Mountain View Cellphones

11/5/2008 by www.mountainviewcellphones.com

The FCC has approved and the Justice Dept. had given a preliminary ok to the combination of Sprint Xohm and Clearwire to quickly accelerate WiMax deployment nationwide.  This will be a huge advantage for Sprint versus other carriers going forward and it will be the best wireless data network for the next 3 years.

This is pretty much the last major hurdle to full deployment across the country and the major spend of billions to get this all going at the scale a national network needs. 

Coming to a town near you is a wireless broadband card that runs on both the established Rev. A network and WiMax,  so you get the best speeds where available.

Pricing of WiMax services is a no brainer.  My price check on the Xohm website was $45/month for 2.0x the speed of Rev. A today.  100% faster than anything today at 25% less than current service…where do I sign up…  I read somewhere on the news that service equipment sold out in the first week.  No contracts…again…where do I get one…

I saw a test of this working at the annual Sprint conference in Nashville.  It was moving about 6Mbps download and 4Mbps upload.  The ratings on the Xohm website are a less, but still remarkable, 2.0-4.0 Mbps download and 0.5-1.5Mbps upload.  However, the blogs and reviews clearly get higher and lower speeds depending on coverage.  This is still enough for me to get rid of my business DSL service from crappy ATT when WiMax rolls our here in California.   

WiMax devices will be plenty…it will usher in a new generation of mobile devices that may or may not be phones.  This has been the saying for the last 5 years, but now, its real.  There is a production quality network deployed.  Simple products like embedded WiMax on laptops will be a no brainer in many businesses.  What is more interesting is innovative products like Nokia Nseries phones/tablets (N810 in particular).  I saw this device at the beginning of this year and it’s a very nice solution.  They even connected a Skype call in the demonstration to exhibit the low latency of the WiMax signal (of course this is a demonstration environment and not moving), but it work very well, just like a computer.  The Nokia runs Linux and supports Mozilla as the browser.  It is also a full MP3 player and has expandable memory to 10GB (2GB internal + 8GB expandable).  Lastly, it does have WiFi as well.  It’s a great device to fill the need of the “Internet is everything for me” crowd. 

The ultramobile computing market may become more main stream with this jump start with WiMax.  It has all the power of a PC except in the palm of your hand.   

Consumer reviews on the web appear very good for future adoption and I think we have another hit on our hands. 

Lastly, what I think will kick WiMax into high gear is its open structure.  Sprint doesn’t have to approve the device for its network.  Manufacturers can now build it and sell it as fast as they can innovate and produce.  I’m not certain LTE has the same business model structure in mind, and given $22BN in debt Verizon will take on in closing Alltell and the billions spent on airwave licenses, I doubt they will just open up given things have been working well in the past closed carrier model.  This will be the singular reason WiMax has a great chance of sustaining and proliferating much faster.  I predict there is already a Google WiMax device already in the works somewhere in that company.  Intel must also have a ton of things in the works to put chipsets in.     

No contracts…fair pricing…rapid hardware innovation…and a national network…mobile solution…Sounds like a recipe for taking market share from DSL, cable, and current customers of Verizon and ATT.  

Unfortunately for Qualcomm…if this really works…they are in big trouble.  They bought Flarion a few years ago when Sprint Nextel was testing their OFDM stuff, but Sprint decided to go WiMax instead.  Qualcomm’s only choice so far is the ride the LTE bandwagon…but oh…so crowded a wagon.  If WiMax is stable and VOIP works well enough…then the world of communication will change dramatically in Sprint’s favor and to the favor of manufacturers in this new ecosystem.  

10/28/2008 by www.mountainviewcellphones.com

The biggest grudge about early termination fees (ETF) is paying it.  So, this marketing tactic that has been the staple of the wireless business for about 10 years now is going the way of the dodo.  Sprint has announced the change in termination fees once their new billing system is in place…so that will be about another 3-4 months away (given how billing systems tend to never get installed flawlessly).

All the carriers are now moving to pro-rata early termination fees that decline over the time period of the contract.  I think this will increase churn throughout the industry as this was the #1 reason why people don’t change carrier relationships.  How many times have I heard “I’m under contract” when in reality customers got discounted hardware and don’t want to pay full value for it.

The ending of early termination fees could put a big dent in hardware manufacturers, also.  As carriers move more and more in the direction of letting the consumer bear the total cost of hardware (not subsidized by services), manufacturers are being put in front of the customer without subsidizing revenues for their products.  This will continue to push margins down for this sector as carriers can no longer subsidize the hardware thru service fees (in effect financing the hardware purchase with a loan to the customer).

As phones can do more and more, the cost goes up for everyone.  Carriers and manufacturers of major carriers have kept these costs from the consumer while prepaid services have passed on everything to the consumer.  Contract carriers will move more and more in the prepaid direction…even nearly identical phones in the prepaid versus contract worlds cost much different.  The carrier shield is being lifted and the manufacturer must face the consumer not only on features but on price, eye to eye.

Again, I say this is a good thing.  Carriers can dictate features of phones so it works with their networks (that’s ok) but manufacturers should be able to sell whatever they want that is tested and works to specification.  Consumers can get educated on the true price of a phone or smartphone, and we could probably eliminate some worthless positions in the carrier industry that do nothing but compare cost and benefit of phone pricing with services rather than letting the market and manufacturer decide on prices for handsets.

It’s an inevitable trend.   Sprint has had a no contract plan for 2 years now, but you would not know about it because no one is incented to sell it and it’s a horrible deal.  Verizon recently introduced no contract plans also but again…I’m certain this is more for goodwill with the FCC or some other State attorney general than actual corporate strategy.

 By: www.mountainviewcellphones.com 5/7/2008

 Realtors are some of the heaviest wireless users.  Not only are they constantly mobile, but they need information at the point of use.  Many customers now have smartphones and can fine similar information that the realtor has for basic searches, but this means that customers expect to communicate with realtors using their smartphones.  Communication for realtors is now expected to be instant or with very narrow delays.

There are several applications for Realtors that run predominantly on Palm OS or Windows OS environments.  These allow for MLS listings and researching specific real estate information.  These applications can also help with CRM functions by allowing you to save your  contact information in an organized fashion on a database to track transactions. 

The Palm TREOs and the ecosystem around this device has built up several unique traits that help realtors more than most professions. 

1.  GE Supra has introduced the best lock box system in the industry to help with key management and security for showing homes.  This requires an infrared port on the devices that only Palm and Windows devices has.  This is a great time saver for realtors and helps with key management (a big time suck).

2.  MLS Listing applications are specific for every region.  This is a critical piece of information for seeing what has been listed and is on the market.  This helps with comps and allows realtors to show the most “recent” listings to customers before everyone else.  Speed is key for many possibilities to help realtor clients get the best deals. 

3.  Treos and other devices have been cracked to do phone as a modem downloads without the use of a phone as a modem data plan.  This can help save money and improve time savings for realtors with computers and having a wireless mobile device. 

4.  Cameras are critical to taking pictures and quickly sending them.

5.  Voice recorder is a great application to help with many day to day recordings.  This can help take notes and to personalize communications of realtors with their clients.  

6.  With Windows devices, GPS is a critical tool and built in function that will allow for turn by turn directions to different locations.

7.  Touchscreens.  Many realtors aren’t the most tech savvy buyers and don’t have time to learn all the nuances of a device.  The touchscreen has been the most user friendly form factor for learning and working quickly.  This is a great advantage of Palm and Windows devices for realtors. 

Lastly, the plans with Sprint have never been more affordable.  As most realtors are commission based, fixed costs are a definite concern.  Now with the $99.99 plan for everything, this is definitely the best deal for getting the most done with the phones.  This plan will allow for GPS navigation, texting, web, email, and TV/radio for one flat rate.  It’s a sea change in the business and this will allow Sprint to service realtors better than other carriers. 

By: www.Mountainviewcellphones.com  4/24/2008

You make a call and the speaker phone icon is not there.  The person you call can’t hear you, and your blood pressure just shot up a few notches as you desparately try to make your TREO work.  You plug in your headphone jack and you can maybe hear them but they still can’t hear you….what do  you do?

The easiest thing to do is to come to our service center and we will fix this for you. 

Read the rest of this entry »

This is a thank you for IPOWER web for fixing our slow site problems and getting us back on track.  Next time, plan a better migration, but we are doing fine now. 

Thanks IPOWER.

Our site performance has been subpar.  This is due to our host I-Power Web.  I apologize. They were a great hosting company until they moved everything to their new and improved platform.  This new platform unfortunately has destroyed our blog speed for uploading pages due to their inability to load balance while migrating all their customers onto the new system.  It’s messed up.  They know it, we know it.  However, on the brighter side, they say a resolution should be in place within weeks…

 In the meantime, please learn and enjoy the experience of what load balancing does for sites.

Things have been fixed now so.  Go IPOWER. 

Although the Internet is a great way to purchase products and have them delivered to your doorstep, it does still lack major advantageous of buying from a competent and understanding store location.

Here are a few reasons why you want to buy in our store.

1. Competent and professional staff. Read the rest of this entry »

Hello Peninsula!!

We are launching our website to further help our Sprint Nextel customers locally in Mountain View, Los Altos, Sunnyvale, and Palo Alto.  We are an Authorized Service Center and Sprint Phone Repair Center and can service your needs with the network and your phone hardware concerns.  Come back periodically and we can help you get the most out of Sprint Nextel. 

We look forward to serving your needs.

Don