October 07, 2009, 3:48 PM — After weeks of anticipation, Sprint today said that starting on November 1 it will sell Samsung’s first Android handset available in the United States.
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The new Samsung Moment will run on Sprint's EV-DO Rev. A 3G network and will sell for $179.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate and a two-year service agreement. The phone will also feature expandable memory of up to 32GB, a 3.2-megapixel camera and Active Sync for corporate e-mail access.
Samsung first began showing off its Android phone models during the CommunicAsia show in Singapore this summer when it debuted its Samsung Galaxy model. Samsung has been placing a lot more emphasis on developing Android-based smartphones this year, after initially falling behind rival device manufacturer HTC, whose T-Mobile G1 was the first Android phone available in the United States.
The Samsung Moment will be the second Android smartphone to run on the Sprint 3G network, as the carrier announced last month that the Android-based HTC Hero would go on sale on Oct. 11. AT&T is currently the only major U.S. wireless carrier to not have an Android phone in its lineup, as Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile have all either started selling Android phones or have made plans to sell them in the near future.
Verizon and Google made big headlines yesterday when the two companies jointly announced that they will be working together to develop Android-based smartphones, PDAs and netbooks, and to deliver users applications sold through the Android Market app store. Verizon says it will have two Android-based handsets on the market by year-end with more to come by 2010.
The Android platform, which was developed by Google in 2007, is a Linux-based open platform for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and some key mobile applications. Google has been promoting the platform as a way to spur innovation in developing mobile applications that will give users the same experience surfing the Web on their phone as they currently have on their desktop computers.
