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Motorola Bali and Rambler flip phones hitting Boost Mobile on August 11
Boost Mobile does a fine enough job advertising its $50 monthly unlimited plan, but how's about the phone selection? If you're a fan of flips, Motorola has a new duo headed to the aforesaid operator next month. First up is the Rambler (shown right), which boasts a full QWERTY keypad, integrated 1.3 megapixel camera with video capture, stereo Bluetooth, IM / email capability and inbuilt GPS. The Bali, on the other hand, rocks a more traditional input surface along with an MP3 player, external touch controls and a microSD slot. Both handsets will go on sale August 11th, with the Rambler running $99.99 and the Bali $149.99. Who said Boost never gave you more (keys) for less (dough)?
Motorola Rambler coming to Boost Mobile with full QWERTY on a hinge
Motorola already offers the Clutch if you're looking to get your text on through Boost Mobile -- but what if you want that oh-so-rare combination of full QWERTY plus a clamshell form factor? That's pretty hard to find regardless of carrier or network technology, but it looks like Moto is going to deliver with a phone called the Rambler featuring a 1.3 megapixel cam with video capture, stereo Bluetooth, GPS, and not much else -- in other words, like most Boost devices, this one will be pretty low-end. More on price, release date, and specs as we get it.
Boost Mobile rolls out Motorola i296
If you thought the aging i290 was about ready for replacement, we've got some great news for you -- the updated i296 is upon us. It's an ultra-basic device by any measure, seeing how it lacks a camera, music player, and web access, but if you're just looking for a marginally stylish way to get your chirp-chirp on, this might be a decent way to do it. As with many (if not most) iDEN devices in recent memory, the candybar is mil-spec 810F compliant for dust, shock, and vibration resistance, and it runs just $59.95 contract free -- let's see you try to get that kind of a deal on a smartphone, eh? Follow the break for Boost's press release.
Boost Mobile launches Motorola i1 on June 20
Since the Android-powered i1 was originally announced for Sprint's Direct Connect service, you might've assumed that it'd be the first to get a hard launch date -- but subsidiary Boost Mobile is breaking that news first for some reason with the announcement today that the phone is coming June 20 in Boost retail stores plus Bust Buy locations. Pricing hasn't been announced, but Best Buy had previously teased it for $350, so we wouldn't expect this to be a cheap purchase; then again, you've gotta remember that it's coming at you contract-free. Not like you'll be unlocking it and taking it to another iDEN network either way, right?
Boost Mobile confirms it's getting the Motorola i1, basically
Let's be honest -- there was never any real doubt that Boost was going to share the Motorola i1 with parent Sprint, especially after Best Buy went ahead and threw it up early. That said, if you still needed a little extra confirmation just to sleep better at night, look no further than this tweet today from Boost Mobile's official account saying it "is launching an ANDROID next month" and imploring that we all "spread it like wildfire." They don't mention what device it'll be, but clearly it'll be the i1 -- so consider the message spread like wildfire, Boost. Where you at?
Boost-branded Motorola i1 goes live on Best Buy's site
You won't find any mention of the Android-powered Motorola i1 on Boost Mobile's site just yet, but the phone -- the very first to run Android for iDEN networks -- looks destined for Sprint's prepaid brand now that Best Buy has fessed up to it. It really doesn't come as any surprise since we already knew the i1 would be launching on Sprint's Direct Connect service, and it seems rather silly for those guys not to get as much use out of the phone as they can, particularly considering that it's arguably the most exciting iDEN handset ever made. That's not saying much, we know... but you know what we mean. Now, the question is: who's going to pay $349.99 for it with no commitment?
Boost Mobile sweetens unlimited plans with free 411, adds Samsung Rant this month
Boost is already known for offering up one of the more aggressive prepaid unlimited plans in the industry, pushing all-you-can-eat voice, messaging, and web for $50 a month -- but it's upping the ante just a tad today on news that customers of both its $50 plan and its $60 BlackBerry plan now have free access to 411 information, instant messaging, and email. Then again, it seems like we're past the point where carriers should be differentiating between types of data, but the fact that Boost offers dumbphones almost exclusively across its range gives it more leeway than most for this sort of stratification. Oh, and to take advantage of the new hotness, Boost would like to cordially invite customers to take a look at the Samsung Rant, a device that actually launched a good long while ago on Sprint but now makes its way over to Boost on May 19 for $149.99 (contract-free, of course). The landscape slider's got full QWERTY, EV-DO, a 2 megapixel cam, microSD support up to 16GB, and an analog of Sprint's own One Click UI. Like red? Good, 'cause it's launching in red. Follow the break for Boost's full press release.
Sanyo Juno lands on Boost Mobile, channels Sprint's SCP-2700
If Boost Mobile's latest from Sanyo -- the so-called Juno -- looks familiar, it damn well better: it's nothing more than a rebranded SCP-2700. We're still having a hard time getting used to the fact that Boost is back into the CDMA game yet again (in a big way) with Sprint's acquisition of Virgin Mobile, and needless to say, the Juno doesn't have a trace of iDEN compatibility coursing through its electronic veins. The fairly light spec sheet includes a 1.3 megapixel camera, QVGA display, GPS, Bluetooth, speakerphone, and an address book capable of swallowing up to 600 contacts; it's available today for $99.99 contract-free in your choice of pink or blue.
Virgin Mobile postpaid goes to the big MVNO in the sky in May
In the US, Virgin's never been known as a serious postpaid player outside of its Helio acquisition, so it makes some sense that new corporate parent Sprint is killing off its postpaid services -- what's rather wild, though, is that they're doing it in dramatic, scorched-earth fashion. The service is simply ending on May 25, a little under three months from now, with no automatic transition to any other service in Sprint's portfolio -- Virgin prepaid, Boost, Sprint, or Sprint Direct Connect -- but the good news is that anyone interested in moving over to Sprint postpaid specifically will get a $50 discount off any device with a new two-year contract plus waived activation fees. It's far from a slam dunk for either Sprint or legacy customers -- we're certain that not all of them will stay within the company's ecosystem -- but with Virgin clearly part of Sprint's prepaid strategy, there was apparently no good business reason to continue supporting a handful of postpaid customers off to the side. For what it's worth, a Virgin Mobile spokesperson reached out to us today to emphasize that the company's prepaid brand is here to stay: "Virgin Mobile with Boost Mobile will be the cornerstone of Sprint's prepaid strategy in 2010." 2011, though... well, that remains to be seen.
Boost gets back into CDMA game in a big way
In the "press releases we missed while going out of our gourds on the show floor at CES" department, Sprint's Boost Mobile is getting back into CDMA in a big way this month. It wasn't long ago that Boost swore off its CDMA tendencies as iDEN started to heat up again against all odds -- thanks largely to the release of hot (well, hot by iDEN standards, anyway) devices like the Stature -- but CDMA makes a lot more sense now that the parent company has scooped up Virgin and smartly has no interest in running two separate, unrelated prepaid divisions. Anyhow, the gist of the announcement is that Boost will be reinvesting heavily in its $50 monthly unlimited plan for CDMA devices and has brought on three inaugural handsets to help kick it off: the Mirro and Incognito (pictured) from Sanyo alongside the venerable BlackBerry Curve 8330. The Mirro features a slick, mirrored finish (hence the name, we suspect) along with a 1.3 megapixel cam; it clocks in at $99.99. The Incognito steps up to $149.99 with a hidden set of external controls, a 2 megapixel cam, a full QWERTY keyboard inside -- it's got social network integration, to boot, and users can add 3G data to their plan for another $10 a month. Same goes for the 8330, which retails for $249.99; all three prices seem high until you remember that Boost doesn't do contracts. All three handsets are available now.
Motorola Opus One caught on video, dawg
It's pretty rare that a tech demo starts with the phrase "you know what I'm gonna do?" But, this one certainly does, a dark, shaky, but thoroughly comprehensive exploration of the recently rumored Motorola Opus One smartphone. Jive- or profanity-averse readers (or anyone who hates zebra cake) will probably want to skip the four videos embedded below, but we'll give you the highlights: iDen is confirmed, Android 1.5 Cupcake is currently installed with Motoblur frosting, there's a five megapixel camera on the back, and with its push-to-talk this one looks to be going to Nextel or Boost Mobile. Those are the deets, but click on through if you want to do that video, dawg. [Via iNicc0lo]
Motorola i410 comes to Boost, catchy name doesn't
You know how you can tell Moto's new i410 for iDEN isn't really supposed to be hip, stylish, or ultra-functional? Neither Moto nor launch partner Boost bothered to give it a fresh, funky name, bucking the trend set by the Clutch and Debut. Of course, with an utterly basic black rectangular shell, tiny monochrome secondary display, and lack of even a VGA cam, it's clear that they're going for the bottom-most reaches of the market here -- which means that customers should be able to scoop it up for a song on any of Boost's prepaid plans, happily. It's not up on the carrier's site just yet, but it'll be available before the year's up -- and Motorola says that this officially "completes Boost Mobile's 2009 device roadmap," so we hope you weren't holding out for some mythical Android device in the next couple weeks.
Sprint's Dan Hesse talks Android, Pre, iPhone, 4G on Charlie Rose
Sprint CEO Dan Hesse recently sat down for an interview with the master of one-on-ones and black backdrops, Charlie Rose, and while much of the talk was spent traveling down memory lane and revisiting Hesse's two-decade rise through the ranks at AT&T before fleeing in 2000, there were some great quotes that came out of it: "We're getting ready to launch a couple of new Android devices." We know one's the Hero, and the other -- if we were the betting types -- is the Samsung InstinctQ. Rose: "The merger with Nextel was a bad idea?" Hesse: "In 20 / 20 hindsight, it was, yes... the premium that Sprint paid for Nextel was too much." Sprint's gone back and forth on the idea of spinning off Nextel over the past couple years, so it's not a surprising thing for him to think -- but to hear Sprint's CEO actually say out loud that he thinks a very active part of its network shouldn't have become part of the company is a little bombastic. "Our prepaid brand is Boost." Nothing wild and crazy about that statement, though it does reaffirm that Virgin Mobile is destined for assimilation. The whole thing's kinda funny considering that Boost dabbled in CDMA before reversing course, and once again, Sprint will be dealing with large installed bases of both iDEN and CDMA prepaid customers. On touchscreen smartphones: "Those are the most expensive phones for us to sell, and those are the ones where we need to make sure that the customer stays with us [and] doesn't churn, because we're out a lot of money... those are expensive devices." Theoretically, an aggressively-priced subsidized smartphone could still end up leaving a carrier in the red if you broke your contract early on and paid the ETF, but we doubt that's a huge problem -- especially for a CDMA carrier like Sprint. He goes on to say "I'm already looking at 4G versions of smartphones," so that's really encouraging to hear, particularly if you're into WiMAX. "Customers will pay premium for simplicity. Simplicity is everything... Digital One Rate which we launched back at AT&T, that was all about simplicity... people paid more. It wasn't a price cut." Translation: "Unlimited makes you feel like you're getting a deal, but rest assured, we're banking." In response to Rose asking how Sprint uses the Palm Pre to take on Apple and RIM: "It was really kind of Palm's decision to take on Apple. And Palm has had [a] long standing relationship with Sprint." It's interesting to hear Hesse seemingly back away from a fight with Apple and chalk up the situation to happenstance -- RIM not as much, considering that Sprint carries a number of BlackBerrys in its lineup and will certainly continue to do so. Talking more about pitting the Pre against the iPhone, he goes on to say that Palm's handset is "doing well. But you've got to almost put the iPhone, to be fair, in a separate category. The Apple brand and that device has done so well. It's like comparing someone to Michael Jordan." If that's not a tactful acknowledgment that the iPhone is a bona fide wireless superstar, we don't know what is. Hesse's giving the iPhone the respect it's rightfully earned -- as any strategically-minded executive would. "The biggest impediment to mobile growth is you got processors are getting a lot faster, screens are getting sharper, they use more and more power, and battery technology is not moving very fast... That's the one breakthrough that the industry needs. It needs battery breakthroughs." It's good to hear that Hesse understands as well as everyone else that the wireless industry needs to be focused on making power draw a non-issue, but he sounds less convinced of the solution: "I don't know. Solar we hope, and renewable energy sources." When Sprint gets some cash socked away, it might consider throwing some R&D money at the problem -- it'll be first to market with something resembling a "national" 4G network, after all, and the situation's only going to get worse. Who knew you'd find out so much about the inner workings of the States' third-largest carrier from watching PBS? [Via Gizmodo]
Motorola and Boost bow the i856 Debut slider
Quick: name an iDEN slider. Having trouble? Really wracking your brain over there? Well, allow us to help you out by introducing you to the i856 Debut, a just-announced model that's been rumored for Boost for the better part of 2009. The phone pushes iDEN even deeper into consumer territory and away from its traditionally business-oriented roots, featuring a funky (well, funky for iDEN, anyhow) design, stereo Bluetooth, microSD expansion to 8GB, GPS, a 1.3 megapixel cam, and that slider form factor that plays far better among Boost's youthful demo than among Nextel's decidedly heavier-duty clientele. It's available today for $169.99 (and for the record, we think we deserve a little credit for not cracking a "Motorola debuts the Debut" pun).
Sprint acquires Virgin Mobile USA for a cool $483m
Remember Virgin Mobile? Sure you do -- not long ago the last-man-standing MVNO snapped up Helio, and seemed ready to take its place as one of the few boutique prepaid operations still... er, operating. Well that appears to be all but done and done, as Sprint has just announced a "definitive agreement" to purchase the company for $483 million worth of sweet, succulent stock (which looks to be right about what it was valued at to begin with). It looks like Sprint will pair the acquisition with its Boost Mobile brand, which till now was in direct competition with VM. It's not quite rival city, however, Virgin Mobile USA was launched as a joint venture with Sprint, and the MVNO glides on Dan Hesse's network as it is. Still, it does seem to be another indicator that the days of the MVNO are certainly on the wane, though Sprint now looks to own the space -- what little there is.
Boost's Motorola i465 Clutch getting redone in graphite, available next Tuesday
If you're feeling the need to text your face off on Boost Mobile but the original i465 Clutch's maroon shade wasn't your cup of tea, fret not -- there's a new shade in town. "Graphite," which is really just a fancy way of saying "black," is going to end up being the second color option for Motorola's first QWERTY iDEN set when it launches next Tuesday for $129.99. Sounds expensive, but when you consider that Boost is commitment-free, it's not that bad.
Boost Mobile repaints Motorola Stature i9 in red
Boost Mobile's i9 stands head and shoulders above the rest of the carrier's line as its clear-cut hero device, but there's a problem -- the launch color, kind of a dark bronze, was a little bland. That's not cool for an iDEN flip this far up into the rare air, is it? Of course not, so we're glad to see that they've partnered up with Moto to bring out the so-called Stature in a second (more fitting) color, red. It's available now for exactly the same price as the original that's been available since February, $299.99.
Motorola Clutch now on sale at Boost
It's not the prettiest handset in the world -- nor the fanciest -- but it's not designed to be. Instead, Moto's i465 Clutch has but one purpose in life, and that's to bring QWERTY power to the iDEN masses (that is, those who can't be bothered to lug around a BlackBerry). We opined that it'd be cheap when Motorola announced it, and indeed, it's running just $129.99 now on Boost Mobile -- expensive by contractual standards, but like all Boost offerings, this price is agreement-free. The phone's available immediately -- so assuming all those messaging issues are ironed out, we should be good to go.[Via Phone Scoop]
Boost Mobile planning retail blitz with 50 new stores this year
Boost's clearly (and understandably) delighted by the explosive popularity of its $50 unlimited package, but the scrappy little division of Sprint still needs to grow into the big shoes it's now fashioned for itself -- and it looks like that's what 2009 is going to be all about. Boost chief Matt Carter has revealed that the brand will be opening some 50 new retail outlets before the end of the year, all of which will be dedicated to peddling Boost goods rather than occupying a lame little kiosk in the corner of a Sprint store. That's in addition to the three dedicated stores Boost currently operates in Miami, LA, and Houston, so it's a pretty big step up -- and with subscriber adds continuing to pile up amid newly-heated competition with arch rivals like Virgin, there probably couldn't be a better time to step up. [Via mocoNews]
Boost Mobile says SMS bottleneck to clear up by May 7th
So Boost Mobile's $50 per month free for all hasn't gone exactly as planned, with a surge in the carrier's customer base exacerbating excessive text message delays that have been known to plague Boost and Nextel in the past. The house of "Where You At" has acknowledged the issue, with spokesperson John Votava telling the Wall Street Journal there'll be a fix in place specifically by May 7th. He said the number of new customers that have signed up has overwhelmed the company, and with SMS a still growing trend, that iDEN network's gonna have to either get in better shape or wait for enough frustrated customers to leave and reach a more stable equilibrium.
