• USA Today, Monday, March 15, 2010 10:46 AM

AT&T is introducing services today that allow its consumers to perform tasks on inexpensive cell phones that are usually accomplished only on pricey smartphones. Among them are an address book that allows consumers swap or upgrade phones without losing contact information, a messaging service that enables users to reply to a single person or as many as 10 contacts, and the ability to transfer photos and videos.

The company says the services are part of a new category of phone, starting with the Samsung Strive, that it's dubbing the Quick Messaging Device. The Strive, which is $19.99 with a two-year contract for a limited time, will later be joined by the Samsung Sunburst, Pantech Link and Pantech Pursuit.

It's part of "a slow, subtle, but tectonic shift [in wireless phones] that AT&T is driving," CCS Insight analyst John Jackson tells David Lieberman. "It's an experiment in creating stickiness and brand loyalty around AT&T instead of iPhone or Google."

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