The long-awaited Helio mobile phone carrier launched today with their first two phones and a raft of multimedia services aimed at the "lifestyle of young people," according to a statement by founder Sky Dayton.

I saw Helio's two phones, the Kickflip and the Hero, at the CTIA trade show recently. Both are midrange phones from Korea, where SK Telecom, one of Helio's two parent companies, is based. Both handsets have two-megapixel cameras and high-res screens, memory card slots, large phone books, and stereo sound. The swiveling Kickflip will cost $250 while the sliding Hero will cost $275, according to Helio.

Helio's extremely youth-oriented content is crowned by an exclusive relationship with MySpace. A customized, WAP-based MySpace client comes on each Helio phone, letting users fully read and write to MySpace blogs, mail and profiles (though the phones won't display the embedded video on many MySpace pages).

Yahoo! is Helio's primary messaging partner, and each phone comes with access to Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger, and various My Yahoo! services. Other content partners at launch, providing downloadable or streaming video, include CNN, IGN, Slate, The Onion, Comedy Central, and SpikeTV.

The "Helio On Top" feature looks to be quite like Motorola's Screen3 technology on Cingular's Motorola V557 phone: it will deliver headlines from partners like CNN, Fox Sports, MTV, and MySpace to Helio phones' home screens. And Helio's game deck, unlike other carriers', will include independent game ratings and reviews (from IGN.com) on the purchase screens. All games will cost $5.99 to buy, or 99 cents per week to rent.

While Helio isn't starting out with a wireless music store or support for stores like Yahoo! Music, Rhapsody, or iTunes, their two phones play both AAC and MP3 music formats, have 70MB of internal memory, and take MicroSD memory cards, so you can load on unprotected music from your PC music library.

Like Mobile ESPN, Virgin Mobile, and Amp'd Mobile, Helio is an MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) that uses one of the "big four" cellular networks to complete their calls. In the past, they've told me they piggyback on both Sprint's and Verizon's networks. Their initial press release didn't come with a coverage map, so that will be interesting to see.

Helio's premium services will come at a premium price: $85, $100, or $135 per month for 1,000, 1,500, or 2,500 minutes, respectively. All three plans come with unlimited data use, text and picture messaging, video streaming, night and weekend calls, and roaming. An "A La Carte" plan offers 500 minutes without the free multimedia services for $40 per month. All of Helio's plans require a two-year contract.

Helio's prices aim it upscale of Amp'd Mobile. Amp'd's phones, which are considerably less powerful than Helio's launch handsets, are now $49 and $99 after rebates. An Amp'd package with unlimited messaging, unlimited nights, and 1,000 minutes would cost $72 per month; 1,500 minutes would cost $92 per month. Streaming video costs extra.

Notably missing from the initial press release are features that would appeal to tech-savvy users, such as Bluetooth, laptop modem access, synchronization with digital music stores, and the even greater multimedia power seen on truly high-end Korean phones like LG's SV360. But Helio reps told me that patience will pay off: future announcements later this year will deliver more meat for the geek crowd.

Am I inhaling Helio's helium? Their initial launch seems like Amp'd refined—targeted at a similar demographic, but with some smart partnerships and delivery methods. I've written previously that "Helio makes me sad" that both Virgin and Amp'd also trod the same path of preprogrammed, college-age-targeted content. That road is getting muddy, and no carrier is really busting the business model to maximize mobile access to the Internet and widest range of direct-to-consumer content.

Still, the smart choices and intriguing partnerships Helio has made give me hope that they'll make other smart choices in the future, to cater to the tech-savvy mobile phone consumer in a way no other carrier has.

Find out more at www.helio.com or by calling 888-88-HELIO. Phones will be available in nearly 1,000 retail outlets by the end of May, the company said, including electronics stores, music stores, and college bookstores.