Damned shame. Sprint posts 3q'08 loss, customers flee

http://news.cnet.com/Sprint-posts-lo...3-6247549.html

Great products and services, horrible management.

I don't think this was Dan Hesse's fault and I don't envy him at all, as
he has a seemingly impossible goal, to get Sprint back on track.

I blame this on Gary Forsee and the Nextel merger.

--
Steve Sobol, Victorville, California, USA
It's all fun and games until someone starts a bonfire in the living room.

---

› See More: Damned shame. Sprint posts 3q'08 loss, customers flee

At 07 Nov 2008 19:08:39 +0000 Steve Sobol wrote:
> http://news.cnet.com/Sprint-posts-lo...e/2100-1036_3-
6247549.html
>
> Great products and services, horrible management.
>
> I don't think this was Dan Hesse's fault and I don't envy him at all, as
> he has a seemingly impossible goal, to get Sprint back on track.
>
> I blame this on Gary Forsee and the Nextel merger.


Agreed on all points. I'm still hoping Hesse turns it around.

At 07 Nov 2008 19:08:39 +0000 Steve Sobol wrote:
> http://news.cnet.com/Sprint-posts-lo...e/2100-1036_3-
> 6247549.html
>
> Great products and services, horrible management.
>
> I don't think this was Dan Hesse's fault and I don't envy him at all, as
> he has a seemingly impossible goal, to get Sprint back on track.
>
> I blame this on Gary Forsee and the Nextel merger.



Agreed on all points. I'm still hoping Hesse turns it around.

I will use the Samsung Instinct as a tool to help explain why Sprint is
doing so horrible. For months this phone was given the title, The Iphone
Killer. We as customers were dying to get our hands on this so called
amazing device. Those who didn't want to use AT&T because of their dropped
calls but wanted an Iphone because of the wonderful things it can do were
relieved to find out that the Samsung Instinct would match it and maybe be
even better. Finally the phone comes out and right out of the box it was
amazing. Here's the problem. The phone has no APPS. It's been 4 months and
we haven't been able to get hardly any apps for this phone. With all the
hype going into it, no apps. What is the problem? Iphone came out and with
it thousands of apps that you can get for free or purchase for a small
amount. Why didn't the Instinct have this as well? You advertise the phone
as being an Iphone killer but all it is is a phone that wants to be an
Iphone. With no apps to put into it, it will never be better and it will
never catch up to Apple when it comes to phones. This is the problem with
Sprint. Too much talk, not enough action. It's no wonder people are fleeing
in record numbers. The only thing that could save Sprint is if it could
actually carry the Iphone. Imagine that...Sprint's service on the Iphone. It
would be a match made in heaven but unfortunately, no one cares enough for
the consumer to actually make this a reality. Maybe we need more imaginitive
people working behind the scenes at Sprint.
"Steve Sobol" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> http://news.cnet.com/Sprint-posts-lo...3-6247549.html
>
> Great products and services, horrible management.
>
> I don't think this was Dan Hesse's fault and I don't envy him at all, as
> he has a seemingly impossible goal, to get Sprint back on track.
>
> I blame this on Gary Forsee and the Nextel merger.
>
> --
> Steve Sobol, Victorville, California, USA
> It's all fun and games until someone starts a bonfire in the living room.
>

On 2008-11-09, Batista <[email protected]> wrote:
> I will use the Samsung Instinct as a tool to help explain why Sprint is
> doing so horrible.

Honestly, that's a bad example.

I got laughed at once, by a whole roomful of people, when I said Sprint's CS
was pretty good... this was a few years ago, pre-merger. But it used to be.
Uneven? Yes. My experiences between 2000 and 2004 were mostly quite positive,
but I know others had pretty bad experiences. However, at least SOME of us
had no problems with Sprint.

The major problem was the post-merger cost cutting, which moved Customer
Service offshore. And although I do customer support for a living and am
philisophically opposed to outsourcing the CSR's to Asia, I would have
probably been OK with the move had Sprint not chosen an organization that
employed dishonest, ignorant assholes that would say anything just to get
you off the phone.

It's not about the phones, for many people. Many people have the same
attitude that I do... my wife got me a new phone for my birthday and
apologized that it wasn't a BlackBerry (which was too expensive, since
we do not qualify for a discount from T-Mo right now). I said that's
OK, all I need is a phone. The iPhone is actually pretty cool, but I don't
need such a device or I might have gotten an HTC G-1 (T-Mo's "iPhone killer).




--
Steve Sobol, Victorville, California, USA
It's all fun and games until someone starts a bonfire in the living room.

At 09 Nov 2008 12:53:21 -0500 Batista wrote:
> I will use the Samsung Instinct as a tool to help explain why Sprint is
> doing so horrible. For months this phone was given the title, The Iphone
> Killer. We as customers were dying to get our hands on this so called
> amazing device. Those who didn't want to use AT&T because of their
dropped
> calls but wanted an Iphone because of the wonderful things it can do were
> relieved to find out that the Samsung Instinct would match it and maybe
be
> even better. Finally the phone comes out and right out of the box it was
> amazing. Here's the problem. The phone has no APPS. It's been 4 months
and
> we haven't been able to get hardly any apps for this phone. With all the
> hype going into it, no apps. What is the problem? Iphone came out and
with
> it thousands of apps that you can get for free or purchase for a small
> amount.

No, you're rewriting history. The iPhone did NOT have "thousands of apps"
at first. The phone was out for about a year before the app store opened
(with the introduction of the 2.0 software and the iPhone 3G.)

> Why didn't the Instinct have this as well? You advertise the phone
> as being an Iphone killer but all it is is a phone that wants to be an
> Iphone. With no apps to put into it, it will never be better and it will
> never catch up to Apple when it comes to phones.

Well, the Instinct is a phone, not a "platform." Developers tend to write
for platforms, so their products can run on a variety of models; Windows
Mobile, Palm, RIM, Java; all allow one app to run a number of compatible
phones. The iPhone, through sheer popularity, numbers, and the likelyhood
of future compatible models, is an exception to the rule, and has a huge
number of developers supporting it. The Instinct, even if it sells in
fairly good numbers, won't attract much third-party developer interest
unlessthe apps can also run on a good number of other phones.


> This is the problem with
> Sprint. Too much talk, not enough action. It's no wonder people are
fleeing
> in record numbers. The only thing that could save Sprint is if it could
> actually carry the Iphone. Imagine that...Sprint's service on the Iphone.

That wouldn't fix Sprint's CS problems- that would be a tourniquet slowing
the bleeding, that's all.


> It
> would be a match made in heaven but unfortunately, no one cares enough
for
> the consumer to actually make this a reality.

Apple apparently cared enough for its customers not to inflict Sprint CS on
them! ;-)


> Maybe we need more imaginitive
> people working behind the scenes at Sprint.


I'm sure- but they should be working on fixing Sprint's actual problems,
not distracting customers with small shiny objects like the Instinct.

On 2008-11-09, Todd Allcock <[email protected]> wrote:

> Well, the Instinct is a phone, not a "platform." Developers tend to write
> for platforms, so their products can run on a variety of models; Windows
> Mobile, Palm, RIM, Java; all allow one app to run a number of compatible
> phones. The iPhone, through sheer popularity, numbers, and the likelyhood
> of future compatible models, is an exception to the rule, and has a huge
> number of developers supporting it. The Instinct, even if it sells in
> fairly good numbers, won't attract much third-party developer interest
> unlessthe apps can also run on a good number of other phones.

Hm. Sprint non-smartphones run Java Mobile Edition. I'd be surprised if the
Instinct didn't. The only phones I can think of that wouldn't are the Palm
and Windows Mobile devices.

Apps specifically written for the Instinct? There probably were only a few
at first, in which case your assertion applies... but I'd be surprised if
there weren't plenty of J2ME apps that would run on the Instinct.

>> in record numbers. The only thing that could save Sprint is if it could
>> actually carry the Iphone. Imagine that...Sprint's service on the Iphone.
>
> That wouldn't fix Sprint's CS problems- that would be a tourniquet slowing
> the bleeding, that's all.

Agreed.



--
Steve Sobol, Victorville, California, USA
It's all fun and games until someone starts a bonfire in the living room.

At 09 Nov 2008 21:24:09 +0000 Steve Sobol wrote:
> > The Instinct, even if it sells in
> > fairly good numbers, won't attract much third-party developer interest
> > unlessthe apps can also run on a good number of other phones.
>
> Hm. Sprint non-smartphones run Java Mobile Edition. I'd be surprised if
the
> Instinct didn't.

It does, but virtually any phone runs Java. Java apps tend to be written
towards the "lowest common denominator" phone they can run on, to increase
their potential market, and are often limited in functionality by the VM's
"sandbox." I doubt very many robust Java apps will be written specifically
for the Instinct, despite the availability of an SDK.


> The only phones I can think of that wouldn't are the Palm
> and Windows Mobile devices.


I don't know about Sprint's, but AT&T and T-Mo's HTC-built WinMo phones
include a Java VM. Even so, I'd only run a Java app as a last resort, if
no "native" WinMo version is available.

> Apps specifically written for the Instinct? There probably were only a few
> at first, in which case your assertion applies... but I'd be surprised if
> there weren't plenty of J2ME apps that would run on the Instinct.


Plenty will run, but few will take full advantage of the Instinct hardware,
much like an XP or Vista PC can still run DOS apps if you really need it
to, so I understand the OP's pain. He wants iPhone-caliber apps, and is
stuck with the same stuff any RAZR or Nokia candy-bar can run.

Todd Allcock <[email protected]> wrote:

>At 09 Nov 2008 21:24:09 +0000 Steve Sobol wrote:
>> > The Instinct, even if it sells in
>> > fairly good numbers, won't attract much third-party developer interest
>> > unlessthe apps can also run on a good number of other phones.
>>
>> Hm. Sprint non-smartphones run Java Mobile Edition. I'd be surprised if
>the
>> Instinct didn't.
>
>It does, but virtually any phone runs Java. Java apps tend to be written
>towards the "lowest common denominator" phone they can run on, to increase
>their potential market, and are often limited in functionality by the VM's
>"sandbox." I doubt very many robust Java apps will be written specifically
>for the Instinct, despite the availability of an SDK.
>
>
>> The only phones I can think of that wouldn't are the Palm
>> and Windows Mobile devices.
>
>
>I don't know about Sprint's, but AT&T and T-Mo's HTC-built WinMo phones
>include a Java VM. Even so, I'd only run a Java app as a last resort, if
>no "native" WinMo version is available.

The PalmOS based Treos do run a custom version of the Java VM that was
ported to the Palm OS by IBM. Unfortunately at the end of 2007 Palm's
license for Java expired and Palm did NOT renew it. If you try and
download the Java VM from the Palm web site you'll get a message
telling you it is no longer available. It is not available on IBM's
web site either, and I can find no listing of ANY Java VM for the Palm
OS on Sun's Java web site.

I ran into this issue with the 755P I got last Christmas. In early
January I wanted to run an app. that required the Java VM - with some
help from Yahoo Search I was able to find a copy of the Java VM on the
web (BTW, if any of you are in need of the Java VM for the newer Treos
that run Palm OS 5.x, drop me a line).
>
>> Apps specifically written for the Instinct? There probably were only a few
>> at first, in which case your assertion applies... but I'd be surprised if
>> there weren't plenty of J2ME apps that would run on the Instinct.

Native apps (complied binaries for the native hardware/OS) normally
run better than apps run in a VM on any platform - no need for that
extra level of interpretation. That has been true as far back as I can
remember - even true on mainframe machines {but on the other hand
you'd be amazed how well MS-DOS 6.22 will run on a IBM Z-Series
mainframe in a IBM-PC emulator). The question is "if you need the app
and a VM one is the only thing availabe, it beats the hell out of
nothing".

>
>Plenty will run, but few will take full advantage of the Instinct hardware,
>much like an XP or Vista PC can still run DOS apps if you really need it
>to, so I understand the OP's pain. He wants iPhone-caliber apps, and is
>stuck with the same stuff any RAZR or Nokia candy-bar can run.
>
I know some people look down their nose at Microsoft but the one thing
they do that I appreciate is that, for the most part, a new version of
the OS does not leave you high and dry on application software. On my
newest machine (an AMD desktop running Windows XP Pro) I can still run
(with some minor limitations) the very first piece of IBM-PC software
I bought in 1982 - IBM's Personal Editor: yeh, I know PE makes Notepad
look like a deluxe piece of softwre, but PE is my "backwards
compatibility" benchmark. Apple, on the other hand, has marooned
their users more than once - that is why I refuse to buy or use Apple
products (and BTW their Windows software {iTunes & QuickTime} is
sooooo bad it isn't even funny).

Regards,
Bill Bowen
Sacramento, CA