Sprint Needs Help

Sprint just announced their newest "It" thing in mobile, the Kyocera Echo, a dual-screen Android smartphone.

At this point I have to seriously wonder just what the leadership at Sprint was thinking last month when they sent out invites to their media even at Times Square in New York City complete with David Blaine to announce this device.  As if the company did not already have enough problems loosing subscribers, dealing with the Nextel side of their business, and not making all that much money they decided to add this thing?  At a media event?  Really?!?

Click the link above to see a quick hands on review, some video, and pictures of the device.  You'll see what I'm talking about.  The Echo doesn't even use WiMax, Sprints 4G network, and they seem to be billing this thing as some sort of flagship product.

Here is what makes this sad to me.

I actually like my service with Sprint.  I've had them for over three years and considering just how fickle I am about stuff like this that should say something about what I think of their service.  In three years with them I've owned six smart phone devices.  I still love my latest one, the HTC Evo 4G!  However I have to admit that once again I'm starting to get a bit bored and I was hoping for something new to get me excited and instead I'm left wondering just what the heck is going on at their company.  The Echo almost feels insulting.  No, wait.  It IS insulting.

Other US carriers such as AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile all made several impressive mobile device announcements at CES last month not to mention the Verizon iPhone launching on Verizon this very week.  There are indicators online that over the next four weeks at MWC and CITAA we can expect to see some more impressive announcements from those carriers.  Where is Sprint?

Can you hear me now?

Sad as it may seem to me personally I have to admit I am a bit of a gadget hound and right now Sprint is leaving me high and dry.  

To that end I am setting a personal deadline of June 2011 for something to grab my attention from Sprint.  If nothing from them has created a "WOW, I've just GOTTA have THAT," moment then I will look to pack my mobile bags and head to one of their competitors during the summer.  By that time my ETF with Sprint on the two lines of service I have with them will be below the $150 mark which is an acceptable amount to me.  Based on the usage patterns on my two lines I could actually get a plan with Verizon that would save me around $40 per month (1 smart phone device and 1 feature phone device) considering that the monthly minutes usage for my two accounts is less than 300 minutes per month and that I typically use less than 200 text messages per month.

You can probably guess by my already having hard numbers handy this is something I've been debating for some time anyway.  It looks like LTE 4G technology is really going to be where the "action" is over the next three or four years and if one wants a nice gadget experience one must follow the majority of the pack.  My only concern is the tiered data pricing structures that are taking shape but I can learn to live within those limits if I have to.  I'll start tracking my monthly data usages to get a handle on what works best for me.