I wonder at what point that stops working? Two years ago, VMUSA had only a few Android phones, all somewhat middling to downright crappy. But they were cheap, service was cheap, and expectations were lower.
You bring out phones at the $300 and up range, and people are less tolerant of things like no service inside a house, or data speeds measured in Kbps, or no OS upgrades or issue patches ever.
The problem for VM, the whole prepaid market has changed -- they have to release the better phones or lose customers. Both Straight Talk and T-Mobile allow customers to bring any phone -- including top of the line phones like the Galaxy S3, or the Nexus 4. Cricket has the iPhone.
I also have to think people will grow intolerant of the upgrade path. You bought a phone 6 months ago for $300, and now you want the latest Android OS? Well, here's a different $300 phone we just released with it. Your old phone is old news, regardless of the premium you paid, and they won't be upgrading it.
How long can that go on for, though? It seems it started with the Triumph. "Premium" phone for prepaid, but with some issues. They never address the issues, and roll out the Evo V. "Premium" phone for prepaid, but with some issues. They never address the issues, but hey, here's an SII instead. And eventually an SIII (do they already know the SII has issues??)
In most case, though, you can find out the issues before you buy the phone. The Triumph, for those that bought the phone on release day, had no history but that seems to be more of an exception. If you wanted to know the problems of the Evo V, you just had to look at the threads on the Evo 3D forum. If you want to see the problems with the Galaxy S2, check out that forum. The problems people have complained about on VM are the same problems, overall, that Sprint users had.
Also, having more phones means that VM tech support has more options. For example, if you have a lemon of an Evo V (and have been through a few phones), VM will be able to switch you with an equivalent phone -- say the S2. This is something the postpaid mobile providers have been able to do if a phone isn't working for a customer; with more phones available it is getting to a point where VM will be able to do it as well.
Data is sort of similar. Don't like Kbps data? Here's some Wimax. Oh, don't like that Wimax won't work through a wall? Here's some LTE. What happens when people realize they don't live in one of the 7 cities that have LTE? Though this is less VM's fault, and at least it is cheaper than a Sprint contract...
People have these complaints about every mobile provider. Cell phones are in their infancy still, in most ways. Verizon has the best coverage, yet even they still have complaints in some areas about data speeds or how users can't get a signal at home or work.
AT&T has had well documented problems in several major cities about slow data, largely because they were the sole iPhone provider for a couple of years and their network was overcrowded. Lots of people still complain about them in cities like New York and San Francisco, just for two examples.
Sprint is, in some ways similar to AT&T, going through growing pains. Their slow data is from having too many subscribers combined with unlimited data. Worse, with LTE still being rolled out, they have the problem of people with top of the line LTE phones that are stuck on 3G.
And both T-Mobile and Sprint have issues as both have smaller networks, not having the coverage that Verizon and AT&T do, particularly in rural areas.
Also, neither has much in terms of LTE, yet. I'll be interesting to see where both are a year from now. Sprint has an aggressive expansion plan -- I believe they have LTE in 30 cities now (though possibly not complete coverage) and will have LTE rollout mostly complete by this time next year. T-Mobile has zero LTE -- and is just releasing their first LTE phone -- but also has aggressive plans and, if the deal to merge with MetroPCS goes through, will inherit an LTE network in many cities.
At some point peoples' expectations will grow past what VM is delivering. I wonder when they will stop the game of just generating interest by rolling out new devices? Or maybe their business model expects a lot of churn?
But, again, this is true of the entire cell phone market. In some ways it is worst with people on contract -- they get "free" (or, for top of the line, heavily discounted) phones. So they get frustrated when they have the Evo 3D but aren't eligible for an upgrade for 6 months -- especially if LTE has gone live it their city and their friends are getting 20+ Mbps (since there are few using LTE yet).
Now, admittedly, it is somewhat worse for VM currently, as they had such a poor selection before and are now starting to actually have some solid phone choices. People who bought the Evo V because it was by far the best phone, at the time, that had ever been on VM -- and now they are faced six month later with what many will think is an even better phone. And in another six months will likely be faced with even better choices, particularly as the phones will likely have LTE.
As we, as prepaid customers, adapt, we will get used to new (and better) phones coming out every six months and start to plan ahead. And, again, it isn't just VM going through this pain. In fact, for MetroPCS customers, they are not only picking up LTE, they are also changing their phone technology from CDMA to GSM in the next few years.
It is little different than any new technology. I imagine iPad owners feel a similar pain -- especially those that bought the new "latest and greatest" in June that is now inferior to the newest iPad. We saw this with computers a few years ago, when because of hard drive sizes and processor speeds, computers seemed to become obsolete within a few months. Ultimately, though, we'll enjoy have the choices even if it means we can't always afford the latest and greatest. Though, at least with prepaid, we know we can always switch and won't feel like we have to wait until we have an upgrade available on our contract.
, just needed a high end affordable phone and the Nexus turned out to be (hopefully) my jumping off point.
