Velocity Mobile, a nine month collaboration between one of the world's largest notebook computer manufacturers and a team of veteran wireless designers and engineers, yesterday announced the retail availability of its first touchscreen phone, the Velocity 103, a Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional smartphone. Built on the belief that the simplest solution is the best solution, the Velocity Mobile 103 combines an easy-to-use Odyssey Interface, Velocity Over The Air updates (Vota) and a sleek and attractive design, to change the way people think about and use smartphones. The Velocity 103 features a Qualcomm MSM7201 chipset and supports quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE as well as triband UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA, WiFi. The touchscreen supports VGA and in addition, the device features TV/VGA out.

Velocity developed its own GUI, on top of Windows Mobile, which is called "Odyssey Interface"
The device is backed-up by 256 MB ROM and 128 MB RAM, which can be expanded with microsSD cards. While the main camera supports 2.0 megapixel the front facing UMTS video telephony camera supports 0.3 megapixel.

Velocity Mobile's easy-to-use Odyssey Interface, built on top of Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone operating system, and the Velocity Over The Air (VOTA) updates, bring immense market value to the mobile industry. No longer do consumers need to buy new phones to get the latest software. The ability to easily update devices through VOTA means the device is longer lasting and more cost effective for users. Through this service, Velocity Mobile is directly engaging its customers and keeping them up-to-date with mobility.

"Consumers these days are demanding more from their phones. Our research tells us that people want experiences, not applications and functions," said David Hayes, president and managing director, Velocity Mobile. "Velocity Mobile has brought together some of the greatest minds and best of breed partners in the industry to deliver positive experience and value to consumers."

Velocity Mobile's core leadership team collectively has nearly forty years' experience in innovative mobile engineering, design, sales and marketing, and is working in collaboration with Inventec Corporation, one of the world's top three original design manufacturers (ODMs) for notebook computers with revenues of more than US$8 billion in 2007. Together, the two companies share a vision for mobility that is powerful and innovative yet intuitive and familiar - all at a great value for consumers.

The unlocked Velocity 103 is available for pre-order online now through Expansys for £334.99 and will ship by the end of September.

Cheers ~ Arne