Sprint Launching Wimax Enable Mammoth HTC SuperSonic

 

Sprint was willing to talk a bit about the timing for its first WiMAX-enabled smartphone, it declined to give details about the actual device. However, these may have been revealed by another source.In recent weeks, details on an HTC smartphone with WiMAX have been leaking out. It's quite possible that this model, the HTC Supersonic, will debut in the near future from Sprint.

Last fall, Mathew Oommen, Sprint's VP of device and technology development, said Google's Android OS is the best option available for creating streaming multimedia applications that can take full advantage of WiMAX's high data transfer speeds. The Supersonic will reportedly be an Android-based device with a focus on multimedia.It will supposedly have 4.3-inch touchscreen, a slim tablet shape, and 1 GHz Snapdragon processor.On top of Android OS 2.1 (or possibly version 3.0), the Supersonic will run HTC Sense, this company's alternate user interface that expands on Google's standard one.This upcoming model will reportedly have a kickstand to hold it up while the user is watching movies on the comparatively large screen.Despite all the leaks, many details on the Supersonic, such as the camera resolution or battery capacity, remain unknown.

The phone will run on the 4G WiMax network Sprint has been building with wireless Internet service provider Clearwire Corp. (Sprint owns 51% of Kirkland, Wash.-based Clearwire.) This 4G service is currently available in 27 U.S. markets covering more than 30 million people and will extend to Houston, Tex. in the next few weeks. By the end of the year, the network is expected to include Boston, New York, San Francisco and Washington and cover up to 120 million people.Paget Alves, Sprint's president of Business Markets, says the company views 4G as a multi billion dollar business opportunity. Healthcare, transportation, manufacturing, media and retail companies are already using 4G to train and communicate with employees, he notes. Sprint says 4G technology can be up to 10 times faster than 3G, making it a good fit for bandwidth-intensive applications like streaming video, transmitting medical images and e-mailing training manuals. This universal "need for speed" means businesses and government agencies not just consumers--will likely adopt Sprint's 4G phone when it debuts, says Alves. He declined to disclose additional details about the handset, but online reports point to a touch-screen phone running Google's Android operating system, designed by Taiwan's HTC. Since Sprint's 4G network is not yet nationwide, the handset is said to be "dual-mode", automatically switching to Sprint's 3G network in areas where 4G isn't available.Sprint is counting on its new 4G phones and markets to keep it ahead of rival Verizon, which plans to introduce its own 4G network--using a different technology called LTE--later this year.

The HTC Supersonic features:

• 4.3-inch Touchscreen
• 1 GHz Snapdragon
• Resolution of 480×800
• HTC Sense UI
• 3.5 mm Audio Jack
• 5 MP Camera
• Bluetooth 2.1
• WiMax connectivity
• GPS
• GPRS/Edge

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