New Phones to be Released by the End of the Year

[MyHeroinBerry]

U.S. Cellular reveals Android, LTE plans
by Kent German

New smartphones and LTE technology are on their way to U.S. Cellular. During the carrier's quarterly earnings call Thursday, Executive Vice President of Operations Alan Ferber said the RIM BlackBerry Bold, the Android-powered HTC Desire, and a variant of the Samsung Galaxy S Andorid smartphone will land in the carrier's lineup by the end of the year.

Though U.S. Cellular has long offered BlackBerry handsets, the addition of the Desire and the Galaxy S mark an aggressive Android push by the regional carrier. It introduced its first Android handset, the entry-level Samsung Acclaim, only last month, but sold 30,000 Acclaim units the first three weeks.

U.S. Cellular dropped its first hint about the Desire and an Android expansion last April, but at the time offered few details. Both the Desire and Galaxy S, which will land at all four of U.S. Cellular's larger rivals this summer, are high-end line Andorid devices with the 2.1 "Eclair" versions of the operating system.

Ferber also predicted the launch of two unnamed LG smartphones, but did not reveal additional specifics. Currently, LG's smartphone presence in the United States remains very small with just one Android model, Verizon's Ally.

On the network side, Ferber also revealed that U.S. Cellular is working with multiple vendors on development trials for a 4G network. He did not, however, announce a timetable for when LTE would be available to customers.

So it looks like the only new Blackberry we are going to get by the end of the year is the Bold 9650. We are getting Androids and LG smart phones by the pairs of two so we should get Blackberries by the pair too. Noah would be pissed.

Any rumors about what other Blackberries we might be getting soon?

[pistolpetefan23]

I assume the next Curve, can't recall the name off-hand (9300 maybe?). It'd replace the 8530, probably after the new year some time. Beyond that, not really sure what else we'd get. Maybe the clamshell, maybe the Torch a while down the road.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[MyHeroinBerry]

I remember a while back, crackberry said that we were going to get the clamshell. I would hope we would get the torch, but you know how slow US Cellular is with releasing phones. Though, they have a new CEO so maybe they will release phones faster?

[AlexanderVander]

Yes, we're expected to get the Clamshell later this year. I saw it detailed in an email an employee was looking at a few weeks ago when I was at the store. I also caught glimpses of new Android models.

[pvdiamon]

Any concerns that USCC had a bad recent financial quarter? Losing customers and money. I would hate to see them in trouble, and haven't heard anything on whether that has significance for USCC in the long run. Anyone?

[MyHeroinBerry]

New CEO, rumors are that big changes are coming. We will see. I like USCC. Had Verison, T-mobile, and not USCC. No problems with USCC. I think what's holding USCC back is the delay in releasing phones. I'm surprised they are not releasing the first gen blackberry

[MyHeroinBerry]

Originally Posted by AlexanderVander

Yes, we're expected to get the Clamshell later this year. I saw it detailed in an email an employee was looking at a few weeks ago when I was at the store. I also caught glimpses of new Android models.

So 9650 and the Clamshell (or Clammy as I like to call it) are the only new BBs to be released?

[AlexanderVander]

Originally Posted by MyHeroinBerry

So 9650 and the Clamshell (or Clammy as I like to call it) are the only new BBs to be released?

At this point I guess so. I'm no insider or anything, I'm just basing that off what I got a peek of.

[Xopher]

There aren't any other CDMA models out to release on USCC. They haven't come out with a CDMA version of the new Pearl yet, or the 9300 line. Even the 9670 Clamshell hasn't been released. What other models can come out to USCC??