Helio unveils its first high-end handsets

Helio, the joint venture of SK Telecom and EarthLink, Thursday unveiled two high-end handsets that it will offer with the launch of its mobile phone service, planned for the U.S. in the second quarter.

Helio also said it will offer its customers a mobile version of the MySpace community and networking service, which lets people publish blogs and share photos and other information with friends.

The joint venture company plans to target young, tech-savvy consumers. It doesn't own a mobile network but plans to lease network access from another operator.

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Helio, the joint venture of SK Telecom and EarthLink, Thursday unveiled two high-end handsets that it will offer with the launch of its mobile phone service, planned for the U.S. in the second quarter.

Helio also said it will offer its customers a mobile version of the MySpace community and networking service, which lets people publish blogs and share photos and other information with friends.

The joint venture company plans to target young, tech-savvy consumers. It doesn't own a mobile network but plans to lease network access from another operator.

One of the handsets announced Thursday, from Pantech, includes a 2.2 inch high-resolution display and a 2.0 megapixel camera with digital zoom that can take still photos and video. It also includes stereo speakers and removable memory. The other handset, from VK Mobile, has similar features in a swivel-open design that flips to the right or the left.

Helio did not say how much the phones would cost.

MySpace Mobile On Helio is a customized version of the online service that will let customers use their phones to send and receive MySpace email, read and write blogs, view photos posted by friends in the MySpace community, post photos and see whether other friends using MySpace are online.

SK Telecom and EarthLink announced their intention to launch a mobile virtual network operator in the U.S. in January 2005. At the time, the companies said they thought they could attract 3 million subscribers by 2009.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.