Sprint deploys a common user interface, set to appear in all new phones. While it looks nice than the Verizon Wireless User Interface… you have no ability to turn it off, and go back to the manufacturer interface. Sprint now joins Verizon in taking over your ability, to control your phone’s home screen.
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I was always curious why cellular sales climbed from 2001 to 2003 and into 2004 and then over night seemed to cease almost immediately. Granted I was working for a retailer that switched carriers but if you listened to all of the sales hype the carrier should have made no difference to sales.
The blame always fell on the poor sales clerk. You can’t sell cell phones, you’re a zero, you’re not working enough. This even though sales had tanked nationwide and cellular carriers were busy taking obvious cost cutting measures.
The business tanked for a myriad of reasons. Here are a few I have thought of:
1. As cellular handsets grew in number and popularity so did the number of used handsets. This created an obvious market for used handsets. The big advantage to the used handset was that you could purchase one at a huge cost savings and activate it on your current plan often with no fee and not have to renew your contact for another year or more. This was and still is a very attracive option. Cellular companies knew this was a new competitive market as evidenced by the fees they began charging for activating a used handset when many had charged nothing before. Even with the fee customers still preferred a used handset to avoid having to renew a contract.
In my discussions with cell phone reps that visited stores I found that the cell phone industry reported its progress not in cell phone activations but in activations with NEW or RENEWED contracts. The preference of stock holders and boards of directors was always new or contract renewal business with the sale of a new handset. Keeping customers on a month to month was not considered progress oddly enough. That kind of squared with the level opf service I have come to expect from my own cellular carrier or ones that I was selling. When sales of celluar service tanked so did customer service. Aggressive sales techniques increased but once they had you were often frustrated just trying to speak to your carrier.
2. Cellular companies did a horrible job with customer service. They grew so quickly they never learned how to treat a customer fairly and with respect. The company’s entire effort was sales and marketing based. Once you had your phone you learned you couldn’t depend on the carrier for help. Sooner or later the carriers were all transferring customer service to scripted representatives in Asia and Latin America. Business that is sales and marketing based with no service or element of customer care included angers customers and eventually makes the marketplace and ugly place for customers. A place they would just as soon stay away from. I think this poor service, moreso than price, is what drove customers to the used cellular handset market.
3. The many local retailers and cellular kiosks that were once successful also lost business when the major carriers moved stores in next door or down the street.
4. It was suggested to me that because cellular technology is old by moder standards and 4G isn’t widely available people are not interested in new phones. In my view this wouldn’t bring in much new business just draw in more renewal business of current customers at the high end of the technology consumer pyramid. The vast majority of cellular customers were not, in my opinion, high tech Internet users.
5. Everyone who needed or wanted a cellular telephone had one by 2004. AFter that time it was one carrier trying to take business from another. A local rep explained this was actually one major reason for their own economic downturn.
6. Cellular service is still too expensive. Every month I get my own bill I ask myself why I need this phone I rarely use. The major reason now of course is there is no longer an option. When was the last time you saw a pay telephone? Cellular companies make pay-as-you-go phones pricey as well. Look at what some people pay to use these telephones and you will quickly ask yourself why people bother.
The cellular companies know exactly why they stopped selling as many phones as before. The product has become a commodity available at supermarket and grocery check stands. You can’t get competent help when you need it, and contracts keep you a virtual prisoner to the shoddy service. WHy would anyone in tehir right mind want to upgrade.
It’s why my wife and I still use two-way radio when we are within ten miles of each other. Quaint huh?
We all knew it was approaching, but brace yourself, the storm has made landfall. Tuesday night, Research In Motion and Verizon Wireless officially introduced the first touch-screen BlackBerry to the world: the RIM BlackBerry Storm.
Also known by its code name, BlackBerry Thunder, the Storm features a touch-sensitive display that’s unlike…
Verizon Wireless
’ decision to levy a 3-cent transaction fee for every outbound SMS message sent to its subscriber base could potentially threaten the viability of legitimate text messaging.
The possibility that an electronic device cause pilots to lose control of a plane and led to the injury of dozens of passengers is being investigated by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
Researchers are working on turning flickering LED lights into wireless access points instead of using normal electromagnetic radiation. Pointless really as the data rates are so poor.
The record lows that Sprint has hit, put the American wireless economy at a turning point.
This afternoon I was listening at home to marine VHF channel 16. A Coast Guard Cutter was doing buoy tender duty along the Chesapeake. Now if you have ever seen a buoy tender work it is a virtual ballet of extraordinary precision all done in the water. The Cutter uses an on board crane to raise and lower navigation buoys for maintenance or seasonal changes.
The captains of thease vessels make periodic announcements on VHF Channel 16 regarding their operations. These announcements ask that vessels leave NO WAKE. The cutters mean NO WAKE. Crane operations in progress are far more dangerous in moving water. It is expected that vessels close to the cutter will hear the broadcasts and follow the instructions of the cutter captain.
Hearing the cutter make this request reinforced in my mind the boating safety training I received early this year sponsored by the Coast Guard Auxiliary. The instructors emphasized the necessity to monitor VHF channel 16 for emergencies, navigation alerts, and weather broadcasts. Anyone that operates a boat over a certain size must have a VHF radio on board. Vessels not required to carry VHF are encouraged to do so. The reasons are quite apparent. There are going to be safety related broadcasts that you may want to hear as you operate your own craft.
Despite the cutter making periodic broacasts a motor vessel zoomed past the cutter during a crane operation. The captain of the pleasure boat received a call from the Coast Guard. One careless boater failing to excercise common sense endangered the crew of the cutter!
Do you own a boat? Do you have marine VHF on board? Are you maintaining a radio watch? Do you listen for issues close to your location that could affect your ability to navigate? When you see a buoy tender or ANY vessel of the United States Coast Guard are you giving that vessel and its crew the respect it deserves?
When you are on the water listen to VHF channel 16 and pay attention. Never conductb a radio check on channel 16. Radio checks are conducted on channel 9 the alternate calling channel. Know your boating radio regulations!
If you are a senior executive a company that accepts consumer payments, you understand that the easier you make the transaction process, the higher volume of sales you can incur.
Baltimore usually isn’t considered a technology mecca. But many people in Silicon Valley, and other high-tech centers, will be watching closely to see what happens after Sprint Nextel Corp. flips the switch on a new wireless network Monday.
Jason’s fuel gauge was stuck, and he unexpectedly ran out of gas in the middle of Wyoming, 23 miles from the nearest town. When he tried calling for help, the operator asked, “Would you like to be connected to Verizon Wireless Roadside Assistance?” Sadly, Jason said yes.
Apple’s exclusive iPhone wireless carrier AT&T said this week it’s in no hurry to begin deploying a fourth-generation wireless network, as it believes there’s two to three years of “runway” left in its current and future 3G technologies.
The underground railway in Washington DC will shortly allow mobile phones from multiple networks to be used on its services. Currently, only Verizon Wireless handsets work on the railway (since 1997), but a condition in a funding package requires that the infrastructure is opened up to any operator.
Credit card processors have finally realized what security experts have known since 2001: WEP is next to worthless as a wireless security protocol, and they’re finally going its use in credit card processing systems
—but not until mid-2010. The use of WEP was a major factor in the largest consumer data theft ever.
A professor in Brazil is helping to bring solar powered wireless internet to communities in need. The low-cost “access point in a box” needs no internet connection, electricity, or assembly to function. It is being tested on lamp posts in a number of locations.
Here is a great site that you ought to read over before renewing your next cell phone contract. Had i read this before renewing mine with Cingular Wireless (now AT&T). I would have saved myself a big headache. When the buyout happened, i lost some services that i was used to getting, now i’ve got to wait till my contract expires.
Sprint Nextel has made headlines all week as it’s started lighting up its first 4G wireless network using a technology called WiMax. But what exactly is WiMax? And how does it fit into the future of wireless? Here’s a primer to help you sort it out.
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