Helio is dead, long live Helio

The deed is done, and Virgin Mobile is wasting no time giving its fresh acquisition a giant bear-hug to welcome it to the family. Helio is now "Helio by Virgin Mobile," tagged with the line "Plan To Have It All" -- hopefully a nod to the fact that Virgin plans to keep Helio's offerings distanced from Virgin as a higher-end, feature-rich carrier that can compliment Virgin's typical lineup of ultra-cheap prepaid goods. To kick things off, Helio is now offering an upgrade to its $80 A La Carte plan, boosting the 1,500 included minutes to a limitless bucket -- nice, we'll take it -- and Virgin is stealing some of Helio's mojo to offer the Shuttle, a new handset marketed under the Virgin name that'll integrate Helio's Buddy Beacon service. Just stay on track with the Ocean 2, fellas, and everything's cool by us.

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Sep 9th 2008 4:23PM]

Helio could've been very successful if they didn't change their direction and tryied to be like Amp'd, and attract teens spending their parents money.

[Cybergypsy @ Sep 9th 2008 7:36PM]

Ampd, how long did they last?

[Christian Walters @ Sep 9th 2008 4:38PM]

Here is the CORRECT logo folks:

[Christian Walters @ Sep 9th 2008 4:39PM]

well damn, I FAIL, heres teh link=http://img299.imageshack.us/my.php?image=heliobyvirginlogocz9.jpg

[deyanimay @ Sep 9th 2008 4:45PM]

Yeah thats definitely photoshopped, the shadows are all wrong.

[Mikeweezer @ Sep 9th 2008 6:44PM]

.... I'm getting really sick of the following:

1. FAIL comments
2. pwnage
3. I hate / love iPhone comments

Pretty much every comment on Engadget these days involves one of the above.

[Faisal Ajam @ Sep 9th 2008 4:40PM]

first lol

[Faisal Ajam @ Sep 9th 2008 4:42PM]

dang

[Christian Walters @ Sep 9th 2008 5:02PM]

Yup, only 17 minutes late there cracker

[Ryan Trevisol @ Sep 9th 2008 5:21PM]

Isn't Virgin an MVNO? What does that make Helio? MVVNO?

[v3xx @ Sep 9th 2008 6:52PM]

HELIO - "because virgin mobile is doing so well...."

i've never met or even seen anyone with virgin service. every time i go into virgin (which isn't often) their phones look like shit.

[DaveHimself @ Sep 9th 2008 6:14PM]

"Don't call it a phone." Call it a memory.

[EmoChicksAreHot.....Seriously @ Sep 9th 2008 6:31PM]

Once they make an Ocean 2 with a touch screen and actually have better coverage in my state,then I just might switch.

[burriot_avatar @ Sep 9th 2008 6:41PM]

Even better than Helio would be a tiny wizard that lives in your pocket. He'd have the same magical powers as a regular sized wizard, but he'd just be portable. He could like store all your songs in a magic spell and open magic portals so you could talk to your mom if you had a really bad day. He'd be awesome. I'd name mine Merlin2.0.

[John Stracke @ Sep 10th 2008 9:11AM]

You need to let the drugs wear off before posting.

[Gadget @ Sep 9th 2008 7:01PM]

can't they lower the prices...they always seemed ridiculous to me

[Phoenix987 @ Sep 9th 2008 9:27PM]

I guess it's the first step on the road to being bought/taken over when ISPs like EarthLink advertise your products.

I was looking to get something like a Helio a year back or so. I didn't, and now I'm happy because I'd be cussing myself out.

And since when is Virgin Mobile doing well? No one I know has VM and their products look like they cost 25 cents to make.

[dcny @ Sep 9th 2008 11:50PM]

Theres always a market for cheap s**t look at tracfone/net 10 how you think there still in business besides being owned by America Movil; there are just some people who want cheap at whatever cost in looks.

[David @ Sep 10th 2008 8:18AM]

thank god perhaps virgins customer service wont suck as much as helios

[paul @ Sep 10th 2008 4:37PM]

The Shuttle is horrendously ugly and boring. The only reason anyone ever went with Helio is because they offered sleek phones. I'll be waiting out my contract for a year and then switching.