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Sprint’s iPhone Rival Is Cheaper, But Is It Better?

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The Samsung Instinct, which is being deemed the most viable iPhone knock-off at the moment, is coming out first, and now as of today, we are hearing it will also be cheaper. Sprint (NYSE: S) announced that the phone will be available June 20, and cost $129.99 with a two-year contract after a $100 mail-in rebate. The monthly contract ranges between $70 a month for 450 voice minutes and unlimited data to Sprint’s Simply Everything Plan, which costs $99 for features such as GPS navigation, email, web surfing, Sprint Music Premier and Sprint TV Premier. Contrast that to the iPhone, which will come out three weeks later on July 11 and cost $199, depending you your carrier. Its monthly fee starts at $70 a month for unlimited data and the smallest voice plan.

So, what is a customer to do?

I just received a demo Samsung Instinct in the mail yesterday… More after the jump...

Watch here for a more in-depth review as I continue to use the Samsung Instinct.

The sleek, substantial-feeling device looks like an iPhone, but it doesn’t particularly mock one in every way. I haven’t had a chance to use it much, but on the drive to a BBQ last night, I quickly entered my destination’s address, and the navigation functionality quickly found my current location, and started to give me spoken turn-by-turn directions. Because I wasn’t the one driving, I was also able to mess around with it, touching the screen to activate traffic conditions, or get written directions, rather than hear them spoken. All-in-all the device is something you can just pick up and start using without reading directions.

The easy to understand price plan, which includes a lot of top-notch and typically expensive features is nice, but Apple’s (NSDQ: AAPL) iPhone will have the benefit of an entire developer ecosystem being excited about the device. If you are someone who is enticed by new flashy games, and applications, then likely the iPhone is for you. At the end of the day, the Samsung Instinct has been developed on a closed and proprietary operating system that will be susceptible to the same hoops as other feature phones—every new application that comes out for the phone will have to be developed for it and approved by Sprint. With the iPhone, apps can be developed on an SDK that’s made fairly available to developers, and then they only have to meet the standards of Apple—not AT&T (NYSE: T) or other carriers.

Tricia Duryee
@triciad Jun 18, 2008 10:35 AM ET
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Posted In: Companies, Apple, iPhone, AT&T, Samsung, SprintNextel, instinct

  • james braselton

    HI   THERE I HAVE BOTH   IPHONE AND THE SPRINT INSTINCT THE INSTINCT IS   WAY BETER WITH   GPS LIVE TV GAMES 3.1 INCH TOUCH SCREEN VOICE TOO ACTION BUTON LIKE STAR TREK COMUNICATERS

  • If i can use outlook and sync outlook on this phone to my pc I want onewant one!!

  • Brian Hollister

    The development system for the Instinct is the same as any other Sprint device.  It supports Java ME.  Anyone can sign up for the Sprint developer program.
    Distribution is another story, and one that's hindered mobile game and application content uptake for years.  I've yet to experience iPhone distribution path since I'm still working on my first iPhone application, but I expect it to be easier than it is with Sprint which requires a much closer business relationship.
    I personally think iPhone will increase user knowledge of, and thus demand for, third-party application content.  First, because the App Store is far easier to use than any carrier deck or short code distribution method.  Second, because the device is so powerful and the user experience more enjoyable given the slick interface.
    Now Apple just needs to open up the more useful features to developers.  If they can do that, they'll be hard to beat.

  • Mike is wrong.  There are a great many people in the world who own a cell phone, use the internet on it, and don't have easy access to a PC.  For them mobile is the internet.

  • Most industry leaders like Google and Apple are expecting a mobile phone to evolve as PC with the ecosystem lending value to it as well as the users. However, I doubt for only a few applications that synergize with "on the go" need will become successful. At the end of the day, unlike Internet, mobile is a vertical paradigm.

    To substantiate my point, let us take the case of i-mode, which has a vast ecosystem that has developed over almost nine years. The creation of this ecosystem has been driven by the might of NTT DoCoMo but contributes a very piddly sum to i-mode revenue.

  • Tricia Duryee

    Hi Haggie, Thanks for your comment. You are correct—neither of them are open environments. However, Apple has made it much easier for a developer to get a hold of its SDK and create an application for the device…whether they are accepted for the App store is a completely different situation, but the entire process is more transparent than what a developer would have to do to get on the Instinct. Would you agree?

  • Haggie

    Apple might have more developers supporting their closed environment than Samsung will have supporting its closed environment, but calling either one "an open developer environment" is incorrect.

  • Sprint overcharged my small (US) company for over $50,000.00. We caught them doing it and now they refuse to refund the over-payments. You can read the full story at www.sprint-really-sucks.com

    I also wrote an open letter to Dan Hesse the Chairman and CEO of Sprint Nextel. It is a good read so please consider reading the letter.

    www.sprint-really-sucks.com/open-letter-dan-hesse.aspx

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