Rumors: AT&T To Sell HTC Desire and Sprint Gets HTC Legend

The Droids love rumors of the who’s-getting-what variety.  AT&T has already stated they will have five Android phones before the end of the year, and it’s looking like one of them might possibly be the HTC Desire.  The gang at BGR have posted about a rumor from “a source close to HTC” stating that the HTC Desire will be coming to AT&T along with the Nexus One.  And, according to the same source, Sprint will continue it’s Hero line with the HTC Legend, which will possibly face a name change to Hero 2 with a little cosmetic alteration as well. 

Let’s look at the first rumor of AT&T getting the HTC Desire.  It’s been out in the wild now that HTC has passed a phone through the FCC with AT&T 3G frequencies that has an FCC label identical to that of the Nexus One currently for sale and ID that is but a single digit different than the current Nexus One.  However, AT&T did state they will be getting an exclusive phone.  Exclusive to the US could be a more accurate statement, and that’s what I’m thinking they meant.  That US exclusive phone could be the Desire, but that would eat at direct sales from Google for the Nexus One with AT&T 3G bands.  However, since the Nexus One will be direct through Google, AT&T may not be worried about cannibalizing those sales for the Desire.  Time frame for the Desire on AT&T is said to be May or June.  If that’s the case, we’ll keep an eye out for FCC Filings fitting that possibility.

Now, as for Sprint and the Legend/Hero 2, I could see this happening pretty easily.  Currently the Legend is GSM only, but the original Hero was GSM only when first introduced and the CDMA version for Sprint came along later.  The source states it’d probably see a cosmetic change as well, similar to how the CDMA Hero and the GSM Hero don’t match.  Imagine the Legend’s guts in a new case and new name, that’s what Sprint would probably pick up.  No word on it’s time frame tough, but chances are, this would be a mid-range smart phone for Sprint, considering the Supersonic is just around the corner.

BGR