So Dan Hesse and Steve Jobs are sitting around the wireless industry’s high-stakes poker table.


“I’ll see your $199 iPhone,” Hesse says to the man in the black turtleneck from Apple. “And I’ll raise you a $129 Instinct.”


Very interesting.


Sprint Nextel finally unveiled the price for the soon-to-be-launched phone touted as a potential iPhone killer.


Jobs recently roiled the world of mobile phones with his announcement that at least one version of the new generation of faster iPhones would sell for $199, a drastic drop from the first version that emerged a year ago.


Industry watchers since have been keeping a close eye on news from Sprint about pricing for its Samsung Instinct. Some analysts speculated Sprint would have to match the iPhone pricing to keep the race competitive.


Sprint executives promised that their price would be competitive, but offered few details.


This morning the announcement finally came: The Instinct will go for $129.99 with a two-year contract after a $100 rebate.


The Instinct will be available starting Friday through Sprint retail stores, Sprint’s Web site, Sprint telesales and Best Buy, which is Sprint’s exclusive retail partner for the Instinct until Aug. 28.

Instinct has been winning a fair amount of good reviews and it was named “Best in Show” at this spring’s CTIA Wireless 2008 event.

What do you think?

With a bet of $129.99 for Instinct pricing will Hesse and Sprint win the wireless jackpot over Jobs, Apple, AT&T and the iPhone?