Sure, their watch phone gets all the buzz, but Kempler & Strauss appears to be trying to come out of nowhere to become a major player in the high-end phone world. Today, on their Web site, they debuted the “Billionair 6” and “Billionair 7,” two relatively powerful yet bland Windows Mobile phones that look like something from MWg or another midrange Asian manufacturer.
I say “bland,” but their design just might appeal to the Bang & Olufsen crowd. In any case, the Billionair 6 (shown at left) is a 624 Mhz Windows phone with a touch screen, accelerometer, 3.2-megapixel camera and a rather sad little 320×240 screen; the Billionair 7 has both a touch screen and QWERTY keyboard in a BlackBerry-like form factor, but also still only sports a 320×240 screen. The phones appear to work on AT&T’s network and will cost $260 and $275 respectively. Kempler’s press releases didn’t say whether the phones run Windows Mobile 6.1 or 6.5, so I’ll ask them this week.
Who the heck are Kempler & Strauss, anyway? According to their press information, they’re “a subsidiary of San Diego, Calif., based VNA Group, a conglomerate of companies that include transportation vehicles, fitness equipment, entertainment technology, and consumer products.” You don’t say. I’m going to meet these folks here at the CTIA Wireless IT trade show and try to suss them out.
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