T-Mobile Confirms Sidekick 4G, Samsung Galaxy S 4G
T-Mobile USA CEO Philipp Humm confirmed today that 4G HSPA+ versions of the T-Mobile Sidekick and the Samsung Galaxy S phones will be “coming soon,” according to a slide presented at a press breakfast today.
Context & Ripple Effects
T-Mobile's '4G' push has been building through its HSPA+ network rather than LTE: as of mid-January 2011, its confirmed 4G handsets — the myTouch 4G and the G2 — were documented topping out at 14.4 Mbps. The carrier had also spent late 2010 fending off iPhone speculation, after corporate stores began stocking Apple connector cables, which T-Mobile clarified were intended for unlocked handsets and European roamers; reports that it might break AT&T's iPhone exclusivity remained unconfirmed.
Against that backdrop, CEO Philipp Humm used a press breakfast today to confirm, via slide, that 4G HSPA+ versions of both the Samsung Galaxy S and the Sidekick are 'coming soon.' The Sidekick confirmation is the more surprising of the two: it extends a legacy messaging-brand name onto T-Mobile's fastest network tier at exactly the moment every US carrier is slapping '4G' on hardware.
First-order effects
- Prospective Galaxy S and Sidekick buyers on T-Mobile now have a stated upgrade path to the carrier's HSPA+ tier, announced directly by Humm rather than leaked through the supply chain.
- Because T-Mobile's existing 4G phones were confirmed on January 12, 2011 as capped at 14.4 Mbps, the speed figure attached to these 'coming soon' devices becomes the number that determines whether this is a real generational bump or a relabeling.
Second-order effects
- With a Verizon iPhone still only rumored and T-Mobile's own iPhone ambitions unconfirmed, T-Mobile's fastest Android hardware — Samsung's Galaxy S line chief among it — carries the burden of holding premium customers who might otherwise defect.
- Samsung gets another sales cycle out of an already-shipped Galaxy S design, while rival carriers face pressure to match the '4G' label on comparable HSPA+-class handsets or defend the term with genuine LTE.
Third-order effects
- If HSPA+ keeps being marketed as 4G across US carriers, the gap between the '4G' badge in ads and the LTE standard narrows toward a purely definitional dispute — one that handset spec sheets and regulator attention would eventually have to settle.
- Reviving the Sidekick name on modern radio hardware tests whether carriers can extend legacy brands into new network generations, a cheaper alternative to launching new marques in an increasingly crowded Android lineup.
The trend: US carriers are racing to rebrand their HSPA+ networks as '4G' and refresh flagship lineups to match, ahead of any mass-market LTE transition.