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How long does it take to 'launch' a smartphone?

How long does it take to 'launch' a smartphone?

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A breakdown of which cellphones announced at MWC 2012 have made it to market within the first two months after the show.

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MWC recap_640
MWC recap_640

What does the word "launch" mean to you? Angry Birds players might define it as the righteous infliction of retribution manifested by an appropriate aviary agent, but phone manufacturers are much more elusive. Some see the launch of a product as the penultimate step before sending it out to retail shelves, while others — perhaps, most — seem to treat it as just an opportunity to drum up fresh consumer interest.

To test where the world's major handset manufacturers sit on that sliding scale, we've decided to check up on the current availability of phones launched at MWC 2012, a show jam-packed with new announcements. Today marks exactly two months since the start of that Barcelona event, surely enough time for everyone to launch devices out of factories and onto cellular networks?

Model


Availability



US Europe rest of the world
HTC One X Pre-order Checkmark
Australia / Asia / Canada
HTC One S Checkmark
Checkmark
Asia
HTC One V - Checkmark
Asia
Huawei Ascend D quad - - -
Huawei Ascend D1 - - -
Huawei Ascend P1 LTE - - -
K-Touch Treasure V8 - - -
LG Optimus 4X HD - - -
LG Optimus Vu - - South Korea
LG Optimus 3D Max - Checkmark
-
LG L7 - - -
LG L5 - - -
LG L3 - Checkmark
-
Lumigon T2 - - -
Nokia Lumia 900 (HSPA+) - Pre-order -
Nokia Lumia 900 (LTE) *** - Canada
Nokia Lumia 610 - - Philippines
Nokia 808 PureView - Pre-order -
Nokia Asha 302 - Checkmark
Latin America / Asia
Nokia Asha 203 - - -
Nokia Asha 202 - - -
Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G Checkmark
- -
Samsung Galaxy Beam - - -
Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus - Checkmark
-
Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 - - -
Samsung Galaxy Mini 2 - - -
Sony Xperia P - - -
Sony Xperia U - - -
ViewSonic ViewPhone 4S - - -
ZTE Era - - -
ZTE PF112 HD - - -
ZTE PF200 - - -
ZTE N910 - - -
ZTE Mimosa X - - -
ZTE Kis - - -
ZTE Blade II - - -
ZTE Skate Acqua - - -
ZTE Orbit - - -

In total, that's 37 handsets announced, only 11 of which are now on sale, and just one single device can claim anything approaching global availability, the HTC One S. Nokia's Lumia 610 goes on sale in the Philippines tomorrow, but we're not going to begrudge it that one day and are including it among the on-sale list. The conclusion to be drawn is that, given a two-month window within which to bring their handsets to market, the majority of phone makers succeed in converting approximately 30 percent of their launches into retail products, and even then, only in a limited number of markets.

*** The Lumia 900 LTE is out on AT&T in the US, but that model was announced at CES 2012, a month and a half before MWC.