Information about Helio

Helio logo
	Joint venture between SK Telecom Inc. (50%) and Earthlink Inc. (50%)
Founded	January 26, 2005
Headquarters	Los Angeles, CA
Key people	Sky Dayton - CEO and Director Dr. Wonhee Sull - COO and Director Todd Tappin - CFO
Industry	Wireless Services
Products	Sprint MVNO, offering CDMA and 1xEvDO
Website	Helio

Helio is an MVNO wireless carrier launched on May 2, 2006. It was founded by Earthlink founder Sky Dayton. It is the joint venture between SK Telecom (a South Korean CDMA mobile telecom) and Earthlink.

On January 26, 2005, Earthlink and SK Telecom announced to the media that they had entered into agreement to launch a new US mobile provider. This provider would operate as a mobile virtual network operator and would lease network capacity from Sprint. The premise of this new company would be to bring advanced mobile phones in service from SK Telecom's home market of Korea to the US wireless market, where such advanced phones had been noted, by many, to be lacking.^[1] Helio, as it was to be called, would market itself to the younger demographic, promoting itself using the latest in cutting-edge handset technology. They plan to avoid taking on the major US wireless carriers directly, and instead they intend to carve out a niche for themselves with technology-savvy consumers.^[2] Earthlink and SK Telecom agreed to provide financing totaling $440 million US dollars, with each of the two owning 50% of the new company.^[3]

In addition to leasing capacity from Sprint Nextel, in the event that Sprint Nextel isn't available, their phones will go into "roaming" mode to operate on Alltel, Verizon Wireless and US Cellular, however, data services are not available while roaming. Roaming is indicated by an R to the left of the signal strength indicator.

Though Helio offers unlimited data plans, there is a "reasonable limit" of 160 megabytes of EVDO data usage per month. Going over that limit is considered excessive and abusive, and could potentially result in the termination of the user's account.^[4]

Phones

Since they lease their network capacity primarily from Sprint Nextel, their phones operate using the CDMA 1xEVDO standard. This is also the standard used by SK Telecom in the Korean market. As such, many of Helio's phones are expected to be rebranded and refined versions of similar devices already offered for sale by SK Telecom overseas. At the time, Helio offered two phone models at launch titled the Kickflip and Hero. Later these phones were replaced by the Drift slider, which was added to their cell phone line-up in November 2006, and the Heat slider, which was added in March 2007.

Helio's first cell phone received some scathing reviews, in large part due to buggy software.^[5] However, more recent devices have been better received^[6][7].

Heat

The Heat is available in onyx and gold. The Heat has location based services bundled with the phone and comes loaded with Google Maps that uses the device's GPS to locate the user on a map and the Buddy Beacon application that lets friends share their current location with each other. The Heat features touch sensitive keys (instead of actual buttons) but has a slightly lesser quality camera than its sister device, The Drift, as it only has 1.3 megapixels. The Heat also does not have a MicroSD card slot, so 136 MB is maximum memory capacity. ^[8]

Ocean

The Ocean is a dual-slider cell phone ^[9], combining a traditional numeric keypad and a separate full QWERTY keyboard in a single handset. Designed primarily as a social networking tool ^[10], the Ocean merges Instant Messages, text messages, picture messages and emails from all the major portals in one location. The Ocean also delivers MySpace on Helio with a new user interface exclusively for the Ocean, full over-the-air music downloads, video-on-demand, a 2 megapixel camera, an HTML browser, GPS-enabled Google and Garmin Mobile Maps for mapping and navigation, and Buddy Beacon. The helio Ocean also Comes with 200mb built into the device with a micro sd card slot as well. The Ocean was released on May 11, 2007.

Fin

The Helio Fin is a cell phone made by Samsung and has been dubbed the thinnest flip phone to launch in the US. ^[11] The Fin combines the messaging functions of the Ocean (without the QWERTY Keyboard) plus the sleekness of an ultra thin flip-phone or mobile device. Another one of the Fin's highlights is its 3 Megapixel camera. The Fin also includes all the other usual Helio services including Myspace, Buddy Beacon, Google maps, and H.O.T. The Fin was launched August 15, 2007.

Past Phones

Kickflip

The Kickflip, produced by VK Mobile, was Helio's very first phone on the market. The Kickflip is a swiveling cell phone. Some of the features included 2.0 megapixel camera, 90 minutes of video, side buttons, QVGA screen, and 8 day stand by/2.5 hour talk time battery life. Even though the Kickflip was possibly Helio's most popular phone at the time, it was discontinued due to VK Mobile filing for bankruptcy.^[12] As of early July 2006, Helio has released revised firmware for its Kickflip and existing users will be able to exchange their Kickflip handsets for a replacement with the new firmware at no cost.

Hero

The Helio Hero was Helio's second phone. It was a slider, available only in black. The Hero included 2.0 megapixel camera with opening and closing lens cover, QVGA screen, coprocessor chip for enhanced video and sound, duplex stereo speakers, and 8 day standby/3 hours talk time battery life. The Hero was discontinued in February 2007.

Drift

The Drift was Helio's third phone. It was available in black and a white pearlescent. The Drift is the first to have Location Based Services bundled with the phone. The Drift came loaded with a version of Google Maps that used the phone's GPS to locate the user on a map and the Buddy Beacon application that lets friends share their current location with each other. It also featured a 2.0 megapixel camera. It was officially discontinued and taken off Helio's website on October 1st, 2007.

Hybrid

The Hybrid was a PC card which provided wireless internet access via Helio's 3G technology and Wi-Fi hot spots. The Hybrid is a rebranded Sierra AirCard. Helio has discontinued sales and service for the Hybrid.

MySpace Partnership

On February 16, 2006, Helio announced it had partnered with MySpace, a popular online social-networking community. Helio has created a wireless MySpace portal which its subscribers can use to access their mailbox, bulletins, blogs, photos, and profiles from their Helio cell phone. Helio subscribers will also enjoy additional MySpace member benefits, such as photo posting directly from a Helio cell phone, additional photo storage capacity, and a mobile online status indicator for use in the user's MySpace profile.^[13]

Device Trade-In

In the past, some cellular service providers have allowed customers to return old cell phones for some sort of credit. In June, Helio went one step further by offering its customers a window of 30 days during which they have the opportunity to trade in not only their old cell phones, but also other devices such as iPods, PDAs, digital cameras and handheld game consoles for money.^[14][15]

Soft Launch

When Helio first opened its doors for business in May of 2006, they opted for a soft launch. Most of the promotion was done by word of mouth and promotional events across the country, instead of using conventional advertising.^[16]

Hard Launch

On July 13, 2006, Helio began running TV commercials with the slogan, "Don't Call Us a Phone Company; Don't Call it a Phone." Alongside the television commercials, Helio has also begun advertising on billboards and in the print media, specifically in magazines that serve the 18-32 demographic, and very heavily on MySpace. Helio has also teamed up with GameStop and F.Y.E., all Helio phones and service can now be bought at select GameStop and F.Y.E. locations. However, GameStop does not normally carry accessories. Accessories must be bought directly from Helio. Besides the the partner stores mentioned, Helio also owns five corporate stores, with locations in Cherry Creek-Colorado, New York City-New York, and in Palo Alto, San Diego and Santa Monica-California.

Company Progession

As of end of December 2006, the company says it had 70,000 customers, but expected that number to jump to 100,000 by spring 2007. In comparison, T-mobile, the smallest of the four largest U.S. carriers, has about 25 million customers. An estimated 25 percent of those revenues come from data services (Well above the industry average of about 11 percent). On September 21, 2007 Earthlink announced that SK Telecom would be increasing their investment in Helio by $270 million, effectively giving financial control to SK Telecom. Earthlink states that this increase will help the company progress towards future goals. In the same press statement, Earthlink also announced its plans to reach 250 thousand subscribers by the end of 2007.

External links

Official sites

• Helio.com, official website
• Helio EV-DO Coverage Map

Resources

• http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2107686,00.asp PC Mag - Helio Introduces Sidekick Killer
• http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2108599,00.asp PC Mag - Hands-On With the Helio Ocean
• http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1997921,00.asp PC Mag article listing Helio Kickflip as No.1 of the biggest wireless disappointments of 2006
• http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1965755,00.asp PC Mag Kickflip brief review as part of the worst disappointments of 2006
• http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1965756,00.asp PC Mag Kickflip full review
• http://www.earthlink.net/about/press/pr_helio_statement/ Earthlink Press Release

References

17. ^ [18]