Ah, the Ocean 2. The handset Helio loyalists have been clamoring for since, well, forever ago. After seeing the OZ2 break cover in the FCC last March, we wondered just how long it'd take for this thing to ever go on sale -- and that was assuming it even would go on sale. Now, Earthlings just like yourself can buy the handset for a buck forty-nine on contract, and given that hordes of you Helio faithful already have, we're now ready to hear how you'd change it. Is the fit and finish up to snuff? Is it the "3G Social Networking Powerhouse" you thought it would be? Are you digging the color scheme? Are you making others envious, or simply becoming envious of others? You've waited a long, long time for this opportunity -- don't blow it.

While the Americanized version of Helio's Ocean 2 has gobs of red accents (thanks, Virgin Mobile!), many have wondered if an all black version would hit the scenes as well. Clearly, that answer is... well, maybe. A South Korean Helio page shows two variants of the newest Ocean, with one devoid of all those fiery accents. Obviously, we've no way to tell if this thing is ever coming to US soil, but this just might be the excuse you needed to hit up Seoul for an extended weekend.

[Via MobileCrunch]

We were told that today would be the day, and sure enough, today is the day. Today is also the day in which Helio's Ocean 2 becomes available, as evidenced by the image above and the completely active "Buy" button tucked away in the read link. It'll run users a buck forty-nine on contract if you're a new subscriber or $400 without, and it just might make all of your dreams come true. If you're curious, you can see if it satisfied our every fantasy right here.

[Via HelioCity]

The Helio Ocean 2 is finally official, and without hitting up a Britney Spears concert -- we know, you already bought the tickets, they're nonrefundable, you couldn't sell them on eBay, whatever -- you can get the closest look right now on Engadget Mobile. A worthy successor to the dual-sliding throne, or a late, chunky reject still clinging to MySpace years after everyone's gone to Facebook and beyond? Update your status and head over for a look.

It looks like the world had better (finally) get ready for Virgin Mobile's Helio Ocean 2 -- not only have unboxing shots of the long-awaited set surfaced today, a Virgin press release hyping the company's sponsorship of Britney Spears' Circus tour casually mentions that it'll be launched alongside Brit's big comeback. "Select fans" will be given Ocean 2s to capture and share images and videos from each show using the phone's blogging, email, and social networking features, so we're guessing that means we'll be seeing a launch before the tour kicks off in March -- and with units out in the wild already, it could be as soon as a couple weeks on February 12. Check all the unboxing shots at the read link -- it looks pretty slick, even if it is way late to the game.

[Via unwired view and Heliocity]

Read - Unboxing photos
Read - Virgin Circus press release

Our friend Mr. Blurrycam has come through once again, this time with a handful of Helio Ocean 2 snapshots. Aside from a blurry close-up of the on-screen calendar, there isn't much here that we haven't already seen in finer detail from the FCC. It's apparently got a 3 megapixel camera, which is what we reported initially but not what was listed in the FCC-submitted user manual. Our tipster says it's expected to launch early or mid-February for release, which jives with other rumors we've heard. Hit up the gallery for more pics.

Right in line with reports we heard earlier, it looks like Helio's second iteration of the Ocean could be going on sale as early as next month. Silicon Alley Insider has it that the Ocean 2 could be loosed in America "sometime this quarter," though sooner rather than later is looking mighty promising. It's still unclear how much Helio plans on charging for this long, long, long awaited handset, but we'd say it'll have to lowball pretty hard if it plans to distract anyone already focused intently on a G1, iPhone or Palm Pre.

[Via UnwiredView]

Described to us once by those in the know as "a project that would've been," this Helio-badged, Samsung-built, multimedia-happy slider just surfaced on the Heliocity forums. Samsung shipped tweaked versions of this handset (based on the Samsung F400) with B&O and Armani branding, but there's no telling if "Helio by Virgin" still has plans to bring this to market. More shots after the break.

Looks like we're inching ever closer to getting our paws on the mythical Helio Ocean 2 -- the fun-loving regulators at the FCC just added a Pantech OZII dual-slider handset with Helio branding to their all-knowing database. Nothing you couldn't have guessed here -- QVGA display, EV-DO, 2 megapixel cam with video, full HTML browser, A2DP support -- but hey, this is The Phone That Could Have But Didn't Save Helio, you know? It's alright to be excited.

[Via Phone Scoop]

This is one of those classic tales of joy and sorrow -- a tale of a phone that could've been Helio's undisputed flagship model of the year, a phone that could've saved the scrappy little MVNO from Virgin Mobile's gaping maw (alright, it couldn't have even come close to doing that, but we're running with it for the drama factor). On the high side, we've now heard confirmation straight from the source that the Ocean 2 is, in fact, a real device, but the problem is that it won't be coming out until next year because they "want to put it out when it's the best it can be." It's sure looking just about the "best it can be" from the videos we've seen recently -- and frankly, we think they should just throw this out there while kicking off development on an Ocean 3 ASAP -- but it looks like the decision's already been made, and we all know there's no such thing as moving a release date forward.

[Thanks, Blade G]

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.

Back in the early days of Engadget, everyone -- including us -- thought mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) were totally poised to be the next big thing. And why not? You get to be a wireless carrier without having to operate your own infrastructure (which is by far the most expensive, difficult part). Just what the doctor ordered for the big, stodgy wireless carriers, each struggling to balance differentiating themselves while trapping their customers in their walled content and services gardens.

What we got instead was failed business model after spectacular failed business model, leading to a domino effect of collapses that left just a precious few companies standing. Let's take a look at the carnage over on Engadget Mobile, shall we?

We know, the little possibility that the whole deal could fall apart has been keeping you wide awake for months, but at long last, you can push aside your anxiety and hit the sack. Virgin Mobile USA announced today that it had "completed its acquisition of Helio," and all of the terms put forth on June 27th were used in the final close. Aside from garnering all the necessary regulatory approvals, Helio shareholders SK Telecom and EarthLink have received 13 million shares of Virgin Mobile USA Class A common stock, with a value of around $38 million. It's also noted that both SK Telecom and Virgin Group will each invest a cool $25 million in Virgin Mobile USA for preferred shares. And then, there was one.

So we heard from a very reliable source that mobile user interface guru Matias Duarte -- who you may know as the man behind the Sidekick and Helio UI / user experiences -- actually left Helio late last year to join up with Palm. Although no announcement was made, we hear he and his gang of designers jumped ship (well before Helio completely flooded) to take on the monumental task of designing the UI for Palm's next-gen mobile OS (aka "Palm OS 2.0 or II"). His resume online now lists him as "Senior Director, Human Interface and User Experience" doing "Something new..." since September 2007; we got in touch with Palm, who confirmed that he's now under the company's employ.

Of course, expectations should be pretty high -- Palm's only been promising this supposedly game-changing OS since around 2004, and the company's reputation and pedigree is (or at least it used to be) in groundbreaking mobile UI design. But this news also kind of makes us wonder: if they didn't have a killer UI and user experience team already in place and long-since working their asses off by late 2007, exactly how far along are they on this thing, anyway?

Money-losing companies with interesting technology and a small, if rabid, customer base still frequently tend to sell for healthy chunks of change -- especially in the wireless space. We know Helio was burning cash like crazy, but that doesn't entirely explain why SK Telecom was so absurdly desperate to dump their $500m investment. At a $39m acquisition price, SK didn't just lose its shirt -- it lost that, the shoes, and then the pants. You know, the pants with a half-billion dollars in them.

Now, if you look at nothing other than the price per subscriber of some other, larger mobile acquisitions, Helio's numbers seem even crazier. Alltel's subscriber base is going to Verizon for about $2,100 per customer, and back when Nextel sold to Sprint, each sub went then for about $2,350. Helio's $39m sale to Virgin nets them $230 per subscriber. That's now what you're worth to Virgin, Helio subscriber -- $230 on an $80 ARPU. Clearly there's a lot more value in acquiring more than ten million subs than under 200k, but is that value ten fold?

And then to add insult to injury, the piddly $39m Helio did get from Virgin was an all-stock deal, which basically means SK won't be recouping material costs any time soon. Granted, that does amount to 17% of Virgin Mobile USA's market cap, and SK gets two seats on VM's board, but damned if Helio isn't like the reverse-Brewster's Millions of cellphone companies. Basically our pet theory right now is that either SK is playing the Korean tax system for the maximum possible write-off, or they literally didn't have another soul to turn to in this whole wide world. We know Helio wasn't in good shape, but a $39m all-stock deal means they basically stood on the corner and gave the company away to whomever was passing by at the time.

We wanted some more expert opinions, so we hit up a couple of old Engadget pals. Om Malik had this to say: Their losses are huge and there is no hope in sight. Why Virgin bought so few subscribers, I don't get. My best guess is that SK Telecom wants to do something with Virgin. Helio was one giant misexecution -- it is a micropennies on the dollar sale.

Michael Gartenberg offered this: I suspect there were not a whole lot of options... who else would have bought this thing? It's clear the MVNO model doesn't work for the most part. Virgin was probably the only buyer who had interest and it was probably the best chance for Helio's investors to get some of that money back.

Bottom line, it looks like Virgin and its shareholders should be pretty stoked today, because by all accounts they got a pretty killer deal.