Android made the classic mistake of assuming that simply providing a technology to consumers would sustain market uptake, failing to recognize the eventual failure of that model in the PC marketplace.
I'm not sure what you mean by that. Can you give examples?
You are correct. Poor, poor Apple. Only 9% of the global mobile phone market share and only 70% of global mobile phone profit share.
Apple made more profit last quarter than all the profit had in the handset business a year priot. Poor, poor Apple, surely they wish they had the volume and profit of Nokia¡
People have been predicting Sprint's doom for years. A few years ago I was one of them. But they are pretty scrappy and have really begun to turn things around. Dan Hesse may not be a Steve Jobs, but he has made some good decisions recently. With the iPhone on Sprint, unlimited data along with texts and mobile minutes for a far cheaper monthly plan price Sprint is now a viable option for disgruntled AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile customers.
The hardest misconception and stereotype Sprint had to overcome was poor customer service. That was true years ago, but for the last 2 or 3 years Sprint is ranked right up there at the top close to Verizon and ahead of AT&T. I am not saying things are perfect by any means. Many people complain about poor data speeds. Luckily I don't have that problem and average about 1.5M down and 500k up. But like any carrier, speeds vary based on location. That might not be super fast but I can browse websites quickly, use GPS, stream Pandora, Netflix, and Showtime Go, and pretty much any other data intensive app without hassle.
Their network vision plan is starting to be rolled out so that will help a great deal with coverage and speeds. The decision to buy Nextel was a colossal mistake and has been an albatross around their necks for years. Once they can implement Network vision, phase out Nextel, decommission those unused and overlapping towers and repurpose the IDEN 800MHz spectrum for Sprint they might just be able to survive for many years to come. If they can survive until the end of 2013 when they will cover about 280 million Americans with LTE AND keep their competitive and unlimited plans in place, I think they could grow a lot of subscribers. Without Sprint or T-Mobile around, AT&T and Verizon would keep offering less in their plans and hike prices even more. Many people with the old unlimited data plans on AT&T are already complaining about being throttled after 2GB now, although that appears to be based on regions at the moment. Verizon has also started doing similar throttling for their top 5%. The problem with that is that after a year of reducing the top 5% you start lowering the total data use way down for all your users. What good will LTE be if you use up all that fast data they are bragging about and trying to sell you in the first week and then they throttle you for the rest of the month, or even for two months as punishment for being in the top 5%.
So once Android gutted RIM and Windows Mobile phone marketshare they began a systematic erosion of the feature phone market segment. It looks like Android has now hit the first of the plateaus in the market uptake slope. However, it seems like the iOS phones are using the Android marketshare as a gateway device. And as Android growth slows, the proof of this will become more evident as Apple does to Android what it is doing to the PC market.
Apple has demonstrated that their approach (build a customer-focussed user experience) may be the ultimate successful approach against the industry standard "build a technology that consumers can use". Android made the classic mistake of assuming that simply providing a technology to consumers would sustain market uptake, failing to recognize the eventual failure of that model in the PC marketplace. The result - the first of the plateaus in marketshare growth that marks the eventual downturn and decline in marketshare.
This is why Android, driven as it is primarily by engineers, can't get around to refining the user experience, other than by adding features or refining existing ones. Seemingly no one there is pushing the consumer-centric approach, or it is getting lost in the actual motives behind Android - drive mobile ad revenue for Google.
The carriers are slowly being moved into commodity providers like other utilities, Sprint has a narrow window in which to regain marketshare against V & A, before this impact is felt deeply.
This is an incredible insight! Thanks for sharing it!
There is a clear trend of iPhone sales increasing YoY. Of course, when talking about a single carrier things could be different, especially if Sprint has to drop their unlimited data plan in the future due to excessive smartphone usage saturation but I assume that would only come about because they are doing so well in subscriber additions and upgrades from dumb phones to smartphones.
Remember Sprint is charging an extra $10/phone for new smartphones purchased since January 2011 and before that with the Evo and other 4G phones. That's a lot of extra money and it is their selling point for why they are able to offer unlimited data. My wife and I are getting our iPhones from them today
Quote:
Originally Posted by noexpectations
Now, when the iPhone 5 comes out this year with LTE, who's going to get a Sprint iPhone then? Sprint does not have LTE....yes, they said they plan on it....but it won't be built out for several years.
You are mistaken, unless several now means 2. They have stated they will have their LTE build out nearly completed by the end of 2013. I think it was something like 90-95% of their coverage would provide 4G access.
Remember Sprint is charging an extra $10/phone for new smartphones purchased since January 2011 and before that with the Evo and other 4G phones. That's a lot of extra money and it is their selling point for why they are able to offer unlimited data. My wife and I are getting our iPhones from them today
You are mistaken, unless several now means 2. They have stated they will have their LTE build out nearly completed by the end of 2013. I think it was something like 90-95% of their coverage would provide 4G access.
Exactly. Sprint will have 6 large cities up and running by June with LTE and are on track to have 12,000 LTE enabled multimode towers by the end of this year. By the end of 2013 they are scheduled to have their entire network covering 280 million people covered with LTE. Anyone buying a Sprint iPhone 5/6 or whatever it will be called that will include LTE should be able to already have LTE in their city or will have it relatively soon. Certainly for the majority of their contract time.
Remember Sprint is charging an extra $10/phone for new smartphones purchased since January 2011 and before that with the Evo and other 4G phones. That's a lot of extra money and it is their selling point for why they are able to offer unlimited data. My wife and I are getting our iPhones from them today.
I wasn't aware they moved that $10 fee to those with 3G smartphones, too.
I did notice their broadband data speeds for non-phones aren't that cheap and are metered. $35 for 3GB/month.
I wasn't aware they moved that $10 fee to those with 3G smartphones, too.
I did notice their broadband data speeds for non-phones aren't that cheap and are metered. $35 for 3GB/month.
Yeah they started the $10 fee for just the EVO and the next 4G phone, then they made the decision to add the $10 fee to all new smartphones purchased on Sprint
Now, when the iPhone 5 comes out this year with LTE, who's going to get a Sprint iPhone then? Sprint does not have LTE....yes, they said they plan on it....but it won't be built out for several years.
Kansas City, Baltimore, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, and Atlanta all go LTE for Sprint in April/May time frame of this year.
No doubt Apple has told AT&T, Sprint and Verizon if LTE is coming for iPhone5, so I would expect all carriers to be VERY aggressive with deployments over the next few months to get up to speed.
Comments
Android made the classic mistake of assuming that simply providing a technology to consumers would sustain market uptake, failing to recognize the eventual failure of that model in the PC marketplace.
I'm not sure what you mean by that. Can you give examples?
Good for them. The iPhone needs to be on even more carriers. How many people are buying Android because they can't buy an iPhone?
A lot more by a huge number. Despite the cheerleading of Apple fans, if you look at the big picture, globally, iOS is just a drop in the bucket.
http://mobithinking.com/mobile-marke...t-mobile-stats
A lot more by a huge number. Despite the cheerleading of Apple fans, if you look at the big picture, globally, iOS is just a drop in the bucket.
http://mobithinking.com/mobile-marke...t-mobile-stats
If you look at the big picture...
A lot more by a huge number. Despite the cheerleading of Apple fans, if you look at the big picture, globally, iOS is just a drop in the bucket.
http://mobithinking.com/mobile-marke...t-mobile-stats
You are correct. Poor, poor Apple. Only 9% of the global mobile phone market share and only 70% of global mobile phone profit share.
You are correct. Poor, poor Apple. Only 9% of the global mobile phone market share and only 70% of global mobile phone profit share.
Apple made more profit last quarter than all the profit had in the handset business a year priot. Poor, poor Apple, surely they wish they had the volume and profit of Nokia¡
The hardest misconception and stereotype Sprint had to overcome was poor customer service. That was true years ago, but for the last 2 or 3 years Sprint is ranked right up there at the top close to Verizon and ahead of AT&T. I am not saying things are perfect by any means. Many people complain about poor data speeds. Luckily I don't have that problem and average about 1.5M down and 500k up. But like any carrier, speeds vary based on location. That might not be super fast but I can browse websites quickly, use GPS, stream Pandora, Netflix, and Showtime Go, and pretty much any other data intensive app without hassle.
Their network vision plan is starting to be rolled out so that will help a great deal with coverage and speeds. The decision to buy Nextel was a colossal mistake and has been an albatross around their necks for years. Once they can implement Network vision, phase out Nextel, decommission those unused and overlapping towers and repurpose the IDEN 800MHz spectrum for Sprint they might just be able to survive for many years to come. If they can survive until the end of 2013 when they will cover about 280 million Americans with LTE AND keep their competitive and unlimited plans in place, I think they could grow a lot of subscribers. Without Sprint or T-Mobile around, AT&T and Verizon would keep offering less in their plans and hike prices even more. Many people with the old unlimited data plans on AT&T are already complaining about being throttled after 2GB now, although that appears to be based on regions at the moment. Verizon has also started doing similar throttling for their top 5%. The problem with that is that after a year of reducing the top 5% you start lowering the total data use way down for all your users. What good will LTE be if you use up all that fast data they are bragging about and trying to sell you in the first week and then they throttle you for the rest of the month, or even for two months as punishment for being in the top 5%.
So once Android gutted RIM and Windows Mobile phone marketshare they began a systematic erosion of the feature phone market segment. It looks like Android has now hit the first of the plateaus in the market uptake slope. However, it seems like the iOS phones are using the Android marketshare as a gateway device. And as Android growth slows, the proof of this will become more evident as Apple does to Android what it is doing to the PC market.
Apple has demonstrated that their approach (build a customer-focussed user experience) may be the ultimate successful approach against the industry standard "build a technology that consumers can use". Android made the classic mistake of assuming that simply providing a technology to consumers would sustain market uptake, failing to recognize the eventual failure of that model in the PC marketplace. The result - the first of the plateaus in marketshare growth that marks the eventual downturn and decline in marketshare.
This is why Android, driven as it is primarily by engineers, can't get around to refining the user experience, other than by adding features or refining existing ones. Seemingly no one there is pushing the consumer-centric approach, or it is getting lost in the actual motives behind Android - drive mobile ad revenue for Google.
The carriers are slowly being moved into commodity providers like other utilities, Sprint has a narrow window in which to regain marketshare against V & A, before this impact is felt deeply.
This is an incredible insight! Thanks for sharing it!
There is a clear trend of iPhone sales increasing YoY. Of course, when talking about a single carrier things could be different, especially if Sprint has to drop their unlimited data plan in the future due to excessive smartphone usage saturation but I assume that would only come about because they are doing so well in subscriber additions and upgrades from dumb phones to smartphones.
Remember Sprint is charging an extra $10/phone for new smartphones purchased since January 2011 and before that with the Evo and other 4G phones. That's a lot of extra money and it is their selling point for why they are able to offer unlimited data. My wife and I are getting our iPhones from them today
Now, when the iPhone 5 comes out this year with LTE, who's going to get a Sprint iPhone then? Sprint does not have LTE....yes, they said they plan on it....but it won't be built out for several years.
You are mistaken, unless several now means 2. They have stated they will have their LTE build out nearly completed by the end of 2013. I think it was something like 90-95% of their coverage would provide 4G access.
Remember Sprint is charging an extra $10/phone for new smartphones purchased since January 2011 and before that with the Evo and other 4G phones. That's a lot of extra money and it is their selling point for why they are able to offer unlimited data. My wife and I are getting our iPhones from them today
You are mistaken, unless several now means 2. They have stated they will have their LTE build out nearly completed by the end of 2013. I think it was something like 90-95% of their coverage would provide 4G access.
Exactly. Sprint will have 6 large cities up and running by June with LTE and are on track to have 12,000 LTE enabled multimode towers by the end of this year. By the end of 2013 they are scheduled to have their entire network covering 280 million people covered with LTE. Anyone buying a Sprint iPhone 5/6 or whatever it will be called that will include LTE should be able to already have LTE in their city or will have it relatively soon. Certainly for the majority of their contract time.
Remember Sprint is charging an extra $10/phone for new smartphones purchased since January 2011 and before that with the Evo and other 4G phones. That's a lot of extra money and it is their selling point for why they are able to offer unlimited data. My wife and I are getting our iPhones from them today.
I wasn't aware they moved that $10 fee to those with 3G smartphones, too.
I did notice their broadband data speeds for non-phones aren't that cheap and are metered. $35 for 3GB/month.
I wasn't aware they moved that $10 fee to those with 3G smartphones, too.
I did notice their broadband data speeds for non-phones aren't that cheap and are metered. $35 for 3GB/month.
Yeah they started the $10 fee for just the EVO and the next 4G phone, then they made the decision to add the $10 fee to all new smartphones purchased on Sprint
30 million - 1.8 million = 28.2 million. Oh boy.
Now, when the iPhone 5 comes out this year with LTE, who's going to get a Sprint iPhone then? Sprint does not have LTE....yes, they said they plan on it....but it won't be built out for several years.
Kansas City, Baltimore, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, and Atlanta all go LTE for Sprint in April/May time frame of this year.
No doubt Apple has told AT&T, Sprint and Verizon if LTE is coming for iPhone5, so I would expect all carriers to be VERY aggressive with deployments over the next few months to get up to speed.