Cash @ Jul 27th 2007 10:40PM

According to more then one AT&T employee, SE reps brought the K850 with them on their usual shop-around meetings early this summer. Those units worked flawlessly on both the GSM and 3G networks, and AT&T's reps were very impressed with it's build, camera, and call quality. While in the past AT&T has been more focused on music capable phones like the Walkman line, the higher ups in marketing and sales seem to feel that the iPhone and Samsung Sync more then covers that angle for customers interested in that feature more then others, and 2008 will be the year that buyers turn more towards high quality photo and media capable models. The iPhone has also raised the bar (pun intended) on the consumer's expectations of what a cellphone should be able to do these days, and playing MP3's is at the bottom of that list right above being able to actually make phone calls. Convergence continues to be the buzz word of choice, and being focused on increasing their subscriber base, AT&T exec's are keenly aware that there are many, many more digital camera's out there then there are MP3 players, which means more potential customers interested in leaving those camera's at home if it didn't mean sacrificing picture quality. Not only does the K850 look fantastic while taking high quality pics, it also functions very much like a normal digital camera and so has a very small learning curve.

Beyond all this, AT&T is finally starting to admit that their users are interested in features that the models they offer don't have, and that thanks to ebay and other online sites, subscribers have no problem going online to purchase those models even if it's at a premium price. If AT&T can offer comparative phones for lower prices directly, not only is that going to increase their cred with their customers, it's also going to boost their bottom line. While the company is very happy with iPhone sales numbers, they are also extremely interested in providing an attractive high end phone from a different company that would compete with it, as the iPhone has one of the lowest profit margins for them versus others.

Long story short, while it hasn't been made official by either company yet, the general concensus between both is that not only will AT&T be offering the K850, it will most likely come out this holiday season, with some rumors pointing to the day after Thanksgiving. This makes sense on so many levels, it's hard to discredit it even though it is just a rumor. Moto is faltering on it's pedestal, and SE has been getting bloodthirsty about replacing them in the US market. Getting AT&T to carry more of their models will go along way towards helping that happen.