Sprint Dropped the Ball!

[Edaze55]

best buy ran an ad that let me get mine as a reward member two days early with a instant 100 rebate. I agree Sprint + Hero makes a solid and affordable phone/plan.

Best Buy ran no such ad. The EMAIL that SOME reward zone members received for this didnt hit my inbox until the 7th? I believe, at 7:45(ish) pm. It wasnt really advertised anywhere, not by BB, not by Sprint. The only places I saw it talked about were on specific android forums.

I am not however one of the iZombies that flock mindlessly at the scent of anything Apple related.

Sorry, I wasnt trying to imply you yourself were an Apple fanboi.

Rather that the Apple spin is this. We cost more, because we have "better" or "supieror" craftsmanship, and everyone knows you get what you pay for. Which is total BS when you look at what you are getting with a Macbook Pro (for example). Same hardware on a PC based notebook is easily hundreds less. Unless of course you by into the notion that Apple has special Intel chips that are leaps and bounds better than the ones in PCs. Apply that same logic to video cards and memory as well. So while they are great at marketing, they are also great at the whole snowjob that they have overall better products.

Thats not to say the OS isnt better than Windows, or that they dont create some decent items (iPods, iTouch) but they ride that gravy train into the ground, add some much needed feature they left out, and hype it to the point some people actually think its justified to replace the old iWhatever for the new and improved iWhatever+(insert random letters here).

Anyways, yes, Sprint really should have spent some money to inform the general public about the HTC Hero and/or Android itself. Sadly, that window is all but gone now, as it would look like a pathetic attempt to "beat" VZ to the punch.

 

[shadrap]

I went with a buddy to pick up a Hero today at Best Buy. No accessories are available, nor is their even a display out. The only way for people to know the phone exist is to see it on the Sprint site, in forums, or from a bystander. I guess they are waiting to debut the Palm Pixie,lol. I mean they have no other phone for consumers to be excited about for the rest of the year.

Sprint, needs to take some cues from apple. Like hire tech geeks, who love devices and the possibilities. Actually force them to use the devices and others to know what they are talking about, how to market it, and where the future is.

 

[noonehereyet]

Is it just me or did Sprint drop the ball on the HTC Hero? I have not seen any ads or marketing whatsoever. I am a self proclaimed phone expert lol jk.

But seriously, my last phones list like this Sprint: Samsung Instinct, Blackberry Curve, LG Lotus, Palm Pre, AT&T iPhone, and now my Sprint Hero. I am saying with 100% confidence the Hero is the best all around phone, with the most possibilities, on the best network. The only place the Hero is lacking is in the camera department.

I left the iPhone for the Hero and I am not looking back. What the Hero looses in speed, which most people will not notice. It easily makes up for in customization. So, why in the heck has Sprint failed to market the best phone they have ever had on their network?

I am not completely promoting the phone to help Sprint. I am promoting the phone to make sure Sprint keeps it updated and that we get support, accessories etc...

For example watch TV, do you see all the tmobile commercials for the My Touch.

Yes, your right they haven't publicized is at all but neither did tmobile with their first android phone the G1.... NEVER saw commercials or bill boards or anything of the sort... still don't..... maybe it's cause its their first android phone and a test bed for the platform or maybe they are just following tmobiles lead on this as their methods for android phones worked well by introducing with one then pounding the crap out of the second one....

 

[Edaze55]

I went with a buddy to pick up a Hero today at Best Buy. No accessories are available, nor is their even a display out. The only way for people to know the phone exist is to see it on the Sprint site, in forums, or from a bystander. I guess they are waiting to debut the Palm Pixie,lol. I mean they have no other phone for consumers to be excited about for the rest of the year.

Sprint, needs to take some cues from apple. Like hire tech geeks, who love devices and the possibilities. Actually force them to use the devices and others to know what they are talking about, how to market it, and where the future is.

I dont know which Sprint store you went to, but the Sprint store near me had one on display.

Limited accessories. It actually looked like they bought gel cases right off of ebay and repackaged them. This was just a few days after the offical release.

The Pixie isnt worth getting excited about, but you seemed to forget they also have the Samsun Moment coming out November 1st. It's a Droid, so its worth a little excitement. I wouldnt rate it higher than the Hero though.

 

[shadrap]

Yes, your right they haven't publicized is at all but neither did tmobile with their first android phone the G1.... NEVER saw commercials or bill boards or anything of the sort... still don't..... maybe it's cause its their first android phone and a test bed for the platform or maybe they are just following tmobiles lead on this as their methods for android phones worked well by introducing with one then pounding the crap out of the second one....

I hope you are right. That sure is not the stance they had on the Palm Pre, but we have seen how that worked out for them. I just hope they realize that Android is the future. I would love to see them come out with a HTC Hero 2 with a 1ghz chip, running android 2.0. With the number of android phones coming out the Android Market will take off and will be a contender with the app store by Q4 of 2010.

 

[Edaze55]

I hope you are right. That sure is not the stance they had on the Palm Pre, but we have seen how that worked out for them. I just hope they realize that Android is the future. I would love to see them come out with a HTC Hero 2 with a 1ghz chip, running android 2.0. With the number of android phones coming out the Android Market will take off and will be a contender with the app store by Q4 of 2010.

That would be the HTC Dragon. Not sure whos going to get it, but it sports a 1gHz chip. Depending on when it drops, it could ship with Eclair. Not sure about Sense though.

 

[zerotohero]

That would be the HTC Dragon. Not sure whos going to get it, but it sports a 1gHz chip. Depending on when it drops, it could ship with Eclair. Not sure about Sense though.

The more I think about it the more I am leaning to keeping my Hero for the foreseeable future.

The reason being is that the Droid is simply ugly! Yeah its got better hardware, but I don't feel like going through the trouble of canceling my Sprint contract, going to Verizon and opening up a new one.....only to find that there will probably be similiar issues that plague the launch of the Droid.

The mythical HTC Dragon is still just just that...a myth, but what really gets me geeked up for a new phone is the Sony Xperia X3!!!! The specs on that handset are mind blowing. What a beast!

If Sprint can get that device state side I'll be the first in line to pick one up. If they want to one up the Droid that is the device they should be targeting!

 

[quentinfisher]

Notice how a majority of Sprint smartphones are either Palm based, or HTC/WinMo based with the typical general blackberry releases to please their fans. I think Sprint is going to stick to this set up for a long time, as it appeals to their business consumers. That's not to say Sprint isn't appealing to non-business types, their line-up of phones has improved greatly this last year, but their main focus group as always been business-oriented people. Android just doesn't have the productivity appeal out of the box that many other devices do, so I can see why it wouldn't be Sprint's main target.

 

[Edaze55]

so I can see why it wouldn't be Sprint's main target.

Because if you never change your business model to adapt to current needs or trends, you wont stay in business for long. Sprint hasnt exactly been doing well under their old business model.