When Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC announced that T-Mobile USA would be the first wireless company to carry a wireless smartphone running Google's hyped Android operating system, those who have refused the iPhone and were fervent Google supporters finally had a reason to cheer. There have been several unknowns, with the most important one being a launch price.

This may have just been cleared up. CrunchGear is reporting that the HTC/Google "Dream" Android-based smartphone will sell for $200 when released on T-Mobile USA sometime in October, or more precisely for $199 as the WSJ reports today. This is identical to the pricing of the iPhone 3G on AT&T, Inc. (NYSE: T), so if there are any doubts Google and T-Mobile are squaring up to compete head-to-head with Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and AT&T, those have been nicely squashed.

Sprint Nextel Corp.'s (NYSE: S) first attempt to compete with a unit very much like the iPhone was the Samsung Instinct. That particular phone, which was released in June, has quickly become Sprint's best cellphone seller in over two years. Can the HTC Dream Android-powered phone give T-Mobile USA a lift like this? Both Google and T-Mobile USA hope so, although Apple iPhone 3G sales certainly are not slowing down. But there are folks who will never want to be involved with AT&T at all (even with the iPhone 3G exclusivity), so having choices outside the Apple/AT&T world could spell immediate success continuation for Sprint Nextel and soon for T-Mobile USA.

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) seems to be on the mend from a perception standpoint. CEO Dan Hesse is still running television advertisements with his direct email address and a personal message to potential Sprint subscribers. The cellular carrier has a refined, electric image and has a decent competitor to Apple, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone. Is it still in bad financial shape? That answer would be yes, as it continues to lose customers every single quarter.

While a Sprint/T-Mobile partnership was rumored this summer, the technology used between the two companies is incompatible. From a layman's perspective, it's precisely the problem that doomed the Sprint acquisition of Nextel. To this day, the brands still operate independently in many ways. That's been a death knell for the company, while larger competitor AT&T, Inc. (NYSE: T) perfectly merged its network with the now-gone Cingular over a few years. Still, would T-Mobile really want to team up with Sprint? Only if Sprint jettisons the Nextel brand and network sometime in 2008.

Analyst Christopher Larsen with Credit Suisse makes a decent argument for Sprint and Nextel parting ways as soon as possible, citing the recent $3 billion fund raiser Sprint announced. Could an impending corporate divorce be in the works? Sprint has already written off tens of billions in the bungled Nextel merger, but it could raise over $7.5 billion by selling Nextel.

Still, with the third- and fourth-largest wireless players (Sprint and T-Mobile, respectively) ripe for consolidation, combining two very different networks better work if there's even a hint of a future combination between the two. But right now, that may be the only choice: Verizon Wireless and AT&T are kicking butt in the wireless market in the U.S.

In an exciting bit of news for early adopters north of the border, the new BlackBerry Bold smartphone from Research In Motion Limited (NASDAQ: RIMM) is slated to hit Canadian shelves this Thursday, August 21. Because RIMM has signed service pacts with various wireless carriers in different regions, the Bold is being rolled out gradually around the globe. The snappy new device has already launched in Germany, but U.S. carrier AT&T (NYSE: T) is so far keeping mum about its plans for the Bold's Stateside debut.

The latest addition to the CrackBerry family is aimed toward business users; as proof, even Rupert Murdoch is getting in on the act. The Wall Street Journal Digital Network announced today that it's launched a new mobile application to provide immediate access to headlines in the WSJ family of financial publications (including Barron's, MarketWatch, and All Things Digital). The application is available for free on most BlackBerry smartphones.

Naturally, the Bold has already garnered comparisons to Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone -- but there are a few notable differences. While Jobs & Co. are slowly trying to make headway into the corporate world, their core audience is still top-heavy with tech-gadget completists and trust-fund hipsters. Meanwhile, BlackBerry's already in business with business, and the new WSJ app is just an extra boost of its Street cred.

Until recently, I believed that shares of Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) had been unfairly punished by investors who were too skeptical about the company's prospects. Now, I am changing my tune because I have come to realize that the future of the company will be filled with endless pricing battles, which will force the Philadelphia-based cable giant to sacrifice the needs of shareholder to retain customers.

To be fair, Comcast reported a decent quarter Wednesday and was able to hold the line on capital expenditures. Net income was $632 million, or 21 cents a share, versus $588 million, or 19 cents, a year earlier. Sales jumped 11% to $8.55 billion. Results were short of the 23-cent forecast of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg but beat the $8.57 billion sales forecast.

Now, ordinarily missing the profit forecast would cause the shares to tank. Instead, they are trading up slightly because investors found much about the earnings report to like. For one thing, Comcast's free cash flow was $1.17 billion, more than triple from a year earlier. This beat the forecast of veteran cable industry watchers such as Craig Moffett of Sanford C. Bernstein. It also reaffirmed its earnings guidance for the year, countering worries that it would be hurt by cash-strapped customers falling behind in their bills.

AT&T (NYSE: T) closed at $31.83 Monday. T is scheduled to report Q2 EPS on July 23. T August option implied volatility of 36 is above its 26-week average of 32 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement.

Verizon (NYSE: VZ) is scheduled to report Q2 EPS on July 28. VZ announced second quarter wireless net customer additions of 1.5 million. At the end of the quarter VZ had 68.7 million customers. VZ August option implied volatility of 31 is near its 26-week average according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price movement.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

The new Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone is even a bigger hit than analysts had expected. During its debut weekend, about a million units of the phone that can do everything but your taxes were sold. This number is already higher than earlier estimates from today Doug McIntyre has posted. Even Apple's prickly Chief Executive Steve Jobs was impressed.

"iPhone 3G had a stunning opening weekend," he said in a press release issued this morning. " It took 74 days to sell the first one million original iPhones, so the new iPhone 3G is clearly off to a great start around the world."

Indeed, diehard geeks camped out and around Apple and AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) stores to be among the first to get their hands on the sleek new phone. A 22-year-old college student from New Zealand named Jonny Gladwell was the first to purchase the mother of all gadgets. He waited outside his Vodafone store for 60 hours, according to Vnunet.com. His parents must be proud (or horrified).

What makes this even more amazing is that many Apple fans are fuming over technical glitches and shortages of the phone their lives will not be complete without. Gizmodo dubbed this the iPocalypse. Mitch Wagner of Information Week argues that Apple has got some fence-mending to do with customers who clearly expected better.

According to a Billboard report on Tuesday, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s newly introduced iPhone will not feature a new method to download music from iTunes. Instead, users will only be able to "access and download music" from iTunes with the phone's WiFi connection. Luckily, the new 3G phone will allow a better connection to access the store and download music, but Billboard speculates that Apple has not improved the method because the company is "less enthusiastic" about sharing profits from iTunes purchases with the operator, in this case AT&T Mobility, a part of AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T).

AT&T Mobility apparently expanded and constructed much of the 3G network the iPhone will use over the course of the last year, when the iPhone was first being readied for release. The original iPhone worked on AT&T's slower EDGE network and utilized WiFi hotspots, but "the upgrade allows for faster Web surfing from any location in At&T's 3G coverage area." Ideally, using the upgraded network would also provide users with better access and faster downloads.

It's no surprise that Apple would keep the music features on the iPhone the same as on the previous model, since the improvements made to the new iPhone make it much better over the previous model. At the same time, it seems unlikely that record companies would object to this similarity either, since it means they can still seek out new deals and arrangements with the phone carriers outside of Apple (in this case).

When Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) releases its own Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone competitor this month, all eyes will be on deck to see if this new phone can save the Titanic that is Sprint from sinking. The wireless carrier has been in terrible shape for over a year now, losing millions of customers and just struggling to maintain its customers. Although an Apple iPhone -- by its nature -- invites copycats from all over the globe, this new handset from Sprint looks like the most serious effort yet.

The wrinkle is this: Sprint will require a calling and data plan of at least $69.99 per month to activate and use the new Samsung Instinct phone. There are so many data features that Sprint decided to tack on quite a hefty minimum monthly bill. Hey, AT&T, Inc. (NYSE: T) is doing this with the iPhone, right? This may be the start of a new trend: minimum monthly plans (high minimums) for all these new whiz-bang phones soon to be released. Will customers bite, or will they choose phones with similar capabilities but without the large minimum monthly charge? We'll soon see.

Sprint believes the target customer for the new Samsung Instinct phone may have concerns about being "nickel and dimed" to death on all the charges needed to make the phone work with all its functionality intact. So, the carrier decided to have a flat-rate price and get rid of those concerns. Fair enough -- but don't automatically force the customer to a $70 plan. In Sprint's defense, that larger minimum hasn't swayed iPhone customers from buying gobs of that device with AT&T. But again, this is no iPhone -- it just looks like one. It appears to be packed with many more features than the iPhone, but just as thousands of competitors before it have shown, Apple is Apple -- nobody else is. Can it save Sprint? Hardly.

On Friday, French wireless operator Orange said it has signed a deal with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) to sell its iPhone in the Middle East, Africa and several European countries. Well, wasn't it just Monday that we've heard that Apple has signed deals with Singapore's Singapore Telecommunications Ltd and three of its affiliates to bring the iPhone to four Asian countries later this year? And wasn't it last week that Vodafone Group (NYSE: VOD) signed a deal with Apple to sell the iPhone in ten of its markets? That was just what I remembered offhand. Seems like Apple has pretty much signed deals with companies to sell the iPhone nearly worldwide. Let's check that:

• From the Vodafone deal we have: Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey
  
• From the SingTel deal we have: Singapore, India, the Philippines and Australia
  
• From the Orange deal we have: Austria, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Jordan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland and African markets
  
• Also, America Movil SAB (NYSE: AMX) will start selling the iPhone in 16 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean
• Rogers Communications Inc (NYSE: RCI) signed a deal to sell the iPhone in Canada
• Telecom Italia SpA will also sell the iPhone in Italy
• The iPhone is already being sold by AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) in the United States, O2 in Britain, T-Mobile in Germany and Orange in France.

So The Wall Street Journal reports today -- according to its favorite "people familiar with the situation" sentence -- that wireless provider Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) is considering spinning off or selling its Nextel unit. This is when I hear the screeching sound of a needle scraping a record. Say what? Should we play that again?

I guess I shouldn't really be that surprised since the $35 billion acquisition of Nextel Communications Inc. in 2005 has always seemed, to say it mildly, challenging. This would be, as the Journal puts it, "a dramatic acknowledgment" that the merger has actually been a failure.

Well, only Monday we heard that Deutsche Telekom AG (NYSE: DT) may be interested in Sprint. Could it be that either Deutsche Telekom demanded such an action, or that Sprint management decided such an action could entice DT to indeed go forward with an offer (despite the probable problems such a merger could face, as Jonathan Berr outlined in his post Monday)? Without Nextel, Sprint would rid itself of much debt. It is also considered to have better handsets and fewer dropped calls, making it a more attractive target.

Shares of Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) are rising on a Wall Street Journal (subscription required) report that Deutsche Telekom AG (NYSE: DT) is poised to make a bid for the wireless telecommunication company. If the report is accurate, Sprint's long suffering shareholders should do as the Steve Miller Band song suggests "take the money and run" because the deal may not happen.

For Sprint, though, this may be its only hope. Sprint shares have slumped almost 40% this year as the Overland Park Kansas-based company tried in vain to gain marketshare against larger rivals including Verizon and AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T). The commercials starring the company's affable CEO Daniel Hesse haven't helped much either. Remember when Hesse was named CEO last December, board member Irvine O. Hockaday Jr. remarked that Hesse "has the board's full support to take decisive actions necessary to improve our performance."

Does that mean a sale to the former German telecom monopoly? The deal makes sense in theory because combining Sprint and Deutsche Telekom would create the top wireless company with more than 82 million customers. Verizon, which is a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) and Vodafone Group Plc. (NYSE: VOD) has 67.2 million customers while AT&T has about 71 million wireless subscribers.

But as Bloomberg News points out, analysts argue that integrating the Deutsche Telekom and Sprint Nextel networks wouldn't be easy. Moreover, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security may not look kindly on a foreign company taking over a U.S. telecom provider for national security reasons, the news service notes.

Even so, the arguments for the merger are so compelling that it might be worth the risk.

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) today posted strong first quarter results thanks to the continuing popularity of the iPhone and its ability to squeeze more savings from the BellSouth merger.

Net income rose to $3.46 billion, or 57 cents a share, from $2.85 billion, or 45 cents. Sales climbed 6% to $30.7 billion. On an adjusted basis, profit was 74 cents. The results matched the estimates of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial, which in this market is good news. Shares of the telecommunications company were trading up in early morning market action.

"Revenue growth continues to ramp, we have good momentum across key growth areas, major cost initiatives are on track, and our operational results reinforce the confidence we have in our outlook," said Chief Executive Randall Stephenson in the earnings release.

Among the highlights:

• Total wireless revenue increased 18.3% year-over-year to $11.8 billion. Wireless service revenue, which excludes handset and accessory sales, grew 17.1% to $10.6 billion. Growth was driven by strong subscriber gains and continued improvement in ARPU (average monthly revenues per subscriber).
• Wireless data revenues grew 57.3% to $2.3 billion, reflecting surging demand for Internet access, e-mail, messaging, data access and media bundles.
• The first quarter net gain in wireless subscribers totaled 1.3 million. AT&T ended the quarter with 71.4 million subscribers.
• AT&T's broadband revenue grew 13.2% in the first quarter to $1.4 billion.
• Total video connections, which include AT&T U-verse service and bundled satellite television service, increased by 264,000 to 2.6 million.

The mean price target of Wall Street analysts is $44.39, well above where it currently trades. Perhaps investors are expecting the next earnings report to show signs of a slowdown.

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) -- with a name that sounds somewhat ironic today -- posted a mammoth $29.5 billion loss today as it wrote down $29.7 billion of the $36 billion 2005 purchase of Nextel Communications Inc. and other companies. In essence, acknowledging it paid (way) too much for that acquisition.

If that was the only ugly number in this fourth-quarter report, then perhaps investors wouldn't have reacted the way they did. Sprint's stock is down some 8% today, following the report, after the company had already lost over 57% of its value in the past 52 weeks; 37% in 2008 alone.

The news is unpleasant. Sprint reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $10.36 a share. While excluding the writedown Sprint earned 21 cents per share, beating the 18 cents per share expected by analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial, its sales fell 5.7% to $9.85 billion, missing analysts' estimates. The third-biggest U.S. wireless carrier also had to borrow $2.5 billion under a credit line to get access to cash, although it claimed it made the move due to current credit market conditions.

And that's not all. Sprint is losing customers, specifically 683,000 valuable customers (contract, or "post-paid") during the quarter. While it saw an increase in customers through its Boost prepaid brand, recently appointed CEO Dan Hesse said the company would lose 1.2 million customers during the first quarter and would see additional losses in the second quarter. Also, subscribers on long-term contracts spent $58 a month on their bills, down from $60 a month last year. Somehow, the churn rate remained unchanged at 2.3% (most likely offset by Boost).

Sprint has announced it would stop paying dividends for the foreseeable future.

"Given the uncertainties, our strategy now is to focus on stocks with minimal downside risk in a weak economy, says Harry Domash who has added AT&T (NYSE: T) to the portfolio of his Winning Investing.

"Telecom giant AT&T is in a recession resistant businesses and pays a high dividend, which are the characteristics we need for this market. The stock provides and estimated dividend yield of 4.2%

"SBC Communications adopted the AT&T name when it bought long distance carrier AT&T in 2005. AT&T purchased BellSouth in 2006 and now provides landline Internet and telephone services in 22 U.S. states.

"With BellSouth, AT&T gained full control of Cingular, the largest wireless carrier in the U.S., and changed its name to AT&T Mobility. Wireless services account for most of AT&T's growth. Last year AT&T became the exclusive service provider for Apple's new iPhone.

"In 2006, AT&T launched a fiber-based network, called 'U-verse,' which offers video and higher speed Internet services.

"AT&T reported December quarter (continuing) earnings of $0.71 per share, up 16% vs. year-ago. Thanks to its BellSouth purchase, revenues rose 91% to $30.3 billion. The stock is an addition to the 'Masstress Stuffers' portion of our model portfolio."

Each day, Steven Halpern's TheStockAdvisors.com offers the latest market commentary and favorite investment ideas from the nation's leading financial newsletter advisors.

Tom Taulli wrote Tuesday about Verizon (NYSE: VZ)'s unlimited wireless calling plan, and competitors AT&T, Inc. (NYSE: T) and T-Mobile (part of Germany's Deutsche Telekom) followed suit with unlimited wireless calling plans for U.S. customers. This is a first in the wireless industry for the major carriers, but it's a welcome one for many consumers. Both AT&T and T-Mobile will offer unlimited calling starting by the end of this week -- T-Mobile starting today and AT&T starting tomorrow.

Where is Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S), you may ask? The carrier also announced unlimited calling plans two weeks ago, but just in a few select markets -- and starting at $119.99 per month. Although the unlimited calling plans vary from carrier to carrier, generally, there is a $99.99 per month price of admission with all of them. T-Mobile offers the best value, with all call minutes and unlimited text messages included. Why did all the carriers -- except Sprint -- unveil unlimited calling within just a few days of each other?

Something has to keep growth churning along in the wireless industry. With 85% of Americans now owning a cellphone, wireless is heading for commodity status (it may already be there), where price wars will begin erupting and "me too" marketing campaigns following shortly thereafter. The PC industry knows all about this. But price wars only help the consumer -- not the wireless carrier. Yes, many of us heavy wireless users may soon have lower bills, but the carriers may have lower bottom lines as well. What wireless company stocks do you have in your portfolio? Will this cause more customers to abandon landline telephones and switch to unlimited-minutes wireless only, pumping in growth into the wireless sector for the time being? Food for thought.