As we previously reported, Nokia’s prior stance of exiting the CDMA market this quarter appeared more than murky. The phone manufacturer refused to confirm to PhoneNews.com prior statements, and held a joint press conference this week with Qualcomm.
While not acknowleding the issues at-hand between Nokia and Qualcomm, multiple lawsuits over intellectual property and chipset designs, the meeting of the two was viewed as positive news.
Today, the FCC posted the first Nokia CDMA phone to be spotted since their failed co-branding deal with Pantech. While details are short, the Nokia 7088 is indeed CDMA, and is a new phone. This is contrary to all prior Nokia statements that no new CDMA phones are in development, and that only finalized (such as the 6265i) phones would continue to be released.
However, Nokia is not stepping into EV-DO waters with the 7088. The 7088 is 1xRTT-only, like previous Nokia CDMA phones, due to the Nokia chipset licensed from Qualcomm lacking EV-DO (one of the many disputes between the two companies). The phone includes a VGA camera, and a 128×160 1.8-inch display.
The slider phone includes a built-in QWERTY keyboard, a first for Nokia CDMA. Sources are reporting that the phone will at least see release on Alltel, and with both Java and BREW support, the phone could also see release on Sprint.
