Holiday Handset Guide Slideshow - Giving the gift of wireless
FierceWireless compiled this guide to U.S. holiday handsets that operators will be featuring during the upcoming buying season. In the first of this two-part series, we profile the low-end handsets.
Whether they line up at a retail store early in the morning or tear through some gold wrapping paper to find a smartphone waiting in its box, consumers are gearing up to give the gift of wireless for the holidays. Carriers have readied their holiday promotions and will specifically be pushing these devices in the coming weeks, hoping to attract subscribers as 2008 draws to a close.
Some research suggests that consumers will be buying smartphones. A survey conducted by ChageWave Research in early October found that 12 percent of those polled planned on buying a smartphone within the next 90 days, the highest such percentage in three years of polling.
FierceWireless contacted the major operators and compiled this list of phones, their respective carriers, prices and top features. We divided the list into “low-end” and “high-end” phones, based on price, features and market presence. After conferring with analysts, we decided that, in general, any phone retailing for less than $150 would be considered a low-end phone unless it came with a separate data plan. In Part One of this two-part series we look at the low-end phones.
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The Eternity's beautiful touch display hosted in black and chrome exterior with vibration response and full virtual QWERTY keyboard, support for AT&T Mobile TV, Navigator, Video Share, 3G browsing, and a 3-MP camera will certainly demand your attention as a multimedia phone. Read full review and features here!
The BlackBerry Storm is the world's first touchscreen BlackBerry, with a brilliant 3.25" SurePress touch-screen display supporting Multi-touch technology. Supported by Verizon's high-speed EVDO network it is best BlackBerry yet! Read full review and features here!
The New Samsung Propel a767 for AT&T offers multimedia smartphone functionality while still remaining compact thanks to its slider phone form.The Propel runs on AT&T's high-speed 3G HSDPA network that allows for full-length music, streaming video content downloads and Video Share.
Also known as the Motorola Active, the W450, it's rubberized external coating provides protection from the elements, and a special chin bar makes it easy to clip to a belt or backpack.
The Samsung Instinct touchscreen cell phone for Sprint PCS features GPS, a 2-megapixel camera for photos and video, threaded messaging, a slot for extra memory, an adaptive web browser with motion panning, voice-control, and a slew of customizable options.
