Sprint Drops Instinct Apps Contest

instinct-app-contest-closed

Yeah, I just became aware of this myself, and it really sucks, I know. Apparently, Sprint decided late last year that they were not interested in following through with their Instinct contest, and decided to just pull it entirely. Yup — no apps nor contest winner. Their reason? Pretty dumb I’d say: (and I quote below)

All,

The Samsung Instinct(tm) Java Developer Contest closed on August 29th, 2008. We appreciate the interest in the contest.

Unfortunately, we are unable to announce contest winner or release any information about the applications submitted. Our objective is to deliver a meaningful opportunity for developers and foster the creation of entertaining and useful applications for our customers.

In the future, we expect to offer additional contests and incorporate the lessons learned from this initial effort.

Again, thanks for your interest and participation.

The Sprint ADP Team

Listen, I’m as annoyed as you probably are: the Instinct was already an awesome phone, and giving it apps and an App Store would’ve made it even better (who knows, apps plus it’s cheaper pricing and more features like TV and radio, it could’ve even matched or beaten the iPhone). I’d understand if the Instinct just couldn’t handle apps, but then again — as commenter Robert pointed out on a previous post on the subject (our initial post on the topic, linked to at the end of this post) — there are unofficial apps out there running perfectly fine on the Instinct.

I don’t know, but I’m gonna try and contact Sprint to try to find exactly what’s up (though I’m not 100% confident they’ll listen to a teenager on this), and I’ll update this post if they answer me back.

To all you Instinct owners looking to get some good apps like your iPhone rivals, I’m sorry; we really didn’t know that Sprint would do this and just cancel it pretty much (from what we currently know) out of the blue. We were only reporting on something we had from Sprint that in retrospect was too good to be true.

We’d like to apologize to those of you who, like us, thought this was accurate information that Sprint would end up following through with this and not canceling it in the end, and we understand the frustration some you are feeling. As bloggers, we try not to post rumors and such without the greatest level of information we can get (and if we ever do post on rumors, we make sure we classify it as such).

Here’s some links:

Sprint’s post on cancellation of Instinct apps contest: Here

Our initial post on Sprint’s possible Instinct “App Store” and apps contest: Here

The first “delay” of Sprint’s Instinct “App Store”: Here

Again, we’re sorry for all of this confusion; feel free to vent in the comments.

Nitin

What other unofficial apps are you talking about I downloaded some from jar but only one out of god knows how many I downloaded worked for me. Are there any other sites where I can dl from or any particular things on jar that will work for the instinct.
hurleyfreestyler

not very surprised. the instinct in my opinion isnt a very good phone. its sluggish and needs some improvements.(i dont know if they came out with a fireware update to fix this; if they did i apologize.) I really have high hopes for the Palm Pre. Something needs to save Sprint.
http://teentechblog.com Eli Blumenthal

Hey Nitin,

I’m talking bout apps like Opera Mini, as well as some other random ones I’ve seen online. From what I can tell, most seem to work (some better than other I’ll admit, and none as good as an iPhone/iPod Touch app). I only saw the Opera Mini app in person, and while it initially had some problems with the keyboard, it seems to work ok now.

Again, these unofficial apps are no where near the quality of iPhone’s apps, but this is where I thought an Instinct App Store would come in and fix all that so that the apps are on or near iPhone quality.

In terms of finding apps, all I can recommend is going to Google and searching as I don’t personally own an Instinct and don’t really know of any other sites to go to. If you are going to do this heavy searching for apps, I’d recommend first going to a site like download.com and getting the free McAfee SiteAdvisor (we wrote about it here), it gives a little mark next to the sites you Google telling you if clicking on the particular link takes you to a good site, or a site that can harm your computer (this is especially important as you look to download files, which may lead to unknowingly downloading a virus).

Hope this helps and best of luck in your search for apps (and feel free to post any good finds back here )

-Eli
Nitin

Ok thanks eli I appreciate all the information, if you do get any more info for the Instict or manage to get in touch with sprint about the apps would you go ahead and let me know. I wanna make sure this phone is worth my time.
Nitin

Eli I actully did a little bit of research and I have heard rumers of an Instinct 2 coming out in the summer have you heard anything about this. My source told me that they will be adding the apps consept to that instict. Do you know anything that may confirm this, if not can you see if your sources have any info about that. I would really appreciate that because if they are I can still return my instict and wait for the next one to come out. Thank Eli
http://teentechblog.com Eli Blumenthal

Hey Nitin,

Unfortunately, I don’t really know much about any future Instinct 2′s, I did see something of a cheaper, “Instinct mini” online (from BoyGeniusReport.com), but not much information is known right now other than it’s a smaller, thinner, cheaper (and possibly less feature packed, rumor around the web is no 3G– this is kinda like the rumors about the iPhone Nano actually: smaller, cheaper and no 3G) version of the current Instinct. This is said to come this Spring, possibly April 19.

I’m not sure if its worth the wait though, as the Instinct right now can be had at anywhere from FREE (I saw this at Radioshack.com) to $129.99 at Sprint.com, already not bad pricing. And as it sounds like you got your Instinct recently, you probably were somewhere in that price range so waiting a couple months for something that may only be a little bit cheaper (and something that might have less features particularly 3G) may not be worth it to you. Of course, if we hear anything new we’ll make sure to pass it along.

If you are into waiting for something new, and don’t wanna stay with the Instinct, then you may wanna wait for the Palm Pre to drop, which its expected to do within the next couple of months. We wrote about it here, and it looks like an awesome phone with not just a multi-touch touchscreen, but a slide out keyboard too (and lemme just say from having had a Palm Treo 650, Palm’s keyboards are awesome and are great for texting )!

Hope this helps.

-Eli
pavy415

Actually there is an unoficial app store for the samsung instinct. If you go to youtube.com and type in app store for samsung instinct you will find in my video how to get it on your phone free. Check it out it is very cool
Will

This is so gay they should at least come out with an app store for the new instinct s30 that will make it an iphone killer
chahci247

I really think that they should have made an instinct app store. It would of been awsome but now im just confused. Who knows, mayne they just wernt ready for such a big step. Hopefully in the future someone will be able to make a desent app store for the samsung instinct!!!
brandon

an appstore would be very very cool, but let’s stop comparing this phone to the Iphone..it has wayyyyyyyyyyyyy more capabilities. There are plenty of apps out there already for free!! just google it.. you can go to wap.getjar.com or wap.funformobile.com on your instinct for apps. I have guitar hero3, god of war, opera mini, bejewelled..just to name a few of my fav’s. the instinct has been adopted by the “hacker” community, and that in my opinion is way better than anything Sprint could ever deliver. Quit depending on the carrier to supply undependable crapola, and embrace the open source community!

Sprint Drops Instinct Apps Contest

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