14 DAY TRIAL // Sprint has officially introduced the HTC Arrive two weeks ago and stated that the smartphone will hit the shelves on March 20. However, it seems that customer living in Seattle will be able to pick up their phone starting March 17th.
According to the guys over at WPCentral, who have been tipped about this unusual change, people in the Seattle area are told by Sprint employees that they will be able to get their HTC Arrive smartphone three days earlier than it was expected.
Furthermore, rumors suggest that most of Sprint stores already have at least one HTC Arrive device in their stocks to play with. Customers who wish to try it out before the device hit the shelves might go and check for one at their local store.
It will be interesting to see if the HTC Arrive is delivered with the NoDo Windows Phone 7 update, before Microsoft begins the roll-out process, which apparently was delayed for March 20.
Although the few smartphones that will probably be available before March 20 will not carry the upcoming NoDo software update, users will most likely be able to install it as soon as it goes live.
HTC Arrive is the first CDMA Windows Phone 7 smartphone and it is also known as HTC 7 Pro in Europe in the GSM version.
The handset is expected to be available for purchase starting March 20 for $199.99 with a new two-year service agreement or eligible upgrade and after a $100 mail-in rebate. Additionally, customers can pre-order the HTC Arrive with the purchase of a $50 Sprint gift card.
As a reminder, the HTC Arrive is powered by a 1GHz processor and has a 3.6-inch WVGA touch screen display.
It packs a 5-megapixel camera, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, 16GB of internal memory, Bluetooth 2.1, as well as GPS with A-GPS support (Bing Maps).
