It will be out this summer and will come with the ability to geotag.These phones will be among the first handsets to take advantage of new services and applications AT&T has developed especially for this category.For example, AT&T has enhanced messaging for these devices.
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The Pantech Link, which will hit store shelves in a few weeks, has a full keyboard, while the Pantech Pursuit has a full touch screen and vertical keyboard. The other two phones are not on the market yet and pricing is not yet available. The Samsung Sunburst is a GPS-enabled device that is $39.99 with a two-year agreement. It's the least expensive of these new devices at $19.99 with a two-year contract after a $50 rebate. The Samsung Strivehas a vertical sliding keyboard. Other carriers, such as Sprint Nextel ,are partnering with app store companies, like GetJar, which offer applications for these phones.Meanwhile, AT&T is also focusing on adding some key features to this class of phone that provides the most popular and useful functions in a smartphone at a much lower price and with far fewer confusing extras.Adding to its existing list of devices in this category, the company launched four new quick-messaging devicesat CTIA. AT&T said it's trying to fix that problem by encouraging app developers to write for the BREW platform from Qualcomm. "The problem is that no one has done a very good job of providing mobile applications for these phones, Christopher said. "So in quick messaging phones we don't try to do everything. Christopher said that increasingly the company is selling more of mid-tier messaging phones for customers who want some smartphone features but not all the bells and whistles."Smartphones are overwhelming for some people," he said. "What about the other 65 percent of phones we sell?" he asked.Good question. David Christopher, chief marketing officer for AT&T's wireless unit, said that about 35 percent of the handsets AT&T sold in the fourth quarter were smartphones. And the company sees a huge market for smartphone-lite devices. But AT&T executives said Wednesday that smartphones are not for every consumer. Growth in smartphones has been through the roof in the last couple of years, as devices like the iPhone and BlackBerry are subsidized to price points palatable to the mass market.