Kyocera Zio coming to Cricket in July for $300?

Kyocera's North American offerings are decidedly lower-end, so we were a bit surprised to see 'em bring a full touchscreen Android device to the party at CTIA this year -- until we touched it, at which point we instantly realized that the so-called Zio still well inside low-end territory. It makes sense then that the Zio would be coming to some of Kyocera's traditional carrier partners like Cricket, and indeed, PhoneArena appears to have scored an internal slide deck showing a projected 2010 lineup that includes the Zio front and center. Cricket apparently likes July as a launch target, and they're looking to retail it for $299.99 -- pricey, yes, until you remember that these guys don't do contracts. We certainly wouldn't take this sucker over, say, a Nexus One -- but as a contract-free offering on a value carrier, you might just have a deal.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 5th 2010 6:31PM]

Um... The Curve 8530 Is Not WORTH $350!!!

[choufleur47 Posted Apr 5th 2010 10:49PM]

@(Unverified) just get it on ebay for 200 bucks then use it with these guys.

[NYNY Posted Apr 5th 2010 7:26PM]

Being that the rumored price was much lower I'd hesitate to get this for $300. If its as sluggish as the one on show at CITA its not worth it.

[MBN Posted Apr 6th 2010 12:09AM]

As a former Cricket employee I'd like to say; it's about damn time they got some real smartphones! They have great local service, 3G, and great plans. It's perfect for the rare-traveler.

Too bad for them that I have the excellent T-Mobile customer loyalty plan.

[Raytem Posted Apr 6th 2010 6:23AM]

Love cricket. Awesome service. I tried At&t, TMobile and Boost and Cricket signals are tons better then them only thing they don't have good phones hopefully this would be good start.

[juanvaldez Posted Apr 6th 2010 11:33PM]

Makes me wonder if this sells well if they will bring higher end devices into the fold (both Cricket and Kyocera). The US market really needs the system to evolve and a few sick smartphones on cheap plans contract-free is just the way to start a revolution.