Alltel announces new handsets

We’ll be honest: When we heard that Alltel was announcing a new line of handsets, we simply assumed that it would have something to do with their coming WiFi service. So we were quite surprised to see that just one of the “new” devices is WiFi capable. Very odd indeed. We’re actually scratching our heads right now, really wondering why Alltel is even offering WiFi.

For the most part, these devices are smart phones. The first is the Palm Treo 755p. That’s only been out for, what, four years, so we comment Alltel for being so quick to the punch with this one.

Next is the BlackBerry Pearl 8130, which is the first CDMA Pearl released. Verizon has already picked it up, and plans to release it in November. We don’t see Alltel releasing it first, considering the announcement came a week after Verizon’s.

The final smart phone is the UTStarcom 6850, which we’ve never seen before. Speculation is that this is the same device as the HTC Mogul — which is Wi-Fi capable. However, there is no confirmation that the devices are the same, and there is a chance that the 6850 is not, in fact, WiFi capable. We’ll have to look further into that one.

Motorola is in on the game, releasing two non-smart phones: the U5 and the ORKR Z6m. But, once again, no WiFi.

No release dates or prices have been announced, but here’s our guess: They’ll be expensive and they’ll be out in November. Oh, and we’ll also venture a guess that this Alltel WiFi deal is a waste.

[Boy Genius Report]

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