HTC Supersonic WiMAX + Android Phone Coming To Sprint; Walmart Smiles; Palm Winks

A trusted source over at Engadget has confirmed an HTC built WiMAX phone running Android 2.1 is heading to Sprint. The previously mentioned HTC A9292 with WiMAX seems to now be the real deal and they have provided us with some great specifics of information. Palm bringing 4g too? Hit the read link for more info.

• Codename is “Supersonic”
• Android-powered 2.1 with HTC’s Sense UI.
• 4.3-inch non-AMOLED display
• It’s got a kickstand on the back.
• Pre-production color was in white (but there be other colors as well)
• Running a beautiful [might be] Snapdragon processor

Couple this with the news that Sprint and Wal-Mart are going to be laying WiMAX on every store nationwide and Sprint’s plans don’t sound so bad now. Below is a map of all the Wal-Mart’s in the United States, all 3689 Wal-Mart properties total. Folks, that is a HUGE coverage map area of speedy 4G if you ask me (and that doesn’t include Sprint’s other communication towers either).

The effort to grow the first nationwide WiMAX network includes placing  WiMax towers on the top of all Wal-Mart locations.  Furthermore, it was also considered that there are many stores which happen to overlap each other in a 30-50 mile radius.  Essentially, this would be enough to cover a very large portion of the United States. Plus, this would not cost nearly as much as erecting towers and dealing with hassles like zoning permissions. Sprint doesn’t look so stupid now and with them bringing the first WiMAX powered phone to the line-up running Android 2.1, they are WAY ahead of the market.

Now just imagine if Palm’s June 2010 device (we assume its going to be June since the Pre and Pixi Plus are launching this month on Verizon and June was the last month the Palm Pre came out on Sprint), could possibly be a WiMAX powered 3G/4G handset. This would really make sense for Palm to push out a 4G phone and it would solidify them on the map with the first 4G Palm handset and beating the rumored iPhone 4G to the market.

WiMAX + Wal-Mart towers + existing Sprint infrastructure + Android and Palm 3G/4G phones = FTW! Sprint would be kicking ass and taking names in the 4G arena well ahead of Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile with a badass line up of phones.