Cloud services boost AT&T's midrange smartphone bid

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Cloud services boost AT&T's midrange smartphone bid

Three web-based offerings debut with four mass market handsets

By CAROLINE GABRIEL

Published: 15 March, 2010

READ MORE: US | AT&T | Applications | Handset | BREW

As long as AT&T holds on to its iPhone exclusive, it will be ambivalent about putting too much effort behind other high end smartphones. It recently lined up a wide ranging choice of handsets and app stores - spanning Symbian/Ovi, Palm and Android - but its more creative efforts have focused on the midrange, and it has bolstered these further with cloud-based services for its more basic smartphones.

As the smartphone goes mass market, the carrier hopes to tap into this growth area without damaging its iPhone base - especially as many of the Apple contracts get older, starting to deliver profit despite the heavy subsidy, and promising renewals. Beneath the iPhone's radar, AT&T aims to upgrade customers from basic featurephones to full OS handsets that carry data contracts, and to lure users away from Verizon Wireless' Android oriented midmarket strategy.

Its new cloud data services promise "smartphone-like messaging, video and photo sharing and contact management experiences" across what AT&T calls 'QMDs' (quick messaging devices), in other words, low end smartphones. These are heavily focused on social networking and messaging, and have full software platforms (including Qualcomm Brew, which has been given a new lease of life outside CDMA by this AT&T strategy). Initially, AT&T will offer its apps on four new QMDs, the Samsung Strive and Sunburst, and the Pantech Link and Pursuit.

The offerings include AT&T Mobile Share, which provides tools to transfer and manage photos and videos across PCs and social networks, and to access this content from any browser device. The images and videos will be held in a personal AT&T Locker in the cloud. The service offers 50 media transfers a month for $10 or a per-use fee of 35 cents per transfer. It comes with 250Mb of free online storage, or an additional 10Gb for $5 a month.

Another service is the cloud-based Address Book, which syncs contacts automatically online, allowing contact management from phone or PC. And a third app, Next Generation Messaging, updates texting to include group messaging and 'reply all' features for up to 10 contacts as well as threaded conversations, consolidated inbox and enhanced multimedia display.

The Samsung Strive will ship on Friday for a promotional price of $19.99 with two-year contract and after $50 mail-in rebate. A special offer of 50% off will also apply to the other three phones. The $40 Sunburst will ship on Sunday, featuring a touchscreen and TouchWiz interface, and the Pantech gadgets will follow around the middle of the year. Data plans for the QMDs cost $30 per month, but unlike similarly priced deals for the iPhone, include text messaging.

From the second half of 2010, all the QMDs will be equipped with Brew to offer their users the full range of Brew Mobile apps. That means that the venerable Qualcomm platform - the grandfather of modern app stores - will be supported on a huge 90% of AT&T devices by year end, says the cellco. Of the carrier's postpaid customers, 30% are purchasing QMDs and these users are particularly eager to have more applications to download, said AT&T Mobility chief Ralph de la Vega recently.