AT&T and Samsung have launched two new handsets, which will be the first to support the carrier's first IMS-based application, Video Share. The SGH-a717 is a clamshell-style phone that will become available on June 4 and the SGH-a727 is a candy bar-style phone that will hit store shelves in a few weeks. The devices are 12.9 mm and 8.9 mm thick, respectively--making them the slimmest 3G phones available to AT&T subscribers.
Video Share will be available in 50 markets by the end of the summer, according to a keynote AT&T CTO Randall Stephenson made at CTIA a few months ago. According to the carrier's website, the application requires the sender and receiver to have compatible phones and be in a 3G coverage area. Both sender and receiver will be charged for any airtime usage and call minutes, but only the sender will be charged for Video Share minutes.
Industry analyst Ken Rehbehn recently wrote a column for FierceWireless that highlighted the budding prospects for video sharing as an IMS application: "Video sharing and gaming stand out as two possible applications benefiting from the new era of digital communications. Making such peer-to-peer services--as well as client/server applications--work as part of a service offering is the job of IMS, with extensive building blocks for session control, AAA, security and legacy interconnection."
For more on AT&T's latest handsets:
- see this press release