LG finally beds Android with GW620; suspiciously stresses on love for Windows Mobile

Posted on 14-09-2009

It’s been a long time coming, but LG’s love for Windows Mobile phones has finally waned enough for it to feel the itch and stray to Google’s Android OS.

The company has officially debuted its first Android-based mobile phone, the GW620, which comes with a touchscreen and slider keyboard. The phone will be released soon, but the price has not been indicated. Funnily, the press release talked a lot about what the company is doing with Windows Mobile, given the occasion!

But first, the new phone: The LG-GW620 features a 3-inch resistive touchscreen (320x480 pixels, 256K colours) and slide-out Qwerty keypad to meet the growing needs of consumers who rely on their mobile phones for more than just making calls.

The device benefits from an operating system that was created from the ground up to take advantage of the many mobile applications and services developed by search leader Google.

“The LG-GW620 will appeal to first-time smartphone customers by offering a new and different kind of user experience,” said Dr. Skott Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “Our objective is to provide a wide selection of smartphones to satisfy the diverse preferences of today’s consumers. This Android phone is just one of many smartphone models we plan to introduce worldwide in the years ahead.”

And this stress on diversity throughout the press release makes us wonder why LG is so adamant on making sure people know it still loves MS. Take a look at these two paragraphs, for instance:

“The announcement of LG’s first Android-powered smartphones comes only a week after the world’s third largest mobile phone company announced that it would be introducing three new Windows Mobile smartphones in the next few weeks. These developments underscore LG’s commitment to offering greater consumer choice in the expanding smartphone category."
“In addition to the Android model, LG announced in early September that it will be introducing a minimum of 13 new smartphones over the next 16 months that utilise Microsoft’s Windows Mobile. The newest release, version 6.5, was announced just last week.”

Does this sound like the kind of talk you would expect when the company is launching its first Android-based phone? Is it just to make sure they don’t displease Redmond? Something’s afoot here…