Beauty_nature#love@Life

GSM/CDMA/Skype/Google Phone

China’s TechFaith , an ODM focused on research and development of cell phone solutions, today announced the launch of Gallic, the world’s first Windows-based GSM/CDMA dual mode dual standby pocket PC phone.

Gallic is based on Windows 6.0 and allows users to load one GSM card and one CDMA card. The phone’s features include a 2.0 megapixel camera, an MP3 and MPEG4 player, push mail and Bluetooth capabilities.

TechFaith has already received an order from a major Chinese OEM for an operator brand that owns both GSM and CDMA networks, with the initial shipment expected sometime in the current fourth quarter of 2007.

The launch of Gallic follows TechFaith’s early October launch of its dual mode phone “Twins,” (above), the first cell phone that allows users to load one WCDMA card and one GSM card or load dual GSM SIM cards.

Meanwhile, Skype and European mobile phone carrier 3 will launch the new Skype mobile phone November 2 in the UK, with Australia, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Italy, Ireland, Macau and Sweden following later.

Not just a WiFi phone, the new phone uses Qualcomm’s BREW platform and comes preloaded with the Skype application.

The phone will be available free to 3’s 18-month contract holders and for £49.99 ($102.88) to its prepay users. A centrally located button marked Skype changes the phone’s mode from regular cell phone to Skype phone. Skype IM is also supported. There’s no SkypeOut — users can call other Skype users for free, but calls to non-Skype users are routed traditionally across 3’s network.

The Wall Street Journal expects Google to reveal a mobile platform in the next two weeks, which would allow handset makers to bring Google-powered mobile phones to market by the middle of next year. Google has apparently been in talks with several handset manufacturers, including HTC and LG about building the phones. The company has also been reportedly courting carrier partners, most likely T-Mobile USA and Orange and 3 in Europe and the U.K.

Google-powered phones are expected to not only include Google applications such as search, maps and Gmail, but to offer an open operating platform, which would allow third-party developers to build and offer more mobile applications. Google is trying to loose, says the Journal.