Print this article | E-mail this article | Comment on this article

Helio brings a Korean standout slider phone to the US

By Tim Conneally, BetaNews

January 16, 2008, 5:00 PM

Helio increased its portfolio of handsets today with its release of the Mysto, a slider-style device produced exclusively for US distribution by Samsung.

The 3G CDMA device is based upon Samsung's U600 released last year. It has a 2.22" QVGA display, 106 MB of internal memory expandable to 4 GB via MicroSD, mono and A2DP stereo Bluetooth support, and an MPEG-4 video camera.
Helio's Mysto by Samsung
Mysto supports WHERE, a location-based application platform from uLocate Communications, that automatically tailors application data and search queries to the user's location. It also added Tellme, a one-touch voice search application made by Microsoft.

Joint owner SK Telecom sunk a further $270 million into Helio in September, alleviating some pressure the mobile phone company was putting on partner Earthlink. Some speculated that the real success of Helio would come from SK Telecom targeting the Korean-American niche market with its "Helio Powered by SK Telecom" campaign. By adding an already popular device by South Korean company Samsung, SK looks to be doing just that.

Add a Comment (5 Comments)

BetaNews reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic. Foul language and personal attacks will not be tolerated.

By MikeTechno

edited Jan 16, 2008 - 7:05 PM

This is interesting but Apple has just set the bar so incredibly high now with their run-away hit the iPhone, that great phones like this that otherwise would be making major headlines just seem to fade into the background with all the other also rans instead of really making a big splash like they probably should be. That has got to be frustrating for all these other cell phone/smartphone companies out there in the post iPhone release era.

It is hard to see how any phone is really going to garnish much excitement in the market going forward now unless they really outdo the iPhone and seriously surpass it by a wide margin in some way. So far, many have tried but no one has been able to really do it, from what I can tell. Lots of phones come close, but no one yes yet really topped it or outdone it across the board.

From what we know right now, the only company that is going to have a realistic shot of outdoing the iPhone is Apple themselves, when they announce and release the revised/improved iPhone II later this year. (Let's hope they got the message on the need for user replacable batteries this time. HELLO? This is 2008! I don't think user replacable batteries is too much to ask for on a CELL PHONE there Steve! Time to get with the program on that one I think)

Until some other company really knocks it out of the park with an big leap forward, I just don't see how anyone out there is going to have any hope of really unseating the iPhone from its perch atop the smartphone market at this point.

I wonder how long it will be before someone out there really gets innovative and creative enough to out iPhone the iPhone?

Personally, I hope someone does becaue I am not a fan of Apple or their products actually. I admire and respect them but I am not a customer of them. Not sure that I ever will be but they sure are a fun company to watch, no question about that.

Score: 0

By superdragonpoop

posted Jan 16, 2008 - 11:39 PM

I am not a fan of Apple. I don't own any Apple products. They only thing Apple has done is consistenly market their devices well. There is always a better device that beats Apples version. It's unfortunate people can't see past the brand name and their lame advertising.

The iPhone was out iPhoned before the iPhone was born.
http://www.engadget.com/...e850-separated-at-birth/

And the iPod gets out MP3'd. http://www.ilounge.com/i...est-in-show-ipod-killer/

But still people buy iXXXX for the Apple name. It just goes to show you....you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

Score: 0

By shicaca

posted Jan 17, 2008 - 4:43 AM

I dunno... after 4million iPhones sold in the last X amount of months, it seems like you can lead a horse to water and shove it so far down the horse's throat he's FORCED to drink.

It's an unfortunate truth, but no carriers in the US have made phones that are even close to being worth buying. Not saying I like the iPhone (and I refuse to switch carriers just for a freaking phone, specially when said carrier BLOWS), but the sad truth is it's one of the better phones available at this time for the American public.