With GSM phones, Kyocera goes global

After years of producing only CDMA cell phones, Kyocera announced today that it would neglect GSM user no longer. At CTIA the company unveiled four GSM handsets, all of which are destined for the Latin American market. They range from the feature-rich to the basic and functional while offering a selection of designs. Here's a roundup of the four new models.

Kyocera E4600

(Credit: Kyocera)

Kyocera E4600
A slider phone vaguely reminiscent of a Motorola Rizr, the E4600 is the flagship model of the series. It offers an MP3 player, a 2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, an expandable memory slot, a 262,000-color display, and quadband (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) world phone support.

Kyocera E3500

(Credit: Kyocera)

Kyocera E3500
The E3500 has a flip phones design with dedicated music controls on its front flap. Features include an MP3 player, a 1.3-megapixel camera, a memory card slot, Bluetooth, and quadband (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) world phone support. It also offers eight hours of talk time battery life, which even Kyocera admits is a big improvement over is CDMA models.

Kyocera E2500

(Credit: Kyocera)

Kyocera E2500
The Kyocera E2500 has candy-bar design. Inside you'll find a 1.3-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, a memory card slot, and quadband (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) world phone support. It also can function as an external hard drive, presumably through a USB cable.

Kyocera S1600

(Credit: Kyocera)

Kyocera S1600
The S1600 is the most basic model of the GSM quartet. Inside the simple candy-bar design are features designed for communication. There's text and multimedia messaging, a VGA camera, and a WAP Internet browser. It's available in two dualband versions, GSM 850/1900 and GSM 900/1800.

So Kyocera, how about throwing a little love our way and bring these phones to North America?