Alcatel To Raise The Stakes At CES 2015 With Tri-OS Smartphone & Affordable SmartWatch
In an interesting move, Alcatel have unveiled the One Touch Pixi 3 in multiple models where the large models offer three operating systems within a single smart phone. Whether you want the Android OS, the Firefox OS or the Windows Phone, the Pixi 3 range has you more than covered.
Alcatel has previously had some success in the budget range with their One Touch Pixi line of phones which sported lower specifications at a far cheaper price than competitors which has been of interest to budget-minded consumers. They have previously released individual smart phones that ran the Windows Phone, a version of Android and one of Firefox OS so they do have some useful experience producing smart phones running each of these operating systems; just not a smart phone that can switch to run any of the three when the user desires to do so.
Pixi 3 Series
The Alcatel One Touch Pixi 3 which will be shown in the upcoming CES 2015 will come in 3.5-inch, 4-inch, 4.5-inch and 5-inch smart phone models. The top three models will offer a 4G LTE radio inside whereas the smaller 3.5-inch Pixi 3 will only have a 3G radio.
The price point is yet to be determined. The company do have a tradition in the Pixi range to offer competitive price points so this could well be one handset to watch. It should also be seen as a boon for Mozilla with their upstart Firefox OS being included as one of the three mobile operating systems in the Pixi 3 phone range.
Alcatel's Dan Dery, Chief Marketing Officer, seemed confident that there will be a place in the smart phone market for this agnostic tri-operating system device. He cited the benefit to enterprise and corporate users who would prefer to use a more familiar OS like Windows on their phone but be able to switch to a more consumer focused OS like Android or even Firefox in the evening and weekends. Potentially this can avoid the mixing of work and personal data and content within a single operating system.
Alcatel WATCH Android Wear
The tri-operating system Pixi 3 smart phone will not be the only innovation for the company at CES 2015. They also will have their WATCH Android Wear smart watch to get right in the middle of the wearables market. The released image of different watch faces looks very attractive with its metal surround and traditional circular watch appearance. The target for the company is to bring out an affordable wearable device for consumers which looks and feels like the real thing.
The WATCH smart watch has many sensors and can run apps which track daily activity. The device can also connect directly to an Android smart phone to change music selection, take a snap, see notifications, and more.
Alcatel are planning to go further at CES this year where visitors to their One Touch booth will be able to go on a five kilometer virtual Color Run against a digital backdrop while wearing the WATCH Android Wear smart watch. This way they can see for themselves how the watch responds to the user during exercise and also be able to throw colored sand at people who are shown on the virtual screen as they run past them. The four functions available within the smart watch will be displayed on-screen to make them easier to interact with during the experience so users will be able to get a better sense of what the Alcatel WATCH can do.
