AT&T touts new gadgets and more
Ma Bell shows off everything from the BlackBerry Curve 8900 to its U-verse TV service at a press event in Manhattan.
NEW YORK--The nation's second largest wireless phone company came to the Big Apple this week to strut its stuff.
At an event in a swanky boutique hotel in midtown Manhattan, AT&T representatives displayed several new handsets that are launching soon or have just launched on the carrier's network. Included in the lineup were several new smartphones, such as the hot Nokia e71x and the BlackBerry Curve 8900, which goes on sale Friday.
In addition to its new smartphones, AT&T showed off some new budget-friendly phones, such as the $20 Samsung Magnet and the newLG Neon, which hasn't been priced yet. These phones have full QWERTY keypads for quick typing, but they're inexpensive and don't require pricey data plans that come with smartphones.
As part of its push to offer wireless service to more consumer devices, AT&T also showed off its new Netbooks, or mini-laptops, that will go on sale nationally this summer. The company plans to subsidize the Netbooks for customers signing up for a two-year service contract for its 3G wireless network. So far, pricing hasn't been released yet.
But AT&T didn't just highlight its new gadgets. It also showed off some enhancements to its new applications and services, as in the case of its YellowPages.com application for the iPhone. This free application allows iPhone users to find local businesses and listings from their devices. The service just recently added mapping functionality to the application. And the company also played up its AT&T Mobile TV service, which is offered over MediaFlo's mobile broadcast TV network.
And finally, AT&T demonstrated its interactive U-verse TV service. And as of the end of the first quarter, AT&T said it had a total of more than 1.3 million U-verse TV subscribers.