Cricket customers will get the once exclusive iPhone. Will Boost's?
(Credit: Apple)Cricket may have been the first prepaid carrier to snag the iPhone in late June, but if Sprint has its way, it won't be the last.
Apple's iPhone 4 and 4S will head to Sprint prepaid carrier Boost Mobile in early September, according to a "trusted" TechnoBuffalo source.
If Cricket's prices are any indication -- $499.99 for the 16GB iPhone 4S and $399.99 for the 8GB iPhone 4 -- Boost's iPhones wouldn't come cheap. However, prices could dip slightly the closer that Boost Mobile, or any other carrier, gets to Apple's release of its next-generation iPhone 5, which is expected in October.
CNET has reached out to Apple and Sprint, Boost Mobile's parent company, for comment.
Democratizing the iPhone
Today's flurry of prepaid iPhone news takes the iPhone, once the province of the tech elite on a single carrier, to new proletariat levels that began when Apple began offering the iPhone 4S on three carriers, not just its former monolith of AT&T.
The move to prepaid is a point scored for customers who eschew the contract to finally consider the iPhone in addition to dominant Android smartphones and the token BlackBerry.
Spreading out among the lesser-known carriers is also a way for Apple to further penetrate the smartphone market with multiple versions of its single phone brand. With each yearly iPhone iteration, previous models will cost less, and become more affordable prepaid options for those who don't identify needing the most cutting edge features.
CNET's Roger Cheng takes Apple's leap into prepaid as a sign that the iPhone has lost its cool factor. After all, Apple has always maintained its snob appeal by outwardly demanding high levels of customer experience, including network stability and speed (insert AT&T crack here.) Prepaid carriers are not known for speedy data networks.
In the end, Apple's tactic for democratizing the iPhone does three things. It takes direct aim at Google's aggressive headway with its myriad Android phones, it expresses confidence in the iPhone 5 as an utterly compelling premium device, and it makes scads of prepaid customers happy to know that the icon of smartphone advancement is within their reach after all.
iPhone 5 rumours swirl as launch month report comes out - Sydney Morning Herald
'; var fr = document.getElementById(adID); setHash(fr, hash); fr.body = body; var doc = getFrameDocument(fr); doc.open(); doc.write(body); setTimeout(function() {closeDoc(getFrameDocument(document.getElementById(adID)))}, 2000); } function renderJAd(holderID, adID, srcUrl, hash) { document.dcdAdsAA.push(holderID); setHash(document.getElementById(holderID), hash); document.dcdAdsH.push(holderID); document.dcdAdsI.push(adID); document.dcdAdsU.push(srcUrl); } function er_showAd() { var regex = new RegExp("externalReferrer=(.*?)(; |&|$)", "gi"); var value = regex.exec(document.cookie); if (value && value.length == 3) { var externalReferrer = value[1]; return (!FD.isInternalReferrer() || ((externalReferrer) && (externalReferrer > 0))); } return false; } function isHome() { var loc = "" + window.location; loc = loc.replace("//", ""); var tokens = loc.split("/"); if (tokens.length == 1) { return true; } else if (tokens.length == 2) { if (tokens[1].trim().length == 0) { return true; } } return false; } function checkAds(checkStrings) { var cs = checkStrings.split(","); for (var i=0;i 0 && cAd.innerHTML.indexOf(c)>0) { document.dcdAdsAI.push(cAd.hash); cAd.style.display ='none'; } } } //Check iframes if (!ie) { for (var i=0;i 0 && doc.body.innerHTML.indexOf(c)>0) { document.dcdAdsAI.push(fr.hash); fr.style.display ='none'; } } } } } if (document.dcdAdsAI.length > 0 || document.dcdAdsAG.length > 0) { var pingServerParams = "i=" var sep = ""; for (var i=0;i 0) { var pingServerUrl = "/action/pingServerAction?" + document.pingServerAdParams; var xmlHttp = null; try { xmlHttp = new XMLHttpRequest(); } catch(e) { try { xmlHttp = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHttp"); } catch(e) { xmlHttp = null; } } if (xmlHttp != null) { xmlHttp.open( "GET", pingServerUrl, true); xmlHttp.send( null ); } } } function initAds(log) { for (var i=0;i 0) { doc.removeChild(doc.childNodes[0]); } doc.open(); doc.write(fr.body); document.dcdsAdsToClose.push(fr.id); } } else { fr.src = fr.src; } } } if (document.dcdsAdsToClose.length > 0) { setTimeout(function() {closeOpenDocuments(document.dcdsAdsToClose)}, 500); } } } var ie = isIE(); if(ie && typeof String.prototype.trim !== 'function') { String.prototype.trim = function() { return this.replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, ''); } } document.dcdAdsH = new Array(); document.dcdAdsI = new Array(); document.dcdAdsU = new Array(); document.dcdAdsR = new Array(); document.dcdAdsEH = new Array(); document.dcdAdsE = new Array(); document.dcdAdsEC = new Array(); document.dcdAdsAA = new Array(); document.dcdAdsAI = new Array(); document.dcdAdsAG = new Array(); document.dcdAdsToClose = new Array(); document.igCount = 0; document.tCount = 0; var dcOrd = Math.floor(100000000*Math.random()); document.dcAdsCParams = ""; var savValue = getAdCookie("sav"); if (savValue != null && savValue.length > 2) { document.dcAdsCParams = savValue + ";"; }
Digital Life
A video of an alleged iPhone part shows Apple's next smartphone screen could be longer. Photo: Macotakara
A new report on the web suggests Apple is far in the process of its next iPhone and could launch the device before October, as has previously been the date expected by most Apple observers.
Apple's development of its next iteration of iOS is far in the process and meeting an October deadline will be easy, should the company not experience any trouble getting parts and assembling the products.
"So 'easy', in fact, that an earlier release is possible," says the report published Thursday by 9 to 5 Mac.
Along with updates on the phone and operating system's progress, the report says iOS 6 will also feature a brand new app by Apple. However, the report does not go into details as to what exactly that new app will be.
More good news for people thinking about buying the next iPhone is that the amount of RAM it will carry is expected to be double what the iPhone 4S has. The 9 to 5 Mac report says the next iPhone will have 1 GB of RAM, the same as the current iPad.
At the same time as all this news, a video showing the alleged cover for the sixth generation iPhone has also emerged on the web.
The Japanese blog Macotakara filmed the part, which seems to match many of the recent reports that the next iPhone will have a larger screen. The video shows the alleged part next to an older iPhone.
Clearly the phone is much longer, and based off of Macotakara's images, boasts a 4.07-inch screen but it seems to be about the same width.
LA Times
Cricket gets prepaid iPhone - AP - msnbc.com
NEW YORK — Leap Wireless International Inc., the parent of the Cricket cellphone service, on Thursday said it will be the first mainland U.S. phone company to sell recent iPhone models on a prepaid, no-contract basis.
Starting June 22, Leap will sell the iPhone 4S starting at $500 and the iPhone 4 starting at $400. Service will cost $55 per month for unlimited calls, texting and data.
Leap Wireless International Inc., which is based in San Diego, focuses on selling no-contract service to low-income households. Its own network is limited to certain cities. In other places, it uses Sprint Nextel Corp.'s network.
The iPhone is compatible with only part of Leap's network, and the company is limiting sales to those areas, which include Houston and Austin, Texas; Portland, Ore.; Pittsburgh; Denver; and Salt Lake City.
Leap said the arrangement will be available in areas covering about 70 percent of its 6.2 million subscribers. Leap is the sixth-largest cellphone company in the U.S., as measured by number of subscribers.
Open Mobile, which serves Puerto Rico, became the first U.S. company to start selling the iPhone 4 and 4s on a no-contract, prepaid basis on May 18.
When the original iPhone launched in 2007, buyers could chose to set it up directly on an AT&T prepaid plan, But that option disappeared with later models. It has been possible to use imported or hacked "unlocked" phones on prepaid plans as well.
Leap's "unlimited" data service for the phone slows down once a customer user has racked up 2.3 gigabytes of usage since the start of a monthly billing cycle. That's a slightly lower limit than either Verizon or AT&T imposes under their "unlimited" plans.
Apple sells the iPhone at an average wholesale price of $647. The bigger phone companies then subsidize it by hundreds of dollars to sell it for $99 or $199. They count on making their money back in service fees over the life of a two-year contract. Since Leap sells the phone without a contract, it's subsidizing the phone less.
Larger carriers also sell the iPhone without a contract plan. But those phones cost more than iPhones bought through plans, and service costs the same as for phones used on a contract plan. Leap's plan is cheaper than what most iPhone customers pay.
Since the iPhone is so expensive, it's not a given that it's a good deal for a phone company to sell it. In a presentation to investors, Leap said it has committed $900 million over three years to buying iPhones. That's just 10 percent of its projected spending on phones, it said, and it doesn't expect iPhone sales to affect its operating income this year.
"We wouldn't be doing it if we didn't think it was a money maker," said Leap CEO Doug Hutcheson, in an interview. But because of the high price of the phone, he doesn't expect that more than 10 percent of the company's customers will buy it.
"This is an important addition to our portfolio, but it isn't going to become our business," Hutcheson said.
Leap sells smartphones running Google Inc.'s Android software for $100, and sometimes even less.
Investors initially cheered the news, sending Leap shares up in premarket trading, but the stock closed unchanged at $5.77.
The iPhone is hugely popular, but its price has kept it out of reach of many people who want it, across the world. When asked whether they could produce a cheaper model to satisfy demand, Apple executives have said that their first priority is making a good phone.
Missing from Leap's iPhone lineup is the 3GS, an older model that's still sold by AT&T. It's cheaper than the newer models, but doesn't work with Leap's or Sprint's networks.
Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc. and Sprint, the three biggest cellphone companies in the U.S., already sell the iPhone, as do a half-dozen smaller, regional phone companies. The biggest companies that don't carry it are T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS Communications Inc. U.S. Cellular Corp., another regional carrier, said it turned down the chance to sell the phone because of its cost.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Samsung Galaxy S3 vs iPhone 4S: Smartphone showdown - T3.com
Samsung Galaxy S3 vs Apple iPhone 4S: Camera
Apple iPhone 4S
The camera's had a major overhaul, now capable of taking eight-megapixel stills and recording 1080p video. Apple claims upgrades to the optics allow for more light, better colours and improved white-balancing. We didn't dismantle the 4S to find out, but did take a range of shots in a variety of conditions to test the assertion.
Photos are crisper, no question, but it can't compete with traditional cameras with bigger lenses in low light. You can now choose to have a grid on the screen when taking shots, perform basic image-editing within the Camera Roll and jump straight to the camera function via a shortcut.
iOS 5 brings with it the option to use the '+' button as shutter when taking landscape shots. Face detection is also an upgrade and works well.
The 1080p, 30fps camera is impressive. Clarity and detail are excellent and the A5 processor allows for image stabilisation of the go. Shaky hand, be gone. We played back footage on our 47-inch TV and, even in full screen, video quality was great. We can hear the home camcorder industry wincing from here.
Samsung Galaxy S3
The rumoured 12MP camera sadly does not make an appearance. Instead the Galaxy S3 arrives with a perfectly reasonable 8MP/1080p camera, exactly the same as that on the HTC One X.
In burst mode, the camera takes contiunous shots at a rate of 6fps, then picks the best shot based on smile detection, blink detection, contrast and blurring. According to Samsung, the camera also has zero shutter lag along with an improved shot-to-shot time.
You'll be able to set up rules for photos to be automatically placed in groups based on faces, contacts or location. There's also Face Zoom which means that you can tap on a face when lining up a crowd shot and the camera will zoom in automatically. The lack of optical zoom means that this is going to be fairly limited, but we look forward to trying it out in the wild.
It also has a 1.9MP camera on the front, which suffices for profile pictures, video calls and the like. Curiously, that's actually smaller than the Galaxy S2's 2MP front camera sensor, but still a major improvement on the 4S' 0.3MP front-facing camera.
T3 Verdict: Samsung Galaxy S3
Samsung Galaxy S3 vs Apple iPhone 4S: Power
Apple iPhone 4S
The iPhone 4S is fired by a dual core A5 chip, which also has dual core graphics capabilities – that’s a x2 times faster CPU than the original iPhone 4 chip, according to Apple, and a whopping 7x faster graphics.
The faster A5 processor makes operating the device noticeably quicker when launching and re-launching apps and when using power-draining applications such as iMovie. Getting hands on with Notifications, Newsstand, iMessage and Reminders demonstrated to us just how much of a step up from iOS 4 it is.
The dual-core A5 is more than powerful enough to handle the components inside the iPhone 4S, but it doesn't stand up to the quad-core monsters being packed into Samsung and HTC's latest phones.
Samsung Galaxy S3
Samsung has put their own quad-core 1.4GHz Exynos processor into the Galaxy S3, and bolstered it with 1GB RAM. The quad-core processor certainly seemed to do the trick in the limited time that we had with the phone. There was barely any lag when switching between home screens and firing up apps.
Flash memory is available in 16, 32 and 64 GB versions, improving on the S2's 16GB offering, while there's also a micro SD card slot should you wish to expand the memory. There's also 50GB of free storage for your content on Dropbox for the next years, which is double what HTC is offering on its HTC One X.
T3 Verdict: Samsung Galaxy S3
Meet T-Mobile’s bad girl, Carly, in person in Pompano Beach Florida June 2nd - AndroidSPIN (blog)
T-Mobile USA Opens 1,000th T-Mobile Premium Retailer Store
Milestone branded retailer location to serve customers in Miami area
BELLEVUE, Wash. — May 22, 2012 — Today, T-Mobile USA, Inc. announced a new company milestone — the opening of its 1,000th T-Mobile Premium Retailer (TPR) store, located in Pompano Beach, Fla. Providing customers with the same look and feel of a T-Mobile company store, TPR stores are owned and operated by third-party experts in wireless services and align with the company’s commitment to provide the best customer experience possible.
The Pompano Beach store, which is owned and operated by Catcorp Inc., will host an official grand opening celebration on June 2. Based in Tulsa, Okla., Catcorp has been a T-Mobile branded retailer since 2009 and operates 38 additional stores in the Miami, Atlanta, Tulsa, Wichita, Kan., and Springfield, Mo., markets.
The TPR program is one of T-Mobile’s highest-caliber, branded retailer programs and provides customers with a seamless shopping experience, offering them the same quality level of products and service as company-owned locations.
“Our TPR program has been a huge success for the company and our branded retailers and customers alike — reaching this 1,000th store milestone is an impressive moment,” said Mike Sentowski, vice president of national dealer programs for T‑Mobile USA. “We’ve seen great momentum, and in just the past 18 months alone, the program has grown approximately 120 percent, demonstrating the strong relationships and commitment between T-Mobile and our branded retailers.”
This newest TPR location will offer Pompano Beach-area customers innovative products running on America’s Largest 4G Network® combined with a best-in-class retail experience. The store features the company’s new global design format, created to help simplify the consumer retail experience and make it more personal for each customer.
“Through the unparalleled support and training we receive from T-Mobile and the cache of their brand, along with their innovative products and nationwide 4G network, our business relationship has proven to be a model that works,” said Carl Ducato, president, Catcorp. “We look forward to continuing to grow our business with T-Mobile and providing customers high-quality products and customer service.”
T-Mobile’s TPR program began in late 2007 and has been a great asset to the company’s branded distribution strategy. Currently, T-Mobile has a nationwide branded presence through approximately 2,000 company-owned and 1,000 TPR stores. T-Mobile will continue its expansion in 2012, with plans to open more than 350 retail locations, in both company-owned and branded retailer formats, as well as continuing to provide customers with new and exciting products.
About Catcorp
Headquartered in Tulsa, Catcorp is a Premium Retailer for T-Mobile USA. Catcorp owns and operates 38 retail stores in Florida, Georgia, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri. Catcorp’s management team is led by seasoned experts who have more than 10 years in the wireless industry. For more information, visit catcorp.com.
About T-Mobile USA, Inc.
Based in Bellevue, Wash., T-Mobile USA, Inc. is the U.S. wireless operation of Deutsche Telekom AG (OTCQX: DTEGY). By the end of the first quarter of 2012, approximately 129 million mobile customers were served by the mobile communication segments of the Deutsche Telekom group — 33.4 million by T-Mobile USA — all via a common technology platform based on GSM and UMTS and additionally HSPA+ 21/HSPA+ 42. T-Mobile USA’s innovative wireless products and services help empower people to connect to those who matter most. Multiple independent research studies continue to rank T-Mobile USA among the highest in numerous regions throughout the U.S. in wireless customer care and call quality. For more information, please visit http://www.T-Mobile.com. T-Mobile is a federally registered trademark of Deutsche Telekom AG. For further information on Deutsche Telekom, please visit www.telekom.de/investor-relations.
No comments:
Post a Comment