The Android 2.2-running LG Electronics Optimus smartphone will arrive on Sprint and T-Mobile networks in time for the holiday season–sort of. T-Mobile brands the phone the Optimus T, while Sprint calls it the Optimus S, but in both cases users get the newest version of Android, a 3.2-inch capacitive touch screen and a user-friendly, highly customizable device.
While T-Mobile says the device will be “affordable” and arrive in time for holiday shopping, the more-specific Sprint puts the price point for its Optimus S at $49.99, after a $100 mail-in rebate and with a two-year service contract, and makes that holiday Halloween: Come Oct. 31, the Optimus S will arrive in all Sprint retail channels.
Optimus S is one of three Android phones coming to the Sprint network that will support the carrier’s new Sprint ID Pack service. It’s designed to allow enterprise users and consumers customize and integrate Android apps into a single point of entry. The other supported devices are the Sanyo Zio and the Samsung Transform.
Sprint ID Packs
The ID Packs enable enterprises to build a branded user experience for their employees and their business-to-business customers. For example, employees in multiple locations can get instant access to corporate applications and data on mobile phones from a customized widget. The solution aims to reduce mobility costs for IT by decentralizing deployment of applications, tools and widgets to employees.
An enterprise can take a prefab solution such as Sprint’sSales Force ID or Field Service ID and use it to provide mobile workers with access to corporate time and expense reporting, CRM, navigation/driving directions and product collateral, a third-party work order application and a fleet management application. In addition, business customers can easily establish the kind of corporate image they want on their device for daily business by downloading a business-related ID pack – but when the employee goes home they can switch to their evening or weekend ID pack.
Handmark has created 10 different packs, available when the new Sprint ID phones launch. These packs bundle together the best apps, widgets and content to meet a specific need or interest. For example, the Business Pro ID Pack features tools to assist with travel plans, expenses, organization and communication.
Scott Carter, VP of Sprint Business Marketing, says "Sprint ID can help businesses secure and manage devices by giving them a deployment tool that enables them to create an application pack that not only includes third party applications (such as security apps) from the Market but even their own internally developed, proprietary applications as well. Decentralizing the deployment process is a significant productivity enhancement for both large and small business."
The solution can relieve IT of some of the burden of provisioning new mobile devices, notes Carter. Rather than provisioning a device before shipping it to a remote user, for example, the IT manager can ship the device in the box and point the user to an ID Pack on their handset which they can use to self-provision.
