detroitkruk
01-09-2005, 08:15 PM
It's important to understand that both the act of Sprint limping onto the Blackberry field and their roll-out of Direct Connect have NOTHING to do with feature enrichment or service expansion.
These were both pre-requisites put forth in the terms of their Nextel aquisition. They had to roll-out and demsonstrate their ability to offer both of these services on their network before instigating the "merger of equals". Direct Connect is obvious, Nextel wouldn't even open a proposal from a company that couldn't accomodate the cornerstone function of their brand. The Blackberry facet, is a bit less obvious but no less important considering the impressive move Nextel made towards the PDA/Smartphone market share beginning in Q1 of 2004. And you'll notice they REALLY slipped that in close to the deadline. Sprint Blackberry's were a phantom up to just a week or two before the merger announcement.
Sprint could care less if any of us want, need or would "just like to have" a Blackberry. The use of Blackberry's on the Sprint network will remain a "super premium" service, the unapproachable cost of which will keep the prospect of ownership way off the radar of pro-sumers and most certainly the casual users. Only those with bags of money or corporate subsidies will be able to get in line for a Sprint Blackberry.
And what is it that we want? What is this elegant, sweet function that we are all so enthralled by... PUSH. There it is. Perfect. Sweet. Your email comes to your phone as it is sent. Beautiful.
Sprint knows what they did. They missed the boat. While they were rolling out their picture phones and WAP enslaved "Vision" services, the rest of the wireless brands were working on offering their customers the one and only thing that really works on the Internet, the thing that above all else has truly become a "utility" on par with the telephone and running water: EMAIL.
My motivation for writing this is simple frustration. I feel that Sprint is as close to a perfect wireless provider as the world has seen; dollar for dollar the lowest cost of ownership, lowest usage cost and the most reasonable data offering anywhere. But they're just off. Just a little bit.
Sprint: Bring us phones with more robust software, even at the most entry level price points. Forget your fumbling of the SMS and PUSH technologies. We'll forgive you. Before the SEC gives you the thumbs up on the Nextel merger and all your attention is thus directed, close a deal with RIM for a Blackberry software client. And, do us a favor, off it to us at a reasonable price.
If not, we have Marc Blank, the Patron Saint of Treo PUSH... Bless you.
detroitkruk
These were both pre-requisites put forth in the terms of their Nextel aquisition. They had to roll-out and demsonstrate their ability to offer both of these services on their network before instigating the "merger of equals". Direct Connect is obvious, Nextel wouldn't even open a proposal from a company that couldn't accomodate the cornerstone function of their brand. The Blackberry facet, is a bit less obvious but no less important considering the impressive move Nextel made towards the PDA/Smartphone market share beginning in Q1 of 2004. And you'll notice they REALLY slipped that in close to the deadline. Sprint Blackberry's were a phantom up to just a week or two before the merger announcement.
Sprint could care less if any of us want, need or would "just like to have" a Blackberry. The use of Blackberry's on the Sprint network will remain a "super premium" service, the unapproachable cost of which will keep the prospect of ownership way off the radar of pro-sumers and most certainly the casual users. Only those with bags of money or corporate subsidies will be able to get in line for a Sprint Blackberry.
And what is it that we want? What is this elegant, sweet function that we are all so enthralled by... PUSH. There it is. Perfect. Sweet. Your email comes to your phone as it is sent. Beautiful.
Sprint knows what they did. They missed the boat. While they were rolling out their picture phones and WAP enslaved "Vision" services, the rest of the wireless brands were working on offering their customers the one and only thing that really works on the Internet, the thing that above all else has truly become a "utility" on par with the telephone and running water: EMAIL.
My motivation for writing this is simple frustration. I feel that Sprint is as close to a perfect wireless provider as the world has seen; dollar for dollar the lowest cost of ownership, lowest usage cost and the most reasonable data offering anywhere. But they're just off. Just a little bit.
Sprint: Bring us phones with more robust software, even at the most entry level price points. Forget your fumbling of the SMS and PUSH technologies. We'll forgive you. Before the SEC gives you the thumbs up on the Nextel merger and all your attention is thus directed, close a deal with RIM for a Blackberry software client. And, do us a favor, off it to us at a reasonable price.
If not, we have Marc Blank, the Patron Saint of Treo PUSH... Bless you.
detroitkruk