Monday, November 2, 2009

Sprint Android Talk

Sprint executive David Owens conducted a live chat with Sprint customers last Thursday and laid down somewhat of a roadmap for the remainder of this year and on into 2010. Owens stated the carrier would be selling multiple HTC Android devices in the coming year and also confirmed that both the HTC Hero and Samsung Moment will receive Android updates. HTC also confirmed yesterday that the manufacturer is working on a 2.0 update for the Hero, although both Sprint and HTC won’t give specifics as to when this update will be ready. Owens told customers that Windows Mobile 6.5 is currently being tested for the TouchPro2, but again did not confirm a date for the update.

Sprint is set to release Wi-Fi enabled Blackberries, including a Wi-Fi-capable version of the Tour. According to Owens, Android phones on Sprint’s network will become less expensive “as we see volume across the industry.” Well, all I’ll say is Sprint better hope Verizon isn’t really planning on introducing the HTC Droid Eris next week for $99! The carrier already lost a little over 800,000 customers to competing networks during the quarter, which is actually down from over a million in the second quarter of this year. Sprint CEO Dan Hess says he expects customer retention to be prettier in the final quarter of 2009. It seems the carrier is putting a lot of eggs in its Android basket, and with stiff competition coming its way via Verizon, I’m a little skeptical of that.

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