AT&T and Motorola are to launch a new Android-based smartphone on March 7, the telecom major announced.
With this, all four major U.S. wireless carriers will be offering Android-based phones. The Motorola Backflip will become the first Android-powered smartphone to run on AT&T’s 3G network.
The Motorola Backflip will feature a 3.1 inch high-resolution screen, 5 megapixel camera and access to more than 20,000 applications, according to AT&T.
The multi-featured smartphone will be offered at $199 with a two-year contract but comes with a $100 mail-in rebate.
The smartphone has a touch panel and its QWERTY keyboard opens like a book as opposed to a traditional slide-out keyboard.
The phone will also feature Motorola’s much hyped Motoblur technology, which lets users integrate friends’ status updates and uploaded pictures from Twitter, Facebook and MySpace onto their home screens.
AT&T said the phone would also be the first Motorola unit to use the Backtrack feature, which streamlines the navigation and Internet browsing experience.
“Motorola is proud to bring the first Android-powered device to AT&T’s 3G network,” Mark Shockley, senior vice president of Motorola Mobile Devices, said in a press release.
AT&T is the last US carrier to officially offer an Android-based phone. Its rivals Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile had all rolled out Android phones in 2008 and 2009.
The Android mobile operating system, which Google unveiled in 2007, is a Linux-based open platform for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and some key mobile applications.