Alright, finally!  Sprint has made their official announcement regarding the HTC Hero.  We now have everything there is to know – the price, the release date, the look.

Customers will be able to purchase an HTC Hero from Sprint starting on October 11th for $179.99 after a $50 instant savings and a $100 mail-in rebate and a two-year service agreement (Simply Everything). If you want to pre-register, head over to www.sprint.com/hero.

A few interesting tidbits we pulled from the press release:

• Pandora^®, the popular personal radio application, is launching on Android devices and will be available on the HTC Hero from Sprint.
• HTC Hero can be silenced by simply turning it over.
• Includes Sprint TV, NFL Mobile Live and NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile
• There is no specific mention of Flash on the phone HTC has confirmed Flash support
  
• Features HTC Scenes allow users to create different home screens for various situations (work, home, travel)

We should also point out that we’re not certain as to whether this will have the ‘With Google” experience or will be HTC through and through.  The press release does make mention of most Google apps and access to thousands of titles.

So now we ask you, dear reader…

What do you think of today’s announcement?  Anyone planning to switch carriers?  Anyone going to renew their Sprint contract and grab one of these?  Sound off in the comments below!