Worst of the Week: Did somebody step on a duck?

Hello! And welcome to our Friday 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 RCRWireless.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!
And without further ado:
If ever there was a Rodney Dangerfield “I get no respect” moment in the wireless space, it was this week when two beleaguered handset manufacturers announced devices paramount to their future success – and in my mind not bad in execution – that were derided by the investor community for picking the wrong carriers to partner with to launch those devices.
The first disrespect – or “dis” as the kids say – was had by Palm when following the unveiling of its new Pixi smartphone, investment firms downgraded their view on the company when it announced the device would launch exclusively with Sprint Nextel. Now sure, Sprint Nextel may not be the most beloved carrier at the moment, or for the past several moments for that matter, but this is a carrier that still counts nearly 50 million subscribers, has a robust 3G network and one of the most consumer-friendly data rate plans available. All good supporting plays for a device that is chock full of multimedia capabilities.
But, that wasn’t enough for those holding Palm-labeled paper tickets who — in a frenzy that can only happen on Wall Street — shed their holdings of the company, sending its stock price down. Most blamed the drop on the Sprint Nextel connection, noting the carrier lacked cache with consumers and that linking the device with the operator was tying Palm’s fortunes to a sinking ship. These people are lucky Sprint Nextel has managed to build up the skin of a rhino over the past couple of years or we could have seen a rush of tears flood downtown Overland Park, Kan. (That is if there is a downtown to Overland Park, Kan.)
Dis No. 2 was levied against Motorola when the company’s unveiling of its first Android-powered smartphone the Cliq – and in the minds of many a device that could make or break the once-dominant handset maker – was met by similar criticism when it announced the device would be available initially in the U.S. through the industry’s No. 4 carrier, T-Mobile USA. Motorola’s stock managed to gain a bit following the news, but for a device expected to bring the company out of its Razr-induced malaise, the response was muted.
Motorola’s launch plans for the Cliq differed greatly from its first attempt at a Razr successor, the awesomely named Razr2, which launched across all the nationwide operators as well as regional carriers on the same day. How did that work out? Well …
The way I view it, not every phone can launch with Verizon Wireless or AT&T Mobility and if they did, they would just cancel each other out in the rapidly increasing hype cycle. This is apparent at Verizon Wireless, where the exclusive domestic availability of RIM’s BlackBerry Storm has almost been drowned out by seemingly weekly launch of a new smartphone from Samsung, LG or HTC. The polar opposite, though similar effect, is the case at AT&T Mobility, where every phone that is launched is overshadowed by Apple’s iPhone, which is available at every price point.
And I’m sure some carriers in the corner of the network operations departments, which I would assume are very far removed from their marketing departments, wouldn’t mind sharing some devices amongst other carriers as a way to soften the impact on network capacity. (Not looking directly at you AT&T.)
Besides, what’s so bad about encouraging handset operators to not just share the wealth with other carriers but also with the 1,231 wireless customers in the country that are not with the Big 2?
OK! Enough of that.
Thanks for checking out this Worst of the Week column. And now some extras:
–I know this was already sort of touched on above, but what is it with handset manufacturers refusing to use actual words to name their phones. Pixi? Cliq? I know both Motorola and Palm have a history of throwing words together in an attempt to hip-ify their phones, but what’s wrong with some good ‘ole English words like “Bandit” or “Convoy?” Just asking.
–Looks like we could be heading for another technology war. Though unlike the previous battle that raged in the 90s between GSM, TDMA and CDMA technology, the new battle looks to be between those carriers looking to migrate quickly to LTE networks and those looking to extend the life of their current UMTS-based networks with evolutions based on HSPA. AT&T Mobility added fuel to the fire this week when it announced plans to upgrade a half-dozen markets with HSPA 7.2 capabilities by the end of the year and cover 90% of its existing footprint by the end of 2011. The release did mention that the carrier was still on track to deploy LTE, but that it did not expect commercial deployments to begin until at least 2011. In the other corner is Verizon Wireless, which is bum-rushing its way to LTE with plans to have two commercial markets online by the end of this year and 100 million potential customers covered by the end of 2010. While the long-term judgment looks set to go the way of LTE, I am hoping the short-term battle is a quagmire. Giggidy.
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