Chinese Firm Stuffing Windows XP into a Phone

Is it a phone, or a MID? China's In Technology plans to start selling an AMD-based phone with a 4.8-inch screen and QWERTY keypad...running Windows XP.

Microsoft is gearing up to launch Windows 7 in October, but it looks like Windows XP still isn’t going away. At the Computex trade show, Chinese firm In Technology demonstrated what it claims to be the world’s first mobile phone to be running Windows XP…although, as one might imaging, the phone’s specs more closely resemble a small computer than a phone. Dubbed the xpPhone, the unit sports a QWERTY keypad as a sizable 4.8-inch 800 by 480-pixel display; it also packs a 120 GB hard drive and a custom processor from AMD that In Technology has only referred to as the “AMD Super Mobile.”

According to In Technology, the phone can wake from standby mode to receive text messages and voice calls; the phone should get about seven hours of battery life without doing into standby, and with a larger battery could run as long as 12 hours. The xpPhone will support Wi-Fi, GPS, and 3G mobile technology, with WiMAX capability available as an option. In Technology plans to start offering the phone in China in about three months, using TD-SCDMA (a China-developed 3G mobile broadband technology). The company plans to market the phone worldwide in the future, using other 3G technologies.