Motorola HS1001 - the iPhone for the home?

Some people may find it hard to believe but yes, home phones do still exist. Sure they haven’t undergone the massive technological advances we've seen in mobile phones in the past decade but Motorola is looking to make up some ground with one of the first Android-powered home phones to hit the market - the Motorola HS1001. Running Android v1.6 the cordless handset features a 2.8-inch touchscreen with virtual keypad and allows users to surf the web and check email via a Wi-Fi connection to a home network.

The Motorola HS1001’s dual Wi-Fi technology enables connection to a home network as well as its own base station. However, it doesn’t look like it can be used to make skype calls as the app doesn’t come pre-loaded and the HS1001 won’t have Marketplace support. The DECT 6.0 phone does support a “full spectrum of multimedia applications,” video and features common to top of the line smartphones. It also comes with a speaker-equipped base station that can be used to pump out tunes while it’s docked.

The Motorola HS1001 is made by Hong Kong company, Binatone. It uses the XpandR chipset from DSP Group that is the only system-on-a-chip (SoC) solution supporting both Wi-Fi and DECT 6.0.

Marketed as bringing “iPhone functionality to the cordless phone,” the Motorola HS1001 will be available in the U.S. in Q3 2010 and is expected to sell for around US$150.