Sprint ID Celebrates One-year Anniversary with Six Million ID Pack Downloads, 45 ID Packs, 12 Sprint ID-Capable Devices, Kudos from Partners and Media

Sprint ID simplifies app-discoverability, provides complete mobile experience for consumers, businesses and students in a bundled package

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (BUSINESS WIRE), October 10, 2011 – One year ago Sprint (NYSE:S, news, filings) launched another industry first – Sprint ID – a service that simplifies the process of customizing select Android™ powered devices. Sprint “ID packs” deliver a complete mobile experience – centered around consumers’ or businesses’ interests or favorite brands – including applications, widgets, ringtones and wallpapers, in a couple simple clicks.

Whether they’re a sports fan, music lover, celebrity watcher, fitness fanatic, gamer, student or business professional, Sprint ID makes it easy for customers to personalize their smartphone or tablet by allowing them to download an ID pack with mobile content to fit their lifestyle.

In addition to ID packs that appeal to a broad consumer base, since it launched, the Sprint ID pack concept has been deployed for niche users, including:

• Universities as a way to offer useful information to students and faculty. University of Missouri launched a student ID pack and several other universities are currently developing ID packs.
• Six wholesale partners have launched Sprint ID devices to their customer bases.
• Boost Mobile’s Mobile ID launched, featuring eight ID packs for prepaid users.
• Sprint developed an Employee ID pack for internal Sprint employee use.
• Other enterprises have deployed ID packs targeting specific groups of users within their companies.
• Sprint’s Green ID pack offers apps and widgets with tips for living a more environmentally sustainable lifestyle.
• Sprint’s Relay ID pack provides the hard of hearing with voice mail transcripts, visual and vibrating alerts, readable captions and more.

“Sprint ID helps customers – especially those new to smartphones – easily gain access to apps they’ll enjoy without the daunting task of wading through Android Market’s 250,000+ apps,” said Kevin McGinnis, vice president-Product, Sprint. “Even more so now than when we launched Sprint ID last year, since so much of the population is buying smartphones¹, we realize that we need to give customers an easier path to access content. We’re also excited about not just the opportunities Sprint ID has presented to consumers but also to our business customers with ID packs such as Real Estate Pro.”

What partners are saying:

“MTV Music ID provides today’s on-the-go music fan easy access to their favorite MTV and third-party music content through multiple music-centric apps and widgets,” said Dermot McCormack, executive vice president-Digital Media, MTV Networks Music & Logo Group “We’re pleased to have partnered with Sprint on this unique, popular and innovative product.”

“We recently launched the E! ID pack, giving fans a complete E! mobile experience on their Android device, including our popular E! Online, Keeping Up With the Kardashians and Live From the Red Carpet apps, and the response from our audience has been terrific,” said John Najarian, executive vice president and general manager-Digital and Business Development, E! Entertainment. “Creating an ID pack with Sprint was an easy way for us to offer our audience all of our best mobile content in a bundled package.”

“Creating the three Lo2Yo ID packs for the Latino community has made it so much easier for bilingual [English/Spanish] users to access culturally relevant and high-quality content, as well as enabling them to quickly switch between the two languages,” said Jorge Rincon, CEO of LatCel.”Lo2Yo IDs have become a fantastic way to engage with the highly coveted Hispanic market audience.”

What the media is saying:

Sprint users needn’t be overwhelmed by the number of app choices on their Android phones. The carrier’s Sprint ID service offers prepackaged apps that cater to different tastes and hobbies. –The New York Times

Sprint’s Green ID Pack is installed on specific phones and tablets, but any Android user can download the environmentally friendly apps in the pack. TreeHugger, Green Now and Shop Green are among the apps listed. With iRecycle (free for iPhone and Android), you identify what you want to recycle and the app tells you where to take it. –The New York Times

For the first time since switching to AT&T to become an iPhone devotee, I’m a little jealous of Sprint users. Sprint’s new Green ID Pack lets customers download eco-friendly content directly to their smartphones…It’s a great example of a brand using content to encourage loyalty and connect with users. –Get a Word In

Android is one of the most customizable platforms around, and Sprint ID is a great option to quickly give your phone a totally new look and feel. The nice thing about the MTV Music ID pack is that it includes several apps that many users install anyway, like SoundHound and Pandora. If you love music and have a Samsung Transform, LG Optimus S or Sanyo Zio, be sure to check out the MTC Music ID pack. –PhoneDog

Sprint launched the effort back at the CTIA show in October, but is now getting up to speed by both adding more devices compatible with Sprint ID and by lining up some brand-name content. –All Things Digital

For content providers like MTV, the Sprint ID pack format represents an opportunity to deliver content directly to the mobile audience–in many ways, its approach recalls the MVNO model, but without the service plans and handsets. In addition, the ID packs offer publishers the opportunity to curate consumers’ mobile app download experience, guaranteeing that users obtain an aggregate of integrated, complementary solutions in one fell swoop. –FierceMobileContent

Sprint ID stats:

• Customers have downloaded six million ID packs
• Average 500,000 downloads per month
• The most popular branded Sprint ID packs include Disney Channel, ESPN, E!, Glu Games, MTV, NASCAR, Yahoo!
• Popular lifestyle ID categories include Entertainment, Green, Socially Connected, Health & Fitness, Fashion & Beauty, Business Professional, Auto Enthusiast and several Spanish-language ID packs from LatCel.

Benefits to developers/partners:

• Allows strong content partners to become mobile service providers without the cost and hassle of running a nationwide cellular network, billing integration, or device manufacturing commitments.
• Provides an additional distribution channel for applications and services.
• Improves the search and discoverability of Android apps and services versus the current experience in Android Market™.
• Provides consumer brands, enterprises, B-2-B and hybrid MVNOs with the ability to define the experience they want for their customers/employees via mobile bundles.

To learn more about developing Sprint ID packs, visit: http://developer.sprint.com/sprintid

“Sprint ID allows our customers to have the maximum amount of flexibility and control over the content on their device and allows our trusted partners like ESPN, Disney and MTV the opportunity to create a mobile experience for their audience and to get closer to their most loyal customers who have a strong brand affinity,” said Kevin McGinnis, vice president-Product, Sprint.

There are currently 12 Sprint ID-capable devices (Android-powered smartphones and a tablet) and 45 ID packs focused on specific consumer interests, popular brands, business, enterprise, MVNO and education. Details are outlined in the following table:

Customers with Sprint ID-capable devices can download up to five ID packs onto their phone and easily switch back and forth between them or swap them out for new ones. Sprint ID packs are free to download with an Everything Data plan.

For more about Sprint ID visit the press kit http://newsroom.sprint.com/press_kits.cfm?presskit_id=17 or www.sprint.com/sprintid

About Sprint Nextel

Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline communications services bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers, businesses and government users. Sprint Nextel served more than 52 million customers at the end of 2Q 2011 and is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including the first wireless 4G service from a national carrier in the United States; offering industry-leading mobile data services, leading prepaid brands including Virgin Mobile USA, Boost Mobile, and Assurance Wireless; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. Newsweek ranked Sprint No. 6 in its 2010 Green Rankings, listing it as one of the nation’s greenest companies, the highest of any telecommunications company. You can learn more and visit Sprint at www.sprint.com or www.facebook.com/sprint and www.twitter.com/sprint.

¹Sales of smartphones were up 74 percent year-on-year and accounted for 25 percent of overall sales in the second quarter of 2011, according to Gartner. Additionally, in the second quarter of 2011, 76% of Sprint branded devices sold were Smartphones, bringing the smartphone percentage of the Sprint branded or CDMA customer base to 58%.