James Delahunty
2 Apr 2008 0:10
At the CTIA conference in Las Vegas, Sprint Nextel showed off a new iPhone look-alike from Samsung. The operator claimed that owners of the model would enjoy much faster data speeds than owners of Apple Inc.'s iPhone currently do. The "Instinct" looks like the iPhone and also offers a touch-screen interface.
It has a GPS built in however, and also will use Sprint's high-speed EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized) Revision A network. Sprint contrasts the 1.4Mbps average download rate of its EV-DO network to the 200Kbps EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) that the iPhone operates on through AT&T.
The model features a 2.0 megapixel camera and comes with a 2GB MicroSD storage card. The model, which will be available in June, has no price set as of yet. Sprints subscription plans might attract some users to the phone/service. One option priced at $99 offers unlimited voice, text and data services to subscribers.
Dan Hesse, president and CEO of Sprint Nextel, said that the company hopes to make more applications available on the new phone by making it easier for developers to build applications for devices that run on Sprint's network.