Sprint Nextel fights back with HTC touchscreen device

Music and messaging may be the mantra for holiday sales, according to conventional wisdom, but Sprint Nextel Corp. is taking no chances. The carrier will offer the HTC-branded Touch on Nov. 4, for $250 with a two-year contract and mail-in rebate.
The Touch, naturally, provides music and messaging, but its selling point is its dominant touchscreen for input/output. (The screen is nearly three inches.)
The device runs on Sprint Nextel’s CDMA1x 2000 Revision A network and offers Windows Mobile 6 with Outlook Mobile for e-mail-the carrier and vendor tout its business-friendly capabilities-as well as being open to third-party applications. All of these attributes appear targeted at the oft-cited weaknesses of Apple Inc.’s iPhone at rival AT&T Mobility.
The device’s memory capacity, however, may be a weakness-specifications for onboard memory were not given, though the partners touted the device’s ability to incorporate up to 4 GB MicroSD cards.
In other device news, AT&T Mobility trumpeted the arrival of Research In Motion Ltd.’s latest BlackBerry Curve 8310 with built-in GPS. The device runs on the carrier’s EDGE network and costs $200 with a two-year contract and a mail-in rebate.
The Samsung Juke-a name clearly designed to make hay over consumer interest in mobile music-arrives at Verizon Wireless this Friday at $100 after a mail-in rebate, with two-year contract. The Juke offers 2 GB of onboard memory-a level usually reserved for more expensive handsets-which may provide allure to the tech-savvy consumer.
The bottom line: American consumers, who have loved sleek, clamshell phones offered by the carriers at price points from “free” to $50, now face a bewildering array of attractive, highly functional handsets that deliver music, messaging, the Web, mobile TV and personal information management and personalization options. Whether the possibilities will move them to pay closer attention to mobile phone attributes-and pay more for greater functionality-will be closely dissected after the holiday blowout.