Helio Drops Prices On Phones And Plans
Helio has dropped the price on all their phones (OK, there's only three of them) by $50, bringing the well-received Ocean to a reasonable $200. To compliment this nice price break, Helio has also dropped their all-in-one phone plan, which includes unlimited talk-time, messaging and data transfer, to $99 a month!
Whether this is simply a holiday season price break to compete with the AT&T's iPhone is unknown, but it is clear from the product page for the Ocean that they have their targets set for Apple and AT&T's love child. For $200 less and a reasonably priced plan, you would think that Helio and its flagship Ocean would be able to take on the behemoth that is the iPhone.
It's no secret that Helio has struggled in the past, but it appears that things may be turning around for them. Or is this a last-ditch effort to try and reclaim some lost ground and get them afloat? I think I fall into the same camp as many consumers do when it comes to MVNO's: we're leery. We're just not familiar with the company, and an investment price of $200 and a contract of $99/month for 2 years does not necessarily inspire buyer confidence.
All that aside, this is a great deal. The Ocean received rave reviews when it released, and the data plan/phone combination offers more than the iPhone (with the exception of the iPhone's multi-touch screen). And besides, the Ocean is GPS Enabled with a full HTML browser... I can only imagine what an entrepreneurial queen could do with the phone's MySpace integration (or Man Hunt, or Bear 411...).
Product Page [Helio]
Jesse James
Posted to Hot Stuff, In Your Pocket on 15 November 2007
· Comments (1)
Other stuff like this: $99, data plan, Helio, iPhone, Ocean, Phone, unlimited
Within one hour of its unboxing, The One became the undisputed ruler of Tiny's entire home. Buy this or despair.
helio works off the sprint network and here in nyc they have one of the b est service beside verizon (local monopoly)