Sprint holding special event February 7

January 12, 2011 By Geoff Duncan

Sprint has sent out invitations to an "industry first" announcement February 7 in New York City...featuring illusionist David Blaine.

Following on the heels of Verizon Wireless capturing a heap of press attention that the Apple iPhone would be coming to its network next month, Sprint has sent out invitations to an unspecified special event in New York City February 7. Claiming that the announcement from CEO Dan Hesse will add yet-only “industry first” to its record, the event will also feature illusionist and record-setting stunt entrepreneur David Blaine.

Sprint is unlikely to announce it too will be selling the Apple iPhone (that wouldn’t exactly be an “industry first” at this point), but the event invitations only say Hesse (and, presumably, Blaine) will show that the “impossible is possible.”

The date of the announcement is one week before the 2011 Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, which is traditionally when major mobile players make large technology announcements. However, the Mobile World Congress often focuses on mobile developments outside the United States, meaning a U.S.-centric announcement from Sprint won’t necessarily carry much thunder.

Showing 13 comments

Dil Pyro Kelly at 8:34am 21st January 2011 Well I doubt its any plan change since they are adding the $10 premium data to all pdas and changing the yearly upgrades to be harder to get. What ever this is out will need to be huge if sprint knows what there doing
MichaelC at 1:09pm 14th January 2011 My guess is that since it appears that Android bloggers are getting invites. It won't be a Windows phone. An Iphone would not qualify as an "industry first". Which leads me to believe that it will either be revealing plans to carry the LG Optimus 2x, the claimed first smartphone with a dual-core CPU.
man1up at 10:20pm 13th January 2011 4G Windows Phone 7
1. J. Harper at 11:41pm 13th January 2011 This is actually the most likely hardware announcement. If it's not just some new plan, or major change in how plans work, then it'll probably be WP7, possibly with WiMax.
David at 11:43am 13th January 2011 its gonna be a 3d phone from htc. Remember they said the impossible will be possible. And HTC did give the first 4g phone with front facing camera to sprint.
Zachary at 9:34am 13th January 2011 I love sprint and their phones. I have the Htc Evo an i love it but im not that excited about the Iphone coming to us . We need to stay with just our androids and blackberry's and palms. We have the Htc Evo Shift thats coming out another great andriod phone,i just dont think apple products should come to sprint more or less verizon cause both companys are know for their android. Sprint says we the best with our 4g phones like the Evo, but Iphones aren't really the best phones so why bring something that aint the best to 1 of the companys with the some of best smartphones out their?.
1. Chauncey at 10:32pm 17th January 2011 Yeah I agree. Why does everybody want a iPhone so bad?! I have a iPhone, I can't wait till my wife's contract expires so we could go to sprint and get andriod phones. I don't have a clue what Sprint is planning but they need to get more phones to choose from. With everything coming out the Evo won't be king for long
Larry at 10:10pm 12th January 2011 Hey genius! There is already "a Dual-Core 1+Ghz. Android 3G/4G phone that converts to a full laptop/netbook by using a dock". It's called the Motorol Atrix so that couldn't be an "industry first".
Brian at 3:53pm 12th January 2011 Sprint will show case a dual mode phone a LTE/Wimax android phone LTE for Voice n Wimax for data seeing how Wimax is way faster for data then LTE will ever achieve even with TD-LTE. An Sprint will get the iPhone when its ready but its main focus are Android, BlackBerry, and soon to b Palm again. But if im wrong Sprint has sumthin big it will announce because for them to say Industry First is a BIG statement the industry of cell phones has seen everything to date sprint would have to do sumthin that will set a new standard or raise the bar in the industry to proclaim an event like this.
Richard Dennis Colbert at 2:56pm 12th January 2011 I am with Sprint and would say they are damn good....the best I am not sure about but damn good none the less. Apple is expected to be releasing the iPhone 4gs in the next couple months so it could possibly be that the first 4g (as in speed) iPhone will be going to Sprint. But I highly doubt this to be the case for several reasons, mostly because Sprint uses a CDMA network (that is not the same or even similar to Verizon) and therefore I doubt they would build another version of the phone just for Sprint. Most likely Sprint is going to announce a Dual-Core 1+Ghz. Android 3G/4G phone that converts to a full laptop/netbook by using a dock. I suspect it might be one similar to what Motorola showed at CES and it will almost assuredly run Honeycomb (Android 3.0).
1. DaBassMan at 7:41pm 12th January 2011 First of all I love sprint. There are several things wrong with your comment... Sprint and verizon both use a cdma network. Check your facts. Second of all honeycomb is specifically designed for tablets. If anything a new android phone would run gingerbread that the nexus 2 will be running. And finally, a phone that also turns into a full laptop/netbook? I wouldnt even begin to think how that could be done. Despite what this article says I am still.hoping that sprint will announce the iphone on feb 7 which also happens to be my birthday!
  1. @jcrabapple at 7:51pm 12th January 2011 The Morola Atrix 4G that's coming to AT&T docks into a netbook. Could be a Sprint version of that. But it says "industry first." Might be the Blackberry Playbook. Or maybe a phone with a 3D display. Something tells me it's more network related than device related though.
  2. J. Harper at 11:38pm 13th January 2011 The phone that turns into a netbook? It's called the Motorola Atrix, it's a real phone, announced at CES this year. It's going to AT&T though, and therefore wouldn't be an industry first, so that's not what's going to happen. Good call on the correction though, Sprint and Verizon have lease agreements to use each others towers. Definitely use the same CDMA network. Based on Job's history with the iPhone though, data connectivity speeds are at the bottom of the priority list. Near the top is battery life, so I don't see a WiMax iPhone anytime soon, as that burns through a battery. HSPA+ is the more likely option, which isn't really 4G, but now that UTI and the industry are calling it 4G, it'll be good enough for Apple. So we won't likely have a LTE or WiMax iPhone this year.