After a whole boatload of rumours, Twitter posts, and what not, we finally have an official release date for Palm's Pre, the phone and platform that is supposed to save Palm from a fairly certain doom. Sprint, Palm's partner announced the release date, pricing information, and plans today, with Palm's official blog following soon after.
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Member since:2005-07-08
Sprint is only bad in certain areas, here in the Northeast they have great coverage, and here in NYC I get great reception *everywhere*. Also, they have free roaming on Verizon's CDMA network on the Simply Everything plan, and Verizon's network is the best in many markets.
Carrier performance is nearly a function of geographical region in the United States, with many carriers having areas of both strong and weak coverage. AT&T's coverage (iPhone) is quite poor in many areas, and T-Mobile (Android) as well, it all depends on one's location. Sprint given some money from early adopters of the Pre might make improvements in the areas where they're weak, much as AT&T did after the iPhone's success. AT&T was widely considered to be the worst carrier when they released the iPhone, now they're considered in the middle of the pack. (Verizon is probably the best overall.)
Member since:2006-01-23
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2.) Sprint sucks. Their wireless service is the worst in the states. Their coverage sucks, their customer support is inept. Even in areas they claim coverage, often you cannot get a signal unless you are outside, in the clear, no trees / buildings. They're hemorrhaging money, users, market share, and it's for a reason. They have no compelling services. Even their plans which have consistently undercut competitors (verizon, at&t) voice / data prices have not been able to stem the tide of people from their service. It's not about the devices, either. It really is about the service.
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Where have you been using Sprint service? I've had zero problems using my EVDO-capable phone from east to west coasts, up the east coast, and through the midwest. Even towns with populations not more than 7000 people have 3G data access. Try getting that with AT&T.
Trying to keep a call or make a call seems to be typical with AT&T and we've all likely seen how iPhone users overwhelmed AT&T's network.
I'll be interested to see how the Pre does, but it's only a 6 month exclusive with Sprint anyway.
Member since:
2005-08-26
My God. Buying a Pre has to be the worst possible decision you could make for a "smartphone". Let me count the ways.
1.) Palm is in trouble. It's hemorrhaging money, it's loosing market share, it's betting the farm on (yet another) unproven in the marketplace OS.
2.) Sprint sucks. Their wireless service is the worst in the states. Their coverage sucks, their customer support is inept. Even in areas they claim coverage, often you cannot get a signal unless you are outside, in the clear, no trees / buildings. They're hemorrhaging money, users, market share, and it's for a reason. They have no compelling services. Even their plans which have consistently undercut competitors (verizon, at&t) voice / data prices have not been able to stem the tide of people from their service. It's not about the devices, either. It really is about the service.
So you have an unproven device, with a new OS, from a company with a piddly market share (so what? Apple pulled it off) who has paired up with the worst wireless carrier in the county (apple didn't make that mistake) to offer their device.
What part of this seems like a good idea?
I can buy a device that probably won't be supported in a year because the device manufacturer is going bust, that runs on a network that has shit coverage, run by a company that's been steadily running full-bore towards the toilet.
The one thing I can say is that Palm & Sprint are a good pair. They're both sub-par at what they claim to do. Frankly, I won't be pissing my money away on this thing while two companies are Pre(ing) that they can find some new revenue.
It's a bad investment, no matter how you slice it.