SAN DIEGO -- CTIA Enterprise & Applications 2011 -- Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. is really jazzed about its new Springboard tablet for T-Mobile US Inc. , which is slated to be out before the end of the year.

Talking at a press conference here Tuesday, James Jiang, EVP of products and marketing for Huawei Device, said that the tablet will be the first seven-inch Android device to support version 3.2 of the Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) operating system. He also promised that it will be lighter than previous Huawei tablets with better battery consumption.

One thing that Huawei remained coy on is the expected price of the Springboard, deferring to T-Mobile about what "affordable" might mean. "The answer to affordable is, you will be impressed," teased Bill Plummer, VP of external affairs for Huawei.

The tablet is -- ahem -- just one springboard for Huawei into the U.S. market, however. The company wants to be number five stateside within the next three years.

"It's safe to say we’re in the top ten now," Plummer told his audience.

The move up will involve targeting the mass-market smartphone segment in the U.S., specifically users who are currently "locked into buying feature phones," Plummer says.

Android is key in these plans now, but Jiang said that the company is also looking at other operating systems. He couldn't reveal which ones yet though.

Don't expect Huawei to be in the vanguard with Long Term Evolution (LTE) phones in the U.S., either. Jiang said there were no plans for 4G handsets this year, although they would be available "for sure" in 2012.

— Dan Jones, Site Editor, Light Reading Mobile