Sprint’s Samsung Instinct nips at iPhone’s heels – licenses Visual Voicemail from Klausner

Remember that little outfit that sued Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) and AT&T (NYSE: T) over use of the Visual Voicemail system on the iPhone? Right, well it looks like Sprint (NYSE: S)’s going after the very same look and feel for their newly announced iPhone-fighting Samsung Instinct – except Sprint opted to pay Klausner licensing fees. Sprint has licensed the technology from Klausner Technologies and is even calling their CDMA-flavor of Visual Voicemail, wait for it… “Visual Voicemail.” The move should keep Klausner’s legal beagles off of Sprint’s back.

The Visual Voicemail technology not only required AT&T to overhaul their voicemail back-end, but it also changed the way we work with and retrieve voicemails.

The full-body touchscreen handset will not only be rocking GPS, but will apparently ship with this Visual Voicemail for the iPhone-shunning masses. I didn’t see (or even know about) Visual Voicemail during my hands-on with the Samsung Instinct at CTIA Las Vegas 2008, so I don’t have any pics or video to show you. Still, it’s safe to say that the Visual Voicemail system on the Samsung Instinct will be similar to the iPhone’s Visual Voicemail system.

Visual Voicemail should give the Samsung Instinct another way to compete with the iPhone. And, it’s going to need it when the 3G iPhone launches in a couple months.

We’re looking for a Q2 launch (June) of the Samsung Instinct at an approximate $200-$275 price point.

[Via: I4U News]