Sep. 27, 2006

With the quiet addition of its new T-719 flip phone, which offers BlackBerry Connect service and an email-friendly keypad, Samsung Electronics now supplies just over one-third of T-Mobile USA’s handset portfolio.

The T-719 uses the same SureType keypad, a QWERTY alternative that combines two letters to a key—that Research In Motion’s new Pearl BlackBerry device does.

The flip phone is also priced the same as RIM’s Pearl at $200 with a two-year service contract and a $50 mail-in rebate.

Currently, the RIM Pearl—a narrow BlackBerry device in a candybar form—is a T-Mobile exclusive, but is expected to launch at other carriers in the United States.

RIM’s half-dozen handsets at T-Mobile make it the carrier’s second-most prolific vendor along with Motorola Inc.

Nokia Corp. has four handsets available through T-Mobile.

The T-719 joins ten other Samsung handsets at T-Mobile, including the new Trace model, a thin multimedia device that sells for $100 with a two-year service contract and a $50 mail-in rebate.

Source: RCR News