Over a year ago, Sprint released the new set of “Everything” service plans to go along with the release of the Samsung Instinct. The new plans allowed users to play with every feature their phone was capable of without incurring any additional fees (Sprint TV, GPS, picture messaging, sms, data, Blackberry service, the works). Charging only $99 for the Simply Everything all-included plan (which includes even unlimited minutes), this is much less than it would cost for the same features elsewhere.
The problem is, they didn’t give Instinct buyers any choice. If you want an Instinct, you MUST get an Everything plan. They won’t even allow the device to be activate on any other plan.
There hasn’t been any official explanation for the policy, but in some strange sort of way, this made some sense… The original Instinct was supposed to directly combat the original iPhone on AT&T, and the big selling point for Sprint was that it could do things the iPhone could not at the time (3G, Voice Control, turn-by-turn GPS, etc). Without paying for those features, however, the Instinct was just a touch screen phone that lost in style and UI to the iPhone. In order to get noticed, its possible Sprint wanted every Instinct user to be able to show off how much “better” their device and service was.
Fast forward to today- Palm’s new Pre, and another Instinct (S30) is now running on Sprint’s network, and all of them require the Everything Plan. That’s right, unless you want to pay for all the trimmings on your new Palm Pre, you can’t have one. Even if you’ve been using a Treo as a PDA for the last decade or so on a regular basic 200 minute plan, you aren’t eligible to even pay full price for the new Palm phone!
Now, that doesn’t seem fair… Ok, so the Instinct was supposed to target possible iPhone buyers, but Palm already has a large loyal user base, many of whom have been on the same old plan for years. Maybe they don’t want GPS, unlimited text or even Data… they never had them before, why would you force them to pay for it? For their own good?
Since when is it a requirement that every feature should be enabled on a phone? Imagine if they required every RAZR to pay for GPS Telenav service, even if the user already owns an in-dash GPS for their car! This hardly seems logical.
I personally have seen many people who had Sprint for a long time, and after years of adding features to their grandfathered plans, finally have a plan that they are happy with and want to stick with. Some of these folks were very excited about the Palm Pre until it was announced they would have to give up their old plan that fit like a glove, and take on a new one that required features they don’t want or need. These people were turned away, and Sprint missed a potential boatload of renewed contracts.
The effect? Sprint reported a rather disturbing financial loss this quarter, citing that they lost many customers. I very strongly believe that Sprint could have kept a significant amount of subscribers if they had the option to resigned their current contract for a hot phone instead of leaving them out to wander elsewhere.
Even stranger still is that Sprint is not consistent with the policy… Currently, only the Instinct and Pre require Everything plans, while other smartphones such as the Diamond and Touch Pro running Windows Mobile (which came out after the Instinct) do not. Strange, since Windows Mobile rivals the other two platforms in features, and adds some more on top of it.
Meanwhile, current subscribers are wondering how Sprint will view the new Android handsets promised this quarter. Will they enforce the everything plan like the Instinct and Pre? Or will they leave it open like Windows Mobile, since Android is not exclusive to Sprint? Remember, users can buy a G1 or MyTouch on T-Mobile without having to add a special expensive plan, so if someone doesn’t want to pay for the services on Sprint but wants the phone, what would they do?
For their sake, I hope they don’t enforce the new plans.
As we mentioned previously, Obama’s desire to retain his Blackberry has caused a bit of a security concern.
This is mostly due to the fact that Blackberry devices rely on using RIM’s own server and software, which limits how much control the NSA has over the information.
C|Net had pointed out that there are some interesting mobile devices, such as the Spectera Edge, running their own software (on a Windows Mobile platform, interestingly enough) and are NSA approved.
Most of the Inter-Web (ourselves included) speculated that this would most likely be the President’s mobile email companion of choice. However, according to Robert Gibbs, President Obama is indeed keeping his RIM Blackberry, but will be limited to personal communication only on it.
I suppose if it is not sensitive information relating to the government, the President can do whatever he wants. However, as an international public figure, I’m sure there will be many potential hackers who will find his personal life just as interesting. We already saw that Verizon employees were caught snooping on the not-yet-elected Presidential Candidate at the time.
Personally, I agree more with Randy Siegel, an MS Enterprise Mobile Strategist (who works on federal government projects), who expresses concern over this decision:
“We wouldn’t want the casual musings … of the most important person in the world being intercepted by others”, even if considered trivial.
C|Net has an interesting article about the President-Elect’s desire to hold on to his Blackberry, even after the inauguration. It does a good job of presenting all the cons (basically, a security nightmare). You can see some more detailed specs here.
Specs (and insanely high price) aside, the idea of a connected President is a very cool one, regardless of politics.
Palm enthusiasts have known that something was up behind closed doors at Palm.
Rumors have been flying around about Nova, the new OS, and Castle, their new flagship device that would run it.
Many people thought it was too little too late (myself included).
But, I’m happy to say we may all be surprised.
The Palm Pre (formerly known as Castle) was just announced at CES yesterday, and it looks GOOD. Wow, did I just say that?
Personally, I’m just happy that Palm is actually releasing a device that I’m excited about for a change.
So, will it do well, or is Palm too far gone to be revived?
You can read my thoughts on the matter on my personal blog here.
TIM and Polymer Vision’s new Cellular-Book (mighty creative name) is a very interesting device: 5 inch foldout “newspaper†display, 4 GBs of storage, cellular connectivity, 10 day “usage time†and access to e-mail, RSS feeds, LBS, music downloads, audio books and more. Besides all that, upgrades are also on the way including a color screen and video capabilities. Faster connectivity and a better UI are probably also coming soon. If interested, I would read the full press release and check out this cool demo.
One of the interesting points to note about this product, however, is that it, along with the rest of the “e-paper†movement, is being largely shunned by the industry right now, yet there is a lot happening on form factor and screen utilization. As we all know, along with the iPhone came many questions, among them being How are we going to interact with our phones in the future and what sort of displays will they have? Apple’s take on this was a 3.5 inch multi-touch display, but there is no consensus in the industry that that is for sure the right approach. This TIM/Polymer Vision device can be taken as not only a reason to finally take your girlfriend to Venice but more so a reminder that there is still a lot of definition that must be done over what and how we interact with our mobile devices. That includes new and possibly even currently unconventional technologies such as a laser keyboard and camera movement detection for input. As for display, who knows. This sort of OLED and e-paper in general still has a long way to go by all means but it definitely has its chances. It works well in the sun, allows for long battery life and should not be discounted.
A blog post by Simeon Simeonov, a VC and blogger, has been well covered in all the usual places this past week. Although it lacks any serious novelty, it’s a good compilation of a lot of known facts
and an interesting shot at guessing what Google’s most famous vaporware looks like. Things to note that are not covered are Eric Schmidt’s comment on cell phones being free, him being on Apple’s board, Google’s existing forays into mobile search, their US mobile portal’s recent changes (has anyone else noticed them because I haven’t heard much about it), their click to call ads, the new
integration with German BWM navigation systems, (mentioned but barley) previous Orange Google Phone speculation (mostly hyperbolic as seen here) among more. This is definitely something to keep a close eye on because just as many doubted the iPhone, you can never be too sure what who will do next.
A few weeks ago I made the prediction that mobile phones would capture a defining moment in the 08-election cycle. Well, thanks to Nokia’s announcement at 3GSM of their new partnership with YouTube, I am a step closer to being correct.
Nokia handset users will now be able to easily view YouTube content on their phones. YouTube will be rolling out a mobile site that pre-edit clips and encodes them in the H.264 compression format for compatibility with Nokia’s new Nokia Video Center application software. The Nokia N95 device will be the first sold with the Nokia Video Center software pre-installed, with a download version also available for selected S60 devices. Consumers may also view YouTube content via the Nokia Web Browser with Mini Map.
“We are thrilled to be giving users easy access to entertaining YouTube videos anytime and anywhere. By partnering with an industry leader like Nokia, we’re able to bring YouTube videos to mobile phone users worldwide,” said Steve Chen, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer for YouTube.
Yesterday marked the first day of the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas. CES features the latest products and technologies encompassing more than 30 product categories including digital imaging, home networking, IPTV, mobile electronics, gaming and more. My trusty NPR morning program, Morning Edition, reported that “mobility†was on the big topic of the year and most manufactures showing offered some product related to it.
Mobility, that’s the big news this year. All of the manufactures are hawking devices and technologies to allow consumers to access whatever they want wherever they want it. And one of the most talked about technologies was announced by at an event by Samsung yesterday. It was so packed that people were turned away. Samsung introduced what is called as A-VSB, which one executive said would obliterate the couch potato. And what it is a combination of a chip in various devices and an extra signal that can be sent out by television stations. And it will allow viewers to watch television on a laptop, maybe on their cell phone, and even in a moving car or train. It is completely new. It is not connected to cell technology or the Internet. It is what Samsung hopes will be the new standard for broadcast digital TV.
To me, mobility is the next step in the natural progression of technological developments. You see signs of it everywhere: 219.4 million people in the US own mobile phones (this includes my non-tech friendly father), Google offers users spreadsheet and document applications over the internet (anytime, anyplace, any computer), and seeing someone watching Desperate Housewives on their iPod is not too uncommon on the train in the morning.
Lets face it, people are on the go more; We just don’t have time to sit in one place and do one thing at a time, so of course our technology will reflect that.
Interesting article in Forbes on Six Innovations That Will Change Your Life. I wont rehash the article only to say that if you are interested in such subjects as m-commerce (maying by stiff with your phone), social networking and issues of presence, the mobile web, ubiquitous media, health supplements for your mobile phone and or GPS then check it out.
As we mentioned previously, Obama’s desire to 
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