Helio

Helio was a mobile provider that targets a younger, tech-savvy demographic in the United States. It offered proprietary phones that combine stylish design with advanced features. Helio was a joint venture between American and Korean companies. Helio was originally launched in 2006, and was acquired by Virgin Mobile America in 2008 before finally being bought again later that year by Sprint-Nextel. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1035_22-145271.html

Helio were known for having a promotional soft launch, meaning that instead of going out with a bang and doing a ton of promotion and advertising - they mostly spread via word-of-mouth advertising. Their original slogan was, "Don't call us a phone company, don't call it a phone." Eventually they started advertising on billboards and magazine ads, but did the majority of their promotion on MySpace. Helio had five corporate stores, including locations in Palo Alto, Cherry Creek, Colorado, New York City, San Diego and Santa Monica.http://www.forbes.com/markets/2006/05/02/helio-wireless-0502markets02.html

The original costs to Earthlink were millions of dollars a month, and the company did not fare well. In 2006, Helio partnered with MySpace to increase ad space and provide a special social networking portal for Helio users. They were eventually caught up with by the other mobile companies such as Sprint and Cingular Wireless.http://money.cnn.com/2006/02/16/technology/business2_myspace0216/?cnn=yes

The latest Helio phone is the Ocean 2, released in 2009 by Virgin Mobile. It is no longer being manufactured, but is still supported by the mobile company.

Key Dates

January 26, 2005: Company founded as a joint venture between SK Telecom and Earthlink
February 16, 2006: Establishes an advertising and phone content partnership with MySpace
July 13, 2006: Multimedia ad campaign featuring slogan: "Don't call us a phone company; don't call it a phone"
September 21, 2007: SK Telecom increases investment, effectively taking over operational control
March 19, 2008: Becomes first US mobile phone carrier to sign a deal with the Opera web browser; adds support for Opera Mini on the Helio Ocean