Samsung Instinct was, from the beginning, seen as a direct competitor for Apple's iPhone on he US mobile market. But the Instinct was announced at the beginning of April, when the new iPhone 3G had not been unveiled yet. Now, things are different, as not only the iPhone 3G was announced, but we also know its price. Therefore, Sprint apparently set the price for the Instinct, too.

If the recently appeared rumors are correct, the retail and free-of-any-contract price of Samsung Instinct will be $449. However, with a new Sprint contract agreement for two years and after a $100 mail-in rebate, the third largest US carrier will offer the new Samsung handset for only $199.99. This is the same price that AT&T will offer the iPhone 3G for, with a similar 2-year contract agreement (actually, the iPhone is $0.99 cheaper, but who cares about one buck?)

Sprint have been aggressively promoting the Instinct with an anti-iPhone campaign and a series of mini-videos showing how their handset outruns the iPhone. Well, from now on, the Instinct will have to be capable of outrunning the iPhone 3G. We don't know whether it can actually do that, but we do know that the handsets are not too different. Both offer wider than 3 inch touchscreen displays and lots of Web and multimedia features. Moreover, the EV-DO Rev A. connectivity that Instinct comes with is comparable with the HSDPA one included in the iPhone 3G, hence from the web browsing and data transfers speed point of view, the handsets also seem to be similar.

iPhone 3G will hit the market, via AT&T, on July 11, while Sprint releases the Instinct on June 20. Who will win the (supposed) battle? Only time will tell. And the US mobile users who, in the end, have the final word.