Comments on: What Is Keeping Verizon From Being No. 1? Hint: Terrible Phones!

By: Johannes S.

Johannes S. — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 10:07:18 +0000

Well, I happen to live in Europe, where the situation is a bit different. Here, people buy phones separately and choose the best carrier available. Well, unless you get one of those carrier-locked phones, for example, the iPhone.

By: Ron Schenone

Ron Schenone — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 11:12:26 +0000

Thanks Marc for sharing your expertise with us. It is appreciated.

By: the oracle

the oracle — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 07:28:11 +0000

@ cirian75, the figures are not 99%, for GSM, and even so, CDMA is superior, both in theory and in practice,

As someone who sold T-Mobile for about 2 years, I know where the pitfalls of GSM are.

By the way, most of the rest of the world is GSM not because of inherent superiority, but because of inherent parsimony. GSM can be implemented freely, because there are no licensing fees, whereas CDMA fees are all paid to Qualcomm, holder of the CDMA patents.

By: Ron Schenone

Ron Schenone — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 23:50:41 +0000

Thanks for the comments and info.

By: cirian75

cirian75 — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 23:38:43 +0000

They should look at going GSM. like 99% the rest of the world

By: Bruce

Bruce — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:05:07 +0000

My wife and I switched from Nextel to Verizon in July. We live in a rural area and Nextel was the only game in town when we first moved out here. Verizon built a new tower just to the east of us so we ditched dreadful Nextel. We were like kids in a candy store with all the phones Verizon had to offer compared to the dreadful things Nextel pushed at us. We each settled on an LG ENv Touch. It hasa touch screen, a 3.2 megapixel camera, a great MP3 player, a QWERTY keyboard, dual screens on the flip, has a scheduler/calendar, browses the internet, has a micro SD slot for up to a 16 gig card, great battery life (user replaceable) and many other features. What’s not to love about this phone? Coming from Nexhell to Verizon and having such a cool phone has been a very positive experience for us. Now … could they do something about those fees……

By: Ron Schenone

Ron Schenone — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:24:12 +0000

Heh Marc,
Good points. I believe that you are correct. A fancy phone is more important than good service. LOL

By: the oracle

the oracle — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:41:35 +0000

As someone who sold mobile pones for a few years, I’ve seen how the younger set will totally abandon good service for ‘cool phones’.

When I was with Radio Shack, I used to size up a customer almost immediately with a couple of questions. Being the direct type, I would ask what was most important.

9 of 10 times, if the customer was over 30, it was that speaking, and being heard by the other side, and vice versa, was the main prerequisite. They were Verizon customers. If they thought that the phone needed to have extra gadgetry, or impress their friends, call quality was secondary, then they were Sprint customers.

I still fail to see why many don’t recognize that. My children will test their friends that have Verizon, so they could speak all day and night for no extra charge, but they insist upon sending texts. My daughter picked a phone that has a full keyboard, and it has more in common with my old Motorola 2-way pager than a phone.

For even those who buy iPhones, and their clones, it is still a phone, first, and foremost and if it is not, perhaps another choice of device, without voice capabilities, would be more their speed.

Not sure about Verizon where you live (phone selection varies by area of thee country – their network is not as homogenous as you might think), but here, in SoCal, the choices are very wide, with over 40 phones to choose from. For smart phones, there are still around 10 – unless you must have an iPhone they seem to have it covered.