It didn't manage to block the Sprint / Clearwire merger, but iPCS is still scoring little victories for itself in its continued fight with Sprint over alleged violations of the exclusivity agreement it's had in place with the (much, much larger) carrier for nearly a decade. An Illinois court has now ruled that Sprint can't offer service in areas where iPCS has a presence, while Sprint's partners have their fate decided in the hallowed halls of justice starting March 30. iPCS covers seven states, so it's actually a pretty big blow to Sprint to have the footprint ganked from their icy clutches; guess they'll just have to make it up with Android-powered sub wins.

[Via Phone Scoop]

We'd kill to understand the politics, technical issues, or combination thereof that are responsible for stopping Sprint from taking its long-completed Chicago WiMAX footprint live. Not only has the launch now missed its 2008 target window -- at this point, the company is merely saying that it's hopeful to launch the network "in the latter half of the year," where "year" is 2009. Meanwhile, Chicagoans are rife in 4G (or so Sprint and WiMAX's backers are billing it, anyhow) that they're unable to use, and if this all boils down to a delay due to a branding transition, that's a year of wheel-spinning buffoonery that Sprint and Clearwire really can't afford to waste -- especially with LTE pilot markets right around the corner.

[Thanks, David C.]

We're hearing from a source -- a source who's pegged big stuff before, we'd like to add -- that Sprint will be replacing its BlackBerry 8830 this quarter with a CDMA version of the Bold. The move would certainly make sense, seeing how the Bold is essentially a direct replacement for the 8800 series (though this could be bad news for those who appreciate the 8830's camera-less nature) and the handset's probably just about due for a refresh. We're told that the Bold will feature EV-DO Rev. A, more memory, and a revised UI to match Sprint's current corporate branding. We'd also guess that it's a global phone in the same vein as the 8830 and the Storm, though we don't know that for certain. More as we get it!

We've got a whopper this week over at Classic's Ask Engadget, and we're soliciting your help. Real simple: what's the best smartphone available for under $200 on contract? And... go!

We'd pegged early January for the release of a pink Samsung Instinct on Sprint's airwaves, and Best Buy's doing everything it can to help us hold the line on that with a new "Coming Soon" page advertising just such a product. Unfortunately, they're asking a whopping $599.99 for the pleasure of being the first kid on your block with this thing, but the off-contract pricing in Best Buy's system is usually way out of whack -- we wouldn't worry about paying anything close to $200 on contract by the time you actually step into the store.

[Thanks, Emilio]

After a brief interlude at CTIA earlier this year, we've had another chance to play around with Samsung's funky little Highnote for Sprint recently, so we wanted to give our quick, stream-of-consciousness thoughts on what this music-focused dual slider is all about. The phone's claim to fame is its hidden integrated loudspeaker for blasting tunes, which can be exposed by sliding the front downward (a la Nokia N95 and the like). While we found the speaker to be loud and reasonably clear enough for occasional impromptu dance parties, we didn't think it was any louder than similar handsets that have more traditional mono or stereo loudspeakers integrated into the body of the phone. In other words, the dual slide is a bit of a gimmick here.

2008 was, to say the least, a banner year for Windows Mobile hardware. Windows Mobile software... well, that's another story; we're still patiently waiting for the same thorough overhaul we'd hoped for years ago, but in the meantime, manufacturers have done an absolutely stellar job of taking the platform to its limits and packaging it in ways that could make any smartphone envious. For this first time, VGA screens (and beyond) have come to market en masse, and -- unlike the 8525s, Tilts, Moguls, and XV6800s of yesteryear, the latest batch of QWERTY sliders look like they've actually got a lick of intelligent industrial design in their DNA.

So these puppies are similar, yes, but they're not the same -- so let's take a quick look at what separates the Sprint Touch Pro, from the Verizon Touch Pro, from the AT&T Fuze, from the Sony Ericsson X1 (whew!).

Listen, we know that something's going on with Sprint -- take the move toward leased access for WiMAX on Clear and the recent big sale of cell towers, for example -- but this is just getting fishier and fishier. Now, it looks like Sprint is trying to up its total subscriber count by paying Virgin Mobile an additional $2 per customer it signs through the end of the year while also dropping the minimum wireless services tab it was previously obligated to pay. Apparently it takes about 11 -- yes, eleven -- Virgin customers to equal the revenue generated from just one Sprint customer, and since the carrier's organic subscriber tally has been on the decline lately, maybe it's starting to rely on its MVNOs to pick up some of the slack.

[Via mocoNews]

Without a doubt, 2009 is destined to be the year of The Android. Samsung just announced its ticket to the party with a Q2 launch of its Android phones on both Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile in the US. Apparently, the touch-screen device will be an adaptation of the Omnia (Korea's 800 x 480 pixel version please) and Instinct. In other words, a rectangle with a full-screen display and minimal set of buttons just like every other touchscreen device out there. In case you missed it, this game is no longer about the hardware.

[Via ModMyGphone, thanks Neerhaj]

Yup, it's true, the dual-mode CDMA / WiMAX modem is real and will be sold by Clearwire starting December 21st. The $150 device (after $50 rebate and two-year Sprint contract) is a first to function on both Sprint's EV-DO network and Clearwire's nascent mobile WiMAX service currently supporting Baltimore's collection of kitschy beauty salons. So yeah, the modem is of limited interest until Clearwire can build-out its network in 2009, starting with Portland in early January.

If this were anything but an iDEN phone, we'd be laying into it for looking like a circa-2007 RAZR 2 clone (which it essentially is), but for a Nextel Direct Connect piece, this is as good as it's ever gotten. Official pictures of the i9 are now available from Motorola, some of which clearly show Nextel branding -- not to say that we'd expect iDEN's single biggest customer to bypass Motorola's single awesomest iDEN phone, but it's a reassuring confirmation for potential buyers nonetheless. We don't have a release date handy yet, so let's hope we can get some hands-on time at CES, especially since it's been just about a year since we first saw this thing.

[Via Unwired View]

Say, remember how there was supposed to be a Treo Pro coming to Sprint? Yeah, well, the time is drawing near for that to go down; odds are it could've happened sooner, but Sprint probably wanted to give its fairly fresh 800w a little breathing room before getting sunsetted in favor of the significantly more attractive Pro. The carrier is currently targeting January 25 for the model to be available in all channels for $549.99 -- which we're guessing (hoping) will come down to $249.99 or so after rebates, subsidies, and all that jazz. Also launching in January should be the Motorola i365IS -- an even more rugged model of the already beefy i365 -- and a pink version of the Instinct. If that's not a veritable potpourri of phones covering every corner of the market, we don't know what is.

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

Okay, so maybe Android isn't ready for prime time -- we're not here to judge, at least not at the moment -- but Sprint's still fully committed to launching a Google-powered set down the road, as evidenced by Miner's cameo at its developer conference tomorrow. That encouraging sign has been reinforced by new comments from Kevin Packingham, Sprint's veep of products and devices, who gloats that "We can, when the timing's right, pull the trigger." With the G1 out the door, why isn't the "timing" right this very second? According to Packingham, "We've just got to make sure our customers are saying, 'If you had a phone like this, man, I would really be more interested in Sprint because of it. You want to go out with a bang, because you believe that your investment is one that's going to generate a lot of return with customers -- new customers." Isn't "go out with a bang" a bad choice of words for a company that could realistically bite it?

[Via Phone Scoop]

We first caught wind of Sprint's plans to launch a couple dual-mode CDMA / WiMAX devices under the "Sprint 4G" brand a couple days ago, but we're thinking about it a little more, and we're struck by the carrier's decision to run its 4G services as an MVNO on Clearwire's new Clear network. Sprint's balance sheet is basically upside-down at the moment, so we sort of understand why it's not eager to directly invest in a build-out of 4G infrastructure, but at the end of the day, leasing access to a network for general voice and data services is a totally failed business model -- there's a reason we have an MVNO graveyard. We're not saying Sprint's turning itself into the next Helio, but you just don't see the other major carriers doing things like selling off almost all of their existing towers and then letting a spinoff handle their 4G buildouts. We'd say there's some deep juju going on behind the scenes here, and with company spokespeople saying things like "nothing's off the table," it feels like some radical changes are about to hit Overland Park. We'll see how it shakes down soon enough, we think -- the status quo doesn't seem like it can last much longer.

Not even a month after Sprint began offering voluntary buyout packages to an unspecified number of employees and just weeks after John Garcia decided it best to extend his Thanksgiving holiday into forever, in flies an analyst report asserting that sweeping layoffs are just around the bend. Pali Research's Walter Piecyk also expects the carrier to reduce prices to pick up lost ground to rivals AT&T and Verizon Wireless. A company spokesman proclaimed that "nothing was off of the table" and that "every option" would be scrutinized, but as of now, no decisions have been nailed down around the 2009 budget plan. Better get on that, wouldn't you say?

[Via CellPhonesMarket]