Earlier this week it was reported that aerospace and defense firm Boeing is developing its own mobile phone for the James Bonds of the world — namely, the defense and intelligence communities.
The phone will compete with other “highly secure communication devices,” but will have a lower price-point than what’s currently available, said the National Defense Magazine’s blog.
The Boeing phone — for that’s it’s name — will be released late this year, and was developed on Android’s open source operating system.
Brian Palma, vice president of the company’s secure infrastructure group, told the blog, similar secure, encrypted devices cost $15,000 to $20,000 per device and use proprietary software and hardware.
With the Android platform, they can lower the cost of the phones, but not to a level where the average consumer will purchase it, Palma said.
The magazine reported that the President of Boeing Network and Space Systems Roger Krone told reporters in Arlington, Va., that the phone likely marks the first time the company will offer a communication device designed to use cellular networks.
The blog also noted a trend Boeing reported in employee device preferences: “Boeing sees a larger business trend where employees once went to work to take advantage of information technology because it was far superior to what they had at home. Nowadays, it is the opposite. The consumer products have outstripped the office IT, and they wonder why their work has far less robust computers and phones.”
Boeing, a company that’s mainly known for making airplanes, introduced its Dreamliner jet last summer. The 787 Dreamliner has 19-inch windows that can be electronically dimmed, plus the cabin has a higher humidity to increase comfort.
Read more and video: http://mashable.com
Boeing, the major aircraft and defence equipment manufacturer, who're best known for their 747 jumbo jets and 777s are now taking a diversion to design and build a product that’s far from being a plane. The company has officially announced that they are going to work on an Android phone and are expected to launch it by the end of the year. The phone isn’t going to be mass produced and designed to compete against other mainstream phones in the market, such as the iPhone or BlackBerry devices. This news was brought to light by the National Defense Magazine. The product has been under development for a while now and the phone is said to use Boeing own hardware and custom software.
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