Sprint March 21 launched an aggressive PR blitz, unveiling the Nexus S 4G and Google Voice integration in the wake of the AT&T-T-Mobile merger bid.
Sprint
answered AT&T's proposed
purchase of T-Mobile March 21 by unveiling the Samsung Nexus S 4G smartphone
and pledging to integrate Google Voice across all its phones.
The aggressive
plans come in the wake of AT&T's $39 billion offer to acquire T-Mobile, a
deal that, if consummated, would easily make Sprint the smallest wireless
carrier in the U.S. and jeopardize its ability to compete, versus AT&T and
Verizon Wireless.
The Nexus S 4G is more or
less the same phone as the Samsung
Nexus S Google launched last December, unlocked or paired with a T-Mobile
contract for $179.99.
Sprint plans
to sell its Nexus S 4G for $199.99 with a two-year contract this spring from
Sprint retailers and Best Buy stores in the United States.
Like the Nexus
S, Sprint's Nexus S 4G is powered by a 1GHz Samsung chip and runs Android 2.3,
the latest Gingerbread build for smartphones, which offers NFC (near-field
communication) capabilities for short-range wireless communications between
sensors.
Both devices
offer a 4-inch contoured display (480 by 800 resolution), brightened by
Samsung's Super AMOLED (active-matrix organic LED) touch-screen technology. The
Nexus S 4G, like its predecessor, also sports a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera
and front-facing VGA camera.
The Nexus 4G
also offers the familiar complement of Google mobile services, including
Android Market access, Google Search, Gmail, Google Maps with Navigation,
Google Calendar, Voice Actions and YouTube. Both handsets offer 16GB of
internal memory and a 1,500mAh battery.
Sprint also
followed Google's approach with the original Nexus S by promising that Nexus S
4G owners will be among the first to enjoy Android software and Google mobile applications
upgrades.
This is a big
deal considering that carriers have been known to drag their feet on platform
version upgrades. For example, Sprint will start rolling out Android 2.2 on its
Samsung Epic 4G this week, some 10 months after Google unveiled Froyo at Google
I/O last May.
Sprint's
device offers minor differences in specs and the inclusion of a 4G radio, which
should make the device much faster than the current 3G Nexus S available.
For example,
the new device includes 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot capability, supporting up to six
WiFi-enabled devices at once, compared with five for the T-Mobile Nexus S,
which only handles 3G.
Sprint didn't
stop with the Nexus S 4G. The company made
it possible for users of all of its Sprint CMDA (Code Division Multiple
Access) phones to use their current Sprint wireless phone numbers as their
Google Voice numbers without having to port their numbers.
This means
Sprint phone users won't incur porting charges and service disruptions. Google
Voice is the company's phone-call-management application, allowing users to
route calls to up to six different phones using one number; and receive
transcribed voice mail messages, and read or listen to them online.
With this new
partnership, calls from Gmail and text messages sent from Google.com/voice will display
users' Sprint number. Google Voice users may also replace their Sprint numbers
with their Google Voice numbers when placing calls or sending text messages
from their Sprint handsets.
Email
Print
