If you’re like us, keeping a smart phone for two years really isn’t an option. After about 6 months of ownership the honeymoon is over; after 9 months you begin to obsess over a few battle scars your phone has acquired, and by month 12 you are actively seeking your phone’s demise so you have an excuse to buy the latest and greatest. Starting immediately, T-Mobile will be offering post-paid smartphone customers on a two year contract — or feature phone owners looking to upgrade to a smartphone — two tiers of upgrade pricing… as long as you are willing to renew your two year deal. The move is aimed at curbing the number of customers jumping from T-Mobile to other networks, specifically AT&T and Verizon Wireless. Customers will be eligible for a “tier 1″ discount if they have had their phone for 1-11 months, are currently in a two year contract, and have an individual voice plan that is $29.99 or higher — $49.99 or higher for family plans — and are upgrading to, or buying a new smartphone. Customers qualify for “tier 2″ pricing when they are in a two year contract, have an individual voice plan that is $29.99 or higher — $49.99 or higher for family plans — are between months 12-21 of their two year contract, and are upgrading to, or buying a new, smartphone. The exact discount pricing hasn’t been made available yet, but TmoNews speculates that a myTouch 3G, which retails for $400, would cost those that qualify for the “tier 2″ pricing around $240.
One of our connects just hit us up with some awesome info — T-Mobile’s responding to Verizon’s lower pricing. Here’s what we’ve got:Note: SRP = Standard Retail Pricing and NET = price after 2 year agreement. We’ve been told on average pricing dropped around “$30-$50.”
BlackBerry Curve 8520 — reduced SRP and NET pricing
Samsung t349 — reduced SRP and NET pricing
HTC Touch Pro II — reduced SRP and NET pricing
Samsung Gravity — reduced SRP and NET pricing
Samsung Highlight — reduced SRP and NET pricing
Nokia 3711 — reduced NET pricing
BlackBerry Bold 9700 — reduced NET pricing
Samsung Behold II — reduced SRP and NET pricing
Motorola CLIQ — reduced NET pricing
T-Mobile G1 — reduced SRP and NET pricing
HTC Dash 3G — reduced SRP and NET pricing
Google has sold over 20.000 Nexus Ones
Many analysts have predicted Google’s Nexus One would sell between 5 and 6 million units by the end of 2010. According to data from app analytics firm Flurry, only about 20,000 Nexus Ones were sold in the first week since launch, January 5 through January 12.
Compared to the 250,000 Motorola Droids or the 1.5 million iPhone 3GS’s this figure is clearly a low number. Granted we can’t always trust third party analytics (which is exactly why we’re filing this under ‘Rumors’), data from Flurry still supported a much larger first week by the Droid and iPhone 3GS. When you consider Google did their best to keep the device a secret and really hasn’t explored much in the way of advertising outside of their website and own ad network, there is still a large potential for the device to grow. I think the tell-all sign of the Nexus One will come when the device launches officially on Verizon since T-mobile is still the smallest of the big four US carriers.
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Albeit a tad bit late, the T-mobile BlackBerry Pearl 8120 is finally seeing the OS 4.5 Update that was promised so long ago. Starting tomorrow, March 13, T-mobile Pearl owners will be able to get their hands on RIM’s OS and finally have a glimpse into what HTML email means on their handheld. Along with the HTML email for BIS accounts, music / video streaming, free / busy calendar look up, remote search for emails on server, attachment download / document editing, wireless software updates, myFaves 1.5, an updated UI, Wap 2.0, Voice IT policy controls, BlackBerry Maps enhancements, and GSM / EDGE toggle capabilities will be included.
Pearl 8120 owners will be able to download the OS 4.5 update from http://www.t-mobile.com/bbupgrade sometime in the morning. As usual a high-speed Internet is recommended for the download and you will need to backup your existing device information prior to updating the OS.
T-Mobile USA, Inc. announced the availability of the new T-Mobile Shadow. Featuring a more rounded and compact design with two new color options, support for T-Mobile Unlimited HotSpot Calling, and increased processing power, the new Shadow is the perfect device for sharing life’s special moments.
Available exclusively from T-Mobile, the Shadow is designed to significantly reduce the complexity often associated with many feature-rich devices, while maintaining the powerful calling, messaging and picture-sharing capabilities people crave to keep them connected.
The Shadow is powered by Windows Mobile 6.1 and is the first Windows-based phone to provide support for T-Mobile’s Unlimited HotSpot Calling service, which provides great mobile coverage at home and unlimited nationwide calling from Wi-Fi networks, including T-Mobile HotSpot locations across the country.
We just got a tip that Orange UK would be the first carrier in Europe to launch a Pay As You Go BlackBerry device. Here’s the deal: it’s an exclusive-colored BlackBerry 8120 (Indigo, which is available on T-Mobile USA, might just be an UK exclusive) that will sell for £145. What about the monthly fee? A laughable £5/month. A pretty awesome deal that we’re told launches tomorrow. You can also most likely look for the PAYG service to color-up the rest of the BlackBerry devices Orange UK offers over time, provided this goes well. We guess we were right about BlackBerrys coming in boxes. Any Orange folks out there interested in picking up one of these?
Samsung has started publishing it’s latest touch screen phone to US mobile users under T-Mobile USA: the Samsung Behold.
The Samsung Behold is a slim touch screen mobile phone boasting of sleek design characterized by a brushed espressor or light rose finish. It provides high-speed connectivity and full HTML web browsing with support for direct uploading of images and videos while users are on the go. The Samsung Behold is a great mobile phone for mobile blogging, texting and chatting where ever you may be.
The phone can also supports microSD memory card for additional storage solution for your videos, images or music files. The Samsung Behold supports microSD card up to 16GB capacity. And why would you need extra storage expansion? For storing photos and videos that you will take and shoot using the Samsung Behold’s 5 megapixel camera/camcorder that even comes packed with a flash and auto-focus. These photos and videos display well on the phone’s 3-inch LCD color touch screen which also features haptic feedback mechanism.
If you ever felt jealous of your friends on Sprint using the LG Rumor, the LG KS360 looks to be a GSM variant aimed at a similar audience. With Communicasia 2008 now taking place in Singapore, LG has unveiled a Triband GSM GPRS/EDGE QWERTY slider that looks very reminiscent of the LG Rumor here in the States made famous by Sprint. With a 2.4 inches screen running at 240 x 320 pixels, the LG KS360 is set to only release in Asia. Although the device will only be available in Asia initially, recent FCC filing and approvals should take care of any requirements preventing a US launch later this year.