The hottest phone officially expected to hit T-Mobile this summer is (arguably) the Samsung Vibrant, T-Mobile's variant of the Samsung Galaxy S, which hits stores July 21st.  But sadly, while it "benefits" from T-Mobile's HSPA+ technology, it is unable to fully utilize the capabilities beyond a theoretical maximum 7.2 Mbps, a speed you are unlikely to ever reach.  So, why is T-Mobile so excited about their HSPA+ technology that is nearly three times (21 Mbps) as fast as HSPA, and capable of being six times (42 Mbps) as fast with the appropriate hardware upgrades?

According to LightReading, the reason is that T-Mobile is working with HTC to have an HSPA+ device ready to go by September.  If you guessed the device would be featuring Android (please say it's Froyo or Gingerbread!), you'd be right, all this according to an unnamed Deutsche Telekom spokesman.  What's more, the spokesman said there will be another HSPA+ device (no further details on brand, etc.) available in time for the holiday season.  When asked about whether T-Mobile plans to jump on the LTE bandwagon or stick with HSPA+ for the time being, the spokesman said, "T-Mobile USA has not decided yet if they will use the new 42 Mbps standard or maybe rollout LTE for the US."  But we've all seen that 42 Mbps chart that was reportedly shown at a managers meeting in Seattle.

I'll leave you with this: I was on the phone with T-Mobile today (customer service, nothing fancy), and the CSR told me they planned on launching 21 new smartphones by the end of the year, so hold on to the seat of your pants folks, here's hoping it'll be a fun ride!

Via Light Reading