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BELLEVUE, Wash.—With the quiet addition of its new t719 flip phone, which offers BlackBerry Connect service and an e-mail-friendly keypad, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. now supplies just over one-third of T-Mobile USA Inc.’s handset portfolio.
The t719 uses the same SureType keypad—a QWERTY alternative that combines two letters to a key—that Research In Motion Ltd.’s new Pearl BlackBerry device does. The flip phone is also priced the same as RIM’s Pearl at $200 with a two-year service contract and a $50 mail-in rebate.
Currently, the RIM Pearl—a narrow BlackBerry device in a candybar form—is a T-Mobile exclusive, but is expected to launch at other carriers in the United States. RIM’s half-dozen handsets at T-Mobile make it the carrier’s second-most prolific vendor along with Motorola Inc. Nokia Corp. has four handsets available through T-Mobile.
The t719 joins ten other Samsung handsets at T-Mobile, including the new Trace model, a thin multimedia device that sells for $100 with a two-year service contract and a $50 mail-in rebate.
