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OVERLAND PARK, Kan.—Sprint Nextel Corp. and LG Electronics Co. Ltd. announced the launch of the Fusic music phone, another example of taking a feature phone and branding it a “lifestyle” device to tap the U.S. youth market. The phone also represents Sprint Nextel’s effort to bolster the sales of its own Sprint Music Store service, which offers over-the-air downloads of songs for $2.50. The phone also allows users to download their own audio and video files from their PC.
“Fusic” stands for “fun” and “music,” according to the companies, and the phone “looks, feels and plays like a portable music player,” a transformation apparently designed to put the device’s primary function ahead of its use as a cell phone for voice. The Fusic is designed to run on Sprint Nextel’s CDMA2000 1x EV-DO-equipped Power Vision service.
Sprint Nextel is selling the Fusic for $180 with a service agreement.
In an unrelated announcement, T-Mobile USA Inc. launched the Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. T319, a stripped-down version of the vendor’s T309. The T319 is $40 with a two-year contract with T-Mobile.
