Dr. Dre to Release New Smartphone Soon, but No Music

*Dr. Dre is expanding his empire with an upcoming Smartphone with HTC and Verizon.

While he’s still doing his music thing and everyone is waiting for his album, he’s busy making money in electronics. He and business partner Jimmy Lovine sold the majority of Beats Electronics to Taiwanese company HTC for something around $309 million.

“I am trying to build my electronics company, Beats Electronics. We just signed a major deal with HTC and we have cell phones coming out in the next two weeks,” Dre told GlobalGrind.com. “I am involved in Chrysler; we are in cars right now. My whole thing is to take over everything with a speaker. That is what I am shooting for.

“I am trying to be number 2 to Apple, and number 2 to Apple is not a bad position to be in,” he added.

The details are limited, but he says the phone will be out via Verizon in the coming weeks. Ambiguous, yes, and any dates coming from Dre are a bit sketchy, so don’t even ask about the long delayed “Detox” album.