Exclusive: LG's 4-inch Android phone with dual-core Tegra 2 and 1080p video coming in early 2011
Wow. LG told us it'd bring some heat to its Android Optimus line and here it is, folks! An 8 megapixel camera-wearing, 1080p video-recording, dual-core superphone to appease all the spec fanatics out there.
Context & Ripple Effects
LG is moving up the Android food chain. After months of mid-range gestures — including the rumored 1.3GHz Snapdragon E900 in August with its handsome hardware — the company is now putting Nvidia's dual-core Tegra 2 into an Optimus-branded flagship with a 4-inch screen, 8 megapixel camera, and 1080p video capture, targeted for early 2011.
The timing matters: Gartner had Android atop the U.S. smartphone OS market by August 2010, and Quantcast pegged it at 25% of U.S. mobile web browsing. LG has been chasing video-centric phones since its 2007 YouTube phone project, and a 1080p-recording Android handset is that ambition rebuilt on Nvidia's silicon.
First-order effects
- Nvidia lands its first confirmed dual-core smartphone design win with a major handset maker, giving Tegra 2 a flagship showcase against Qualcomm and Texas Instruments parts ahead of the early-2011 launch window.
- LG gets a genuine spec-leader device for the Optimus line, letting it court carriers and enthusiasts with hardware claims rather than price.
Second-order effects
- Rivals building Android flagships — Samsung, HTC, Motorola — face pressure to match or beat dual-core silicon and 1080p capture in their own early-2011 roadmaps, accelerating the arms-race cadence.
- Component suppliers of high-resolution camera modules and fast flash storage gain a new premium tier of demand as 8MP-plus, full-HD handsets move from concept to shipping product.
Third-order effects
- If dual-core becomes the baseline flagship spec, differentiation shifts decisively to mobile chipsets, raising the stakes for Nvidia's smartphone ambitions and squeezing single-core-only vendors.
- Phones matching or exceeding dedicated camcorder video specs point toward convergence pressure on standalone cameras and camcorders, with Android's market leadership making its hardware ceiling the industry's de facto pace.
The trend: The Android flagship race is shifting from screens and megapixels to multi-core mobile processors, with silicon vendors like Nvidia becoming kingmakers.