First 4G Android-Based Smartphone May Arrive in 2010 From Sprint

Dual-Band

Sprint executives told me today that the new smartphone will be dual-band--that is, it will contain both a 4G/WiMax radio and a 3G radio. The phone, I'm told, will first look for a 4G connection, then default to a slower 3G connection. So if you live in a WiMax city (there will be 80 by the end of 2010, Clearwire says), you will get 4G until you leave your coverage area, then you switch to 3G.

Todd Rowley, VP of Sprint's 4G business unit, told me Sprint is currently in talks with a handset maker for the phone, but couldn't reveal details. Rowley also says Sprint won't begin selling the 4G smartphone until the Clearwire WiMax network reaches around 100 million people in the U.S. That's likely to happen in late 2010; Clearwire is saying it'll reach 120 million people by the end of 2010.

Then there's the issue of the app development community. Sprint and Samsung are both members of the Open Handset Alliance, which promotes Google's Android mobile OS. Sprint's VP of device and technology development Mathew Oommen explained to me that the Android OS is an especially good platform on which developers can create just the kind of rich media applications that will show off the fat (wireless) broadband pipe offered by WiMax networks.
What's So Great About Android?

Compared to other mobile OSes, Android lets developers write apps that more fully exploit the capabilities of the smartphone--things like the accelerometer, the high resolution display and the camera.