MetroPCS, the
nation’s fifth-largest wireless carrier, has introduced what may be the first commercially
available 4G LTE (Long-Term Evolution) Android smartphone, the Samsung Indulge.
According to a Feb. 9 statement from the carrier, the Indulge will go on sale
this week.
The carrier,
which doesn’t tie customers to contracts or offer subsidies, will price the
phone at $399.
“At about half
the cost of other 4G smartphone service plans today, consumers can truly have
it all,” the carrier said in a Feb. 9 statement. MetroPCS offers $50 and $60 4G
LTE smartphone service plans, the latter of which is an Unlimited Premium Plan
for unlimited data access.
The Indulge
features a 3.5-inch LCD touch-screen with a slide-out four-row QWERTY keyboard,
and runs Android 2.2 and a 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird processor. The Samsung
TouchWiz user interface is included, along with access to the Android Market,
Google’s suite of mobile services, including Google Search and YouTube and
MetroPCS’ MetroStudio—an integrated application that offers access to a catalog
of music, ringtones and ring-back tones.
A 3-megapixel
camera has a camcorder and auto-focus, and there is a music player and Stereo
Bluetooth connectivity, and a microSD slot for up to 32GB of memory. The
Indulge comes with a 4GB microSD card that’s preloaded with the movie “Ironman
2.”
"The
Galaxy Indulge integrates two of Samsung's core product investments; the
Android platform and bringing powerful and intuitive 4G-enabled devices to the
U.S. market," Omar Khan, chief strategy officer for Samsung Mobile, said
in a statement. "The Galaxy Indulge is loaded with the speed of the
Android OS, true mobile broadband connectivity and a 1GHz processor with rich
multimedia features for premium movie and TV content."
At the 2011
Consumer Electronics Show in January, Verizon introduced the HTC Thunderbolt,
calling it the “first 4G LTE smartphone.” While the phone is rumored to go on
sale Feb. 14, Verizon has so far only said that it’s “coming soon.” By the time
it does, however, it may instead be the second 4G LTE smartphone.
LTE, according
to a Feb. 8 report from research firm IHS iSuppli, is expected to be the predominant form of 4G worldwide, with subscriber
numbers exceeding those of WiMAX—Sprint’s 4G flavor of choice—by 2012. By 2014,
WiMAX is expected to have 33.4 million subscribers worldwide, while LTE will
claim more than 303 million users. To date, 10 operators have launched 4G LTE
networks, though more than 30 are expected to power up in 2011.
MetroPCS
currently offers 4G LTE service in 13 metropolitan areas, including Boston,
Dallas-Forth Worth, Las Vegas, New York and San Francisco.
Samsung, not
one for carrier allegiances, has also promised a 4G LTE smartphone to Verizon
Wireless, along with a 4G version of its popular Galaxy Tab. Verizon introduced
the devices at the CES event, along with a handful of other 4G LTE devices—10
in all. Among them were the LG Revolution and the Motorola Droid Bionic 4G
smartphones.
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