Alltel to hop touchscreen bandwagon with LG

Alltel will be the next US carrier to pick up a media-focused touchscreen phone, according to a post by a source with access to official press materials. Called the Glimmer, the LG-made phone resembles a cross between the phone maker's Shine slider and its Voyager for Verizon: although its front face is dominated exclusively by a 2.8-inch touchscreen that serves as the main control for most of the interface, as with the Voyager, a slider reveals a traditional number pad for making calls. The Glimmer would improve on past LG designs with haptic (vibration) feedback to pressing onscreen buttons and a relatively thin 0.59-inch profile.

While it remains unclear whether the Alltel phone will receive the full HTML browser of the Voyager, media playback will be a specialty with a full AAC/MP3/WMA music browser that can run in the background as well as microSD storage up to 4GB. A 2-megapixel camera will supply both photo and video capture, while the phone's 3G Internet access will provide access to live streams from Alltel's Axcess TV and its Navigation assisted GPS feature.

The leak does not reveal the planned price or release date for the Glimmer, though the phone may release before the end of March and is likely to be priced towards the high end of Alltel's non-smartphone lineup.