ThinkPad

Lenovo’s Android adventure has been a mixed bag of what some may call overpromising and underdelivering. The company’s separation of tablet lineup into consumer and business families surprised those who deemed the tablet market a consumer game. They debuted the 10.1-inch consumer-focused IdeaPad K1 and the ThinkPad for business back in July, following up with a seven-incher two and a half months ago.

That device, the IdeaPad A1, resembless last year’s Galaxy Tab from Samsung. They also promised a 10.1-inch Ice Cream Sandwich tablet for next month and now Engadget has it that a brand new five incher is in the works. Resembling Dell’s ill-fated Streak 5 tablet, the device is said to be marketed under the IdeaPad moniker in the Western world and the LePad in China.

It should pack in a dual-core processor, a micro-USB port, HDMI output and a front-facing camera, amongst other perks. The three capacitive buttons led the publication to speculate that the gizmo may not run Honeycomb or Ice Cream Sandwich, but we’d find this hard to believe as Honeycomb is specifically tailored for seven-inch tablets and beyond.

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Qualcomm has just issued a press release announcing the commercial availability of their Gobi 4000 chips for 4G LTE and HSPA+ capable devices, variants of which could very well land in any number of  forthcoming dual and quad-core LTE Android devices. Qualcomm is already working with OEMs to include the Gobi 4000 platform, which comes in both LTE/HSPA+ and LTE/EV-DO designs, in devices including Lenovo’s ThinkPad laptops, and Dell’s Latitude E6420 laptops, in addition to other Android and Windows powered mobile devices. Qualcomm explains:

Qualcomm’s latest Gobi-enabled 4G platform features the Gobi Application Programming Interface (API) with LTE extensions and is compatible with leading connectivity standards, including CDMA2000® 1xEV-DO Rev. A and B, HSPA+, dual-carrier HSPA+, and LTE with integrated backwards compatibility to HSPA and EV-DO. The Gobi 4000 platform also includes software enhancements for select MDM™ chipsets that enable a common software interface to help connect, locate and manage 3G/4G devices regardless of wireless interface and operating system. 

The new chips, now shipping to OEMs through Novatel Wireless and Sierra Wireless, are based on Qualcomm’s MDM9600 and MDM 9200 3G/4G wireless modems, and as the company notes, have been specially designed for deployment in Android devices utilizing Snapdragon dual-core and quad-core processors. In addition to HSPA+, dual-carrier HSPA+, and LTE support, the Gobi 4000 platform is also backwards compatible with HSPA and EV-DO. You can expect the chip to land in a number of LTE-capable Android devices in the months to come.

Qualcomm’s senior vice president of produdct management for CDMA Technologies, Cristiano Amon, had this to say about the announcement:

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