Palm

Dear gadget hounds: Wireless networks more than their phones

I know, I know, it’s just the natural tides of media coverage chasing after the latest buzz, but really: AT&T, Verizon and Sprint are more than their headline-grabbing devices.

As I blogged previously, the Palm Pre and Sprint aren’t fated together. Now we’re being told that AT&T’s iPhone fumbles are killing the carrier. Please.

The Apple iPhone and Palm Pre are amazing devices, even “game changing,” as long as we’re delving into marketing buzzwords. But they aren’t going to single-handedly decide the fate of a $155 billion dollar industry.

Just look at Verizon: The BlackBerry Storm has received the worst reviews of the three headlining devices (even T-Mobile’s G1 has gotten much more favorable coverage!) yet the company’s still in great shape. Point made.

As the Palm Pre goes, so goes Sprint?

How closely tied are Sprint’s fortunes to the success of the Palm Pre? Look around and it would seem the two are indistinguishable. The device has been appearing (unnamed but unmistakable) at the end of all Sprint’s Now Network commercials, in a full page ad Sprint bought in the Wall Street Journal, and in almost all blog chatter about Sprint’s future. SeekingAlpha.com has a post entitled Why Sprint Needs the Palm Pre to Succeed which outlines the case succinctly:

During the quarter, Sprint lost another 1.3 million subscribers with the vast majority being the highly sought after “postpaid” variety. This brings the total number of subscribers down to 49.3 million an 8.4% decline over fiscal 2007’s year end. With Sprint’s main competitor’s AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ) gaining subscribers through the downturn, the gap between the “have’s” and the “have not’s” continues to expand. The wireline (mostly internet) business was not much better as revenues in that area dropped 6%.

It is clear that Sprint needs something to make customers stick around, and they believe that they have that silver bullet with their exclusive deal with Palm (PALM) to provide the new Pre handset. Continued »