Sprint Nextel's answer to the iPhone will appear in shops for $130 after rebate.

Sprint, which has not been doing too well lately, has said it will spend more than $100 million to market the touch-screen Instinct, made by Samsung. The telco has been losing subscribers to rivals such as AT&T and Verizon Wireless, mostly because of customer service problems

Apple iPhone is sold in the U.S. exclusively for use on AT&T's network. Most strokers of beards and pontificators on matters Telecom think it will be will be tough for Instinct to compete with a new, 3g iPhone model due to go on sale for $199 on July 11.

However, 3G coverage could be relatively small, so the user experience could be disappointing to many.