Mountain View Cellphones

7/24/2010 by mountainviewcellphones.com

Android continues to gain market share in the smartphone space. According to the Google Blog, Android is having about 160,000 activations per day. Apple Iphone sales from their quarterly report were 8.4 million.

8.4 million / 91 days in quarter = 92,308 Iphones per day.

From these two standpoints, it’s clear that the Android is outpacing IPhone 1.7:1. This is very consistent with the information in the comscore reports about market share.

This pace is only going to increase towards the favor of Android with the launch of Droid X, 4G Epic, and other Android versions on all carriers globally (Samsung and LG versions in particular).

Comscore states we have about 49.1 million smartphone users in the USA, 24.4% Apple or 11.98 million. Android had 13% or 6.3 million. Android was gaining market share at a global rate of 67,692 per day. If this was all in the USA, this gap would be closed in about 84 days, or about 3 months. However because we are comparing global figures versus US market shares, we will make a range estimate for the Android overtaking market share and the largest smartphone platform.

The minimum is 3 months (as above). We will assume that 50% of this market share gain is attributable to the USA given the large success of Android here. That would put the date of parity market share in December of 2010.

So starting January 2011, we should have parity of market share for IPhone and Android, each garnering about 25% of the market (assuming Blackberry continues to hold its share).

It’s fun how this timing is planned with the IPhone launch on other carriers rumored in 2011.

By www.mountainviewcellphones.com 10/31/2009

Happy Halloween Everyone.  I wanted to dedicate this blog to all the businesses out there losing money by not using Sprint.

Sprint has the best plans for the bottom line and the best network for the money.  Verizon and ATT customers are spending on average about 20% more per month and per year for wireless communications.  For an iPhone using company, spending is about 30-40% more for similar services.

There are several unique features that Sprint has for businesses.

Read the rest of this entry »

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.

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.      

2/16/2009  www.mountainviewcellphones.com

For the professional who uses their wireless technology for their lives.  This is the power user plan of choice.

Everything on your phone (unlimited minutes, data, email, GPS, texting, TV, radio, etc…) and 5GB usage on wireless broadband for $149.99/month.  This is a $10/month discount on the broadband wireless card ($49.99/month vs. $59.99/month regular price).  This package versus comparable packages with ATT & Verizon saves over $480/year.

This is the best deal in town, hands down.

If you think 5GB limit on wireless broadband is bad, you can read the fine print with Verizon and ATT and quickly figure out that Sprint is about 5.0x-9.0x less expensive for overages.

Here are data overages after 5GB for major data carriers.

Sprint = $0.05/MB

Verizon = $0.25/MB

ATT = $0.49/MB

For mobile broadband value.  Sprint is #1.

This is going to be a very solid device and an incremental improvement on the 800w.  The launch is delayed till March.
Here are some notable upgrades versus the 800w.

1.  Styling:  more compact and better BIGGER keys.  The new keys are definitely more impressive.

2.  3.5mm headphone jacks..so you have a better quality listening experience.

3.   A battery of 1500mAh is more impressive, yet I was hoping for the previous 1800 mAh.  These devices just need more battery life.  It’s an improvement over the 1150mAh 800W version.

4.  A great sleek touch screen.  I think this is a major change of making a digitizer and LCD rather than a touch screen alone.  This allows for the sleek impression of the phone profile.

5.  Faster 400 mhz processor in PRO versus the 333 mhz processor in the 800w.

6.  Same camera:  2MP vs. 2MP.

7.  Larger memory capacity of 32GB in MicroSD vs 8GB in 800W.

8.  Convenience keys similar: a good WiFi convenience key on the outside like the 800W.

9.  Built in GPS.

10.  Sprint One Click?  Not sure if WinMo will support this on Palm or not, but according to Sprint One Click standards, it should be on all Sprint phones, so this will improve navigation for common functions over standard Windows.

Overall, a good step up in many attributes.  The black shell is a good step up, also.

2/9/2009 by www.mountainviewcellphones.com

From Wireless Week…

CEO: Palm Focused on Pre Launch
By Monica Alleven
WirelessWeek - February 12, 2009

Palm CEO Ed Colligan appears to be more concerned about getting the Pre successfully out the door than he is about any potential patent fight that might come with Apple.

Speaking at a Thomas Weisel Partners conference yesterday, the CEO acknowledged speculation in the media but said no legal action has been taken with regards to Apple. The whole area of patents is a complex one and Palm over the years has built a patent portfolio that is one of the highest rated. “If something does happen there, we do have the portfolio to defend ourselves,” he said.

The former Handspring executive also affirmed that there will be no more Palm OS-based products going forward, focusing instead on the new Web OS featured in the Pre. In addition, the company is about to launch a new Windows Mobile product.

Colligan emphasized the strong relationship the company has built with Sprint, which will be the exclusive U.S. carrier to offer the Pre. There are more Palm users on Sprint’s network than any other.

Colligan didn’t say how long the exclusivity period will last, but he said the hope is that with a successful launch with Sprint, other carriers will take notice. He said the place where exclusivity doesn’t apply is in the rest of the world. “We’ve gotten a lot of carrier interest in the product,” and will continue to work with carriers in North America, Latin America and Europe.

The timeframe for bringing additional carriers on board is 2010, and at some point, he expects a broader product line and additional partners in North America.

He also confirmed the company will offer an over-the-air apps store and said Palm has a huge community of developers. “We are just relentlessly focused” on getting the Pre out the door.

Summary Take Aways:

1.  Sprint will be exclusive carrier in USA till 2010.

2.  Resurgence of Palm will seem to help Sprint get a real iconic phone to define it’s services

3.  Palm has large patent portofolio to go after Apple if it wants to fight

4.  PRE is the laser focus of Palm…which is great to get the product out by summer selling season

2/2/2009 by www.mountainviewcellphones.com

We are expanding our service and repair business to start repairing more models of Smartphones.  We are first starting with a simple Blackberry Trackball repair for $35.00 and in less than 30 minutes (parts and labor).  www.phonemechanics.com

 We look forward to helping your business or personal needs.  Either mail or drop by your phone and we will repair your trackball issues quickly and efficiently. 

 We are working on getting a more formal site up and running that will be a large jump in service and convenience for customers nationwide for repairing their phones.  We will keep the world up to date on our progress and improvements to our service. 

2/2/2009  by www.mountainviewcellphones.com

Sprint’s fortunes have the opportunity to change dramatically this year.  Unfortunately, consumers are very conservative this year, so that alone may derail the come back.  However, there are four big things that are going for the company.

 1.  WiMax roll-out…this is critical to hitting Verizon and ATT where it hurts (local data service to homes) and growing volume dramatically for mobile data users.  This is a truly unique product Sprint and Clearwire have and they need to get the roll-out going as fast as possible.

2.  Palm PRE…just in time for the 1st generation Apple upgrade with ATT, so customers have a better choice versus the IPhone.  If the PRE lives up to the blogosphere hype, then this can start subscriber growth again for Sprint.  So, these first generation IPHONE users have for the most part, gotten a poor web experience and maybe looking for a better web experience.  They won’t find it with ATT 3G IPHONE as the data network speeds and capacity are still way below Sprint and Verizon.  I haven’t found a single IPHONE user who has loved the speed of the Internet on their devices (outside of WiFi).  The PRE has the opportunity to be the ONE phone you need for both business and personal uses.  I will even trade in my Blackberry 8830 for this upgrade.         

3.  A consistent message…come to Sprint for saving money and use your phone for all that it can do.  The hokey CEO messages are finally getting thru to people.  We are having more people from ATT and Verizon come into our stores and wanting to save money and seeing what Sprint has to offer.  This combined with the economic environment will continue to favor the rate structure advantage Sprint has. 

 4.  Independent consumer tests and gizmodo data speed tests have confirmed Sprint is improving and is the most dependable and fastest data network around.  This will take time to show up in the sale results, but people are beginning to take a look at Sprint again.

Sprint literally has a 2 year window now to really turn things around and get better execution going forward for sales and retention.  These few dramatically differentiated and unique products Sprint can offer this year will be able to leap frog the competition and give consumers more for less. 

10/27/2008  By www.mountainviewcellphones.com

Sprint has a great new line up of phones releasing into the Christmas season.  Here is everything new now and going into the near future.

1.  Samsung Rant  (EVDO Rev 0 version of the popular LG Rumor Phone).  Better and slightly bigger in all respects, yet has the same price point of $49.99.  Comes in Red and blue.

2.  LG Lotus.  A great compact flip phone with a QWERTY keyboard.  Purple and Black colos.

3.   HTC Diamond and HTC Touch Pro.  The Touch Pro is a smoking product.  Windows 6.1, virtual keyboard and real keyboard, expandable memory, 3.2 MP camera, AWESOME screen resolution.  It will sell well for those who want the top of the line unit.

4.  Sprint Air RAVE.  Discussed previously, but allows your own cell phone tower at any location with a high speed Internet connection.

5.  Samsung 220 and 320.  New basic phone line up.  The 320 is FREE phone with mail in rebate.  Buy 5 get 5 Free!!! as marketing would say

6.   Samsung Highnote.  This is THE music phone.  It’s much better than the UpStage it replaces and comes with a high quality compact speaker that can fill a room with your beats.  You can bring the party with you anywhere now.  I’m certain some amateur film student will be using this as background music to save time and money during the shoot.

7.  Sanyo Eclipse refresh with One Touch.  Illumination phone…pretty cool looking…otherwise a great multimedia phone that easy to find in your purse.

8.  New Nextel Blackberry.  Curve with a PTT button.  It will be a good device.

This is the best handset line-up Sprint has ever had.  The turnaround is actually producing some very real results now.