Launched in early 2009, Sprint’s Premier loyalty program has been one of the more generous (and easy to understand) perks programs in the American wireless industry: just keep a certain minimum spend per month or stick around for ten years, and boom, you’re eligible. Most importantly, Premier customers are currently able to get new contract pricing after just a single year into their existing contracts, which makes gadget freaks on the network far, far less likely to go bankrupt. Well, mirroring some of the other early upgrade changes we’re seeing in the business lately, it looks like these guys are planning on dialing things back come April 1st (and no, the irony is not lost). Though some Premier customers will still get upgrades after a year, that privilege will be dialed back to members of the new Gold tier which will require ten years of service with Sprint. Yes, that’s right: you’ll have needed to have a line on these guys since before the Matrix Phone came out to get the biggest benefit of the program. If you don’t qualify, you still could get in on the Silver tier, which gives you miscellaneous perks like accessory discounts… but not the full upgrade discount after a year. Instead, you’ll need to wait 22 months, which — at the current rate — is about 47 major versions of Android.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: As before, you’ll be able to skirt the 10-year requirement with a minimum spend and at least six months of service; that minimum will be $89.99 a month for individual lines at $169.99 a month for family plans. Whew!

Sprint Premier getting new premium tier on April 1st, many customers won’t get early upgrades? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Jan 2011 22:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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White HTC Desire and silver Wildfire make a special appearance in London originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 08 Sep 2010 21:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here’s another thing the Desire has that the Nexus One doesn’t: a second color option. We’re told our Dutch buddies will soon be able to skip the default gunmetal paintjob that’s shared by HTC’s twin brothers and opt into the silvery casing you see above. The pictures are captioned with a note saying the silver Desire will be exclusive to BelCompany in the Netherlands, but we’ve found a few other retailers claiming their own exclusief. Either way, we still don’t know how things will shake out elsewhere, but at least there won’t be too long to wait. We’ve got video of the very slightly altered handset after the break.

[Thanks, Miguel]

Continue reading HTC Desire shows up in slinky silver (video)

HTC Desire shows up in slinky silver (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 08:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s another Motorola “Calgary” device (also known as the Droid Devour) making the rounds, and this time it’s showing a silver paint job and an obvious Motorola Blur home screen. Word is that the trackpad to the upper right of the keyboard is great, and the keyboard supposedly bests the Droid — not a challenging feat, to be sure. Obviously it’s headed for Verizon, and Boy Genius confirms that WiFi and GPS are onboard, but it’s still a little unclear what the low-end differentiators between it and the Droid might be, outside the three megapixel camera and what appears to be a smaller, lower resolution screen.

Motorola Calgary / Droid Devour spotted in silver, Bluring it up originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 02 Jan 2010 13:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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