The MTS 945 GLONASS was the world's first smartphone that was compatible with

GLONASS GLONASS (russian: ГЛОНАСС, label=none, ; rus, links=no, Глобальная навигационная спутниковая система, r=Global'naya Navigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema, t=Global Navigation Satellite System) is ...

. The phone was available from

Mobile TeleSystems MTS (russian: Мобильные ТелеСистемы, МТС, "Mobile TeleSystems"), headquartered in Moscow, is the largest mobile network operator in Russia, operating on GSM, UMTS and LTE standards. Apart from cellular network, the compan ...

, and was built by Qualcomm and

ZTE ZTE Corporation is a Chinese partially state-owned technology company that specializes in telecommunication. Founded in 1985, ZTE is listed on both the Hong Kong and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges. ZTE's core business is wireless, exchange, opt ...

. The phone was released on March 31, 2011. The phone was discontinued following low sales numbers.

History

On December 28, 2010 the CEO of AFK Sistema

Vladimir Yevtushenkov Vladimir Petrovich Yevtushenkov (russian: Владимир Петрович Евтушенков; born 25 September 1948) is a Russian billionaire business oligarch. He is the majority owner (49.2%) and former сhairman of Sistema. As a member ...

and the Russian Deputy Prime Minister

Sergei Ivanov Sergei Borisovich Ivanov ( rus, Сергей Борисович Иванов, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej bɐˈrʲisəvʲɪtɕ ɪvɐˈnof; born 31 January 1953) is a Russian senior official and politician who has served as the Special Representative of ...

presented

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...

with the MTS 945 - the first phone equipped with a dual system GLONASS\GPS.Lenta.ru: Technology: Putin showed the Russian equivalent of the iPhone 4
/ref> During the meeting, Vladimir Yevtushenko claimed that the phone was equivalent to the iPhone 4, with the addition of GLONASS capabilities. The MTS 945 was developed jointly by

Sitronics Sitronics (russian: Ситро́никс) is a microelectronics company based in Moscow, Russia and controlled by Sistema holding, that also manufactures mobile phones. Its main assets are the electronics fabs, research and development facilitie ...

, Qualcomm, and

, and went on sale in March 2011 at the price of 10 990 rubles (US$360). The initial plans for the phone called for 500,000 units shipped in the first batch, however in early 2011 it was reduced to 100,000. This was later reduced again to just 5000 units, which took six months to sell. In February 2012 ZTE announced that they were ending production of the phone due to poor sales. Before the MTS 945 was released ZTE was planning to create 3-5 phones with support for GLONASS, but the slow launch month put those plans into development hell, and they were eventually cancelled. Huawei, which was also planning to launch a phone with GLONASS around the same time decided to delay the launch of their own GLONASS compatible phones.

Specifications

The phone is capable of receiving signals of two

Global Navigation Satellite Systems A satellite navigation or satnav system is a system that uses satellites to provide autonomous geo-spatial positioning. It allows satellite navigation devices to determine their location (longitude, latitude, and altitude/elevation) to high pr ...

and

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...

. The phone's SoC is the Qualcomm MSM7230, and it runs Android.

Criticism

Tests found that the MTS 945 performed comparably to or worse than comparable smartphones that also ran

Android 2.2 Android Froyo is the sixth version of Android and is a codename of the Android mobile operating system developed by Google, spanning versions between 2.2 and 2.2.3. Those versions are no longer supported. It was unveiled on May 20, 2010, duri ...

and only received signals from

. At the same time, the MTS 945 GLONASS was significantly more expensive than the other devices this level.

Next model

In May 2012, MTS launched a second smartphone with GLONASS, the MTS 962.Lenta.ru: Technology: MTS launched the sale of the second smartphone with GLONASS
/ref> The new model was launched at half the price of its predecessor, about 5300 rubles.

References

{{reflist Mobile phones Android (operating system) devices Mobile phones introduced in 2011 GLONASS Qualcomm