Pocket Intros Kyocera KX18, Kyocera Rebates Still Going Strong

Apologies for the lengthy amount of time where I haven’t posted anything to this site, during which several things have happened in the unlimited cellular industry. I did post about Virgin Mobile’s “Totally Unlimited” plan but there are plenty of other things to talk about…

First off, Pocket Communications has another net\w phone: the Kyocera KX18. If you seem to remember that model designation, your memory serves correctly: this phone could be found on Amp’d Mobile until the company closed up shop last year. Pocket is offering the handset for $129.

They’ve offered something similar, the Kyocera Slider Remix, before at a similar price point, but the phone was discontinued shortly after it was introduced on the network. My hunch is that the acquisitions folks at Pocket scout around for small-scale bulk purchases of slightly older-generation phones, then snap them up at a low enough price to resell to customers at a decent price (for an unlimited carrier at least) and still make a profit, or at least have a low loss leader (something that’s nice to have when you’re selling non-contract service).

Anyhow, the phone has a reasonable number of features, like high-speed internet (not supported on Pocket’s network), a camera with picture messaging (supported on Pocket’s network) and your usual other features (supported on Pocket’s network). The phone also had other multimedia features on Amp’d like Push-to-Talk and TV\Music downloads, that I doubt made it over to Pocket. I’ll have to take a look at a working phone (if I can) when I get back to Texas (on vacation in Florida right now) to see exactly what the Pocket KX18 is like. I’m thinking it’s probably the same generic Kyocera interface as that of the Slider Remix (KX5) and the Candid (KX16).

Personally, I’d opt for a non-Kyocera phone, but I’ve heard decent reviews of the KX18 from the Amp’d peanut gallery so this actually might be a good $129 choice on Pocket…

One more thing: $30 rebates for two of Pocket’s Kyocera phones are still available. So if you want a barely-functional phone (K132) for $49 after a rebate, or Kyocera’s newest messaging phone (M1000) for $169, you’re in luck.

That’s about it on the Pocket front, so far as I can tell.