Sprint Nextel has lowered the price of the Samsung Instinct smartphone when the handset goes on sale Friday for $129.99.
The Instinct, regarded as Sprint’s response to Apple’s iPhone, has a touchscreen, 3G capability for fast Web access, support for both corporate and personal e-mail, visual voice mail, GPS, multimedia features, 2-megapixel camera, microSD slot with support for up to 8GB and a speech-to-action button for voice commands.
Sprint was involved in the design of the handset and said it plans to spend more than $100 million to market the Samsung device. Reuters reported that this is about three times the marketing budget for Sprint’s biggest phone launch last year. Sprint is still struggling to stop customer losses and return to profitability. CEO Dan Hesse also said that the company hopes the Instinct can help stop customer losses.
When Sprint first announced the Instinct it was expected to have a $200 price tag after rebates, but Sprint has lowered the price possibly due to the lower price of the iPhone. The $130 Instinct price tag is after a $100 rebate with a two-year service agreement.
