There are two main problems: We like bills to be consistent, and we’re risk-averse consumers.

To the first point, Sprint tried to offer a plan in 2004 where 300 minutes cost $US35, and $US2.50 for each additional 50 minutes. Seems great to me, no outrageous overage charges. But customers didn’t like it because their bills would vary so much from month-to-month, so Sprint switched back to age-old tiered minutes plans.

Because we like consistent billing, the carriers institute ridiculous overage charges to convince us to spend up. That way we don’t have to worry about any unforeseen costs, even if the fixed price plan ends up costing more than a variable pricing structure would.

The article also goes into how stupid expensive text message rates are subsidising falling voice revenues, how wireless carriers would love to stop subsidising phones, and more.

I know the average Gizmodo reader would like nothing more than to pay as little per minute as possible, but the average consumer thinks differently.

What’s interesting is that this wholesale mentality does work, at least in terms of raw pricing. One minute of talk time costs 5c, and the average text message costs 1c. According to the article, that’s the lowest average pricing in the developed world. The minutes do come at a bulk discount, it’s just a matter of whether or not you use all of them.

I’ll leave it to you commenters to discuss, but it’s a good read into how wireless pricing in America got so complicated. [New York Times]

It’s an improvement over the last six months—the biggest sequential improvement in five years—and less terrible than expected, but still not good. Sprint thinks it’ll be better next quarter, but that $US478 million loss has got to sting. [PC Mag]

AU: This is a US-only phone._-EH

While the specs might make you dizzy, there’s absolutely nothing unique about the software. It’s running a totally stock build of Android 1.5 (Cupcake) with some standard Sprint software tossed in, like Sprint TV, Navigator, apps for Nascar and football, and Exchange support through Moxier Mail. So, we’re mostly gonna talk about the hardware here, since otherwise it’s nothing you haven’t seen before.

800 Whole Megahertz

The single biggest expectation for the Moment and its rip-roaring 800MHz processor is some zoomzoomzip speed in Android, which ain’t known for being the fastest smartphone OS around — largely, you would think, because every Android phone currently on the market is strapped with basically the same 528MHz ARM11 processor (the Moment’s also using an ARM11 processor, though one built by Samsung, not Qualcomm).

Despite the extra clock speed, a turbocharged Android this is not. Some parts of the experience are smoother—transitions between apps stutter less, and less often, for instance—and it boots faster than any other Android phone I’ve used, but there’s no serious extra pep in the OS. In fact, a lot of the same slowdowns that have become a hallmark of Android are present: The app menu often (but not always) lags as pull you it up, and those random moments where the phone just won’t respond to keys your tapping or your finger madly pounding on the screen still happen, just like on other Android phones. I was hoping it would be more than a little better (seriously, hanging while I’m just typing in Google Talk?), especially since it’s running a vanilla build of Android without any fancy overlays on top of it, like the Hero or Cliq.

I suspect it would run faster and better on Android 1.6, which might take greater advantage of the bonus horsepower, but it’s not shipping from Samsung until sometime in 2010.

AMOLED Makes Me Blue

The AMOLED display is stunning in some respects — it’s incredibly saturated, blacks are gorgeous and it makes other Android displays look pale and washed out. There are two problems: It’s not very readable in the sunlight (just like the Zune HD, which used an OLED display), and it’s very blue. At first, I thought it was just a tendency of OLED displays to be this cool, but this is what it looks like compared to the Zune HD:

Not a dealbreaker for the screen out of context, but I really wish I could adjust the colour temp, since now that I’ve noticed it, it bugs me every time I look at it. I probably just ruined it for you too.

Hello, Giant Keyboard, Goodbye Trackball

The Moment is a gigantic phone. That’s because it has a big f—king keyboard. Tiny people with tiny hands might think it’s too big. The keys are sorta rubbery and flat, separated in a kind of honeycomb design, but they’re big enough to easily tell them apart, and they make surprisingly deep satisfying clicks when you press them. Overall, despite the mediocre size and placement of the space button, it’s probably the best typing experience on Android.

Samsung ditches the classic trackball for a trackpad. It sucks. I tried to use it several times, and then I just didn’t. The touch-sensitive buttons on the face of the phone are a mistake too — during a call, my face apparently rolled over the menu button and I muted myself, leaving Wilson to yell, “Hello? HELLO!? HELLOOOOOO!” for like 30 seconds while I tried to figure out what the hell just happened.

Why It’s the ED-209 of Android Phones

It’s massive, has theoretically superior firepower and runs marginally faster than the Android competition. But in the end, it’s clearly stuck in the past, and Robocop blows it up by being smarter. In this case, that’s the Hero. Or Cliq.

The Moment’s disappointing not just because the Hero and Cliq actually do interesting things that make Android better, but because it’s running an older version of Android that’s likely limiting its potential, and it won’t get the chance to be better until everybody stops caring about it.

If you absolutely need an Android phone with keyboard, get a Cliq or wait for the Droid.

That means when a new cell tower site is proposed, there’s just a short period for a community to protest it — the idea being more towers going up even faster will help speed up the rollout of crazyfast 4G wireless. The FCC’s also working to free up more spectrum for carriers to use for 4G, though that’s not exactly easy, since wireless spectrum, while invisible, is a pretty limited resource. (It’s why Verizon paid a kabillion dollars for a chunk of it.)

Even if you’re not happy about the shot clock timing for towers, on the upside, the FCC’s committed to having net neutrality apply to mobile internet as well as the stuff cable companies provides, the wireless carriers won’t be able to terribly restrict what you do with all of that mobile broadband, beyond very basic network management to keep it all running. [Cnet]

The Moment is a fairly slick-looking device, quite thin for a full QWERTY slider and with an inoffensive black and silver design with a nice silver grille accent on the top. It’s certainly a step up from the other major Android QWERTY slider around, the T-Mobile G1: For one, it’s got a 3.5-mm headphone jack and SDHC expansion (compared to an awkward mini-USB combo and a microSDHC), but it’s also significantly thinner and loses the G1’s chin.

The QWERTY keyboard feels okay — it’s solid and nicely clicky, but the keys are a little flush for me, making it harder than I’d like to differentiate between keys. But the layout is easy to learn and it’s overall very easy to use. The Moment also has an array of buttons around the side: A volume rocker on the left; 3.5mm headphone jack under a protective flap on the top; and a microUSB jack, speakerphone toggle and camera button on the right. It’s got a 3.2MP camera on the back, which isn’t as good as the Hero’s and Cliq’s 5MP lens.

The front of the device houses the main buttons (Home, Menu, Back, Call and Call End, the latter two of which are tactile) as well as the optical trackpad, which I found a little confusing: It’s harder to use than simply touching the screen, and I’m not really sure what exact purpose it’s supposed to serve. To its credit, it’s very responsive and has nice tactile feedback on the click, but I’d always rather touch the screen.

Unlike the Motorola Cliq or HTC Hero, Samsung hasn’t messed with the stock Android interface very much at all, merely sprinkling in some carrier-specific widgets like Nascar, Sprint Navigation and Sprint TV, which actually works quite well.

Compared to the Cliq, which is really the Moment’s main competitor, I’d have to say I prefer the Cliq. The Moment’s stock Android OS seems so last year, and even though the Cliq is sort of frenetic and sometimes cluttered, at least it has a philosophy. The Moment seems totally serviceable, but Android can be exciting — hell, Sprint even has one of the most exciting Android handsets already in its lineup, the HTC Hero. All in all, the Moment is a solid, if unremarkable, addition to the Android lineup.

Features include a 3.2-inch AMOLED touchscreen, full QWERTY keyboard, 3.2MP camera and an 800MHz processor. Release is slated for November 1 with a $US179.99 price tag after a two-year service agreement, $US50 instant rebate and $US100 mail-in-rebate. Stay tuned for a hands on.

Samsung’s First Android-Powered Phone,
Samsung Moment™ with Google, Coming Soon to America’s Most Dependable 3G Network

Available Nov. 1, Samsung Moment from Sprint features a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, brilliant display screen and premium Web experience;
Pre-registration for Samsung Moment begins today at www.sprint.com/moment

OVERLAND PARK, Kan., and DALLAS – Oct. 7, 2009 – Sprint (NYSE: S) and Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile), the number one mobile phone provider in the United States1, today announced the upcoming availability of Samsung Moment, Samsung’s first U.S. handset integrating the open and innovative Android™ platform with the high-speed connectivity of America’s most dependable 3G network2 (EVDO Rev. A.) and the best value in wireless with the Any Mobile, AnytimeSM calling feature.

Samsung Moment represents a new generation of portable Internet access devices and provides access to built-in Google™ mobile services, including Google Search™, Google Maps™, Gmail™ and YouTube™, as well as thousands of applications available in Android Market™. Samsung Moment also offers the first Sprint 3.2-inch AMOLED touch-screen, creating crisper colors and wider viewing angles than other display screens. Samsung Moment is powered by an 800 MHz processor, making this device one of the fastest wireless phones available today.

Beginning Nov. 1, customers can purchase Samsung Moment through all Sprint channels including Web (www.sprint.com), Telesales (1-800-SPRINT1) and our national retail partners. Retail pricing will be $179.99 (excluding taxes) after a $50 instant savings and a $100 mail-in-rebate with a two-year service agreement. Pre-registration for this phone begins today at www.sprint.com/moment.

“Sprint is thrilled to add the powerful and sophisticated Samsung Moment to our growing portfolio of Android devices,” said Kevin Packingham, senior vice president of product development for Sprint. “This is the second Android product that will be available from Sprint this holiday season. With a full QWERTY keyboard, Samsung Moment allows customers to easily access the thousands of applications available in the Android Market. The excitement around Android products confirms Sprint’s decision several years ago to be a charter member of the Open Handset Alliance and lead the Open revolution.”

“The launch of Samsung Moment is an exciting realization of our commitment to providing consumers open, powerful and versatile devices,” said Omar Khan, senior vice president of strategy and product management for Samsung Mobile. “With the combination of the Android platform, applications, Web browser and a powerful 800 MHz processor, the user experience options are unlimited.”

Leveraging a library of applications
As charter members of the Open Handset Alliance™, Sprint and Samsung are closely aligned with the Android community. Through Android Market, Samsung Moment users can download thousands of applications, widgets and games on their phone. Pandora®, ShopSavvyTM, TwitterTM, ShazamTM, amazon.com®, USA Today®, Flixster®, PacManTM, CraigslistCheckerTM, and MySpaceTM Mobile are among the countless well-liked applications already available on Android Market. Additionally, customers can access Sprint Navigation and Sprint exclusive applications NFL Mobile Live and NASCAR Sprint Cup MobileSM already preinstalled on the device. Samsung Moment is a perfect solution for anyone who wants the freedom to stay connected on-the-go and enjoy a PC-like experience.

In addition, Sprint recently launched new tools on its developer Web site designed to make it easy for developers to create innovative applications for the Sprint Android-powered devices – http://developer.sprint.com/android. The enhancements will give developers access to Sprint products and services, including location-based services, messaging and geofencing through the Sprint Developer Sandbox. Developers using the site and tools will easily be able to create and test applications for the Android platform on the Sprint network.

Application developers will have a chance to learn more about Android at Sprint’s ninth annual developer conference this fall. The Sprint Open Developer Conference, Oct. 26-28 in Santa Clara, Calif., is open to all attendees and will feature information through speaker sessions and coding camps on developing applications for a range of platforms, including Android. For details, go to http://developer.sprint.com/devcon2009.

“The Samsung Moment and the Android platform are helping Sprint drive openness and innovation,” said Andy Rubin, vice president of mobile platforms at Google. “With the Samsung Moment’s built-in suite of Google mobile services, along with thousands of applications on Android Market, Sprint customers can enjoy a unique mobile experience.”

Samsung Moment offers simple device navigation through an optical joystick located just below the expansive display. It features Wi-Fi capability, integrated GPS navigation and accelerometer. Additional features include:

* 3.2-megapixel camera with flash and camcorder with auto-focus
* Stereo Bluetooth® 2.0 wireless technology
* Expandable memory up to 32GB
* Sprint TV® with live and on-demand programming
* NFL Mobile Live and NASCAR Sprint Cup MobileSM
* Easy access to social networking sites, including Facebook®, Flickr® and TwitterTM
* Media player with 3.5-millimeter headphone jack
* Visual voice mail for quick and easy access to specific voice mail messages
* Access to personal and corporate email through Active Sync

Customers who purchase the new Samsung Moment can also take advantage of Sprint’s newly announced Any Mobile, Anytime feature, which gives customers on the Sprint network unlimited calling to ANY wireless customer in the United States on any carrier anytime by selecting Sprint’s EverythingSM Data plans. This device requires activation on a pricing plan offering unlimited data, which includes the Everything Data and Simply Everything Plans.

The Simply Everything plan provides nationwide unlimited calling, unlimited text and unlimited data, including email, social networking, Web browsing, GPS navigation, Sprint TV, streaming music, NFL Mobile Live and NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile, for only $99.99 per month. That’s a savings of $1,200 over two years vs. a comparable AT&T iPhone® plan3. Sprint Everything Data plans with unlimited messaging and data start at just $69.99 for 450 minutes with unlimited night and weekend calling starting at 7 p.m. (All price plans exclude surcharges and taxes.)

Both Everything Data and Simply Everything plans are available to existing customers without extending the service agreement. New lines of service require a two-year service agreement.

The Sprint 3G Network is faster in more places than AT&T’s 3G network4, and Sprint has more than 20 times the coverage of T-Mobile’s current 3G network5, based on square miles. Since 2006, Sprint has invested almost $17 billion in capital to continue improving and expanding network performance.

Sprint is also the first national carrier to test, launch and market 4G technology. Separate from its 3G investment, Sprint has announced plans to extend its 4G leadership by launching the next-generation service in numerous markets in 2009, including the recently launched markets of Atlanta, Las Vegas and Portland, Ore.

Sprint is the only wireless carrier to offer Ready Now service with trained retail associates to work one-on-one with customers to personalize their Samsung Moment, set up features and demonstrate how it works before the customer leaves the store. Customers have the choice of sitting down with a Sprint retail associate at the time of purchase or they can schedule an appointment for a later time at www.sprint.com/storelocator.

AU: This phone is not available in Australia. _-EH

It’s also got Opera MIni 9.7 off the bat, a capable, though not phenomenal browser, along with (crappy) apps for Facebook and Twitter, besides the usual Sprint stock: Navigation, Live TV, etc. Overall, the experience feels clunky and, far too often, frustratingly laggy.

Why anyone would buy this $US250 (or $US200 at Best Buy) faux-smartphone over the much cheaper, more elegant and just plain better Palm Pre or HTC Hero—which are real and excellent smartphones on Sprint—I don’t know. The welcome addition 720p video isn’t worth it, even if it is pretty decent vs. the Flip Ultra HD:

[Sprint]

It’s important to remember the context here, because before TheStreet’s rogue report, everything was awfully clear: Back in May, Verizon’s CEO specifically said they’d be offering the Pre in “six months or so“, which, despite some waffling on dates, and speculation that Verizon was just trying to poop all over Sprint’s fancy phone party, still stands. And since then, evidence of a Verizon launch has been slowly mounting, seemingly to the point of no return. One analyst:

Palm reiterated its FY2010 guidance, which we believe REQUIRES a launch at Verizon (you just can’t get there with just Sprint and AT&T)

In other words, Verizon just restated—like, a day ago—an official full-year estimate for their company which, according to analysts, can’t be anywhere near accurate if a Verizon deal isn’t happening. Dropping their Pre plans at this point wouldn’t just be a bad move in terms of attracting people to Verizon, it might actually break financial reporting regulations.

To put it another way, the only thing that’s changed is that one publication has run an anonymously-sourced claim that Verizon’s dropping the Pre, justified only by a flimsy VCast integration and software modification conflict—which hasn’t stopped Verizon from carrying mostly un-tampered-with BlackBerrys, by the way—and softened by the fact that it basically contradicts itself:

Sources did say that Verizon could be more delicate about the decision and order just a small amount of Pre phones with no intention of lending much marketing support.

Verizon might not want the Pre; also, Verizon might want the Pre, a little! Gotcha.

So, stubborn Verizon holdouts: keep holding out. [AllThingsD, CNBC]