Motorola And Sprint Hosting Press Event Next Week

About a 5 days ago, Sprint sent invites out to journalists for an event with Motorola Mobility next week. While Sprint does offer Motorola handsets, flagship smart phones and tablets running on Android are notably missing. That will likely change next Friday when Sprint CEO Dan Hesse and Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha present their latest collaborations in New York. There are still no official announcements regarding any specific devices, but here are just a few of the possibilities:

Xoom Tablet
Sprint already began offering a WiFi-only Motorola Xoom, which we reviewed earlier this year, through their retail stores last month. This tablet oddly lacked 3G or 4G (WiMax) support and it did not come with a mobile hotspot either. I am hoping to see a newer iteration make a debut at this event. Including the latest Android 3.1 and unlimited data would be nice too.

Photon 4G
Our friends at TechnoBuffalo are reporting that Sprint will apparently launch a high-end smart phone named the Photon 4G. According to their sources, this device will sport Android 2.3 Gingerbread with MotoBlur, a dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, 1 GB of RAM, a 4.3 inch qHD display, 4G connectivity, and an 8 megapixel camera. In addition, the Photon 4G will apparently sport a kickstand and a laptop dock much like the Motorola Atrix we reviewed recently. With a supposed ship date of July, this would reach store shelves shortly after the HTC EVO 3D which Sprint announced at CTIA Wireless 2011. Having two powerful handsets could give the carrier a much-needed boost in a market with larger competitors such as Verizon Wireless and AT&T who is acquiring T-Mobile.

Other Thoughts
The invite that made it to my inbox also used the phrase "hands-on demonstrations of Sprint and Motorola's latest collaborations," which clearly indicates multiple products. I doubt Motorola already has a new tablet less than six months since the debut of the Xoom meaning the WiMax version is a given. Assuming that the rumors are correct, the Photon 4G - or codename Sunfire as mentioned by This Is My Next - is definitely something to look forward too. I am hoping that Motorola is making better choices with this smart phone considering that the Atrix 4G on AT&T is clearly not doing too well as most retails now offer it for as little as $75.