Intel Lexington / Zeeya Beach headed to Africa?
By @evleaks on 12 Dec 12Intel has been making a concerted effort to duplicate its PC-era success in the growing mobile space, and while the majority of its focus has involved providing systems-on-chip to OEMs like Motorola and ZTE, a pair of recent Bluetooth filings suggest that it may be poised to offer its own (branded?) handsets as well. Unfortunately, perhaps the first device to be sold with Intel’s logo on the face appears to be decidedly low-end, showing off four capacitive buttons and support for the practically-ancient Bluetooth 2.1+ standard.
Known as either the Intel Lexington or Intel Zeeya Beach — depending on the filing — the smallish-screened phone lists all six of the habitable continents as potential markets. However, the file name of the image illustrating the filings may be telling in this regard: it contains the name of Kenyan carrier Safaricom, among whose year-plus-old handsets (Nokia N9, HTC Sensation) the Lexington/Zeeya Beach could fit right in.
Unless this device goes by other names or model numbers, it’s managed to stay under the radar for the most part: which either means that it’s a reference design / prototype, or that there’s simply little interest in entry-level African cellphones outside their intended markets, regardless of what chip is powering them.
If you liked the post, you might find these interesting too:
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- HTC Sensation, Salsa and ChaCha coming to O2 UK this month
- Lava XOLO X1000 launches in India with Intel inside, HD screen, 8 MP cam, $367 price
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