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Sprint Gets All Touch-y Feel-y

Like the handset manufacturers, it looks like none of the major carriers wants to be left out of the touch screen device competition. Sprint added a CDMA version of the HTC Touch to its lineup today. The gloves are off and the touch brawl is fully joined.

I love how subtlety has gone right out the window. The headline of Sprint's press release regarding the HTC Touch reads "first high-speed wireless device to offer full, intuitive touch screen technology". In other words, nice try iPhone, but 3G is where it's at and EDGE is just too slow. Sprint takes another stab at Apple by pitching the Touch as a good device for personal and business needs. Lastly, the press release is sure to point out that the Touch can run "thousands of third-party applications", unlike the iPhone (yet). Them's all fightin' words, Sprint!

HTC first bowed the Touch in the weeks leading up to the iPhone's launch back in June. The version available then was GSM-based, meaning it would work on T-Mobile's or AT&T's networks, but not Sprint's or Verizon Wireless's.

The touch aspect of the Touch is a user interface overlay that sits on top of Windows Mobile 6. It lets the user easily access some of the phone's features, such as media, inbox and camera, with flicks of the finger. The main platform behind this overlay is still Windows Mobile.

With the addition of the Touch to its line-up, this means AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and now Sprint have touch-screen enabled phones in their stables. This leaves only T-Mobile out of the picture for now (I am not counting Palm OS or other Windows Mobile devices). T-Mo, when you going to join in?

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