Sprint earnings drop 95 percent, but beat street expectations
Added on 2007-08-08 13:49:00
by Randall Bennett
 Earnings season is a funny thing... it kind of like the "grown up" version of junior-high dating; everyone's talking, but no one really knows how it works until someone gets pregnant. Sprint announced their beautiful bundle of joy, a one cent per share increase. While it may seem meager, the report beats the street's expectations, but the bad part? It's a 95% decrease year over year. Different news outlets spin it the way they want, but here's the real facts. Sprint earned about 25 cents per share before one time expenditures cut out that bottom line. Sprint is gearing up for the 4G cellphone network race (insert WiMax wars joke here) so they say the spent heavily in upgrading their networks. Sprint also saw some uptick in subscriber base, but the company says it's unlikely to last past this quarter.
We're confident that Sprint beating analyst expectations is a good thing, but by the same token, they're really going to have to turn around their customer unfriendly tactics to win over more customers. Nothing says customer satisfaction and loyalty like dropping your problem children.
|
|
iPhone sales - activations = stupid speculation
Added on 2007-07-26 09:19:00
by Alfredo Padilla
 So after the roller coaster ride that Apple stockholders have enjoyed the last couple of days lets look a little closer at the numbers. AT&T reported on Tuesday that they activated 146,000 iPhones. This sent Apple stock plummeting as it fell short of the somewhat ridiculous expectations of analysts that ran as high as 500,000 phones sold. Apple came out the next day and announced that they had sold 270,000 iPhones in the first 30 hours, a figure almost 85% higher than AT&T's activations number. The speculation on why the discrepancy existed has gone far afield, as some argue that a combination of activation problems and people seeking to sell the phone on Ebay might be the issues. Although we're sure that both of these items contributed, the truth is that there is no way that there were 124,000 activation problems + disappointed ebay sellers. People seem to be missing the obvious reason for the discrepancy, online sales. Phones sold through Apple's online store during the period would obviously not be activated by AT&T as buyers would not receive them for at least a week, if not longer. Although we understand that its fun to whine about activation problems and speculate about how broken hearted Ebay sellers were, lets have some common sense here.
|
|
AT&T's Q2 results: 146k iPhones in the first two days, 18 Billion text messages
Added on 2007-07-24 12:05:00
by Randall Bennett
 It's earnings season, and straight out of AT&T's earnings call, AT&T reported 146,000 iPhone subscribers activated their phones on June 29th and 30th. Apple investors seem less than pleased, as the stock is down $3.90 right now, but putting it in context, the broader indices are down across the board.
AT&T, also competing for "most text messages in a quarter" took the crown from previously announced winner, Verizon, almost doubling their text message total. AT&T says its subscribers sent an astounding 18 billion messages, and 270 mms messages. Take that "the network!"
|
|
Sprint insider: "We were LITERALLY paying these customers to use our service."
Added on 2007-07-12 09:43:00
by Randall Bennett
 The Consumerist scored an excellent interview with a Sprint "insider" regarding the 1,000 or so forced terminations. The person says they essentially "fired" their worst customers, customers who called in to complain or get free minutes on a daily basis, and the insider doesn't feel bad about it either. The insider really explains things from Sprint's perspective, and most rational consumers will likely agree with Sprint's perspective, but getting the bad news that someone wants to break up with you, no matter how much you "hate them", still might sting a little, especially if you've been scamming them out of hundreds or thousands of minutes.
|
|
RIM earnings up huge, Palm loses ground
Added on 2007-06-29 11:46:00
by Randall Bennett
 Both mobile device maker RIM and Palm reported earnings yesterday, and most people reading WirelessInfo probably realize RIM hit a sweet spot with the BlackBerry Pearl, while Palm continues to reel from a lack of innovation. It should come as no surprise that RIM reported blockbuster earnings, rising 73% this quarter gaining $1.06 per share, compared to Palm's 15 cent per share loss. And while we're no stock analysts, we don't see too much changing in the way of Palm and RIM's future. RIM is on track to ship a version of the Pearl 2, adding much more multimedia rich features to an already stellar device, while Palm is planning to release the Foleo, a "mobile companion" device we consider to be DOA.
[Via Cellular-News]
|
|
iPhone + iPlan only $180 more expensive than Treo 750
Added on 2007-06-26 11:37:00
by Randall Bennett
We've been seeing some posts around about the iPhone pricing structure and some people lamenting the seemingly steep price, and to be sure we're no Apple apologists, but we did the math and when comparing the iPhone and iPlan to other AT&T phones and plans, the iPhone is about $180 more expensive, and that cost is mainly in the purchase of the phone. Take a look at these numbers:
| |
Handset Subsidized
|
Handset Unsubsidized |
450 Minutes over two years |
Unlimited Data * 2 years |
Text messages included |
Total Subsidized
|
Total Unsubsidized |
| iPhone |
$499.99 |
$499.99 |
$1439.76 |
[included] |
200/month |
$1939.75 |
$1939.75 |
| Treo 750 |
$199.99 |
$549.99 |
$479.88 |
$1079.76 [3G] |
1500/month |
$1759.63 |
$2109.63 |
| BlackBerry 8800 |
$299.99 |
$499.99 |
$479.88 |
$839.76 |
0 |
$1619.63 |
$1819.63 |
| Razr V3xx |
$99.99 |
$299.99 |
$479.88 |
$479.76 [3G] |
0 |
$1059.63 |
$1259.63 |
BlackBerry service is BlackBerry Web Client. Numbers are generated from AT&T.com as of 6/26.
So, adding it all up the iPhone's $180 comes essentially from handset costs. If you get rid of the subsidy that other phones get the Treo 750 is actually more expensive. Sure, the iPhone only gets EDGE coverage, but keep in mind that none of AT&T's plans are technology dependent.
|
|
Verizon prepping to buy back some of VzW from Vodaphone?
Added on 2007-06-25 08:21:00
by Randall Bennett
 Some are speculating that Verizon is sick of sharing its wireless bed with Vodaphone and is looking to buy out more of Vodaphone's stake in VzW. The speculation is fueled by Verizon's June 14th SEC filing in which they asked for another $8 billion in debt, which raised many an analyst eyebrow. No one is saying Verizon will purchase the entire 45% stake Vodaphone owns in the carrier, but speculation continues that they'll buy some part of the stake.
Verizon spun off the wireless unit way back in 2000 and took $10 billion for Vodaphone's minority stake in the company, but with all the success of Verizon as a wireless carrier, it'd likely take more than $10 billion to buy it back.
|
|
New T-Mobile $40 rate plan
Added on 2007-06-07 15:04:00
by Randall Bennett
 Want to save ten bucks a month on your T-Mobile bill without clicking on any flashing banners? If you're on the 1000 anytime minutes plus free nights and weekends plan, call up T-Mo and reset your plan, saving you ten bucks. The catch? They want you to extend your contract by two years. The deal isn't so peachy if you're a loyal T-Mo customer, but having recently switched to the carrier, I did the math, and even if I cancel at my original contract date, it's cheaper for me to pay the early termination fee than continue to pay the extra $10 per month.
[Via RCRNews]
|
|
Amp'd part deux: Half their subscribers didn't pay
Added on 2007-06-06 09:08:00
by Randall Bennett
 We posted earlier about Amp'd biting the dust (or, more properly, restructuring before biting the dust) but an article in BusinessWeek gave some additional insight as to why the carrier could be staring at an early grave. Turns out almost half of their subscriber base skipped out on the bill, leaving the company a little bit "screwed." Out of their 175,000 subscribers, a staggering 80,000 subscribers, mostly on 18-month service contracts, failed to pay their bill.
The chapter 11 status will definitely give some investors pause for thought, as Virgin Mobile gets ready for an IPO on Wall St. BusinessWeek thinks they'll push back their IPO to fall, giving investors extra time to evaluate the MVNO scene. Of course, they've got 4.9 million subscribers plus the venture is 50% Virgin and 50% Sprint, but what about Helio? Will wireless users in the US actually care that the phones from Korea and SK Telecom are actually interesting? Sound off in the comments.
|
|
|
|
| << Prev | Next >> |
|
|
