Sprint sent out a press release this morning regarding the “whyphone” and how it won’t meet the needs of the mobile community. Based on the needs of many business users it is already speculated that the iPhone won’t meet many business users needs so it is interesting to see one of the early barrages against the lofty iPhone.
‘whyPhone’ Raises Questions
Sprint has heard lately about something that sounds something like a “whyPhone.” As of June 26, 2007, the whyPhone is still not available, but from initial details and speculation, it appears that the whyPhone may not have the right answers for many mobile customers who are looking for value, variety and speed.
For more about the latest in Sprint’s mobile offerings, see below.
The rest of the press release and Sprint’s offerings.
You Really need to read the whyPhone fact sheet(pdf) it is funny, to the point, and well done.
I think this is a good example of what other companies should do regarding the iPhone release. Currently the other wireless carriers seem to be sitting back and waiting before they even announce new phones. Verizon Wireless is especially guilty of waiting until the iPhone release to even mention its upcoming devices. While it can be reasoned that their product announcement would be overshadowed by the iPhone it is shortsighted to think that keeping mum will help retain customers. One other reason Verizon is mum on the new phone releases is that it does not want the upcoming release to keep any customer from re-upping their contract and handset before the end of the 2nd quarter. Unfortunately the powers that be at Verizon think that holding off will benefit their iPhone Killer and the rest of their lineup.
Delaying the release or even the announcement past the iPhone release date will lead to lost customers heading to the iPhone, especially with the current look of nothing in Verizon’s pipeline. The other issue is that even if Verizon rolls out an amazing iPhone killer they have already raised it’s price ~$175 to those who just signed up with A T&T in June. If Verizon wants to hold on to as many subscribers as possible it should at the very least announce and make known what it has coming, and likely tout the lower price and business compatibilities of the phone. If Verizon looses out in late Q2 early Q3 the fault lies solely with the decision to hold off on even enticing its consumers to stay with the promise of awesome gadgetry, for the shortsighted goal of selling one or two extra 29.99 phones. Shame Shame.
1 response so far ↓
1 BAD // Oct 26, 2007 at 7:20 pm
I don’t think that Sprint or any other carrier should be bashing the iPhone. I am a Sprint user and I’m intrigued by the phone and it’s features. I think instead of the phone carriers making light of the iPhone they should be working on gettint it themselves or creating something better. It only makes them look bad to make comments. Obviously from talking to people and using the phone itself it had made people drop there current carriers and phones to run to get one.
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