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AT&T sprang into action on Monday and introduced a quartet of new Quick Messaging phones as well as a set of services designed to bring smartphone-like experiences to mass-market phones.
These services will first debut on the Samsung Strive (see below) and include three tools: AT&T Address Book, AT&T Mobile Share, and next-generation messaging. The latter simply brings a reply-all feature to text messaging, enabling users to respond to up to 10 contacts at once, while AT&T Address Book allows you to sync and back up your phone’s contacts to an online address book where you can also send text messages and import contacts from any Web-based accounts.
Like AT&T Address Book, AT&T Mobile Share is also a cloud-based service that lets users share their photos and videos (10MB cap on file size) with friends and upload them to their PC, social networking sites, and a Web-based storage locker. You can then access these files from your computer or your handset at any time.
AT&T Mobile Share does come with a fee, however. It costs $10 per month for 50 media transfers (there’s an alternative pay-per-use option at $0.35 per transfer) and includes online storage of 250MB at no charge. Customers can purchase an additional 10GB of storage for $5 per month.
As for the devices, here’s a breakdown of each, including some details about availability.
Samsung Strive: Available starting March 21 for $19.99 with a two-year contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate, the Strive features a slider design with a full QWERTY keyboard and a 2-megapixel camera. It will be available in two color combinations: black with silver or purple with charcoal.
Samsung Sunburst: The Sunburst features a 3-inch resistive touch screen with a widget bar that gives you one-touch access to your favorite apps. The phone is GPS-enabled and will be available on March 21 for $39.99 with a two-year contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate.
Pantech Link: The Pantech Link is a slim slate QWERTY device with black and blue accents. It will offer direct access to mobile e-mail, instant messaging, AT&T Mobile Share, AT&T Social Net, AT&T Navigator and should be available in the coming weeks. Pricing details were not released at this time.
Pantech Pursuit: The Pursuit is a vertical slider that combines a full QWERTY keyboard with a customizable touch screen. The handset’s camera will also support face recognition software and geotagging, and will be available in the summer in either green or blue. Again, no word on pricing.
AT&T’s new messaging phones and services (photos)
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