Dallas
–
unveiled a quartet
of quick-messaging handsets – two each from Samsung and Pantech – that will
provide new messaging, contact-management, and video- and photo-sharing
services, the carrier announced.
The services are designed for low-priced handsets starting at
$19.99 during a limited-time promotion for a Samsung Strive with slide-down
QWERTY keyboard, due in stores March 21 along with a Samsung full-touchscreen
Sunburst at $39.99. The Sunburst will offer the new services at a later
unannounced date, as will two Pantech models – the Link bar-style
QWERTY-keyboard phone and the Pursuit with touchscreen and vertical sliding
keyboard. The Link is due “in the coming weeks,” and the Pursuit is due in the
summer.
The Samsung models will be available in select AT&T stores and
AT&T’s Web site.
New enhanced messaging services enabled by the four new handsets
include group messaging, reply-all capability for up to 10 contacts, threaded
conversations and a consolidated in-box. The phones will also access a free online
address book that automatically syncs with a handset when a new contact is
entered on the handset. Users can also access their contact list from a PC and
use a PC to import contacts from web-based email accounts. The new AT&T
Mobile Share service will let users, for a fee, store up to 250MB of pictures
and videos online for viewing on their handset or a PC. The fee is $10/month
for 50 transfers, or 35 cents per transfer
None of the four models, a spokesperson told TWICE, feature
Qualcomm’s
operating system, designed to bring smartphone functionality to
low-priced phones. Brew MP, designed to make feature phones more capable at
affordable price points, enables the use of downloadable apps that are more
robust than those currently available for phones that lack smartphone OSs, and it can run on
lower end chipsets with lower speed and lower memory capacity while supporting
Java and Adobe Flash.
AT&T previously said it plans to include Brew MP in all of
its quick-messaging phones by 2011, rolling out the first ones beginning in the
middle of this summer.
The 3G 850/1900MHz HSDPA-equipped Strive quick-messaging phone at
an introductory $19.99 features vertical slide-out QWERTY keyboard, threaded text messages with
video and pictures, AT&T Navigator and Mobile Music, live-video sharing,
2-megapixel camera/camcorder and Bluetooth v2.0+EDR. It will be available in
black/silver combination or purple/charcoal.
Samsung’s full-touch Sunburst is a quadband GSM phone, according
to a Samsung spec sheet. It features 3-inch resistive touchscreen, virtual
keyboard, full browser, one-touch access to widgets, social-networking apps,
2-megapixel camera/camcorder, AT&T Navigator service, AT&T Mobile Music
services, Bluetooth v2.0+EDR, and mobile email and IM.
Few details on the Pantech
models were released.
