During CTIA’s 2010 Annual Convention, Sprint Nextel introduced its 3G/4G smartphone. This action is a positive development for Sprint Nextel. Congratulations to Dan Hesse.

Sprint Nextel just launched the first U.S. cell phone that will serve both 3G and 4G networks. The cell phone is manufactured by HTC and is called the EVO.

In a word, “fantastic”. We are going to see increased competition from the LTE camp, which is fantastic for the consumer.

In the weeks to come, I will take a closer look at the handset but everything I have heard is the EVO is a well designed piece of equipment and will give any smartphone a run for its money. The EVO may have just set the bar for all 3G and 4G handsets.

The EVO is a high-end Android handset capable of riding on the 3G and 4G network of Sprint Nextel. The EVO has a lot of processing power and has a ton of features. All very good. This handset runs a combination of EV-DO Revision A and WiMAX, with calls being made over CDMA and the EV-DO / WiMAX options for data.

The handset is based on the HTC HD2 but better. It has a bigger battery. It of course has Android built into it. The handset’s display screen is a 480 x 800 4.3 inch TFT LCD. It has a Snapdragon QSD8650 1GHz processor. The EVO also has a lot of memory – 1 GB of memory and 512 MB of RAM. The handset has a lot of processing power.

The EVO has an 8 megapixel camera (with a flash of course). It can shoot 720p video. The EVO also has a 1.3 megapixel front facing camera. The handset supports 802.11b/g Wi-Fi. The handset also comes with an 8GB micro SD card. The EVO of course has a touch-user-interface keyboard.

Sprint now needs to leverage this handset in a way that facilitates and synergizes the carrier’s content and pricing strategies. Sprint must compel more users to sign up and stem the customer losses. The EVO may serve as a turning point for Sprint Nextel. Sprint needs to give thought to how this handset is to be used in conjunction with its cable company relationships in the Clearwire venture.

My hat off to Sprint’s marketing team for picking the CTIA convention to launch the handset and to show off the carrier’s iPhone overdrive capability. Sprint just gave the iPhone its 4G look. Brilliant move. This really must have upset AT&T Mobility; you just cannot make this stuff up.