Alcatel One Touch isn’t yet a household name like its competitors ZTE and Huawei in the US, but the brand is set to change the lack of market awareness by launching a new “Innovation Center” aimed at drawing in top mobile developers that will be based in San Francisco, with the aim of developing new products and services that will eventually land on its slate of low-end and mid-range smartphones. The center, of which a European version already exists and is active, is being described as an accelerator program to draw in startups and individual developers that the company hopes will lead to long-term partnerships in the future. The company did not give a timeframe on when the center would open, and more details are expected during CES next week. Alcatel smartphones and tablets are currently available through T-Mobile and its subsidiaries.
In related news, Alcatel has been connected to a possible revival of the once ubiquitous Palm brand with the company opening a new mynewpalm.com domain with a looping video clearly demonstrating the last Palm logo used before the company was purchased by HP in 2010. Alcatel’s current marketing tag “Smart Move” also loops below the logo after the “Coming Soon” message. Further investigation done by WebOS Nation uncovered a very recent transfer of the Palm trademarks to an obscure “shelf company” called Wide Progress Global Limited, of which current Alcatel One Touch Americas President Nicholas Zibell is listed as an executive along with various other members of the Chinese company as of December 23rd, leading many to speculate that Alcatel is planning a major relaunch with the brand as its US brand instead of the current Alcatel OneTouch brand used in other markets.
