Sprint says its first WiMAX phone will land before mid-year mark

Sprint has announced that the mobile provider's first 4G WiMax network-enabled phone should drop before the middle of this year.

According to Forbes, an unnamed handheld will arrive earlier than planned - so either before summer or early summer at the latest. It's not known what kind of smartphone this might be, but Forbes is pointing to something Google Android-based and possibly made by HTC.

However, as the 4G network only covers select areas around the U.S. still, it's questionable how well this phone might do initially. As noted by the article, given that Sprint launched their WiMAX network over a year ago, it's about time we start getting some devices to make use of a fancy network.

But with the announcement of a new 4G-ready phone, will we start hearing rumors about other 4G devices soon? A new iPhone model perhaps?