Read: CES 2012 Preview: Nokia, tablets and 4G LTE
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It’s that time of year where thousands of tech journalists, products makers and business folk descend upon Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show and the 2012 version should be jam-packed full of news about smartphones and tablets. The IntoMobile team will be on the ground to give you the latest and greatest news but I wanted to give you a head’s up on what to expect.
Go ahead and check out the preview at the top of the post to know what we think will be the big news of the show but some other stuff has leaked out. A mistimed online ad led to the outing of the Sprint Galaxy Nexus, so expect Sprint to make a big deal about this Android Ice Cream Sandwich phone alongside its 4G LTE. Verizon was expected to be kind of quiet during the show but we now know that it will likely show off the LG Spectrum, which is essentially a modified version of the LG Nitro for Big Red.
Sony Ericsson has been teasing that it will unveil “something big” and we think this could be the Xperia HD with a 720p HD screen and a sleek form factor. This may be the last hurrah of Sony Ericsson (Sony is buying it out), so let’s see if it can go out with a bang. You can also look forward to the hybrid smartphone/tablet Galaxy Note landing on AT&T and Sprint. We’ve also been invited to an HTC demo event after the AT&T Developer Summit, so I’m expecting at least one 4G LTE phone from HTC here.
Last CES was all about tablets but CES tends to have ADD, so look for something like ultrabooks to carry the main narrative of the show. That doesn’t mean tablets won’t be out in force though and with a year of learning under its belts, tablet makers may show off what they’ve learned on how to build a device that can truly compete with the iPad. Research In Motion will be showing off its PlayBook OS 2.0 software and we hope this finally has native e-mail, calendar and the Android app emulator.
Acer is gearing up to show off its latest Iconia Tab and this should sport a quad-core processor and Android Ice Cream Sandwich. Asus, which brought out the world’s first quad-core tablet, should be bringing out a smaller version of the Transformer Prime. Look for many, many more tablets to be announced.
CES also means a ton of press conferences and most of those that apply to the mobile space will happen Monday, Jan. 9. Keep in mind that this will also be the last time Microsoft keynotes CES, so you have to wonder if it will go out on a high note. We’ll be live blogging, live tweeting or providing immediate coverage of many of the press conferences and you’ll find a schedule below in PST times.
CES 2012 Press conference schedule
*** We’ll be live blogging these
Monday, January 9
- 8 a.m. – Huwawei: new smartphones and tablets.
- 8 a.m. – LG: This may be the introduction of the LG Spectrum for Verizon.
- *** 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. – AT&T Developer Summit: The carrier will lay out its 4G LTE plans and we’ll probably see a new HTC device.
- 9 a.m. – Intel: The first Medfield smartphones will be shown off.
- 2 p.m. – Samsung: Not sure what to expect beyond the Note but Samsung always has a new phone or tablet to show off.
- *** 3 p.m. – Nokia: We should see the new Windows Phone (Nokia Ace?) and the company’s U.S. plans.
- 4 p.m. – NVIDIA: There’s a slight chance we’ll see a quad-core smartphone but I’m thinking more quad-core tablets, plus Windows 8 products.
- 4:30 p.m. – Sony: Not expecting much on the mobile front but we could see new Sony Android tablets.
- 6:30 p.m. – Microsoft: This is its final CES keynote and I’d expect it to reiterate what Nokia announced and talk more about Windows 8.
The rest of the week is kind of light in terms of mobile-related press events but you can be sure there will be news every few minutes, so keep it locked on IntoMobile.