Source: Tom's Guide | Keywords: sprint, cellular, mobility, android | Themes: Smartphones, Business
It appears that Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO, is not sold on the whole Android epidemic. Hesse told the National Press Club in Washington that Android is “not good enough to put the Sprint brand on it.”
Although Hesse has promised to sell an Android based phone sometime in the future, he clearly believes that it is not ready for prime time. Sprint is part of an alliance of about 30 companies that all said they would support Google’s development of a mobile phone operating system. Sprint believes that its support comes through communicating the fact that it is just not ready yet. T-Mobile (USA) on the other hand has started selling the first Android based device earlier this week – the HTC G1.
According to consumer feedback in forums across the internet, the feelings seem to be mixed. Some people are leaning more towards the fact that they think Sprint should have on-boarded the G1, while an equal amount of others seem to think that the Android is clearly not ready for public usage.
Forums on many open-source community sites are showing some signs of outrage, claiming things such as:
“Android is open-source, and open-source is supported by the community. Regardless of bugs and security flaws that may arise, it will not get as much attention if it is held back – open-source relies on the community!”
A pretty strong statement in its own respect, but one has to remember that someone selling this phone needs to market it as well – and unless they market it directly to the said ‘community’ then sales would not be adequate.
Some people even suggest that Hesse may have made this decision based on the fact that a recently discovered security flaw was identified in the Android’s browser system – however this is just speculation and there is no concrete evidence to support the claims.
Nonetheless, we believe Android is a good thing and will definitely get its share of attention – only time will tell the ultimate outcome.
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Talk about old news. This article should have aired last week
another week old article huh? they're def stuck in the past.
Yeah its a week old but who cares Tom's is always accurate im willing to be a week behind if it means that the story's are well written and them make sure that there real.
Yeah its a week old but who cares Tom's is always accurate im willing to be a week behind if it means that the story's are well written and them make sure that there real.
seconded
There is a negative for cellular providers who adopt an open-source OS for their phones - they will have a much more difficult time locking down all those features and prevent users from adding their choice of applications to the phones. Currently locking and unlocking features to brand phones is one of the few things cellular providers can do to distinguish themselves in the US - how should they react if this power is taken from their grasp and they must compete solely on price and quality of their networks?
Sprint certainly couldn't survive if it had to compete based only on the quality of their network. I live in the middle of San Diego, and I have to walk outside of my condo to get a signal.
I'm leaving Sprint as soon as we have some more Android choices.
Sprint has one of the worst coverage areas here in Dallas too.
I hope they keep moving forward though. It is my understanding things have not been so great for them in the days since buying nextel.
As far as I know, and not just based on their commercials, they really were the first carrier to offer the unlimited for $99 plan that many carriers since jumped on and/or improved upon.
Also, they are one of the first who are doing the whole "configure all your stuff and show you how it works in the store" bit. Apple has done it a lot with their stuff in their stores, best buy does it...I'm not sure of many others right now though.
I'm not personally a customer of theirs...but I do hope these kind of things keep up and Sprint can stay around as another competitor.