Google’s Android mobile software hasn’t obtained vast traction yet, but Sprint hopes to change that this October. Sprint Nextel Corp said today that it will sell its first phone running Android this fall.
The decision by Sprint will “help Android become a more mainstream operating system,” Roger Entner, a telecommunications analyst at Nielson & Co, told the Wall Street Journal.
Until October, the Android platform is only availble to T-Mobile subscribers, which has severely limited its popularity. Sprint’s new HTC Corp. Hero smartphone will be based on the Android operating system and retail for $179.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate and two-year service contract.
According to Eric Zeman of Information Week, The Hero “boasts an attractive design and high-end specs, such as a 5 megapixel camera…” and “is laden with other features, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, support for 32GB of storage, accelerometer and Sprint services such as SprintTV, NFL and NASCAR, and visual voicemail.”
Hero is just one of many Android devices prepping to hit the market in the coming months. Both Motorola and Samsung are rumored to be readying Android devices to be announced later this month. As far as carriers go, T-Mobile and Sprint won’t be alone in the Android offerers for long. Verizon Wireless, a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC, has committed to carrying Android phones before the end of the year.
