He said "people here." He could mean here, Macrumors, here on the planet mars or in his area. I talk to several people who live in rural towns of <1000 people and they say the only carrier that offers 3G is Verizon. Hell AT&T is the absolute worst in NYC and San Fran.
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U.S. Cellular Turned Down iPhone over 'Unacceptable' Terms from Apple
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He said "people here." He could mean here, Macrumors, here on the planet mars or in his area. I talk to several people who live in rural towns of <1000 people and they say the only carrier that offers 3G is Verizon. Hell AT&T is the absolute worst in NYC and San Fran.
What? Hello, I'm right here. I'm talking about people in the U.S. Cellular home service area. Why the heck would I be talking about people on the internet when probably 99% of them can't get U.S. Cellular service?
A couple things:
One, Apple lost market share and is no longer the biggest smartphone manufacturer in the world (by volume), but everyone expects both numbers to drastically change for the next quarter. Remember, during the months you quoted, Apple had delayed their new iPhone and was still offering the 1+ year old iPhone 4, and many people were waiting for the update to purchase.
Two, nobody knows what things will look like in five or ten years. Maybe Samsung will continue to lose nearly every court case against Apple and be forced to sell things that don't mimic Apple so closely, and their stuff may bomb.
Maybe Oracle will win its lawsuit with Google over Android and force Google to either completely abandon Android or at least start completely over with their own kernal.
Maybe Google's Android partners will develop their own mobile operating systems in protest to the Motorola/Google deal and Android will shrink down to an also-ran.
Maybe Microsoft will dominate the market with Windows Phone 7 or 8 or whatever the hell they have coming.
Maybe Apple will fall apart without Steve Jobs running the show, and will bow out of the cell phone game.
Maybe technology will advance so far that calls are beamed directly into your head and cell phones will be looked at the same way pre-iPhone phones are looked at now.
Three, you can't say the iPhone's "buyers are mostly regular consumers who will buy Apple today, and might just as well buy a Samsung tomorrow."
Studies have shown Apple to have both the highest customer satisfaction results and the highest amount of "stickiness" which makes it much less likely customers will leave Apple for Android than vice versa (http://www.appleinsider.com/article...apple_user_has_100_in_content_per_device.html).
Sad face. It's the only carrier that works reliably on my parents' farm. AT&T is nonexistent (maybe if we stood in the middle of the road?), Verizon is sketchy (when I was younger, my parents got let out of their contract once because Verizon's coverage area changed in a way that eliminated an area at and around our house--that's since been restored, but it's still hard to get a signal), and I can't imagine that Sprint is much better.
I was hoping it would come some day. Guess today is not that day.
I was hoping it would come some day. Guess today is not that day.
The iPhone is an expensive gadget for any carrier. Sprint bet-their-farm to carry it.
Do like they do in the rest of the world. Separate the device from the carrier. Then both prosper or fail 'on their own merits' ---- not because they happen to carry a particular device.
And we, the consumer wins.
Do like they do in the rest of the world. Separate the device from the carrier. Then both prosper or fail 'on their own merits' ---- not because they happen to carry a particular device.
And we, the consumer wins.
It's ok... US Cellular...
There are 100 other carriers around the globe that offer this best-selling phone.
There are 100 other carriers around the globe that offer this best-selling phone.
US Cellular will not activate any device that didn't originally come from them. What do you mean "flash it"? In order for this to work on CDMA, the ESN would have to be added to the carrier's system and then the SID and MTN would have to be changed on the device.
Refusing to activate better devices that they don't sell seems like shooting themselves in the foot these days.
Either way, every person I know who has done business with USC does not like them. Usually it has to do with getting billed for things they didn't do and the carrier refusing to remove the charges. I know one person who cancelled service and they kept sending him bills for 6 months.
Hmm
This is one of those companies that sees little interest in providing better technology but instead would rather just be one of those cheap names that can keep making money off all the old folks that choose them. However those companies eventually collapse because they have nothing to offer the world. For example HP is the largest computer retailer but everybody hates them and they are starting to shrink. Where Apple started tiny and is growing. Forgive me if I'm wrong but this is the way I see it.
This is one of those companies that sees little interest in providing better technology but instead would rather just be one of those cheap names that can keep making money off all the old folks that choose them. However those companies eventually collapse because they have nothing to offer the world. For example HP is the largest computer retailer but everybody hates them and they are starting to shrink. Where Apple started tiny and is growing. Forgive me if I'm wrong but this is the way I see it.
Some of you guys sound like you are professional business associates. I fail to see how any of you would know whats best for US Cellular. Groupon turned down an offer from Google that was in the billions of dollars. Does that mean Groupon executives are morons? Who knows!
Flash the CDMA chip and the like over so it works with them. Friend of mine took an LG Chocolate 2 to Cricket and they flashed it over to their network. I don't know exactly how it works cause I've never used them before nor have I had a phone's internal firmware flashed
You say AT&T and Verizon suck in Madison, WI? Hm. Family and friends that I know who live in Madison say they have no complaints with AT&T or Verizon, or Sprint even. So you're either lying or are a viral marketer for US Cellular
Looking at their lineup I can see where iPhone just would not fit into their budget offerings. I am also guessing that Apple tried to pressure them into committed sales quotas that US Cellular was not willing to abide by. Good for them I say, there is nothing wrong with remaining a budget carrier.
Well, based on all the financial information coming out of Groupon, they very well may be!
If it was that easy to move to another CDMA carrier why haven't sprint users been buying verizon phones and using them?
CDMA is limited and not portable like gsm. Even assuming us cellular will add the phone, you have to hack it to get it to work with another carrier. This is what iPhone users have had to do to get it on cricket and metro pcs--and the phone's functions are not fully utilized.
CDMA is limited and not portable like gsm. Even assuming us cellular will add the phone, you have to hack it to get it to work with another carrier. This is what iPhone users have had to do to get it on cricket and metro pcs--and the phone's functions are not fully utilized.
You say you have family and friends that live in madison and that they have no complaints about the 3 major carriers. so either
1) you just called people from out of town to ask them about their cellular service providers and their level of satisfaction with said providers or
2) the level of satisfaction with service providers is a common topic that comes up when you talk to your friends or family from out of town.
soooo you're either lying or...nope, you're just lying
right. conversations something like:
"Man i love apple/google/linux/mocrosoft"
"Yeah me too"
"You know what else i love, call of duty/harry potter/grand theft auto v"
"oh yeah"
"Say, how's the cellular reception on sprint in and around madison wisconsin? and while we're on the topic, let's poll some other people who have verizon and att and see how they like the reception in madison."
"did you hear about the large hadron collider?"
"I Love Mountain Dew"
"Why are my pants getting tight?"
I swear to jobs, kids these days
your honor, i rest my case.
That's my take as well, I'd love an iPhone and I'd be happy to pay for the phone but the monthly rates are ridiculous. It's funny, the new iPhone coming out got me to look at the options for it...and the result is my wife and i are getting android phones on T-Mobile. $99 per month for two lines unlimited calls and texts, 2 gigs data (throttled after that so no overage charges) compared to double that for the same thing on ATT. That plan doesn't include a phone subsidy so we're buying them outright, but saving $2400 over two years I'm more than happy to pay full price for the phone. I'd love to get a plan like that and buy iPhones for full price but that's just not an option.
No question that the "free" iPhone with contract will help market share, but I don't think it will really get up there until more networks are supported including these budget ones. Hopefully we'll see more of that in the future as the next gen phone networks get rolled out, but who knows.