Silver Oak and Opus One in Q1 2012. With Windows 7 onboard, the Rosemount should appear at the end of Q2, with the Peju coming in early 2012. The Peju won’t be running Android or Windows 7, but Windows 8!

When you add in a Streak 7 update and a ‘handwriting’ variation of the Android-based Gallo, that’s nine tablets we can expect from Dell over the next 12 months.

Moving on to the phones and things become a little more informative. In Q3 this year, the Wrigley 4″ portrait slider is scheduled, and it looks similar to the Dell Venue Pro. It runs Windows Phone 7, but has ‘next gen’ next to its name, which could indicate the Mango build we’ve been hearing about recently.

Following on a couple of months later will be the Hancock, a side-sliding QWERTY phone running Android Ice Cream and featuring a dual-core 1GHz processor. It’ll be joined by the Millenium, a traditional touchscreen slab with a 4.3″ screen and a 1GHz dual-core processor. The pair also have 8 megapixel cameras and 1080p video capabilities.

It’s impossible to know whether all these devices are set for production, but nothing (aside from the Windows 8 tablet maybe) looks totally out of place. If the Gallo turns up in early April, then the outlook is good for the rest.

Now this is jolly good news. LG, which already has a Windows 7 tablet in the works, is gearing up to service those with a hankering for some Android in their slate computers as well. Clearly unwilling to fall behind its fierce rival Samsung, LG has just announced that it’ll bringing out its own Google-centric tablet before the end of 2010. Indications are that it’ll be different (presumably better) than current offerings on the market, but alas there’s nary a peep about what that might mean on the spec sheet. In other machine-translated news, the Korean company is also planning a new version of its SU950 handset, aka the Optimus Z, which will come preloaded with Android 2.2. Current owners of the phone need not despair either, as Froyo upgrades are planned for them by the fourth quarter as well. Hmm, all this Q4 and 2.2 action flying about, would be nice to think this tablet would benefit from the same treatment.

LG confirms Android tablet for Q4 2010 launch, Froyo for Optimus Z originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Jul 2010 01:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia’s newly appointed Mobile Solutions chief, Anssi Vanjoki, has penned an impassioned post over at Nokia Conversations today where he sets out his perspective on the company’s current position and future challenges. Describing the Finnish phone maker as “a challenger now,” rather than an incumbent, Vanjoki wants to introduce a “laser focus on quality,” with his two central aims being to reclaim Nokia’s reputation for high-end devices and to re-energize a flagging fan base. He specifically namedrops Ricky Cadden — who yesterday shut down Symbian-Guru because he’d lost faith with the company — and clearly considers grassroots support like that an important aspect of how Nokia’s success will be judged.

As to the actual software front, Anssi confirms that the N8 will be the final Symbian^3 handset in the N-Series, but describes a Symbian^4 device in that family as a “strong possibility,” a note which he follows up with a wink (seriously). Symbian is apparently still Nokia’s smartphone OS of choice — no Androids shall be found inside Nokia’s hardware under Anssi’s watch — though MeeGo also earns a mention as the “awesome” platform for delivering “market-changing mobile computers.” Just in case you were wondering, Anssi finishes off by telling us that these wondrous computers will be small enough to fit into your pocket — though, sadly, he fails to specify exactly what sort of pocket that might be.

[Thanks, Peter]

Nokia: the fight begins now, Symbian^4 N-Series device later originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Jul 2010 06:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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