14 DAY TRIAL // Samsung Instinct, released in the US only a week ago by Sprint, the third largest American mobile carrier, proves to be a smash-hit in terms of sales. More exactly, Sprint says that the new touchscreen device "has become the fastest-selling EVDO handset" in the carrier's history, although it doesn't mention an exact number of sales.
According to Sprint, there is such a high demand for the Instinct that, in some retail locations, the stocks were quickly depleted and now Samsung tries to keep up with manufacturing more handsets in order to ship them in the States.
Talking about the high pace that the Instinct is selling at, John Garcia, President of Sprint's Wireless Division, said: "We had high expectations going into the launch so our initial order to Samsung was the largest for any Sprint EVDO handset to date. The strong early response tells us that wireless customers recognize Instinct as a highly-innovative and convenient touch-screen device combined with the fast speeds available on the largest national mobile broadband network. In the first few days of availability, many Instinct devices were purchased by existing customers upgrading their wireless device - we thank our customers for their endorsement of this device, our Simply Everything pricing plan and our company."
Sprint has also made public impressions of the first customers who bought the Instinct. For example, William Leak from Millville, NJ, says about the handset that it "offers every single Sprint feature down to the smallest and jam-packs them all into one device. It is just an amazing device."
Daphne Wilson, from White Plains, NY, praises the Instinct too, while at the same time discrediting AT&T: "I was out of contract and stayed with Sprint because of this phone! Also, your everything plan includes everything, not like AT&T."
Well, AT&T will be the sole carrier to offer the new iPhone 3G in the US, the handset that, according to Sprint, can't compete with Instinct, which is said to be better. We'll see after July 11, when the new iPhone hits the market, which of the handsets can attract more customers.
In case you don't know yet, the 12.7 millimeter thin handset features a 3.1 inch TFT touchscreen display with a 240 x 400 pixel resolution, advanced Web and capabilities, Video and Music players, a 2 Megapixel camera with video recording, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, a 3.5mm headset jack and so on.
Sprint offers the Instinct for $129, with a two year contract agreement and after a $100 mail-in rebate. Moreover, the carrier has come up with a contest that allows you to get $20 back and win a "grand prize" of $10,000 (see this article for more details).