Kansas City, Kan. – Sprint
will offer its first smartphone based on Google’s open Android operating system
on Oct. 11 when HTC’s Hero goes on
sale in all Sprint distribution channels, including Best Buy, at $179.
The carrier will join T-Mobile in offering 3G Android OS
handsets.
Sprint’s price is after $50 instant savings and $100 mail-in rebate with a two-year contract
for a pricing plan that includes unlimited data. Sprint Everything Data plans
with unlimited messaging and data start at $69.99 for a plan that includes 450
minutes of talktime along and unlimited night and weekend calls. A $99.99
Simply Everything plan included includes unlimited data and unlimited voice.
The distribution channels offering the Hero Oct. 11 will include Sprint’s telesales operation, Sprint’s stores and Best Buy, Sprint’s exclusive national retailer.
The HTC Hero features EV-DO Rev. A data speeds, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, 3.2-inch
capacitive multitouch touchscreen with pinch-to-zoom capability, fingerprint-resistant
coating, GPS, HTML browser and
trackball navigation but no hard QWERTY keyboard or dialing keys. It’s HTC’s first phone with customizable HTC Sense interface, whose seven-panel home screen switches
among different home screens, each dedicated to different purposes such as work,
socializing and travel. Like other Android phones, it features built-in Google
mobile services, including Google Search, Google Maps and YouTube as well as over-the-air
downloading of more than 8,000 Android applications.
Other features
include 5-megapixel camera, included 2GB MicroSD card, support for 32GB MicroSD
cards, visual voice mail, stereo Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, full-song downloads from
the Amazon MP3 store, and IMAP, POP,
Gmail, and Exchange Active Sync email capabilities. It also accesses Flickr,
Facebook and Twitter and features a 3.5mm headphone jack. It displays Microsoft
Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents and PDFs.
Sprint published a
competitive matrix (LINK TO
\web\18SPRINTHEROMATRIX09.PDF) to point out why the Hero is better than the
competition.
