Samsung Drops Three New Phones on T-Mobile

Gotta love the name : ) … yes the name of one of the new Samsung phones is : ) or smiley. They’re going to be on T-Mobile if you didn’t figure that out yet and the other two are called the Gravity T and Gravity 3. They’re messaging specific phones with full QWERTY keyboards, making texting that much easier.

T-Mobile USA, Inc. and Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile), the No. 1 mobile phone provider in the U.S. today announced a new lineup of full QWERTY-keyboard phones available in unique designs to suit each customer’s messaging preference, including two next-generation Samsung Gravity phones — Samsung Gravity 3 and Samsung Gravity T — and the Samsung 🙂 (Smiley).

Read on for the rest of the PR and a lot of pictures..

More and more families are finding that text messaging is one of the best ways to communicate. In a March 2010 internal survey, close to 70 percent of T-Mobile customers indicated that they had used text messaging to stay connected at least once within the prior 7 days. Over the past three years, the average number of text messages T-Mobile customers have sent and received per quarter has nearly tripled from 262 messages in Q1 2007 to 752 messages in Q3 2009².  In 2009, 250 billion text and picture messages were sent by T-Mobile postpaid subscribers, a 51% growth over the 165 billion messages sent over the T-Mobile network in 2008. The new lineup of Samsung messaging phones help to answer the call for affordable, easy-to-use phones as text messaging communication increases among families.

“T-Mobile knows the importance of staying connected to friends and family through mobile messaging,” said Paul Cole, vice president, devices and accessories, T-Mobile USA. “With our portfolio of new affordable messaging phones, the whole family is sure to find one tailored to both their needs and desires.”

Available exclusively through T-Mobile USA and powered by its high-speed network, the Samsung :), Gravity 3 and Gravity T offer the latest in messaging capabilities and easy access to the Web that keeps customers connected and up to date on the latest with friends and family. Each of the phones also includes a new social networking feature called T-Mobile^® Social Buzz, which integrates popular social networking sites into one application. When not actively in use, Social Buzz continues running in the background and delivers pop-up message notifications to the phone’s home screen ensuring you are in the know on the latest updates. While in use, it gives the option to visit each social networking screen separately or visit an aggregated screen that includes messages from all communities in one simple-to-access place.

“We’re proud to continue the popular Gravity series of devices with sleeker designs and a fully customizable touch screen on the Gravity T, as well as introduce the Smiley with T-Mobile,” said Omar Khan, chief strategy officer for Samsung Mobile. “These three phones each offer top-notch messaging features and multimedia favorites together in one device.”

Following the success of the Samsung Gravity^® and Gravity^® 2, Samsung Mobile and T-Mobile are continuing the series with the availability of the Samsung Gravity^® 3 and Samsung Gravity^® T. The next generation of Gravity devices offers two designs that come fully equipped with slide-out QWERTY keyboards and a complete messaging suite, including Exchange and personal e-mail capability, calendar and contacts. The Gravity 3 brings an external T9^® keyboard and a slide-out, full QWERTY keyboard, while the Gravity T features a customizable 2.8-inch touch screen that provides a premium touch and messaging experience at an affordable price. Both Gravity devices include a 2-megapixel camera and camcorder, built-in music player, HTML browser and support for up to 16 GB of expandable memory.

Here’s the Gravity T:

Here’s the Gravity 3:

The Samsung :)™ features a compact, rounded-edge design, a slide-up vertical QWERTY keyboard and a dedicated shortcut for quick access to messaging applications, including text, picture, video and instant messaging, as well as Exchange and personal e-mail capability. The 🙂 offers an easy-to-use interface, a built-in camera and camcorder, a music player and support for expandable memory.

With T-Mobile’s web2go^SM service, all three devices can access the Web (optimized for the phone), personalize the phone’s Web home page for easy one-click access to favorite websites, receive fast and easy search results and live news feeds with web2go, and have access to a plethora of T-Mobile offerings, including the latest ringtones, games and wallpaper.

Starting today, the Samsung :), Gravity 3 and Gravity T are available in T-Mobile retail stores, select authorized dealers and online at http://www.t-mobile.com. For more information about Samsung Mobile’s new lineup of messaging devices exclusively with T-Mobile USA, please visit http://www.t-mobile.com or http://www.samsung.com/newsroom.