Mountain View Cellphones

Sometimes the PRE screen will fade out when making a call or will flicker.  This is not a problem of the device.  This is actually a feature that is working correctly.

The reason we see this error is because a screen protector or the original protector is left on the screen.  My theory is that the screen is heat sensitive and the more you use it with a cover, somehow that heat is being saved/trapped by the cover and causing the screen to go dark.  The screen also goes dark when you put it up to your face (so you don’t dial/activate apps while on a call).  The screen protector is causing the phone sensor to behave like it’s up to your face.  Because the heat will disappate, it will return to a normal look an feel with the screen cover until you crank up some functions that heat up the phone (like talking on it). 

In conclusion:  don’t use screen protectors on the PRE.  Test them first and if you have problems after applying screen protector, then it’s the screen protector causing the problems, not the phone.

With the great launch of the PRE, we have been extremely busy in keeping up with demand. Sprint is on the right track with this product and who really wants to pay $50/month more for the PRE imitation without a keyboard.

As with any new product there are some problems.

1. When drained to much and then charged, the quarter full red battery with charging symbol appears. The unit won’t power back on, eventhough it is charged. This requires a physical reboot of the device by removing the battery.

In removing the battery, press the button on the bottom of the phone and lift up the back cover. Then run your fingers along the sides while lifting the back cover. It should pop off easily. Pull the black tab above the battery and this will release the battery from the compartment. This requires a little bit of force and often results in the battery flying out quickly. A little pressure down on the connection prongs with a pull on the tab may be more beneficial to getting battery out smoother.

After battery is removed, reinsert and replace back cover. Turn back on device and it should work.

More things to come as we learn from results.

We are launching a second store in Palo Alto and expanding out service business with PhoneMechanics.com. I have not had time to post due to all the events taking place and the stuff going on.

June 6th is the official date. We will have stock available for the customers at this time. It’s time to offer the world the Consumer Electronics Show Winner for 2009.

4/18/2009 by www.mountainviewcellphones.com

JD Powers recently awarded Sprint & Verizon a tie as the #1 network in the West.

“Highest Call Quality Performance Among Wireless Cell Phone Users in the West Region”

"Sprint has shown sequential improvement since the 2008 study, outpacing the industry average."

"Disclaimer: Sprint Nextel received the highest numerical score among wireless
service providers in the proprietary J.D. Power and Associates2009 Wireless Call
Quality Performance StudySM - Volume 1. Study based on 27,754 consumer responses
measuring five providers in the West region (AZ, CA, CO, ID, IA, MN, MT, ND, NE,
NM, NV, OR, SD, UT, WA, WY) and measures opinions of wireless users about the
call quality of their service. Proprietary study results are based on
experiences and perceptions of consumers surveyed in July - December 2008. Your
experiences may vary."

Here is a link of other Sprint Accolades.

The turnaround is clear here and the reason why PRE is launching with Sprint is indisputable.  The best phone on the best network.  We aren’t going to have the bandwidth issues ATT had and still has with the iPHONE…you will be able to surf the web at a very brisk pace (where there is 3G coverage).

1.5 years of putting back the focus to the company on a few core objectives is bearing fruit.  Stock up and soon subscriber growth will return.  Value beats out great commercials in this economic environment.

4/18/2009 by www.mountainviewcellphones.com

Opera is a common name among people who have an interest in improving their browser experience.  Opera now ships standard on windows mobile phones and will hopefully be standard on many other phones as well.  For example, the Samsung Instinct can now adopt Opera in newer updates.

Opera is great for several reasons:

1.  A full HTML experience browser with zoom in/out capabilities for a small screen.

2.  Easy access to bookmarks and management of the booksmarks.

3.  Integration of web pages with regular phone functions like dialing a number from a web search

4.  Integration of your desktop Opera experience with your phone to sync many data points

Opera provides a better browser experience overall than standard shipped web browsers on many phones.  Opera on a Blackberry far surpasses the Blackberry browser.  The best part is that it’s free for the users to use and download.

Opera can be downloaded at mini.opera.com.  Get it and your use of the web on the phone will jump dramatically.

by www.mountainviewcellphones.com

Sprint recently introduced a great loyalty and a great program for new customers.  It’s the Sprint Premier program.  This is the best program in the world for loyal customers that spend more than $69.99/month on cell phone service and families spending more than $99.99/month.

Some great advantages:

1.  Equipment upgrades for the primary line EVERY YEAR.

2.  Promos and coupons to save more.

3.  Advance notice of products and new services.

4.  Entry to special contests to win more prizes.

5.  Sprint plan optimizer to change your plan without contract extension.

This is a great deal.  A new phone every year at the lowest prices for the best and higher paying customers.  Fabulous.

This is unmatched by ATT, Verizon, and T-mobile.  In fact, I’m kind of worried as to how they are going to pay for all these new phones.

There is a small catch…you need to have a stellar payment history to qualify and have plans that are high enough.

3/19/2009 by www.moutainviewcellphones.com

It’s now very feasible and inexpensive to use your mobile phone to process credit card transactions.  This only works with Nextel, Blackberry, and Windows mobile devices, but it’s a very elegant and fast solution. 

You only require software that cost $100 for the phone and a merchant account to process credit cards.  We have great partners who can give goods rates for processing if anyone is interested.

All you need to do is activate the application, put in the credit card number, process, and you get an authorization and capture in 3 seconds.  It’s very fast. 

To improve the system, you can buy an additional portable bluetooth printer and swipe for $150.  This provides the ability to get a full swipe rate for the card (generally about 0.25% better) and print a receipt for customer right on the spot. 

This is great technology we can help your organization with.  

Lastly, with Sprint Blackberries, you pay about $20/month less than ATT and Verizon and you get GPS navigation for free.   Now, you can get where you are going and you can transact at the lowest rates.  Any questions, feel free to inquire with us.      

3/13/2009  by www.mountainviewcellphones.com

Clearwire announced their anticipated rollout of the WiMax network in the coming years.  I did some numbers to quantify the estimated population that will be covered by its roll out (beyond Portland and Baltimore).  Given the coverage maps from the website, the network areas extend beyond the city proper so I took the metropolitan area population estimates (data from Wikipedia).

Existing Markets: 10.1MM

Portland 2,000,000

Baltimore   2,600,000

Seattle  3,263,497

Honolulu  371,657

Charlotte 1,897,034

This year growth:  26.6MM

Atlanta  5,278,000

Chicago 9,500,000

Philadelphia 5,800,000

Las Vegas  1,986,146

Dallas/Ft. Worth 6,100,000

Next year growth:  35.8MM

New York  18,815,988

Boston  4,400,000

San Francisco  7,000,000

Washington DC  5,300,000

Houston 5,600,000

Now, I could be underestimating some areas, but we have about 72.6MM from Wikipedia numbers for the surrounding metropolitan areas of these cities by 2010 announced.  They have many other smaller cities already lit up from the previous Clearwire, so we can add about another 10.0MM to be generous and about another 5.0MM in yet to be announced locations, and we get about 87.6MM people covered.  This is still behind the 120MM announced by 2010, so I think there must be more cities to be announced at the end of 2009 when they have some data about their progress to see test the rate of expansion.

What’s also important to notice about their plans is that they are targeting the large regional areas for service.  For domestic business, people travel to and from these major regions so they will have cover at the destination.

Though the numbers currently don’t add up to their press release, I think the roll-out is still to early to predict.  The roll-out could be much faster if the adoption rate of the Wi-Max service was much faster than anticipated.  Given the great rates and mobility offered by this solution, it has the chance to be the sole Internet provider to many customers and to take away business from DSL service in hoards.  This is especially true for small businesses that are held captive to DSL service where cable doesn’t reach (we happen to be such an operation currently but we are not alone, we have a phone number we don’t use just for DSL service).

Provided we are in a recession/depression, a conservative roll-out plan is the wise business strategy and to match cash burn with cash flow as much as possible is reassuring.

Lastly, their balanced roll-out will be necessary to keep device manufacturers interested in providing WiMax devices.  Broadband data cards are a great first start and should be able to carry the business for 1 year, but beyond this, we should be expecting devices that leverage the new bandwidth in innovative ways…that SKYPE/Google Voice mobile phone?

3/4/2009 by www.mountainviewcellphones.com

From Wireless Week: 

 But analysts from GC Research think that Palm’s new webOS, which will premier on the Pre, is all that matters.

“Our research indicates the platform is better architected – as far as developers are concerned – than Windows, Symbian/Series 60 or BlackBerry. We believe that the platform will provide much higher performance than generally believed, and that Web developers will find it extremely easy to develop or translate their code to webOS. We believe based on technical considerations that the webOS developer community will grow quickly, turning Palm into a major contender in the smartphone space.”

My initial thesis of Palm WebOS going after the larger web development community may actually come true.  The WebOS appears to be better than anticipated and better than the IPHONE.  Go PRE go….