Long before Virgin Mobile acquired Helio, we started hearing whispers that the Samsung F400 was destined for the carrier’s lineup. With its vertically dual-sliding design featuring a number pad on one end and dual speakers on the other, it would have been a pretty snazzy little handset for music fans on everyone’s favorite MVNO. Don’t expect to expect to see this one hit the shelves anytime soon, though. Read the rest of this entry at MobileCrunch » → Read More
Long before Virgin Mobile acquired Helio, we started hearing whispers that the Samsung F400 was destined for the carrier’s lineup. With its vertically dual-sliding design featuring a number pad on one end and dual speakers on the other, it would have been a pretty snazzy little handset for music fans on everyone’s favorite MVNO. Alas, things got a bit crazy in the months leading up to the acquisition. The Ocean 2 slipped all the way back to January of next year, and Helio’s version of the F400 (which would have been modeled the SPH-A533) purportedly got canned. Don’t get your hopes up on a post-acquisition revival – chances are, Virgin Mobile has moved on. More shots after the jump. (Thanks Kill3r24!) → Read More
When I clicked my way through to the image attached to this morning’s Helio Connect press announcement, I couldn’t help but laugh. Not because I find social news site aggregators inherently funny, mind you – but because there’s a little Easter Egg hidden inside and, oddly enough, it’s somewhat related to yours truly. If you haven’t spotted it by now, take a glance at the second item on the list. “Secret handset”, it reads. Now, before you get too excited that you’re getting a sneak peak at Helio’s next big thing, read on after the jump for the history of this image. Read the rest of this post at MobileCrunch >> → Read More
Now that the Ocean 2 has slipped back until January of ’09 at the earliest, we’ve cruised right by the September confidentiality date of the original FCC filing back in March. As a result, a handful of hardware photos and a pack of details have made their way out. Check’em out over at MobileCrunch >> → Read More
Now that the Ocean 2 has slipped back until January of ’09 at the earliest, we’ve cruised right by the September confidentiality date of the original FCC filing back in March. As a result, a handful of hardware photos and a whole slew of details have made their way out. Along with the obvious aesthetic similarities, the handset borrows the dual-slide concept of the original Ocean, offering both a number pad and a QWERTY keyboard. It’s got a 2 megapixel shooter, QVGA screen, EVDO 3G, and Bluetooth/microSD support. While the Ocean II still rocks the Helio logo in these shots, it’s up in the air whether or not Virgin Mobile will be swapping their own branding in now that they’ve acquired the company. Check out all the shots after the jump. [Via Phonescoop] → Read More
Already blue-faced from holding your breath for Oz 2? You might just go purple before you’ve got one in your hands. According to Jayne Wallace, spokeswoman for Virgin Mobile, we won’t be seeing it on the shelves until 2009. Why? Because it’s not yet “the best it can be.” → Read More
In yesterday’s press release concerning the relaunching of Helio, there was a brief mention of a new handset dubbed the Shuttle but no details were included. Today we find out that the phone is really a 3G Virgin Mobile branded slider loaded with 1.3 megapixel camera, Facebook app, stereo Bluetooth and Helio’s software suite, including Buddy Beacon. The new phone could be yours for only $99 if Virgin Mobile is the cell phone service you rock. → Read More
Oh, how I shall miss Helio. In light of this morning’s long expected announcement that Virgin Mobile had purchased Helio, a Q&A has gone up to answer some of the more pressing questions. It’s all pretty straightforward: there will be no service interruption, new members are welcome, contracts are still valid, and they expect the Helio brand will eventually be dissolved. → Read More
Rumors surrounding the possible merger and/or acquisition between Virgin Mobile and Helio began surfacing in May. Shortly after this rumor circulated around the Web we learned that Helio’s Chairman Sky Dayton and VM’s CEO Dan Schulman met with Best Buy during CTIA. The following day SK Telecom, Helio’s biggest backer, sent out a release stating that they were, indeed, talking with Virgin Mobile. That all went down in May and everyone in the industry has been speculating since with both sides keeping their mouths shut. Update after the jump → Read More
Virgin Mobile purchased Helio today for $39 million in equity. Helio is a small MVNO that made its name by selling powerful and high-end telephones aimed at technophiles and, thanks to an investment by South Korea’s SK Telecom, Korean-Americans. As part of the deal, Virgin Mobile is also receiving $50 million to pay down Helio’s debt (half from SK Telecom, and half from its parent company Virgin Group), as well as an additional revolving credit facility of $60 million. Just last September, SK Telecom tried to save Helio by pouring an extra $270 million into it, to no avail. The Helio brand will be subsumed by Virgin Mobile. All of the Helio stores will close except, it’s reported, the flagship store in New York, and there is a full restructuring of the company going on right now. Thus, after much struggling, Helio enters the deadpool. Helio had 170,000 subscribers while Virgin Mobile currently has about 5 million. The deal will also give Virgin access to a number of technologies owned by Helio including customer management and cellphone deck applications. Helio also has received investments from Earthlink, but when Earthlink pulled out last year and charismatic CEO Sky Dayton stepped down it was clear something was afoot. Peter Ha at CrunchGear wrote a full analysis of the merger: So what exactly does the merger mean for customers of Helio who have grown to love the hardware and features that Helio is best known for? Well, Virgin Mobile will be keeping all of those goodies in place. If you’ve seen any VM devices, you know they stink. VM is relatively boring and absorbing the technology Helio is best known for will certainly boost the MVNO’s status and appeal to a broader audience. That means future VM devices will include apps such as Google Maps with GPS, YouTube and MySpace… all of which Helio brought to the table before other carriers. What about the Ocean 2? If you haven’t already figured it out by now, the Ocean 2 has been delayed over the last few months because of merger talks. It’s unclear when the device will actually launch, but it hasn’t been scrapped. While I hate to see Helio dissolve, this is great for both brands. VM knows how to make money while Helio knows how to create technology that works and is appealing. With Helio gone Boost Mobile in the only targeted → Read More
http://www.ustream.tv/flash/live/19220Free video streaming by Ustream The call starts at 11am eastern, 8am Pacific. Listen in live as Virgin and Helio describe their new partnership. → Read More
Let’s be honest. We’ve seen this coming for more than a month now and the Financial Times is reporting that VM and Helio could announce sometime this week that the two MVNOs will merge leaving SK Telecom with a 20 percent stake. There have been rumors floating around that Helio stores will shut their doors in an effort to cut costs, which we haven’t been able to confirm nor deny, but we’re pretty sure they’re true. We’re unsure which stores will close, but I’d like to think that the NYC store that’s 200 meters away from me will remain open. We’ll have to wait and see, though. Now that all this merger nonsense is over with, I’d like for Helio to release OZ2. Reuters is also reporting on this matter. Sources say Helio will be absorbed into the Virgin Mobile brand. Maybe we won’t see OZ2 with the backlit Helio name. I guess I’m ok with Virgin. → Read More
It seems a video of the Ocean 2 was up last night, but that’s clearly not the case now since we can only provide a screen shot. Not a whole lot to glean from the Heliocity message board, but it appears the d-pad is touch sensitive and the “Helio” is backlit. Looking forward to this upgrade. → Read More
Those of us here at CrunchGear who use Helio’s excellent Ocean (which is most of us) are thrilled up at the prospect of the rumored Ocean 2, or OZ2, which is purportedly set to drop on or around June 20. We know the phone has significant upgrades to the OS making it much faster and more responsive that the first-gen version, and we also hear there’s a better camera and in-browser support for Flash, as well as an Opera-based browser included. Other likely additions are integrated YouTube, weather apps, messaging, and true GPS functionality, but until we have one in our hands we won’t know what’s included for sure. One thing we’ve been hearing a lot about is the new navigation pad. We hear alternately that it’s touch sensitive and non-touch, meaning you gesture above the pad and it reads your movements, which would one-up multitouch as a new technology. This is apparently what the OZ2 looks like, very much like the current Ocean, which we’d heard, but we’re not totally convinced that’s the final form the phone handset will take. If all of these features are included, the OZ2 just might give the iPhone a run for its money. → Read More
