Sprint to Release Samsung i600 Smartphone in USA Next Month?

[Jason Dunn]

Coming from the "completely unsubstantiated rumours department", I received a short email message from Smartphone Thoughts reader Mike Dec who was at a Best Buy store in Roseville, Minnesota. He spoke to someone from the Windows Mobile group who claims that Sprint will be releasing a Samsung Smartphone within the next month. The time line sounds about right, so this is great news. First AT&T, now Sprint - the Smartphone has finally arrived in the USA. Now I wonder how long it will be until a Canadian carrier offers one... :?

[Wuss912]

about friggin time...
any hope of it being a 2003 device? :?:

[David C]

I kinda doubt the truth of it. I work for Sprint, and there is no announcement of it anywhere. I think the core concentration for Sprint right now is the Push to Talk CDMA phones. That is where the money is at, especially with the Wireless Local Number Portability coming around in Nov. Sprint rather steal customer from Nextel then try to market a new device. It's a lot faster. As far as I see, most people trying to buy PDA phones are already exiting customers. They don't make any money selling equipments.

[Wuss912]

As far as I see, most people trying to buy PDA phones are already exiting customers. They don't make any money selling equipments.

Till they lose us as you said number portability is comming along

[ARW]

First AT&T, now Sprint - the Smartphone has finally arrived in the USA. :?

Whatever happened to Verizon and the i600? Wasn't Verizon showing off the i600 to a user group a week or two ago? Phone Scoop is still calling for a 3rd quarter release of the i600, though it doesn't seem likely given how far into the 3rd quarter we are.

It would be just like Verizon to allow Sprint to beat them to the punch.

[mar2k]

Maybe the rep got confused and meant Verizon?

[David C]

Till they lose us as you said number portability is comming along

I don't want to sound defensive on behalf of Sprint's marketing strategy, since it has nothing to do with me. But I really don't think Sprint will loose that many customers for not having the first i600 on market. As someone who just plain likes gadgets and works in retail store, I really don't see too many average Americans share the kind of technology enthusiasm as many of us hardcore people do. In other parts of the world, maybe. But in the US, overpriced gadget just isn’t that easy to sell to the masses. Americans are more conservative then they believe they are. Many of them don't want to believe in the hype, and most of them don't trust in technology. Price matters more then the cool factors.

For the few that will switch company simply because they don't have the coolest phone on the market, they will continue to do so as the next better technology comes around. Those people are not loyal to any one company anyways. They are also not the bulk of the business. The real money is in corporate users, who have hundreds of lines, makes thousands of calls everyday, and have quarter million dollar bills every month. If the corporate users say I want this feature, believe me, you will see the feature tomorrow.

Again, I'm saying this not because I'm defending anyone. I'm simply an enthusiastic observer. I want the i600 or the T608 to come out for Sprint or any other CDMA provider as much as any other enthusiast. It might come soon, but I don't think before the push to talk. Especially since Nextel clearly has the edge right now in corporate users for their push to talk feature, both Sprint and Verizon will try to steal those user base as soon as possible. Soon, the GSM people will start doing push to talk also.

I think the PDA and Smartphones are a developing market. Although the business and corporate people are the first to need them, and we enthusiasts love them, most people just get confused over them then really wanting it. People who are under corporate accounts are average people. They don't know how to use PDA, and are not convince enough to want to learn how to use it. It takes a while for the average folks to catch up on these technology thingies. Technologies have to prove to work for many company to invest in them. And when it makes more sense to sell an easy to use device with limited feature, it is what we’ll continue to see on the market until the market environment change. Yeah, sure, if you make them the people might come, they also might not ever come, and you’ll have a bunch of overstock that you have to sell for cheap and loose money.

[David C]

I went to work today and check. I know that Sprint has anounced the Treo 600 smartphone to come out sometime in a month. Perhaps the guy at Best Buy was mistaking the Treo for the i600?

[francois]

First AT&T, now Sprint - the Smartphone has finally arrived in the USA. :?

Whatever happened to Verizon and the i600? Wasn't Verizon showing off the i600 to a user group a week or two ago? Phone Scoop is still calling for a 3rd quarter release of the i600, though it doesn't seem likely given how far into the 3rd quarter we are.

It would be just like Verizon to allow Sprint to beat them to the punch.

Sprint beat Verizon to the punch? That'd be a new one.