TMCnet News

RCA Makes Android IP Phones? Who Knew?

[October 02, 2012]

RCA Makes Android IP Phones? Who Knew?

Originally posted on VoIP & Gadgets Blog, here: http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/voip/rca-makes-android-ip-phones-who-knew.asp.

I'm here at ITEXPO in Austin, Texas, a leading communications tradeshow, when what do my wondering eyes see An email promotion from RCA promoting their new Android-based IP phones - the RCA IP150, RCA IP120 and the RCA IP110. Here's a screenshot of part of the email:

When I think of RCA my nostalgia kicks in and I think of two things, both of which are antiquated technologies.

One, I think of my grandparents huge TV inside a wooden frame that sat of the floor. Nowadays you hang up your flat-screen TV and the TV never touches the floor.

Two, I think back to my dad's Elvis Presley "Hound Dog" RCA record with the cool logo of dog with its mouth aimed inside the record player, similar to this Elvis vinyl record:

As a 6-year old kid I assumed the RCA dog was because the song on the record was "Hound Dog". Hey, it made sense to me and it's not my fault my father didn't own any other RCA records.

Anyway, I'm amazed RCA is differentiating and is now getting into the desktop IP phone space. I'm not sure if these three IP phones are launching at ITEXPO or if they are just featuring them in their booth, but I've never heard of them. The new RCA IP telephony products run on Android so I'll have to compare this with other Android IP phones I've reviewed (Panasonic KX-UT670, CloudTC[soon]). The high-end flagship RCA IP150 product has these features: