T-Mobile has an aggressive lineup of smartphones planned to see it through the year, if a leaked roadmap is to be believed. Android devices will continue to dominate.
T-Mobile isn't
just kicking back andwaiting for AT&T to solve its financial woes. The carrier has an aggressive lineup of new
devices planned for this summer and beyond, if a leaked roadmap shared by ThisIsMyNext
holds water.
In June alone,
subscribers could see six new options. Starting on June 8, the already talked-up HTC Sensation 4G is expected to
arrive. Playing at the high end of the market, it features a 4.3-inch
quarter-high-definition display, a dual-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon
processor and Google Android 2.3, known as "Gingerbread." HTC's Sense
user interface will be on board, along with a video-on-demand service and a
kickstand for easier viewing.
A May 17
report from Sandvine reveals that Netflix streaming now accounts for 30 percent of Internet
traffic. "Fixed and mobile Internet providers worldwide,"
the report warns, "must plan for a future in which on-demand video
(whether provided by Netflix or another service) is a large proportion, if not
the majority of, last-mile traffic."
Expected to
join the Sensation 4G on June 8 are: the Samsung t589 Gravity Touch 2; the
vaguely iPhone 3GS-looking t759 "Hawk," which has been leaked as the
"Exhibit 4G"; and the Huawei E587 "Wayne," a rounded and
really rather adorably slim HSPA+ (Evolved High-Speed Packet Access) 4G mobile
hotspot with 802.11n capability and a small display.
On the
following Wednesday, June 15, expect to see the Samsung t499 "Tass"-reportedly
a U.S. version of the Galaxy Mini, a low-end phone dominated by a 3.14-inch
capacitive touch-screen.
Jump ahead two
more Wednesdays, to June 29, and the Samsung t379 "Triumph" is
expected to launch as the Gravity 4.
Moving into July,
expect the HTC "Doubleshot"-likely to launch as the myTouch 4G Slide-on
July 6. As the name suggests, a good guess is for a version of the myTouch 4G with a QWERTY keypad. Per the
rumor mill, features are likely to include a 3.7-inch WVGA display (the myTouch
4G's is a 3.8-inch TFT (thin-film transistor) widescreen), a dual-core
processor and an 8-megapixel camera on the back. Also likely, if the myTouch 4G
is a close model, is a front-facing camera, WiFi connectivity, a Genius button
and, of course, 4G connectivity.
Come July 15,
expect the HTC "Marvel," likely to be called the Wildfire S, with a
3.2-inch display and an 800MHz Qualcomm processor, and two weeks after that, on
July 27, the BlackBerry "Monza."
"Specs
we've received on this full-touch handset include 14.4M bps HSPA [High-Speed Packet Access], a 3.7-inch
480 by 800 display, 1.2GHz single-core Snapdragon, a 5-megapixel cam with 720p
video capture, and BlackBerry 7 (which, interestingly, our documents still
identify as BlackBerry 6.1). T-Mobile expects to sell it for under $200 on
contract," ThisIsMyNext's Chris Ziegler wrote.
That puts us
into August, when T-Mobile is expected to launch the BlackBerry Bold Touch Aug.
17 and the "Apollo," a.k.a the next BlackBerry Curve, Aug. 31, in
addition to a Huawei S7 Android-running tablet (maybe beefed up for 4G?).
Back-to-school
season will bring an LG "Flip II" on Sept. 14 and the Samsung
Hercules Sept. 26. Said to be a code name for the Samsung Infuse 4G, according
to GottaBeMobile,
the latter is said to feature a 4.5-inch Super AMOLED (active-matrix organic
LED) Plus display, NFC (near-field communication) support, an 8-megapixel rear
camera and HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) and HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink
Packet Access) technology that will make it the "fastest HSPA+ phone on
the market."
For the Nokia
and Symbian fans, the Nokia Nuron 4G is slated for Sept. 21 and said to include
14.4M bps HSPA, a 3.2-inch display, a 5-megapixel camera and Symbian 3.1 for
under $150.
"Some of
the most exciting-sounding items in the roadmap, though, don't yet have launch
dates," Ziegler added. These include an HSPA-capable Huawei phone; a
simple flip Samsung "Jamong" phone, which may be exclusive to the
prepaid crowd; and something listed as the "Bresson" and thought to
be the next model in the T-Mobile super-duper G-series lineup.
Though,
"if HTC simply de-skinned the Sensation 4G, unlocked the bootloader and
sold it as the T-Mobile G-Infinity," Ziegler added, "I'd be doing a
heartfelt fist pump or two."
Michelle Maisto has been covering the enterprise mobility space for a decade, beginning with Knowledge Management, Field Force Automation and eCRM, and most recently as the editor-in-chief of Mobile Enterprise magazine. She earned an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University, and in her spare time obsesses about food. Her first book, The Gastronomy of Marriage, if forthcoming from Random House in September 2009.
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