By Andrew Berg
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Since launching the Palm Pre back in June, Sprint continues to accumulate a rather impressive portfolio of high-end smartphones. Wednesday's announcement from Samsung at CTIA was no exception. Samsung announced its first Android device for the United States, the Samsung Moment, and gave the carrier honors to Sprint.
The Moment, which is similar in form factor to other Android handsets released recently, features an 800 Ghz processor, 3.2-megapixel camera with flash and camcorder with auto-focus, Bluetooth, 3.5 millimeter headphone jack, visual voicemail, expandable memory up to 32 GB and slide-out qwerty keyboard.
The Moment will become available with Sprint on Nov. 1, for $179.99 with a two-year contract. Customers can also pre-register for the device online. This is Sprint's second Android announcement in as many months. The HTC Hero will be available from the carrier on Oct. 11 for the same price as Samsung's Moment.
The Samsung news comes amid a flood of Android announcements. On Tuesday, Verizon Wireless announced a partnership with Google, saying the carrier would be announcing its first two Android devices in the next couple of weeks. Meanwhile, Motorola introduced the world to the Motorola CLIQ for T-Mobile at the end of September.
The Android game now has become one of differentiation. While OEMs and carriers tout the platform's versatility, the recent barrage of handsets running Google's open-source platform will make it necessary for OEMs to put their own unique stamp on their product. Motorola tried just that with the CLIQ, giving it a unique UI overlay that it calls Motorola BLUR.