Hello!
And welcome to our Thursday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCR Wireless News to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!
And without further ado:
So the intense competition between Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile recently was unleashed in Hollywood as both carriers threw bashes celebrating the launch of new devices. Sprint Nextel was pimping the Samsung UpStage at a private residence in Beverly Hills, while T-Mobile was touting its Sidekick iD at an unnamed location “in the heart of Hollywood.”
These events are nothing new for wireless carriers. Helio threw a similar bash when it launched service, and T-Mobile has a history of throwing a party everytime it launches a new version of the Sidekick, which seems to be weekly.
For last week’s festivities, Sprint Nextel trotted out such celebrity attendees as Paris Hilton, whose claim to fame appears to be showing up at any event with a camera and home-movie making, New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush and Anthony Anderson, who you might remember from such movies as “The Electric Gigolo” and “Leper in the Backfield.”
T-Mobile countered with Ashlee Simpson, who I think is the Simpson sister who can’t sing (oh wait, they both can’t), Mary-Kate and Ashley Olson and Adam Brody, who I think was in “Charles in Charge.” But at least T-Mobile had some reason to invite such acclaimed celebs as the Sidekick iD is a de-contented version of the Sidekick 3. See the connection?
Special props to Ryan Cabrera, who is either the host of “American Idol” or played the monkey in “B.J. and the Bear,” and Kim Kardashian for somehow being invited to both events. Was Troy McClure out of town?
Now it’s bad enough that wireless carriers feel the need to throw parties for people that spend their days asking strangers to take picture of them, but for Sprint Nextel to then put out press releases with such painful descriptions as “Kim Kardashian and Caroline D’Amore relaxed and enjoyed spa manicures and pedicures while Anthony Anderson and Ryan Cabrera honed their putting skills on the ‘Mini Mogul’ golf course after dining on a gourmet meal straight from the grill. It was all fun and games for Scott Speedman and Marcus Allen, who took turns at the billiards tables while Harry Morton opted for video games,” is eyeball-bleeding maddening. How about spending some of that apparent excess money on keeping your iDEN customers from jumping ship?
Or how about from T-Mobile: “The Beauty Parlor and Barber Shop were popular destinations with Kim Kardashian and Brody Jenner stopping in to browse through the collections of hair and outfit accessories, and get red-carpet ready with the staff of makeup artists and stylists on hand from Too Faced Cosmetics and Floyd’s Barber Shop. . Just around the corner, the Cheetah Girls hit the photo shoot area to pose for mock magazine covers, while Ian Ziering and Shane West challenged friends to a game of air hockey in the game room.” Isn’t there some poor, regional GSM carrier that T-Mobile can better spend it’s money acquiring?
Sure, the media sometimes gets to attend smaller-scale versions of these events at certain trade shows, but there is good reason for that: these companies are trying to “buy” good coverage. That’s much more altruistic than throwing Hollywood parties for B-list celebrities just so they can say “It was all fun and games for Scott Speedman and Marcus Allen who took turns at the billiards tables while Harry Morton opted for video games,” in a press release.
OK! Enough of that. Thanks for checking out this Worst of the Week column. And now, some extras:
–Check the calendar on this, but Nokia put out a press release dated April 18 with a Las Vegas dateline noting how CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo planned to share the company’s vision of simplified and converged mobility and the Internet at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show. Now I know the first several months of the year have been a blur for me, but isn’t the CES show usually held very early in the year, like January?
–Go nowhere company Hop-On Inc., which at one time had a great idea for a disposable phone that people would just throw away when their prepaid minutes ran out, said it granted a “non-exclusive licensing agreement to Motorola that includes Hop-On’s D536,685 and D536,320 patents. Do those numbers not ring a bell? They are also known as the “MP3 speaker phone” and “flip phone” patents. Hop-On noted that it “valued the integrity of Motorola in the marketplace and decided to grant the license without any formal litigation.” As if that bit of kissing-up was not enough, Hop-On went on to bash Nokia for claiming that “Hop-On was attempting an ‘industry shakedown'” for claiming the patents covered the actual functionality of a flip-phone. I know RCR Wireless News online editor Mike Dano is not a big fan of patents, but I gotta say I’m starting to warm up to them. I have an idea. Why not have a disposable phone that people would just throw away when their prepaid minutes ran out? That sounds like an awesome idea that I should patent.
–Need another Hollywood fix? Sprint Nextel is teaming up with sitcom actress Leah Remini-who was hilarious in “Old School”-Suave and MindShare Entertainment for a “mom-focused Web series” dubbed “In the Motherhood.” The series is being written by big-name Hollywood writers using source material from real mothers who will have their trials and tribulations acted out by Remini. Sounds like a good idea for the Oprah-crowd. I think MindShare managing partner David Lang summed up the partnership best: “While their products and services are on opposite ends of the spectrum, both brands share a keen understanding of mom’s life and offer solutions to help her stay connected and look her best.” Amazing!
