Changes at the top: Sprint, AT&T face executive transitions
Sprint and AT&T will both soon be seeing some changes at the top of their mobile phone divisions, albeit for very different reasons.
First Sprint CEO Gary Forsee resigned his post under fire from board members, industry analysts, and consumers alike for everything from lousy customer service to losing 337,000 subscribers in the third quarter of this year to investing somewhere around $5 Billion to be the first on the block to offer WiMax. Sprint's search for a new CEO is on, and whoever takes the post has some serious work ahead of them.
It's interesting because from my perspective in the media, Sprint has really been pushing to innovate more than almost anyone over the past twelve months. They've been rolling out new handsets left and right, dropped prices for over the air music downloads to 99 cents per track, and have taken chances with new hardware designs like the UpStage (even though that one didn't work out so well). So as a guy who gets to play with all the new phones as part of his job, I've been pretty impressed with Sprint lately.
But customer service has been a sore point with many subscribers, and the rollout plan for Xohm (Sprint's WiMax venture) may be a little too aggressive given the current state of the company's flagging finances. It will be very interesting to see who comes in as CEO and what s/he does to tighten up Sprint's bottom line and their overall business strategy.
AT&T on the other hand is merrily rolling along on the heels of the iPhone launch and rumors of a bevy of cool new handsets slated for launch in the coming weeks. And their executive shakeup is less a shakeup than a passing of the torch. Stan Stigman, the President and CEO of AT&T's mobile phone wing is retiring after 42 years with the company. Reports are that Stigman will stay on board through the end of the year to assist with the transition, and Ralph de la Vega has already been named as the new President and CEO of AT&T's Mobility unit. De la Vega formerly served as Cingular's COO and President of AT&T's regional telecom and entertainment group.
Closely Related StuffSprint's going all out marketing the Samsung Instinct against the Apple iPhone. Here's the first of five smackdown videos: Instinct vs iPhone commercial 1, GPS. Part two of our hands-on look at Instinct, the new do-it-all device from Sprint and Samsung. We check out text messaging, and go behind the velvet rope at the launch party. Rock Band! Wakeboarding! Pizza! Noah got his hands on the U.S. version of the Sony Ericsson Z750a that is now equipped for the 3G network supported by AT&T. Hidden behind a new reflective clamshell design, the Z750a offers a media player, stereo Bluetooth, hidden external LED screen, and much more. Make plans to check out the Sony Ericsson Z750a in 3 flashy colors in upcoming weeks from AT&T. Noah goes hands on with the HTC Shift in this video, and learns what this CDMA version for the Sprint network can do. This ultramobile PC is a windows touchscreen device that uses Vista, and can run via WiFi or EVDO connection via Sprint. The HTC Shift also offers a Snap View interface which highlights your "day at a glance". Hello MOTO. The new Motorola phone for AT&T is the Z9, a sliderphone with a jewel like finish houses integrated GPS, a music player, video share services, and much more. Check it out behind the scenes at CTIA '08. Hands-on with the new LG Vu. Considering all it does, it's super compact and light. Touchscreen, 3G data, AT&T TV. Get inside the LG briefing room and check it out. Greetings from Milford, CT everyone. I'm on a road trip visiting family and friends here in the New Haven area, and also heading down to New York City for a few days. So the blog entries and videos will be a bit less frequent this week - but don't worry, I'm still working.
I've got the LG Vu with me so I can test out AT&T's Mobile TV service, and I've also got the Samsung t819 so I can check out T-Mobile's new 3G network. Both services are available in NYC but not yet... Could everyone's favorite MVNO be looking to merge with a less cool but bigger and badder MVNO? Could be.
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According to the Wall Street Journal (says CrunchGear), the US's #3 mobile carrier is looking to get rid of Nextel after a 2+ year marriage that didn't really do much good for them. Nextel lost almost three and a half million subscribers in '06-'07 and according to CG they're... A bunch of newspaper ads over the weekend point to the real-soon-like availability of the BlackBerry Curve 8330 on Sprint in not one, but two fabulous colors. While the ads say the CDMA Curve is "Coming Soon," Crackberry.com is taking it a step further in pointing to forum posters who claim Wed May 7th as the release date.
The ads say the 3G, GPS-enabled smartphone will cost you $179 after mail-in rebate, and with contract (two years plus data plan). But hey, you'll get your... German newspaper Spiegel's online outlet ran a story Saturday about a possible takeover in the offing that would shake up the US cell phone market in a big way. According to Spiegel Online, Deutsche Telekom - the parent company of T-Mobile Europe and T-Mobile USA - is eyeing an acquisition of Sprint, which would effectively mean the merger of the US's #3 and #4 mobile carriers.
Between Sprint Nextel's recent share price drop and the strength of the euro as compared to the dollar, DT... LG's Vu was maybe the most impressive new device shown at CTIA a month ago. While Samsung's Instinct grabbed the lion's share of the press (and not altogether undeservedly so), Vu quietly impressed me in a back-room briefing thanks to its responsive touchscreen, snappy menus, and light without feeling cheap candybar body.
Word on the street (well, Web), seems to be that the Vu CU920 has started showing up in AT&T stores a few days early. It's not official, and you... |
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