t-mobile rising
 

I am wondering if t-mobile is about to take the US by storm with a completely different paradigm....

A few signs:

Lots of nokia love

Lots of android love combined with Google vs Apple/AT&T with FCC on the dumb mobile pipe front

Deutsche Telekom(owner of t-mobile) maybe buying Sprint

Motorola Cliq

Super fast rollout of 3g network


What do y'all think?

Re: t-mobile rising
 

I don't hold much hope for a TMo Sprint union right now. Maybe once 4G is bigger and Tmo could use the WiMax network and convert it to LTE with a software upgrade, but right now, there are too many issues. And when has TMo shown Nokia love?? They don't have many Nokia models as it is, no Nokia smartphones, and don't look to offer the N900 from the early looks of it. That may change, but they have much invested in Cliq and MyTouch, and TP2 will as well. Just not room for the N900 from their perspective.

Re: t-mobile rising
 

I was saying nokia is giving them love, no?

I mean Nokia is releasing one of the only phones they have ever put out with the t-mobile 3g(1700/2100) bands. That can't be a mistake.

Re: t-mobile rising
 

thing is..nokia isn't so hot in the US mainstream market. especially with another resistive screen even though (and i'm not sure if this is 100% factual) the n900 doesn't come with a stylus? (agani not 100% sure). although i hear it's one of the most responsive resistive screens..still isn't the point of having a finger UI to be able to use your fingers for responsive touch..which capactive screens generally have the better response.

also...n900 so far hasn't been marketed very aggressively here in the US..only time i've seen it mentioned (other than here, gizmodo, engadget and other tech blogs) was a post on slickdeals. without carrier subsidy (which may or may not happen) the price is too high for a lot of people to buy

sorry to get slightly off-topic

Re: t-mobile rising
 

It's actually more responsive than my G1 capacitive screen. The responsiveness of the G1 also depends a bit on the air humidity. Often (depending on the weather and time of day) the G1 doesn't even recognize tapping with the index finger and wants a thumb.
I suppose the same is true with an iPhone.

Re: t-mobile rising
 

there has to be some limitations on dot pitch for capacitive screen unless the interface is very carefully designed and controlled, IMO

Re: t-mobile rising
 

Where I live, I don't have humidity problem with either of them.. but I notice that the overall experience of screen interaction is better on the iPhone, probably because they implement the serial-tasking limitation and the bigger screen. I think the android will truly shine when they release Cortex A8 class devices with 3.5" or larger screens.

Even with 0.3" difference (3.2" vs 3.5") the iPhone's screen is noticeably bigger. Especially when you pull out the OSK.

Re: t-mobile rising
 

Lets pretend that DT buys sprint and merges it with TMO? I don't think that it is possible for them to maintain two separate technology networks Long-Term. Could they roll people on to a single technology using HSPA+ rather than LTE? or do we think the LTE is the common convergence point?

I'd like to think is TMO got its network to the coverage level mapped out in the next year they could move the sprint users over in a cash-for clunkers phone subsidy program. The interesting things offered by sprint are
- Palm Pre
- Push-to-talk

Palm Pre does come offer a GSM version
I believe Push-to-talk can run on TMO networks, it runs on AT&T at least

Re: t-mobile rising
 

LTE is obviously the "end game" here...all the UMTS-based stuff is stop-gap until LTE is ready for prime time (maybe 2 years from now?).

IMHO the biggest thing that a Sprint merger brings (besides a ton of customers) is a *giant* chunk of spectrum that could be used for LTE down the road. The biggest question (in my mind) is what happens to WiMax in this scenario since Sprint is one of the major players involved in rolling it out in the U.S. While I guess in theory they could co-exist, it would seem a wasteful duplication of technology and effort to maintain both standards on the same network.

Re: t-mobile rising
 

Not likely at this point. T-Mo will probably wait a while, let Sprint sink even farther or go bankrupt, then buy up what it needs at bankruptcy prices. See Chrysler/Fiat.

They would converge at the changeover to LTE. That way they only have to give Sprint customers new phones once instead of twice.

If Palm is still around by then. They, like Sprint, are still bleeding cash like a stuck pig...

Rumor has it that Nextel may be sold off as a separate company specializing in emergency communications. Sprint would retain most of Nextel's bandwith, (that bandwidth is what Sprint really wanted Nextel for in the first place anyway) whatever they don't need for emergency services.

Bottom line is Sprint needs to be rescued by T-Mo much more than T-Mo needs Sprint's headaches. Sprint is a complete mess. But I can certainly understand T-Mo wanting to pick up 30 million+ customers and a lotta bandwidth if the price is right.

EDIT: Texaslabrat beat me to it with some points while I was typing. But we clearly agree about convergence with LTE and a large part (most?) of Sprint's value being the bandwidth they control. And obviously, if there's a merger and LTE rollout WiMax is redundant and toast.