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Wall Street Journal

DaveClarkOne said:
It's CINGULAR. It sucks. I switched to Sprint using the same Razr. I haven't had a dropped call since. Sprint isn't perfect, but it has some advantages with internet speed, using CDMA. I would go with Verizon if you wanted a GSM phone.
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Pretty sure Verizon isn't GSM It is CDMA as well... or so it used to be.

That said if the phone doesn't come in two models CDMA and GSM then there will be no purchase buy me... sprint is the one I have and won't be switching thouh they aren't that great.

I stay with sprint because its the only place that offers unlimited text. Well as of 3 years ago. Now I think tMobile does for 10-15 a month so they are caught up, but cingular and verizon still have a while...
 
Wary about the iPhone (whatever it will be called)

I've always dreamed about a great cellphone by Apple, however I know the realities of the wireless industry, and frankly I'm wary of Apple entering this market. Why? Just read this forum post, that should be reason enough. Let's take some examples here:

1. Apple goes with Cingular
You get people (like on this forum) that will whine and moan about going with Cingular, because how crappy their customer service is or their service in general. Or, you'll get people who complain because their with Verizon Wireless or Sprint b/c their network is CDMA.

2. Apple goes with Verizon or Sprint
Same thing, people complain about customer service or service. People complain because their on Cingular, T-Mobile, etc.

These are just *some* of the reasons why I'm not in favor of Apple going into this market. The wireless industry is extremely cutthroat as well as draconian as hell. With this WSJ report alone, why would Apple want to associate itself with a company with a *TERRIBLE* reputation with customer service? Even on the flip side (VZW or Sprint), the picture doesn't look good as well. You immediately split your market. You compete with other phones that are with completely different providers. So, not only do you have to get them to switch phones and buy yours (yours meaning Apple), but you *ALSO* have to get them to switch services. This is *NOT* like selling a Mac, iPod, or whatever.

I really hope Apple has something "up their sleeves" to at least address *some* of these problems. I personally absolutely DESPISE the wireless industry, but (unfortunately) my job depends on using cellphones. I can't get around that. I just hope Apple can give a phone for everyone and truly revolutionize this horrid industry.

w00master
 
Just as a possibility, the phrasing of the WSJ article sort of implies to me something different. That is, they phrase it as Cingular providing the mobile network for Apple's new phone. That really does make it sound more like an MVNO deal, where Apple would essentially have a virtual mobile network running on top of Cingular. If that were the case, it would allow Apple to set their own pricing plans, have their own customer service, etc. separate from Cingular.

This would fit into previous rumors that Apple would be doing an MVNO (much like what ESPN's phone service was, or stuff like Boost Mobile).
 
DaveClarkOne said:
You are correct. I meant t-mobile for GSM.
Click to expand...

Yeah, GSM is a real downer! Data transfer speeds are ridiculously slow. CDMA in the states or at least in my area is much better. Better signal quality, fewer dropped calls, better voice quality, and much much faster data transfer rates.

Plus only the CDMA hybrid networks can provide the walkie-talkie feature which is really nice.
 
Zadillo said:
Just as a possibility, the phrasing of the WSJ article sort of implies to me something different. That is, they phrase it as Cingular providing the mobile network for Apple's new phone. That really does make it sound more like an MVNO deal, where Apple would essentially have a virtual mobile network running on top of Cingular. If that were the case, it would allow Apple to set their own pricing plans, have their own customer service, etc. separate from Cingular.

This would fit into previous rumors that Apple would be doing an MVNO (much like what ESPN's phone service was, or stuff like Boost Mobile).
Click to expand...

I hope so, but the problems with MVNOs are enormous as well. However, just so I can put a positive light on my gripes, MAYBE they're just using Cingular's EDGE service? Maybe, the iPhone (whatever the heck it'll be called) is actually a wi-fi phone. In other words, when your outside a wifi network, you get and receive calls via the EDGE service. When your inside a wifi network, you get the call as a VOIP call. Ahh, I know... I'm dreaming.

w00master
 
I can see it now...

I'll be walking in the mall or whatever with my really inexpensive Verizon phone and some really young kid is going to tell her/his parents that they have to have the best. Meaning, parents fork up the $$$ and buy them the most expensive machine. :rolleyes:

Seen it happen at Car Toys and at an Apple store.

Anyway, all the best wishes to those who are looking forward to Apple's elusive immaculate machine.
 
Ohh god let the complaining begin

Now that a reputable source have claimed the release of an apple phone
people are starting to wine.

I cant stand it seriously people wine about microsoft-people wine about apple- etc.

Run a multi billion dollar company and see how fast you fold.


If you have cingular tomorrows your day-if you cdma tough luck thats it period-you want apple to go into the cell phone business right?

So apple as a company out for money will look at the best possible market share-the best money gain-the most users etc.

I dont think apple is looking at how many people think cdma is better or how gsm is better-you want your favorite company to go into a market with razorblades across every competitors throat. Deal with it.
 
I actually woudn't be suprised if Apple bought Palm.

Palm owns Handspring patents, Be Patents and a bunch of other stuff. I think Steve has been licking his lips for a while now and now as in today would be a good time.
 
Man.....it would be totally against everything Apple to go with a Cingular only phone. Plus, I'd be disappointed if all it had was EDGE, that's like a non-EVDO sprint or verizon phone. If it's GSM, it had better have UMTS, hopefully it will be CDMA as well, as the market here in the states is pretty big for it, and EVDO is very widespread now.

Oh, and also because I pay $92 a month after taxes for 2000 min, 3 lines, unlimited EVDO, 500 SMS on each line, 7pm nights, unlimited mobile to mobile....all on sprint. And to top it off, Sprint has more EVDO coverage than Verizon and more coverage (including all roaming areas on both carriers), as well as higher average EVDO speeds. Sure customer service isn't as good, but I'd rather pay less than half as much since I don't find myself calling CS more than 3-4 times a year.
 
uNext said:
Ohh god let the complaining begin

Now that a reputable source have claimed the release of an apple phone
people are starting to wine.

I cant stand it seriously people wine about microsoft-people wine about apple- etc.

Run a multi billion dollar company and see how fast you fold.


If you have cingular tomorrows your day-if you cdma tough luck thats it period-you want apple to go into the cell phone business right?

So apple as a company out for money will look at the best possible market share-the best money gain-the most users etc.

I dont think apple is looking at how many people think cdma is better or how gsm is better-you want your favorite company to go into a market with razorblades across every competitors throat. Deal with it.
Click to expand...

I believe the work you're looking for is "whine", not wine. Wine is made from grapes, whereas whine is made from tears.
 
DaveClarkOne said:
It's CINGULAR. It sucks. I switched to Sprint using the same Razr. I haven't had a dropped call since. Sprint isn't perfect, but it has some advantages with internet speed, using CDMA. I would go with Verizon if you wanted a GSM phone.
Click to expand...

A few issues with this post:

1) The RAZR Sprint and Cingular cell are completely different phones. Cingular's is the V3; Sprint's is the V3m. Sprint's has 6x the memory, doesn't have as good as a display as Cingular's, Cingular's has ringer profiles, Sprint's has flight mode, Sprint's has 3G (EVDO) which is a major step in data speeds and is known as Power Vision, and Sprint's has a music player with a memory card slot.
2) The UI on the Cingular V3 is actually Motorola's default interface; Sprint tinkers with their phones. While they don't have a standard interface put onto all of their phones like Verizon, they have certain requirements that an interface must have and general guidelines as to what the main menu looks like.
3) Verizon is CDMA, not GSM.
 
digitalbiker said:
Yeah, GSM is a real downer! Data transfer speeds are ridiculously slow. CDMA in the states or at least in my area is much better. Better signal quality, fewer dropped calls, better voice quality, and much much faster data transfer rates.

Plus only the CDMA hybrid networks can provide the walkie-talkie feature which is really nice.
Click to expand...

I believe Cingular has Push To Talk, don't they? :) T-Mobile is the only one of the core four that doesn't have PTT/walkie-talkie. And what exactly do you mean by "CDMA hybrid networks"?

Cingular does have 3G UMTS, but it's in select cities. T-Mobile's working on a 3.5G HSDPA network scheduled to launch sometime next summer or autumn. Oh, and It's going to cover more than Verizon or Sprint's 3G networks. :eek:

~*~*~*~*~*~

I personally don't really care about the ApplePhone anymore. I just got a Sidekick, and I'm quite happy with it. (Plus, I do have an account on two other carriers of the core four.) The only reason I'd buy an ApplePhone is for a spare, but I already have a spare Nokia 3250. I have a feeling that Apple may launch it on Cingular (soon to be something with AT&T) and also have an unlocked GSM version. Perhaps they'll launch it on T-Mobile or other carriers later on.
 
ptogel said:
Wall Street Journal reports on January 8, 2007 8:42 p.m.:

Apple, Cingular Set to Team Up on Cellphone
Cingular Wireless is expected to provide wireless service for a new Apple Computer Inc. cellphone, people familiar with the situation say. The launch of the new phone and service is expected to be announced as early as Tuesday, these people say.
Click to expand...

the way this is written it sounds like it is a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO).
 
The fox article seems to use the WSJ as its source. The fact that so much attention has been given to a product which Apple has never given any indication to existing even on real tv NEWS shows is a bit discouraging, although they show a lot of crap that isn't worthwhile, but still, a "sign of the times."

I am not at all saying I personally am not excited, just that major media coverage doesn't seem proportionate.

Anyhow............here's to hoping there's some twist tomorrow that will make it not a Cingular phone in the way we are thinking...
 
DaveClarkOne said:
I just cancelled Cingular for the worst cell service I've ever had. They are the worst --and don't take my word for it, try reading Consumer Reports: They are DEAD LAST.
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Look again. They rated Sprint last. SPRINT? NOOOO! :eek: :)

I do think, though, that you should pick a carrier that has everything you want and works where you want. 'Tis why my family all chose Sprint...until August '05 when they bought Nextel. We've gotten worse customer care, and we had a GIANT issue when we tried to get international phones from them (they wouldn't even give us the bloody SIM card!) Plus, we got this sales lady that pretended to save money for my mom when all she did was just sell her more phones. :mad: My sisters will probably keep it, though, because it's the only one that works in their area. I'm probably going to turn in my Sprint phone because I have T-Mobile now.

(Sorry for the triple post)
 
iMacZealot said:
A few issues with this post:

1) The RAZR Sprint and Cingular cell are completely different phones. Cingular's is the V3; Sprint's is the V3m. Sprint's has 6x the memory, doesn't have as good as a display as Cingular's, Cingular's has ringer profiles, Sprint's has flight mode, Sprint's has 3G (EVDO) which is a major step in data speeds and is known as Power Vision, and Sprint's has a music player with a memory card slot.
2) The UI on the Cingular V3 is actually Motorola's default interface; Sprint tinkers with their phones. While they don't have a standard interface put onto all of their phones like Verizon, they have certain requirements that an interface must have and general guidelines as to what the main menu looks like.
3) Verizon is CDMA, not GSM.
Click to expand...

You are correct with #3 (I meant to say t-mobile for GSM carrier). On your other points, I MUCH prefer the user interface with Sprint --right down to the font (easier to read and navigate, in my view). The display is brighter and larger than the Cingular Razr I gave up. We may have to agree to disagree here.
 
iMacZealot said:
Look again. They rated Sprint last. SPRINT? NOOOO! :eek: :)

I do think, though, that you should pick a carrier that has everything you want and works where you want. 'Tis why my family all chose Sprint...until August '05 when they bought Nextel. We've gotten worse customer care, and we had a GIANT issue when we tried to get international phones from them (they wouldn't even give us the bloody SIM card!) Plus, we got this sales lady that pretended to save money for my mom when all she did was just sell her more phones. :mad: My sisters will probably keep it, though, because it's the only one that works in their area. I'm probably going to turn in my Sprint phone because I have T-Mobile now.

(Sorry for the triple post)
Click to expand...

What issue are you referring to? Where was Cingular in the review you read? Because I can assure you it was dead last in the issue I read. Sprint isn't perfect, but where I live (Seattle), I'm getting FAR better service with Sprint than I did with Cingular. Believe me, I didn't want to quit early and pay early termination fees. But extremely poor service at Cingular left me with no choice.
 
DaveClarkOne said:
You are correct with #3 (I meant to say t-mobile for GSM carrier). On your other points, I MUCH prefer the user interface with Sprint --right down to the font (easier to read and navigate, in my view). The display is brighter and larger than the Cingular Razr I gave up. We may have to agree to disagree here.
Click to expand...

I'm not saying that I prefer the Cingular one; in fact, I like the Sprint one better. (Oh, I forgot to mention that Cingular's had a .3 MP camera (VGA) while Sprint's has 1.3 MP.) There's no need for that bloody menu buttom Motorola puts on the V3! I like what Sprint did to the UI, too.

The screen, while I haven't compared them side to side, they have the same pixel count, but the V3 is capable of displaying 262,000 colors while the V3M is only capable of 65,000 colorss. I'm not sure how much of a difference that makes; I was just going by a PhoneScoop comparasion.
 
w00master said:
I hope so, but the problems with MVNOs are enormous as well. However, just so I can put a positive light on my gripes, MAYBE they're just using Cingular's EDGE service? Maybe, the iPhone (whatever the heck it'll be called) is actually a wi-fi phone. In other words, when your outside a wifi network, you get and receive calls via the EDGE service. When your inside a wifi network, you get the call as a VOIP call. Ahh, I know... I'm dreaming.

w00master
Click to expand...

Also didn't Apple recently aquire World Coms huge cellphone data center? I really am starting to think its a Mobile Virtual Network Operation.
 
DaveClarkOne said:
What issue are you referring to? Where was Cingular in the review you read? Because I can assure you it was dead last in the issue I read. Sprint isn't perfect, but where I live (Seattle), I'm getting FAR better service with Sprint than I did with Cingular. Believe me, I didn't want to quit early and pay early termination fees. But extremely poor service at Cingular left me with no choice.
Click to expand...

If you look at the first page of it, it shows a brief rundown of the five carriers, and in order of overall satisfaction (left --> right.) This was before the breakdown for all the cities Here's their order for the overall (I think):
1) Verizon
2) T-Mobile
3) Alltel
4) Cingular
5) Sprint

As long as you're happy with them and deliver what you want, that's all that matters. I've tried all of those except Cingular and Alltel, and I'd rate Sprint the best in Colorado. It's a little early to rate T-Mobile because I've only had them for three weeks, but I think they might actually get the cake.
 
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