Sprint Nextel will launch in a couple of days, on June 20, an apparent iPhone competitor. The Samsung Instinct will be available for $129.99 with a two-year contract after a $100 mail-in rebate.

The smartphone, also called Samsung SPH M-800, is somewhat similar to Apple's iPhone. It features a large touch screen featuring localized tactile feedback, called haptics, which allow the virtual QWERTY keypad and other operations to become a sensory experience.

It has all the bells and whistles of iPhone's hardware, the new 3G iPhone that is, including the GPS receiver. The difference is that Samsung Instinct runs on CDMA EV-DO Rev (800MHz/1900MHz), the fastest cellular broadband technology available on the Sprint and Verizon Wireless networks. The iPhone uses 2G and 2G technology, which is incompatible with CDMA.

The gadget includes support for corporate and consumer (POP3) email, multitasking capabilities that allow the user to play music in background mode while surfing the Internet, texting or playing games, a 2.0 megapixel camera with camcorder and expandable microSD memory of up to 8GB.

The device is cheaper than the $199 iPhone and the service plans also seem cheaper than those offered by AT&T to its iPhone customers. This means that the Samsung Instinct is a great choice for Sprint Nextel's clients, a company which has recently struggled to avoid being squeezed in between larger rivals AT&T and Verizon.

Also, Sprint and Samsung announced that a new broadband wireless network offering the speed and mobility of WiMAX has met Sprint’s rigorous commercial acceptance criteria including overall performance, handoff performance and handoff delay. The main difference between WiFi and WiMAX is that the latter has a radius of up to 2-3 miles that allow for handoffs from one base station to another, as users move about a region or metro area.