R.I.P. Helio (2006-2010)

FreakyLocz14

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    The wireless company Helio has officially died on May 25th, 2010.

    As of February 2010, Helio phones no longer appear on the Virgin Mobile USA web site. On March 5, 2010, Sprint confirmed that Virgin Mobile Postpaid Customers, a euphemism for Helio customers, would have to switch to Sprint or another carrier by May 25th, 2010, because Helio cell phones will no longer work after that date.

    Helio was perhaps ahead of its time when it first lauched. Known for its "MySpace Phones" and it's "Don't call it a phone" slogan, Helio brought some of the first smarthphones to the market.

    Helio was going bankrupt and people expected it to die back in 2008, but it ended up being acquired by Virgin Mobile USA, which in turn was later acquired by Sprint.

    Although Sprint and Virgin Mobile haven't said why the are getting rid of Virgin Mobile Contract service but many believe it's because Sprint does not want to compete with Virgin for postpaid customers and has decided to keep Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile as strictly prepaid.

    Sprint offered Helio customers deeper discounts on it's 2-year contract phones than the usual discounted contract price and will waive activation fees but it is not setting up Helio devices to work under Sprint.
     
    What phones did they make? Because I have never heard of them. Or are they a USA exclusive company?
     
    Rich Boy Rob said:
    What phones did they make? Because I have never heard of them. Or are they a USA exclusive company?
    Click to expand...

    It was a joint venture by some US company and a South Korean company to bring the latest mobile telecom. technology over to the US from South Korea where the market was completely flooded. They never broke into our (the British) market.
     
    It's not a huge shock.
    The fact no one really used Helio was a major disadvantage.

    So place your bets! Who goes down next, Boost Mobile or Sprint?
     
    I don't think Boost Mobile will die. It's supported by Sprint-Nextel as Nextel's prepaid service. Sprint acquired them as well as Virgin Mobile in order to take advantage of the prepaid market that's growing due to the hard economic times.

    One of Helio's most well-known phones was the Ocean, which was followed by the Ocean 2 after Virgin Mobile acquired them.
     
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