Sprint to 'Bet the Company' on iPhone • Hacker News Board

Re: Sprint to 'Bet the Company' on iPhone

#21

Post by joebadmo » Mon, Oct 03, 2011, 7:35 PM UTC

jallmann wrote: post #15

joebadmo wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usually they'll grandfather in unlimited plans that are in place before they kill them, though. I still have an "unlimited" data plan from Verizon, which, as I understand, will unfortunately not transfer over to an [EDIT: unlimited] LTE plan. So, you should look into it, and if you're still planning to switch, you should probably try to do it before the iPhone comes out.

I have an unlimited data plan on Verizon, and was told last week it could transfer to LTE. (Didn't make the switch though; I opted for the Droid 3 and its physical keyboard.)

They said you could transfer to unlimited LTE?

Re: Sprint to 'Bet the Company' on iPhone

#22

Post by chimeracoder » Mon, Oct 03, 2011, 7:41 PM UTC

sankara wrote: post #19

Urgo wrote: post #3

I know I'm surely in the minority here but back in August I was so fed up with AT&T that I spent most of the month planning a move to Sprint. I was in and out of stores, researching phones online, talking to friends and more. Even with their poor coverage (my parents live in western mass and basically that entire side of the state is a black hole for sprint) I was so close to making the switch, at least for a one mon…

May be someone could answer a question I have for a long time. There are two different modes of operations wrt the mobile phone industry. US and most other European countries package phone and services together. Whereas in a lesser sophisticated market like here in India phone and services are independent of each other. Both have their own pros and cons - Here I would never choose a crappy network because they have a…

Actually, the way it works in the US ends up being a lose-lose situation for consumers. Phone prices tend to be lower, but at a cost of an increased contract price. Over the course of a two-year contract, people will pay more than the cost of the subsidy of the phone.

The only way to beat this is to buy phones out of pocket and get a plan that doesn't require a contract. However, you'll still lose out on flexibility, because the companies in the US use incompatible technologies.

Fun fact: the incompatible technologies were originally conceived of as a way to increase competition between phone companies. Guess what effect they actually had!

Re: Sprint to 'Bet the Company' on iPhone

#23

Post by dvdhsu » Mon, Oct 03, 2011, 7:43 PM UTC

xsmasher wrote: post #4

steve-howard wrote: post #2

I like my Sprint service. The reception is far from legendary, but it's there, and the data is unlimited. If I wanted an iPhone, I'd do what everyone else does and switch to AT&T (and now Verizon). I suspect that folks who really care that it's an iPhone and not an Android (or potentially WP7, if that ever gets off the ground) have already made their move.

"Unimited data" might be an distinguishing feature they can press. I know I a lot of iPhone+ATT users, but none who tether. Too expensive.

The unlimited data that Sprint gives you is not supposed to be for tethering. If you want the tethering app on Android to work, you need to pay Sprint a monthly fee of $30 a month. [1]

I have a hunch that this will apply to the iPhone too. Of course, you would be able to jailbreak then tether, but I'm not sure how many ordinary users would be willing to do that.

According to my first reference below, tethering will also be capped at five gigabytes with the launch of the iPhone. So, you'll have to pay $30 for tethering five gigabytes a month. The internet on the handset will still be unlimited.

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1. http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Sprint-Caps-Official-Teth...

Re: Sprint to 'Bet the Company' on iPhone

#24

Post by ajays » Mon, Oct 03, 2011, 7:45 PM UTC

It would be great if someone could come up with a summary of the offerings by the big 3 carriers; and the quality of service on the network. I'd love to switch to Sprint, but I'm not sure how their cellular network stacks up to ATT/Verizon when in remote areas. I'm on ATT currently, and was surprised to get reception at the top of HalfDome (though I have trouble getting it in my neighborhood in SF :-/ ).

Re: Sprint to 'Bet the Company' on iPhone

#25

Post by kenjackson » Mon, Oct 03, 2011, 7:50 PM UTC

BGR is reporting that the iPhone5 may be a Sprint exclusive. That's pretty big for Sprint. Explains why Sprint has been completely mum about Windows Phone Mango. If this is true, it might be time for me to leave Sprint.

http://www.bgr.com/2011/10/03/sprint-guarantees-to-buy-over-...

Re: Sprint to 'Bet the Company' on iPhone

#26

Post by wmeredith » Mon, Oct 03, 2011, 7:50 PM UTC

joe_bleau wrote: post #18

shareme wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you forgot some Apple history...RAZR was the first phone with iTunes..that software features was what sold the handsets

Are you sure about that? I thought the moto ROKR was the one that would connect to iTunes. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_ROKR )

You are correct and the product was a complete dog.

Re: Sprint to 'Bet the Company' on iPhone

#27

Post by saturdaysaint » Mon, Oct 03, 2011, 7:50 PM UTC

steve-howard wrote: post #2

I like my Sprint service. The reception is far from legendary, but it's there, and the data is unlimited. If I wanted an iPhone, I'd do what everyone else does and switch to AT&T (and now Verizon). I suspect that folks who really care that it's an iPhone and not an Android (or potentially WP7, if that ever gets off the ground) have already made their move.

I suspect that folks who really care that it's an iPhone and not an Android (or potentially WP7, if that ever gets off the ground) have already made their move.

Remember, though, that the smartphone market is far from saturated. You could argue that it's barely been tapped - dumbphones still compose the vast majority of the U.S. phone share. Upgrading from a 3 year old dumbphone is a prime opportunity for a consumer to rethink their phone carrier. I imagine Sprint lost a lot of first time smartphone buyers to the iPhone thanks to Apple's "easy-to-use" reputation and the massive hype of every iPhone debut.

Re: Sprint to 'Bet the Company' on iPhone

#28

Post by larrik » Mon, Oct 03, 2011, 7:54 PM UTC

modeless wrote: post #17

jallmann wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an unlimited data plan on Verizon, and was told last week it could transfer to LTE. (Didn't make the switch though; I opted for the Droid 3 and its physical keyboard.)

What salesmen tell you and what actually happens are completely different things.

I don't know why you are getting downvoted. I've been involved in and also seen plenty of corporate cellphone deals where the carrier promises stuff (on paper, even) and then never delivers. "Billing mistakes" drag on and on, costing the customer huge bills they supposedly weren't going to get, etc.

On the consumer side, I've seen plenty of helpful customer service people do something slightly wrong and then the customer is locked out of their grandfathered plan or whatever else.

So yes, I agree. What they say and what is true don't always have anything to do with one another.

(One caveat to this is that sometimes only a few people know how to do something, and to everyone else it is "impossible." Sometimes this is poor training, and sometimes it is a rep who knows how to cheat the system a bit for a better customer experience.)

Re: Sprint to 'Bet the Company' on iPhone

#29

Post by Raphael » Mon, Oct 03, 2011, 8:00 PM UTC

kyleslattery wrote: post #16

mgkimsal wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, and I think we saw as much with the iPhone arrival to Verizon. Yeah, it was a bump for Verizon, but not a tidal wave. Most people who wanted it had moved. That said, I think there were some holdouts who were unsure about getting an iPhone4 so close to the supposed summer release of an iPhone5, so that probably depressed the Verizon numbers a bit too. Bringing iPhone to Sprint so soon after a new announcement…

Also, a lot of people on Verizon who wanted a smartphone probably had already bought an Android phone when the Verizon iPhone came out (I know I did). The original Droid is just about two years old, which means that a lot of Droid owners are going to be looking for a new phone in the coming months. I'd bet a lot of them will be getting iPhones. I know a lot of friends that have Droids, and none of them have any inten…

They don't like Android? Or do they prefer Apple hardware to Motorola?

Re: Sprint to 'Bet the Company' on iPhone

#30

Post by joe_the_user » Mon, Oct 03, 2011, 8:07 PM UTC

biot wrote: post #9

> "Five years ago, the Motorola Razr was the top-selling phone," says > Credit Suisse analyst Jonathan Chaplin. "Imagine trying to sell 6 > million of them today." The thing about the RAZR is that it was a sleek, small form factor. I don't remember anyone who had one tout its functionality as the reason they got it. So the next sleek phone or better featured phone could easily displace it. The iPhone on the other han…

Actually, I remember numerous friends describing the original iPhone as having terrible reception. An old boss switched to skype for phone calls so he could keep using his iPhone for its apps (or something).

It seems more like the iPhone combines generally good-but-not-fabulous engineering with the continued irrational loyalty of "Apple Fanboys".

Edit: But this too may indeed be a competitive advantage that's hard to match...