Cricket has over its main competitor, MetroPCS, is the availability of broadband plans. They expanded those this summer, offering three different plans that can accommodate users who consume varying amounts of data. Next year their customers will be able to use those broadband plans with a tablet device. As Mike Dano of FierceWireless reports, VP and general manager of device development Mike Stoiber laid out some details of the carrier’s first tablet, which should hit shelves in the first half of 2011. The device that Stoiber described sounds a bit like the Samsung Galaxy Tab, which is set to hit the four major carriers in the near future. It has a 7-inch display and runs Android 2.2. While that’s a pretty general description, it does stand to reason that Cricket would want the Galaxy Tab, even if it is a few months late. The most interesting aspect of this will be the pricing. Cricket won’t subsidize the device, but it might also be able to offer a discount because it’s not releasing it with the initial wave. Will that help them keep pricing in line with the major carriers? Stoiber also mentioned two other possibilities for Leap: the iPhone and Windows Mobile 7. Even though Verizon and Apple are reportedly working to release a CDMA iPhone, that might not mean it is readily available to Cricket. Their partnership with Sprint might help, but otherwise Cricket works on an AWS spectrum, which is different than the one on which Verizon operates. I’m not sure how that would work, but in any case I’d put the chances of a Cricket iPhone as remote in the forseeable future. Windows Mobile 7 was also part of the discussion, but Stiober said that we wouldn’t be seeing those any time soon. It appears that the company is a bit hotter on Android; Cricket did announce its second Android device this week, with another possibly around the bend..]]>
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