There’s some interesting news coming out of T-Mobile, as the nation’s fourth-largest carrier is set to open all of its retail stores early June 19, according to a leaked internal memo.
The memo says, “Due to a promotion, all retail and T-Mobile Premium Retailer locations (including Puerto Rico) will open early at 8 a.m. local time on June 19 … Details on the promotion are coming soon.”
So, this could just be some big blowout sale like buy-one-get-one-free on any device. But there’s also a chance that this may be related to the launch of the myTouch 3G Slide, which is slated to hit stores June 2 for $179.99 on a new, two-year contract. This is supposed to be the company’s flagship handset over the summer, so it would make sense to make a big retail push.
While we like the software tweaks on the myTouch Slide are nice, we still don’t think it’s real competition for the next iPhone, the Droid Incredible or the EVO 4G. That’s why this promotion may be around the top-secret “Project Emerald” initiative we’ve heard about. This is a plan for T-Mobile to introduce a smartphone that is on par with Google’s Nexus One.
What will this mythical device be? It’s unclear right now but we’ve heard rumblings that it will be the next-generation Sidekick. Before you turn away in disgust, you should know that this Sidekick is expected to be made by HTC and rock a 1 GHz processor, 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display, a front-facing camera, 16 GB of internal storage and Android 2.1. That sounds like a pretty spiffy device to me, although you still have to worry about your Sidekick data being lost again.
There’s also a chance the project could turn out to be the Samsung Galaxy S, which is reportedly on its way to the magenta carrier. We’ll know the answer soon enough, so keep it locked here for the latest T-Mobile news.
[Via Tmonews]