I’ve always believed handset makers should release a few devices a year that were really, truly great rather than a smorgasbord of offerings that leave consumers confused and unsure.  I’m not saying go Apple and release a single smartphone per year, but – you know – focus.  And, apparently, one of the worst market-flooding offenders, HTC, is now planning to do just that.

The Taiwaneese device maker, whose profits were down 26% in its first quarter in the face of increasingly strong competition, will reportedly make 2012 the year they streamline the product family. “‘We have to get back to focusing on what made us great – amazing hardware and a great customer experience,” HTC UK Chief Phil Roberson told Mobile Magazine. “We ended 2011 with far more products than we started out with. We tried to do too much.”

Roberson goes on: “… 2012 is about giving our customers something special. We need to make sure we do not go so far down the line that we segment our products by launching lots of different SKUs.”

HTC is one of my favorite hardware makers, and if they do change focus to a few excellent devices that span the spectrum from entry level to high-end, they could take some of the steam of the competition. 

Let’s just hope it turns out the way Mr. Roberson outlined.

M. Nichols, Products Editor

via AllThingsD

Verizon Wireless is still selling Google’s latest flagship Android phone, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, for $299 with a two-year contract.  If you’re already a Verizon customer, you can beat that price by $70, but if you’re with Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile or another U.S. wireless carrier and have your heart set on the Galaxy Nexus, you can now get the first and (currently) only Android 4.0 phone for just $99.

Amazon Wireless has the Galaxy Nexus for $99 if you sign up for a new Verizon account with a two-year contract.  Amazon’s price for an upgrade is $259, though Wirefly has set the upgrade price at $229.

Amazon’s $99 price for new Verizon Wireless accounts may not last, so if you’ve been wanting a Galaxy Nexus and you’re with another carrier, don’t want too long…

There’ll soon be a new Droid RAZR in town, and while the Motorola Droid RAZR Maxx won’t be quite as thin as the current model, it will have one feature that sets it apart from other Android phones: nearly a full day of constant use on a single charge.

That’s courtesy of its whopping 3300mAh Li-Ion battery – one that, according to Big Red, offers up to 21 hours of talk time per charge.  The larger battery will make the RAZR Maxx thicker than the Droid RAZR, 0.35-inches rather than 0.28, but what’s a tenth of an inch or so when you can use the thing nonstop for 21 hours?!

Bear in mind that 21 hours  is the best possible rating, and not for LTE use.  Still, you’ll get a lot more quote-unquote 4G use out of 3300mAh than 1780mAh.

The Droid RAZR Maxx will be released Thursday, January 26, for $299 with a two-year contract.  Stay tuned for third-party seller price drops.

We’ve now received several emails from AT&T customers looking to upgrade to a new Android phone that each ask the same question:

Should I choose the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket or the LG Nitro HD?

And it’s a good question.  After all, the two phones are nearly identical in most respects.  They are each powered by the same dual-core, 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 SoC processors, each have 1GB of DDR2 RAM, each run Android 2.3, each have 4.5-inch touchscreen displays, LTE “4G” support, 8MP cameras, etc., etc…

With all the similarities between the two devices, it’s a very understandable question to ask.  Which should I choose?

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Normally, smartphone prices fall steadily from their initial release price to free once they’re a bit long in the tooth; not so with the newest flagship Android phone, the Galaxy Nexus.

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus, which sells for $299 with a  two-year Verizon Wireless contract, has been available for several weeks, and briefly fell as low as $189 from third-party smartphone seller Wirefly.  But it quickly went back up and as recently as yesterday was still well above $200 from every retailer. The price has fluctuated likely due to high demand.

Now, for the first time since mid-December, the Android 4 phone is back below $200.  If you’re a new Verizon customer and willing to sign a new two-year contract, you can grab the Galaxy Nexus for $199 at Amazon Wireless.