What Do You Think About Sprint's "BIG" Industry First Announcement?

[lordofthereef]

SO what do you all think about Sprint's industry first announcement?

Sprint Newsroom | Kyocera Echo

Sprint's Kyocera Echo dual-screen Android phone announced, we go hands-on -- Engadget

Seeing double: Sprint unveils Kyocera Echo with dual touch screens

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHqDzvlzCXU&feature=player_embedded

 

[lordofthereef]

I'll start. I can't remember when I was let-down this badly or something was this over-hyped. Why did this stupid thing need a special announcement. Sprint should quit wasting their money on events like this and just give smartphone owners a break on a bill. A Nickel off one bill would have been better than this for me...

 

[marctronixx]

lord , now you are cool with me bro.. so dont take this personal like.. ...

however, in all fairness, you let yourself down. sprint didnt say, "hey this phone will revolutionize dentistry..." or some such. they only said it will be an industry first.. they pulled it off.. no more.. no less..

lots of members here are hungry for a new EVO replacement.. and they were hoping this would be it.. i understand how some of the members are let down.. its akin to a blind date.. you hear the voice of the blind date over the phone and it sounds oooooh so good.. the person MUST be fine right?? well when you meet her (or him) finally in person they are NOT what their voice sounds like.....

i have an unused line on my account.. i just may purchase it for ghits and srins... ;-)

 

[RoboMonkey]

No 4G, $10 premium charge, and $200 gimmick = Virgin not Sprint.
But with the proper Nintendo DS emulator it could be a huge hit.
I'd buy one for my kid.

 

[ewarren29]

what was the news from the world congress today?

 

[BlackDynamite]

So AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile all announce several awesome new devices.

Sprint responds by calling a much hyped, invitation only event. Sprint also claimed it would be an industry first, generating even more hype.

I have seen people speculating that Sprint would announce an iPhone. Others said they would announce a massive network upgrade. Others speculated that Sprint would start activating unlocked devices. There were lots of rumors about a dual core, and even a glasses free 3D device.

So what was it in the end? Kyocera's latest and greatest flip phone. No 4G, no front facing camera. Just a flip phone that happens to be running Android.

It has dual screens, but you can't use that feature on 3rd party apps.

And best of all, it won't be available until Spring.

Has there ever been a bigger failure by any carrier, ever?

 

[tripwire's_hero]

A failure on almost every technical level. It's like an industrial design thesis project brought to life before due-diligence proved it out.

to think I was staying with sprint for this announcement, hoping it would be a device worth having... OH WELL, off to one of the other carriers who introduced a slate of mulitple 4G phones running the next gen android OS!

 

[MissJennell]

So AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile all announce several awesome new devices.

Sprint responds by calling a much hyped, invitation only event. Sprint also claimed it would be an industry first, generating even more hype.

I have seen people speculating that Sprint would announce an iPhone. Others said they would announce a massive network upgrade. Others speculated that Sprint would start activating unlocked devices. There were lots of rumors about a dual core, and even a glasses free 3D device.

So what was it in the end? Kyocera's latest and greatest flip phone. No 4G, no front facing camera. Just a flip phone that happens to be running Android.

It has dual screens, but you can't use that feature on 3rd party apps.

And best of all, it won't be available until Spring.

Has there ever been a bigger failure by any carrier, ever?

It was only hyped up by people of the forums and not by Sprint. The people who are amazingly let down and disappointed are because of how much they hyped it up in their own mind. Sprint doesn't announce at CES. They announce at CTIA. In March.

 

[dbpaddler]

Sprint is even more lame than the Echo. Cheers to fragmentation. Hopfully HP/Palm can give us something to look forward to. I like Android, but I'd drop it in a heartbeat with QuickOffice hopping on board with doc editing. Give me seamless google voice nd I'd be fairly happy.

 

[dan330]

Well ..I am glad I gave my evo..
Waiting for summer release of the real evo 2

 

[Whiskeypawz]

I still have a few months left on my contract before I have the option to bail. I don't feel like paying ETFs. GRRRRRRR SPRINT!!!!! GRRR You for giving us hope that you'd finally pulled your head out of your....uh, you know! I'm ok with waiting til Spring as long as I know there's something worth waiting for.
Marc I LOVED your blind date analogy! That's exactly how I feel right now! Only I'm feeling more like my friends hyped him up to be Brad Pitt & I got Paul Reubens!

 

[JMac202]

lord , now you are cool with me bro.. so dont take this personal like.. ...

however, in all fairness, you let yourself down. sprint didnt say, "hey this phone will revolutionize dentistry..." or some such. they only said it will be an industry first.. they pulled it off.. no more.. no less..

lots of members here are hungry for a new EVO replacement.. and they were hoping this would be it.. i understand how some of the members are let down.. its akin to a blind date.. you hear the voice of the blind date over the phone and it sounds oooooh so good.. the person MUST be fine right?? well when you meet her (or him) finally in person they are NOT what their voice sounds like.....

i have an unused line on my account.. i just may purchase it for ghits and srins... ;-)

I disagree. Sprint put out the press release for a wireless industry first. They were vague as can be to build up hype. Which is about the only thing they did right. Releasing this phone at this event was an epic disappointment in my eyes on Sprint's behalf. They know nothing about what the consumer wants. This phone will not out sell much of anything. While Sprint totes this thing around Verizon is dropping the iPhone and thunderbolt to their customers and AT&T is releasing the Atrix.

Sprint is so out of touch and the disappointment is squarely on their shoulders for this. They built up the hype. They rolled this "Cheap"ocera phone out and shit in everyones faces.

 

[ewarren29]

Nevermind congress hasn't started yet. Thought I saw somewhere that Sprint was making breaking news on Feb. 7 th . Must have been mistaken.

 

[BlackDynamite]

It was only hyped up by people of the forums and not by Sprint. The people who are amazingly let down and disappointed are because of how much they hyped it up in their own mind. Sprint doesn't announce at CES. They announce at CTIA. In March.

It was hyped up by the people of the forums because Sprint sent their fancy invitation (touting an industry first and the impossible being possible) to the forum admins.

 

[marctronixx]

u certainly have your right to do so sir/maam...

I disagree....

 

[dbpaddler]

Ummm....the Echo. Google it or just go to engadget. It's quite lame. Sprint needs a heavily mfg tweaked dual screen non dual core android handset like it needs more debt and subscriber loss.

 

[deggy]

So much for going to Sprint in May. I felt that was really lame by Sprint.

 

[lordofthereef]

lord , now you are cool with me bro.. so dont take this personal like.. ...

however, in all fairness, you let yourself down. sprint didnt say, "hey this phone will revolutionize dentistry..." or some such. they only said it will be an industry first.. they pulled it off.. no more.. no less..

lots of members here are hungry for a new EVO replacement.. and they were hoping this would be it.. i understand how some of the members are let down.. its akin to a blind date.. you hear the voice of the blind date over the phone and it sounds oooooh so good.. the person MUST be fine right?? well when you meet her (or him) finally in person they are NOT what their voice sounds like.....

i have an unused line on my account.. i just may purchase it for ghits and srins... ;-)

No hard feelings bud, but if we are playing semantics, we can have sprint package your phone with a free cat poop with no less than 50 grains of litter stuck to it guaranteed fresh... this would also be an industry first I think. My point is, while it was an industry first, it certainly wasn't worth hyping like they did. IMO they did more harm than good to themselves by hyping this product.

To those saying this was a media only event, I don't really know how to respond. Sprint knows the media is going to blog/report about it like no other. They ordered a freakinh magician there. Guess what? I am betting the magician was mor eexciting to most of the people there than the announcement. THE SIDESHOW was better than the MAIN EVENT.

 

[BlackDynamite]

Sprint said they would show something we thought was impossible. They failed.

 

[lordofthereef]

So much for going to Sprint in May. I felt that was really lame by Sprint.

I'd still keep an eye out. This certainly doesn't equate to there being no EVO successor in the works.

 

[CriticalCritic]

This thing is AWESOME! It's like you can type on the bottom part, but see what you are typing on the other!
I can't believe it! I bet we are just around the corner from seeing a phone that can do this, expect slide instead of flip!
Can you imagine? The future phones turning this typing surface into an even MORE practical design by changing the flat surface into one with some texture? Almost like adding "physical keys"? Can you imagine? Physical keys?
Seriously though... This thing just has a ruined keyboard and will be the most fragile smartphone on the market.

 

[lordofthereef]

It was only hyped up by people of the forums and not by Sprint. The people who are amazingly let down and disappointed are because of how much they hyped it up in their own mind. Sprint doesn't announce at CES. They announce at CTIA. In March.

I completely disagree. If they didn't want hype, they wouldn't have announced anything... at all. Turns out it probably would have been better to just throw the phone on the shelf without saying anything about it. (IMO)

 

[lordofthereef]

But with the proper Nintendo DS emulator it could be a huge hit.
I'd buy one for my kid.

Too little too late IMO. 3DS is around the corner... this thing won't emulate that.

 

[330D]

Well, I'm caught between a rock and sprint's stupidity.... My upgrade just became available. If I wait, I will lose it on April 1st. My Hero has turned (in the last month) into a rebooting battery killing pos. What to do? I have considered switching to Big (expensive) Red, but I'm not sure that is best. EVO? maybe. At least the devs support the hell out of HTC devices... I'm lost, and really quite mad at how Sprint totally dropped the ball this time. I know that they usually announce the newest and best at ctia, but my upgrade will be gone by then. I call Bull$hit!

 

[sanchez1980us]

I think its a cool device for first time Android buyers.