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Oct. 9, 2009

It's no secret anymore that when Palm launched its new Pre smartphone back in June, its overall sales and adoption rate has been rather dismal to say the least.

Now Sprint continues its push for high-end smartphones. The announcement from Samsung at CTIA was no exception.

The mobile handset maker has announced its first Android device for the U.S., the Samsung Moment, and gave the wireless carrier honors to Sprint.

The Samsung "Moment" handset, which is similar in form factor to other Android handsets released recently, features an 800 Ghz processor, 3.2-megapixel camera with flash and camcorder with auto-focus, Bluetooth, 3.5 millimeter headphone jack, visual voicemail, expandable memory up to 32 GB and a slide-out Qwerty keyboard.

The new smartphone will become available with Sprint in two weeks for $179.99 with a two-year contract.

Mobile device users can also pre-register for the new phone online. This is Sprint's second Android announcement in as many months. The HTC Hero will be available from the mobile carrier on Sunday for the same price as Samsung's Moment.

The Android "move" now has become one of differentiation. While handset makers and wireless carriers tout the platform's versatility, the resistance to handsets running Google's open-source platform in the last few weeks will make it necessary for phone makers to put their own unique stamp of approval on their products.

For its part, Motorola has tried just that recently with the CLIQ, giving it a unique user interface overlay that it calls Motorola BLUR.

These latest Samsung news come amid a flood of new Android announcements. On Oct 6, Verizon Wireless announced a partnership with Google, saying the wireless carrier would be announcing its first two Android devices in the next couple of weeks.

At the same time, Motorola introduced its new Motorola CLIQ for T-Mobile at the end of September.

There's no question that Google's new Android operating system has the whole wireless industry running in circles, as every major player wants to embark on the open source band wagon.

The next few weeks will be critical to Android and new mobile device apps are expected to continue to flood the marker. It will also be interesting to see how Apple responds to all of this by having its one fleet of developers building new iPhone apps.

Rumor has it that some iPhone developer 'shops' are working "around the clock" as the race to fill up app stores rages on.

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    This article was featured on Business 5.0 and on Tech Blog.

Source: The FCC.