HTC Inspire 4G hits AT&T on February 13th, does HSPA+ for $99.99
AT&T subscribers, it's time to finally get a taste of Android on HSPA+. Well, almost. On February 13th the HTC Inspire 4G will release, bringing not-quite-4G speeds and Android 2.2 for a quite affordable $99.99.
Context & Ripple Effects
AT&T is finally answering T-Mobile's HSPA+ Android play: after the T-Mobile G2 arrived in September as the first HSPA+ Android flagship, AT&T gets its own at a lower sticker price. The move lands one day after AT&T's CEO confirmed the carrier will push Android hard now that Apple was let out of its iPhone exclusivity a year early.
The $99.99 price point also closes a long arc on AT&T hardware costs — back in October 2007 the carrier's AT&T Tilt launched at $299.99, and four years later comparable subsidized hardware sells for two-thirds less. The timing is delicate, though: the same week, a federal class action alleged AT&T systematically overbills iPhone and iPad users for data usage.
First-order effects
- AT&T subscribers get their first sub-$100 Android handset on HSPA+ when the Inspire 4G ships February 13th, running Android 2.2 under AT&T's new Android-first strategy.
- The launch gives HTC a second major US carrier channel alongside its existing Verizon and Sprint relationships, at a price tier designed to move volume rather than margin.
Second-order effects
- T-Mobile loses its claim as the only HSPA+ Android destination in the US, forcing it to compete on specs and network marketing rather than exclusive access to the technology.
- Verizon's Android lineup — built since the 2009 HTC Imagio and Predator era — now faces a carrier pairing aggressive Android pricing with the iPhone, squeezing rivals' mid-tier positioning from both sides.
Third-order effects
- If every carrier keeps branding HSPA+ as '4G,' the term's meaning erodes into pure marketing — a labeling fight regulators or standards bodies may eventually have to arbitrate as LTE rollouts begin.
- Sub-$100 pricing on current-generation hardware points toward subsidy economics where carriers, not handset makers, set the effective price floor for Android — reinforcing carrier control over which devices reach mainstream buyers.
The trend: US carriers are racing to rebrand HSPA+ networks as '4G' while subsidies push flagship-class Android hardware below $100, making the carrier rather than the handset maker the gatekeeper of mass-market smartphones.