Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha made good on a statement last week about doing more partnering with Sprint – the device maker on Thursday announced a “reinvigorated alliance” with the carrier that will mean the launch of more than 10 new Motorola devices this year on Sprint networks.
Announced at a press conference in New York City, the new portfolio includes smartphones, tablets and push-to-talk (PTT) devices for Sprint and its prepaid brands Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile USA.
The Motorola Photon 4G will be Motorola’s first Sprint 4G device with a dual-core 1GHz processor, Android 2.3, Sprint ID and world phone capabilities. The Motorola Triumph will be the first Virgin Mobile USA device from Motorola.
“Over the years, we have teamed with Motorola to bring top of the line devices to our customers across both prepaid and postpaid brands,” said Sprint CEO Dan Hesse in a press release. “I am pleased to see our collaboration grow. Together we will enhance the customer experience by bringing innovative devices to market, such as the Motorola Photon 4G and Motorola Triumph.”
The Photon 4G will be available this summer, with pricing and final specs released later. The Triumph also will be available this summer and will be the first handset to come preloaded with the Virgin Mobile Live 2.0 app used to access the Virgin Mobile branded music stream.
On June 5, Sprint and Motorola debuted the XPRT, the first Motorola smartphone powered by Android from Sprint to deliver enterprise-class security, personal productivity enhancements and international roaming. That handset sells for $129.99 with a new line or eligible upgrade and two-year agreement.
More devices to be available this year will include the Motorola Titanium with PTT. Already, Boost Mobile announced three new Motorola devices.
At a Bank of America Merrill Lynch technology conference in New York last week, Jha acknowledged that Verizon has been an important customer for Motorola in the United States, but he said the company would be diversifying and further developing its partnerships with both AT&T and Sprint.
