New SERO Oct 1st

[obamaftw08]

Originally Posted by krwshl

If Sprint is so bad maybe you should consider joining with Verizon instead of whining???

If this thread is so bad, maybe you should consider leaving instead of adding to the whine pile?

[JokeZony0u]

Originally Posted by Bird11

Considering the privacy issues with Android, I wont be moving into that platform anytime soon. I already don't use any Google products due to their data collecting and adding a android headset will provide them with massive amount of other data including voice samples, sms messages, location data, usage habits, browsing histories, etc.


At least with windows mobile it doesn't phone home with your location and have many of its functions offloaded to offsite servers. I don't even have a TP2, just a TP and im happy with that now.


As for price. I still feel $30 a month is too expensive for the 500 min sero plan. I have it because I don't have a choice. But I wont be going premium anytime soon because its just too expensive.

Cell companies know the western worlds consumerist culture, they know people will be sheep and pay $90 a month for a cell phone and upgrade frequently because they have to have it. Its all a waste of money. Not to offend anybody, but its one of the reasons the poor stay poor, they buy shit they don't need instead of investing and inventing their salaries.

lol..wait sorry- you think paying 30 bucks a month is too expensive? Wow..

[dishe]

Hey, I posted this over in another forum, but I feel like its appropriate here too:

Ok, I've been using a Touch Pro 2 since just about when it came out.

I loved it, but the developers are clearly jumping ship for more popular platforms... fewer applications are coming out and less interesting hacks/tweaks (and just about zero future OS updates, as WP7 is a quantum leap in another direction entirely).

So, I've been eying Android devices to upgrade to. The Oct 1st change to buy into "everything plan" status got me all excited, but after looking at the lineup I'm loosing my enthusiasm.

Without jumping another $10 to 4G status devices, what is there comparable in hardware to the Touch Pro 2?
I mean, I don't expect all new devices to have dual mode GSM/CDMA radios or tilting screens like we do now, but it should be an upgrade in features and performance or at least be the same, right?

So far, my options are the Hero, the Moment, and the Intercept. Once upon a time I would have considered the Pre, but it appears that WebOS is falling into the same obscurity that Windows Mobile is. Remember, the only reason I'm leaving WM is because I miss the large community support that you only get with popular platforms (lots of hacks, tweaks, apps, etc).

The Hero has the same CPU I have now. However, it lacks a keyboard and has lower resolution and battery life. It also doesn't have TV out, which is actually something I use (I plug my TP2 into headrest displays and play video for my kids in the car).

The Moment has a better CPU and better display brightness (AMOLED), and I like that it has a keyboard. I'm leaning towards this one, but again- the resolution is lower than my current phone (I always love showing off videos on the WVGA display), and it lacks the video out as well. Also, it appears to have less memory.

The Intercept... well, the intercept is apparently a "poor man's Moment". It feels cheaper, has even LOWER resolution, slower EVDO (0 instead of A) and aside from being a bit smaller, has nothing to offer over the Moment.

So... I can't help but feel like for my extra $10, I'm paying for the right to DOWNGRADE my hardware or features! I want my beautiful WVGA display, my video out, my keyboard... It seems the only way I can actually upgrade and not lose any functionality is to pay $20 more monthly for the Evo or Epic. (When the EVO came out, I decided I might be able to forgo the keyboard on a screen that big)

But I'm having trouble justifying paying $240 more annually for what is more or less the features I currently have, but with a more up to date OS. The $10 a month I can handle if it really is an upgrade, but not $20. Is there something I'm overlooking?
Right now, I sort of feel like I should just leave my SERO as is and keep the superior hardware in my TP2 at $29 a month.

Maybe new options will surface, like the HTC Speedy, which won't be 4G and have more up-to-date specs that can compete with our impressive feature list.
Its funny, many of us have been waiting so long to choose another handset, and there aren't really any better options until the EVO came out. And that's even more money.

[dishe]

Originally Posted by JokeZony0u

lol..wait sorry- you think paying 30 bucks a month is too expensive? Wow..

He didn't say that, he said for 500 minutes it seemed expensive. I remember being on a T-mobile plan for 1000 minutes and N&W for $39. Less if you applied corporate discounts if I recall correctly (I think my friend had a fireman's discount, brought the bill down to something like $35 for 1000 minutes). Pre-Cingular AT&T has similar advertised plans as well. Granted, it didn't have data, etc, but if minutes are your concern, 500 is really small.

My wife, for example, doesn't care about data, she just wants to be on the same network I am, so the cheapest option was SERO. Its a waste because she'd rather have more minutes than data and pic messaging, but such is life. It sure beats paying for cross-network calls in the days before any mobile anytime.

Actually, once you have more than one line on SERO, it really DOES add up pretty quickly. I had 2 lines on T-mobile with 800 shared minutes, data on my line only, and after taxes our bill was $65 a month. We switched to Sprint because of the horrible coverage of the big pink T, and lack of 3G at the time. Now our monthly bill is $70 at least, sometimes a bit more after taxes.

I'm not complaining, I think its a great deal what I have now, and I would agree that it would be nearly impossible to beat it elsewhere. However, it really bugs me when people treat SERO pricing like we're ripping off the cellular company. I guarantee they are still turning a profit.

[spectheintro]

Originally Posted by dishe

He didn't say that, he said for 500 minutes it seemed expensive. I remember being on a T-mobile plan for 1000 minutes and N&W for $39.

You know, it's interesting you say this. I remember thinking the same thing myself, a while back. It's not just Sprint--in general, I'm kind of shocked at how expensive cell phone plans have become. I guess I expected them to come down in price, since the technology has come so far, but somehow they've all stayed astronomically high. Can you believe the *cheapest* VW plan is $40/mo for just 450 minutes? I was paying the same thing five years ago! (We had a family share plan for three phones, 450 minutes between us, for something like $50.)

I don't think $30 for 500 minutes is unreasonable, but I wouldn't call it cheap intrinsically. It is, unarguably, the best value in the market today, and I'm very thankful I found it, as it's saved me thousands of dollars per year. (4 of us now, all on Sprint.) But I wish there were better plans for someone like my mother, who doesn't text, doesn't use the internet, but actually uses the phone as a phone. It'd be nice to have a 1500/no text/no internet option for the same price. Pipe dreams, i guess.

[Bird11]

Originally Posted by JokeZony0u

lol..wait sorry- you think paying 30 bucks a month is too expensive? Wow..

For what I get, yes $30, among tens of millions of customers is too much.

[brownhornet]

Originally Posted by Bird11

For what I get, yes $30, among tens of millions of customers is too much.

smh... dude maybe you should just go back to beepers

[BooDaddy]

Originally Posted by brownhornet

smh... dude maybe you should just go back to beepers

Hell, I remember paying $20 a month for a darn pager many years ago. Course it was the Motorola T900 two-way pager.

Honestly, those things were ahead of their time in my opinion. Nowadays, most teens and younger people communicate by text messaging instead of actual voice comm. The T900 makes more sense as a communication device today since most people text. Talk about a technology taking a step backwards. LOL.

Check this baby out:
http://content.arch.com/products/MotorolaT900.html

I bet it was 10 years ago I used to have one of those! Maybe longer...

[chardog]

Originally Posted by beserker15

You're right, and if Sprint was say a buffet restaurant owned by my friend and he pulled that trick on me...I'll probably punch him first and then quit being friends with him. But...instead they are a large business that isn't quite financially solid. If they did something unforgivable, then yes I'll stop defending them. However, "unlimited" being unlimited is very common to everyone. If you go to a buffet and somehow magically eat like 50 plates...I'm guessing the manager will not let you in ever again (after he calls 911 in fear you might die from eating 50 plates of course).

similar to the buffet, my unlimited plan actually has a limit, one month + the speed of 3g. If someone can eat 50 plates in a restaurant, it may hurt the bottom line of the buffet, but that's already covered in the price. The buffet already factors in the average consumption and guesses the price to make a nice profit.

the same can be said with sprint.

If Sprint gives every SERO user the option to get an android phone without additional profits, they will as a result loose profit because of the costs to offset the increased traffic (if you are already a SERO user using heavy data, this doesn't apply to you...but also know you by yourself do not make up the average SERO user). This doesn't mean that it'll put them in debt or something...it just means there will be less funds for them to invest in future technologies with (phone partnerships, coverage expansion, 4g). Since they are my carrier, it makes sense that I want them to upgrade their service to compete with the other carriers right?

infrastructure argument is moot because the $30 price sprint offered was during the infancy of the 3g infrastructure. it's basically legacy at this point and managing it is only a fraction of what it was before. sprint is just leaving sero users in the dust at this point. pay more because they wont make any 3g phones we can use.

I guess if they made quality phones to start with, I could care less, but that's not the case. phones on the market are made with planned obsolescence in mind. Seriously, the highest quality phone I've ever seen is the iphone series, but even then, you cant change the batteries, so it's planned to die as well. The rest of the phones on the market are basically made to last only a few years.

I dont see why we cant use a 4g phone in 3g mode. there is no argument for this other than forcing users to pay more. it's like forcing everyone to get a high priced internet line, when the low cost one is fine for most users.

[jason25]

I am on a non-SERO legacy plan and I am eligible for an upgrade and my wife's line will be eligible Nov.1. Sprint keeps telling us that we will need to change our plan (which will cost us another $60/month) if we went with smartphones again. Hoping something changes so we can get an upgrade. Maybe it won't be so bad to be out of contract.