Sprint announces its first Windows Phone 7 device: HTC Arrive

If you were wondering when Sprint would get into the Windows Phone 7 game, the answer came this morning in the form of the HTC Arrive. The Arrive is Sprint's first entry into Windows Phone 7 and features a 5MP camera with flash, 720p HD camcorder, 1GHz Snapdragon Processor, 3.6-inch, 800x480 WVGA capacitive touchscreen with multitouch, and more. The unique feature of the Arrive is a sliding full QWERTY keyboard with tilt-up display.

The HTC Arrive will go on sale March 20 for $199.99 with a new two-year agreement, after a $100 mail-in-rebate.

The timing of the announcement of the Arrive couldn't be any worse, with Microsoft coming under fire for having upgrade issues with its first ever Windows Phone 7 update. Contrary to rumors, 90 percent of the people who received the update notification have successfully upgraded their phone. Unfortunately, 10 percent had issues that are being blamed on either a bad internet connection, insufficient storage space, or a technical issue with some Samsung phones.

At any rate, Microsoft is on it, but I'm sure that the negatives are outweighing the hype that Sprint was hoping to create around its first ever Windows Phone.

The good news in all of this is that the upgrade that was rolled out was to get the Windows Phone 7 devices ready for another update coming, which promises cut and paste, and some other features. Sprint was kind enough to point out that the Arrive will ship with that latest OS already baked in.