Strategic Perspectives
Thanks quasijedi,
Guess what. I'm not surprised by your turn-off from lack of PTT. ;^)
Thanks for the other feedback as well.
Russ
Do not treat this phone like the Instinct. Spend less money(WHOLE LOT LESS) on Marketing. Spend that extra money on support and Customer Service Training before it comes out. Let your Customer Service and Techs have the phones first. So when someone calls in, they would have at least an idea of what someone was talking about.
In order to be taken seriously as a PDA for business use, I believe that the PDA will need to provide both CDMA and GSM capability as there are a lot of business people that travel abroad. Will the Pre have CDMA+GSM capability?
CellGeek:
In a word: no. Sprint's version will be CDMA only. Palm is, however, developing a GSM variant to launch worldwide approximately 3-6 months after Sprint debuts the handset. To my knowledge, there is no development (yet) of a CDMA/GSM variant (aka a true world phone).
That is the problem for both Verizon and Sprint. A lot of business executives are forced to go with ATT because they need phones that will function in the USA and abroad. Both Sprint and Verizon provide these folks with very few wordphone options. Sprint only offers two world-phone PDA. Kudos to Verizon for offering another Worldphone in the Storm. Where is Sprint's new Worldphone? Please tell us Sprint; when will we get another Blackberry that is a worldphone?
Nextel had a worldphone (2 of them actually): the first was the i2000 plus; the more recent was the i930. Neither is offered any longer, and neither could really be considered a smartphone by any means.
Still, Nextel knew that a true woldphone was something that their business customers wanted and needed. The downfall for Nextel was that they offered only a few (2) phones to solve that problem. Sprint should offer more (far more), but they don't. I don't know if this is merely an oversight, or if Sprint simply doesn't feel that there is a strong need. Personally, I think Sprint is so focused on the consumer end, that they've completely ignored the business end...and that's why they've experienced the problems that we've seen in churn, lower ARPU, and customer losses over the past 3-4 years that we have seen.
I firmly believe that focusing on the business side will slowly, but ultimately allow customers to follow. So, if you reign in a strong business base of customers, that will eventually cause a strong consumer base of customers to develop. And, as you suggested, one way to retain as well as obtain new business customers is to offer a dual-mode worldphone. Whether the phone is an iDEN/GSM or a CDMA/GSM doesn't really matter...just offer more of them. Personally, I think offering at least 3 per network would be a good thing, but the more, the merrier.
I totally agree that we need credible worldphones in our portfolio to meet the needs of multinational business customers,
However, I question the logic that a phone needs to be a worldphone to be considered a serious business device. Most businesses are NOT multinational, and even for multinational companies, the vast majority of employees never travel to another country. Yes, we need worldphones that the relatively small number of globe-trotting employees/executives will want to carry, but it doesn't make sense to burden every phone that other employees may use with both CDMA and GSM requirements (bill of materials cost, complexity, power needs, etc.).
I hear you on the need for credible worldphones, but don't write off the Pre as a business device just because it's CDMA only.
I'm not against the Pre being a business phone, but I will admit that I am having a difficult time seeing it as such. Then again, perhaps this is why Sprint has chosen to hold off the launch of the new Palm Treo Pro that was supposed to launch last month.
I guess, to me, the Palm Pre has a look that is anti-business, and as such wouldn't qualify as a smartphone for business. To me, the Pre (like the iPhone) is a smartphone for non-business users.
The point I was trying to convey (and I probably did a poor job of it earlier) was that Nextel did to wireless what AT&T did to landlines: target business customers first and establish yourself as THE network for business. After that, those business users will eventually decide to adopt the same network provider as their personal network provider...just like AT&T initially targeted businesses for long distance landlines, and then branched out afterwards to target the consumers for long distance. Same tactic, and if we look at the numbers up to the mergers that involved each version, similar outcomes: great growth that ushered in newer customers by first targeting the businesses first.
Can the Palm Pre do that? As I said, to me, the Pre isn't what I would expect a business smartphone to look like. But hey, I've been wrong about a few things, I wouldn't be disappointed if I was wrong about the Pre.
The Pre is not designed to be a business phone exclusively in my opinion. It is designed to have all of the capabilities of a business phone but be able to easily be used and have an aesthetic look about it that will appeal to a wide audience.
It has all of the capabilities for calendars/contacts/email that a Windows or Blackberry device has, but its is easier to use like the Palm OS was that the average person won't have to take 3 months to learn it, it will only take a few days like any other phone.
It is not trying to be a business-centric device in my opinion, otherwise it would have the Treo branding that Palm has always used for the business phones. It is going for a different audience.
Treo for business.
Centro for casual users.
Pre for the middle ground.
Pre for the people who need the full business use but want to easily be able to take care of their personal life on the same device without having to so through hoops to get it all synced and sorted.
I disagree, Kevin. I think that the Palm Pre is taking the place of the Centro. And that the Treo name will be dropped and all we'll see is the Palm Pro. So Palm will end up having 2 device types: Pre and Pro. So, to me, the Pre is essentially a highly polished Centro.
What bothers me most about all of these new devices is this: the sheer lack of PTT. Why are these new devices being launched without PTT? If it's on CDMA, it should have Q-chat. There really is no excuse not to. This company has invested in Q-chat, so why not start to reap the benefits of economies of scale by making all future CDMA handset launches have Q-chat? Whether people use it or not should not be a concern. Because at least you give the person an option. Imagine the adopt rate that the Instinct would have had HAD it been equipped with Q-chat. After all, both the Instinct and the Palm Pre use CDMA's EVDO rev A, so there really is no reason to not have included it. Is it really that hard to have an additional button added into the form-factor of these handsets?!?
Gold Expert
says:
Sorry Russ, but I'm not as enthusiastic as others (like yourself) are with regards to the Pal Pre. To me, the thing is an overly glorified HTC Touch (the original, not the new one), but with possibly a better OS. The fact that it lacks PTT totally turns me off.
Furthermore, the OS really isn't as impressive as people hype it up to be. Apple has had such an OS for decades now. Even Google's Android is pretty much there as well. So for Palm to jump on the bandwagon is not really all that impressive.
As for the phone itself, I suppose it could launch to quite a bit of fanfare. But how to ensure that? Well, simply put it in a commercial of two where the phone is actually being used in real world situations (none of the fantasy that was done for the Instinct). See the AT&T commercials on the LG Shine or any of those for the iPhone for an example of what I'm referring to. That alone should generate positive buzz about the phone. Then it's up to Sprint and Palm to set a good price point. Sorry, but the cache that Palm has today is about as bad as that of Sprint's, so a price entry point couldn't and shouldn't be higher than $99.99. Of course, that assumes you WANT the phone to actually sell. If you don't, then price it higher.
Personally, if I was the type to be in the market for such a phone, then I would seriously suggest that Sprint packaget the Pre with the TouchStone charging system. Even I can admit that such a move would be a complete win/win for Sprint if it convinced Palm to package all Sprint Palm Pre's with the TouchStone charging unit. Alas, Palm appears already on record as choosing to NOT do that. Ah well...