As any member of the Greg Kumparak Fan Club (Hey! It exists. They have T-shirts. And buttons.) should know, I was a bit of a Helio geek prior to jumping on board with the Crunch family. My interest weened pretty quickly once Helio got snatched up by Virgin Mobile, as it seemed like their efforts with the property would be few and far between. I wouldn’t have wagered, however, that they’d be taking steps backwards.
That’s exactly what they seem to be doing, however. We’re not sure exactly when this happened, but it was recently brought to our attention that the Helio Ocean 2 — which just launched back in February — no longer appears on Virgin Mobile’s list of available phones. If you want an Ocean, you’re stuck with the now ancient original.
That is, unless you speak Korean. Strangely, the Ocean 2 (and a bunch of other Helio phones long abandoned in the English market, like the Heat and Fin) is still available to Korean-market Virgin Mobile USA customers.
Additionally, it seems like the final steps are being taken to absorb the Helio brand entirely — that is, to kill it off. Helio.com now instead resolves to Virgin Mobile’s USA. For the final nail, all models are being referred to by their original manufacturer (Samsung Mysto rather than Helio Mysto, for example), though they still bear the Helio logo.
Update – Virgin Mobile’s comment on the topic:
Since before we closed on the purchase of Helio, we always said we intended to integrate it under the Virgin Mobile brand as our contract service. We made that transition as we launched Helio By Virgin Mobile and then moved several months ago into our contract/no contract collateral. Helio.com has taken you to the VMU website for quite some time.
As for the Ocean 2, yes, we have sold out — it is a great device! We continue to offer both contract and no contract handsets and plans.
A quick call to Virgin Mobile customer service verifies that the Ocean 2 is out of stock “indefinitely”.
[Thanks David!]
BLOO BLOO BLAH BLEW BLOO
[Comment edited because it was spam.]
i kinda figured that would happen sooner or later… they should have made the ocean 2 a touchscreen it would have sold better, oh well so long helio it was good run.
What was I thinking when I got an Ocean 1 late last year?
Ha. Anyone remember this site? http://compare.helio.com/
Glad I got rid of it and got an iPhone.
How sad! I remember when I first signed up for Helio! I got a certificate for being one of the first people (231 to be exact)
I loved them they were above and beyond what anyone had. I also worked in the Helio building in LA and would have lunch with some of the team.
Then VM came along and I left!
So sad to see them go away!
Helio, without doubt had the worst customer service I’ve EVER had the displeasure to deal with.
Getting refunds for charges I NEVER made took a letter to the FCC and threats to write my congressman.
I too used to look fondly at the Helio building on Wilshire…as I gave it the finger.
Good riddance!
to me helio was a breath of fresh air now virgin moble taken them over im going to get me an iphone ,i gave them a chance but all i got was a bunch of bullshit .if youre goin to fuck me atleast give me akiss and tell me its not going to hurt that bad.thanks for the sore ass helio ithought you cared exscuse the bad language and terrible grammer.