Sprint exec criticizes AT&T 3G; Palm CEO talks iPod, Apple

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  • Reply 41 of 61
    nceencee Posts: 858member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by teckstud View Post


    No so. If you look at the original soundjam it's basically the same. The only change was the addition of the store. Then Apple bought the coverflow technolgy and tacked that on.

    It's still basically Soundjam, not radically different.

    I still have my original Soundjam OS9 box and discs.



    And I for one, think Soundjam WAS better, and would likely be better if not purchased by Apple.



    Skip
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  • Reply 42 of 61
    vineavinea Posts: 5,585member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    Speaking at the 4G World Conference in Chicago, Sprint president of corporate initiatives and CDMA, Keith Cowan, took the opportunity to promote his company's 4G network. The company will provide WiMAX service over the Clearwire network to 80 cities by the end of 2010.



    Ah, right. Let me know when they REALLY start covering Baltimore. Because at BWI airport I get no freaking signal with my Xohm wireless USB modem even though the coverage show green. Oddly except over the main airport road loop.



    My iPhone has 3G service there.



    I'm cancelling Xohm this month.
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  • Reply 43 of 61
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,954member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AjitMD View Post


    Yes and No. Verizon and Sprint use CDMA in a separate channel for "mostly" voice... called 1X that is 1.25 MHz wide. In many of the cases a separate voice called "DO" also 1.25 MHz wide is used. If the data traffic is heavy, just data will slow down. Voice should not be affected.



    ATT use a WCDMA 5 MHz channel that combines voice and data. It is easy to see how data could crowd voice out, even though they try to control that. However, HPSA implementation should improve that.



    In addition to the wireless, the entire router and backbone need to be upgraded to fiberoptics. I doubt the Sprint and Verizon network backbone are designed to handle the kind of traffic that the iPhones generate.



    I guess it depends on how good the QOS is, voice should be given the highest priority. I thought people were saying that if you're using data with the CDMA system, you can't take a call, is that still true?



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ireland View Post


    If true then no, the likely won't. My point wasn't necessarily that Sprint would get it though, but more so that AT&T won't continue to be the only company in the US that has it.



    There aren't a lot of alternatives though, without adding CDMA, which Apple seems allergic to supporting. The plausible second player for iPhone is T-Mobile, which has a small network.
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  • Reply 44 of 61
    irelandireland Posts: 17,802member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by JeffDM View Post


    There aren't a lot of alternatives though, without adding CDMA, which Apple seems allergic to supporting. The plausible second player for iPhone is T-Mobile, which has a small network.



    They are only allergic to something until they do it.
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  • Reply 45 of 61
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,715member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by city View Post


    Pre iPod, Apple considered buying Universal (Music) for their music library, but the stock market reacted negatively.



    I remember the rumors about that, but I'm not sure it's a fact.
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  • Reply 46 of 61
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by columbus View Post




    With regards to Sound Jam - yes, Apple purchased it and used it as the basis for iTunes, although it was not their first choice. That said iTunes today is unrecognisable from the SoundJam product (which is I think the point too999 was trying to make).



    I L-O-V-E SoundJam and Audion and their user created skins. I still keep a copy of Audion. Its too bad that today's iTune alternatives doesnt have any new and compelling features, to me at least. Songbird is almost an exact surface copy of iTunes. Miro has almost no use for me.
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  • Reply 47 of 61
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,715member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ireland View Post


    Yeah, cause more customers isn't an advantage. Either is people who refuse to switch from carrier, read: Sprint, some people are loyal like that.



    Are you one of those who doesn't think that it will ever arrive on Verizon?



    It's not just the possible customers, of which there would be few, but the technical challenges.



    This is an old argument here. They won't make a CDMA phone. They won't make a 4G WiMax phone. Why should they? Sprint is shrinking rapidly. Many of those leaving are now going to AT&T for an iPhone.



    What percentage of new sales would they get in the US? 10% at most, maybe 5%.
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  • Reply 48 of 61
    citycity Posts: 522member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by melgross View Post


    I remember the rumors about that, but I'm not sure it's a fact.



    The "rumor" (Apple purchase of Universal Music for 5 or 6 billion) was reported in the Los Angeles Times in April of 2003
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  • Reply 49 of 61
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,715member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by city View Post


    The "rumor" (Apple purchase of Universal Music for 5 or 6 billion) was reported in the Los Angeles Times in April of 2003



    I read that back then, along with all the other rumors. Apple even denied they were interested.



    There are a lot of rumors about Apple purchasing some big company.
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  • Reply 50 of 61
    Isn't Sprint cute?



    As for the Engadget interview, I watched it in its entirety. It was very good. Joshua T, a noted Palm fanboy, asked very tough questions of his new hero, Ruby. There was a point in the interview when Ruby asked the audience how many of them had a Pre. Applause was expected. What he got was the sound of crickets. There was no applause and only one or two hands were timidly raised. This was a very Palm friendly crowd. No wonder Palm is hiding their numbers. Josh asked about the iTunes hack. Ruby dodged the question. Ruby had nothing to say about the success of the Pre or WebOS. He seemed to be interested only in marketing the Pixie and selling in general. I'm not a big JT fan, but anyone interested in such things should watch the interview.
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  • Reply 51 of 61
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mac Voyer View Post


    Isn't Sprint cute?



    Sprint's playing the "oh please, please, we want the iPhone too, so look at how great our network is (it's like 4G and 7G and everything!!)" game.



    The whole Palm-Pre-and-the-Second-Coming-of-Sprint scenario isn't playing out quite they way Sprint thought it would.



    Typing-like-this-is-fun.
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  • Reply 52 of 61
    hill60hill60 Posts: 6,992member
    At least you can concentrate on your phone calls without having to bother about distractions like using the web simultaneously or an email coming in during a call, you can always hang up, consult an email or the web then call back later.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by zorinlynx View Post


    It's not just cel service where AT&T is failing.



    AT&T bought out Bellsouth, my local DSL provider. I've already had three outages this month; they seem incompetent and unable to fix the problem right. I may have to bail and move over to Comcast.



    AT&T destroys everything they touch. Apple would do right to bring the iPhone to Sprint and Verizon once their exclusivity contract runs out. Of course, they probably won't.



    I've been happy with my Palm Pre so far; it's a fun little phone. I own two Macs, so I love Apple products too, but the iPhone can be the most amazing phone in the world; if it's on a crappy network, it's useless to me.



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  • Reply 53 of 61
    docno42docno42 Posts: 3,764member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by zorinlynx View Post


    AT&T bought out Bellsouth, my local DSL provider.



    Actually, SBC (or Bellsouth as you put it) bought AT&T and rebranded themselves with the AT&T moniker.



    You still have the same crappy local telephone service company you always had. "AT&T" as it is now is just a name - it has no relationship to AT&T as most people think of the name AT&T.
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  • Reply 54 of 61
    docno42docno42 Posts: 3,764member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by fraklinc View Post


    AT&T network if far from being jammed by iPhone's. Look their new 3G network can handle 5x more traffic than edge did, so if edge had no problem with 70 million users 3G shouldn't have a problem with 350 million which AT&T network is far, far from. When they upgrade to LTE in a few years the network will be able to handle 5x more traffic than today's 3G or almost 1.8 billion users, making voice calling plans drop like rocks.



    The problem is the iPhone introduced 150x the traffic (or more) of previous devices.



    The amount of data the iPhone uses compared to all previous wireless devices combined is just staggering.



    Personally I can't wait for Verizon to release the iPhone and "everyone" to stampede over there and kill their network. It will free up some bandwidth, for a little while at least.
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  • Reply 55 of 61
    docno42docno42 Posts: 3,764member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hill60 View Post


    At least you can concentrate on your phone calls without having to bother about distractions like using the web simultaneously or an email coming in during a call, you can always hang up, consult an email or the web then call back later.



    Ah, the "it's not a limitation it's a feature"



    At least you are well trained
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  • Reply 56 of 61
    docno42docno42 Posts: 3,764member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mac Voyer View Post


    ...No wonder Palm is hiding their numbers. Josh asked about the iTunes hack. Ruby dodged the question. Ruby had nothing to say about the success of the Pre or WebOS. He seemed to be interested only in marketing the Pixie and selling in general. I'm not a big JT fan, but anyone interested in such things should watch the interview.



    I am only half way through the interview, but so far I have picked up on some interesting points. He talked about pushing the developers of the WebOS to look out 4 to 5 years - but it can't do 3D games which the iPhone could do while they were development.



    He commented on how the mobile market was wide open and unlike Microsoft their will be no one dominate player - I think that horse is out of the barn. It's Apple's to loose at this point. They have the momentum and I don't see how Palm can hang in to compete in the long term - especially being bound to Sprint and only launching in a few other countries. There may be two or three players, but unless Palm gets bought by someone with deep pockets (deservedly or not) they simply won't be able to survive in the way they are going.



    I think the Pre is interesting. I don't want one, but I can appreciate people who do. I think it's the closest thing so far to a real iPhone competitor and from that standpoint I really do want them to survive and spur Apple (and everyone else) on.



    If someone else can overtake the entire iPhone experience, I will move. I'm not wed to Apple with some slavish devotion. It's just I don't see any other company that truly understands the dedication to the [i]entire]/i] user experience that Apple currently does. Too many companies get focused on geeks and sites like Engadget and pay attention to checklists of features that the majority of people in the world couldn't care less about. What normal people care about is "does this work? Does it do what I want? Does it do what I want without me having to spend all kinds of time learning about the device?" Apple answers all of those. They don't always hit every feature, but by and large when they do it works. It fits. It adds to the overall experience, it isn't just "tacked on".



    It's why Linux will never take off on the desktop in a meaningful way - deep down the Linux community loathes "the common man". They want them to use their stuff, but the don't want to change their perception of how software should work to accommodate. Ubuntu is the closest distro to being something a "normal person" could use, but it's still light years away from the experience that Apple provides with Mac OSX.
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  • Reply 57 of 61
    Do you think Apple would consider buying Sprint? With a market capitol of 12 Billion- Apple has plenty of cash to do so. With the upcoming 4G/WiMax, Apple could control the next generation of wireless products by bundling 4g/wimax service. Would be an enormous investment/risk, but not something I would see that is out of the question, considering Apple's love for control of the whole pipeline.
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  • Reply 58 of 61
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by PatsFan83 View Post


    Do you think Apple would consider buying Sprint? With a market capitol of 12 Billion- Apple has plenty of cash to do so. With the upcoming 4G/WiMax, Apple could control the next generation of wireless products by bundling 4g/wimax service. Would be an enormous investment/risk, but not something I would see that is out of the question, considering Apple's love for control of the whole pipeline.



    That's a whole lotta logistics to look after . . .
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  • Reply 59 of 61
    jfanningjfanning Posts: 3,398member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by DocNo42 View Post


    The amount of data the iPhone uses compared to all previous wireless devices combined is just staggering.



    Compared to all previous wireless devices? I don't think so
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  • Reply 60 of 61
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by dr_lha View Post


    One wonders if Sprint's solution is to have crappier phones and less customers, and therefore have less problems.



    The iPhone has certainly shown AT&T's issues, but I remain to be convinced that if it were on Sprint or Verizon it wouldn't have performed a similar hatchet job on their reputations. There's no other phone out right now that generates the sort of network traffic the iPhone does, especially amongst Verizon's line up of crippled junk.







    yep. there is no proof the trouble with the coverage, bandwidth and pricing would not have happened with someone else.



    and I bet Sprint is gonna be peeved when Apple takes the iphone unlocked but chooses only to support GSM and LTE so Sprint still can't have it.
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