Sprint PCS Announces the Uproar MP3 Phone

Sprint PCS (www.sprintpcs.com), announced that they have partnered with Samsung ( www.samsung.com), to offer the Uproar MP3 phone to the United States market. Sprint PCS has also partnered with the Seattle-based HitHive (www.hithive.com), to create the second half of the equation - a web-based music storage "locker", which will be branded as the Sprint PCS My Music Service.

The Uproar will still need to be connected to a PC with a USB cable to download music for the time being, as wireless networks in the U.S. are still running too slow to stream CD quality music, or offer a reasonable download time. However, Sprint PCS customers will be able to stream their music directly from the My Music site to a PC over the Internet.

Using the wireless Web, customers will be able to view their online music collection and create playlists through the My Music site. This feature will be more useful once 3G networks are in place, but it is an indication of future developments. The Sprint website offers the promise that "more cool features are on the way."

Sprint is currently offering a free one-year subscription to its Music Service for those that purchase the Uproar phone during the holiday season. The My Music service could provide subscription-based revenue in the future, if the Uproar gains popularity with consumers.

The Uproar is a fancy hybrid between a phone and MP3 player, offering 64MB of internal memory. The one disadvantage of the Uproar, as compared to standard MP3 players, is that it does not offer any external, removable memory. Real Jukebox 2 Software will power the transfer of MP3s to the Uproar, which is retailing for $399.