Philips GoGear Connect MP4 Player Officially Announced, Coming The End Of October 2010

Tweet

It looks like we have another company looking to get a jump on IFA, this latest announcement comes from Philips who have made the GoGear Connect MP4 player official. And as the rumors implied, the GoGear Connect will be sporting Android.

And just like the ViewPad 7 announcement from ViewSonic, this one from Philips has enough to get us excited, but does not reveal everything. It is also worth mentioning, that while this may not be coming as an iPod touch ‘killer’ this could be considered some competition. By that I mean the operating system, and perhaps a little more important — the apps. The Philips GoGear Connect will be running Android and it will have full access to the Android Market. Sadly though, there is a catch, or at least an unknown as of this point. So far we are unsure of which version of Android the GoGear connect will be running, which may mean a limitation as to certain apps. That said, we are hoping to at least see Android 2.1, though Froyo would be nice.

In terms of other features, the GoGear Connect will feature a 3.2 inch display with Wi-Fi, microSD card slot and a built-in camera with video recording. Furthermore, the player will measure in at 113 x 12.6 x 59 mm with a weight of 128 grams and ship with a set of sound isolating earphones. Other goodies include Philips FullSound technology and Surround for Movies and the Philips Songbird software which will allow you to sync with a PC over Bluetooth as well as stream audio files.

As for the good stuff, pricing and availability. The GoGear Connect will come available at the end of October in Western Europe, the US and China. The price will be 249 euros (around $315 US) for a 16GB storage capacity model. No mention yet of other storage capacities, though with a microSD card slot that may not be as much of an issue.