Last year’s CES saw an invasion of mobile converged devices. With smartphone launches spurred by the introduction of Verizon’s LTE network (and joined by HSPA+ expansion by AT&T and T-Mobile) and a wall’s worth of tablets seeking to head off the iPad 2, it seemed as though consumer electronics were tied to the state of the slate.
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Verizon Wireless used the first day of CES to launch two new Mi-Fi products (from ZTE and Novatel) that both support LTE and – significantly – international roaming. The roaming supports both EDGE (quad band) and HSPA, ensuring that a wide range of networks can be supported (although EDGE connectivity is unlikely to provide a satisfactory experience). Both the ZTE and Novatel devices support up to 10 Wi-Fi connections, providing ample connectivity for the average globe-trotting, tech-toting business user.
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In February, Nokia declared that its Symbian platform had reached the end of its usefulness and that it was time to move forward with a new approach, that being the bold decision to opt for a Windows Phone future. Fast forward seven months, and now Nokia has announced its first two products, the Lumia 710 and new flagship product the Lumia 800 running on the Microsoft-powered operating system. More significantly, the company not only announced the launch of these products, but also streamed live video from its facility in Finland showing the first boxes rolling off the production line and onto awaiting delivery vans. The Nokia Windows vision has arrived.
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Sprint’s announcement last Friday that it would begin offering LTE-capable handsets next year as a first step toward migrating to the 4G standard signaled the beginning of the end of WiMAX in the U.S. Starting out as an underdog against a global LTE commitment, Sprint’s rollout of the first 4G network was marked by numerous delays and false starts (such as XOHM) during a time when the carrier was struggling financially. After initially first touting the superiority of WiMAX, Sprint soon shifted to the practical argument that it was supporting the technology because it was available and LTE was not.
Sprint’s time-to-market advantage, however, varied by municipality. In New York City, for example, its lead was particularly short. The Big Apple was one of the last cities in which Sprint rolled out WiMAX, but it was one of the first cities in which Verizon rolled out LTE, resulting in a head start of only a few months.
As noted in today’s press release, based on NPD Mobile Phone Track data, Sprint’s WiMAX efforts were not in vain. The carrier’s early adoption of 4G resulted in relatively high adoption of smartphones that delivered what had been the fastest wireless broadband speeds available. Indeed, Sprint was the only carrier for which 4G handset purchases accounted for the majority of unit sales. That’s particularly impressive given the relatively easier evolutionary path to 4G afforded by T-Mobile’s and AT&T’s HSPA+ networks.
Sprint notes that it will continue to offer WiMAX handsets throughout next year, which likely ensures that its WiMAX network will remain in operation for some time to come. Eventually, though, the company will be able to tap into the greater global scale afforded by LTE, scale that have proven compelling to its two larger domestic competitors.
Tags: 4G, AT&T, HSPA+, LTE, smartphone, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, WiMAX, Wireless
Consumer Technology, Wireless | Ross Rubin, Executive Director, NPD Connected Intelligence | 
October 12, 2011 1:09 pm | 
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Smartphones are an addiction for easily bored people. They tell you sports scores, weather, news, and let you play games — all while you’re waiting that interminable 15 minutes in a restaurant before you get your meal. The thing smartphones can’t do, I’m quickly learning, is download a lot of applications over a 3G network. Read more »
The combination of cars and smartphones usually results in distracted drivers and a multitude of accidents waiting to happen. Clearly phones and driving don’t mix. But at the same time, the smartphone has become an integral part of the car experience, acting as the central location for entertainment (music at least), communication and navigation. Read more »
Tags: Ford Motor Company, GPS, HTC, MirrorLink, Motorola, navigation, Nokia, smartphone
Connected Intelligence, Consumer Technology, Wireless | Eddie Hold, Vice President, NPD Connected Intelligence | September 27, 2011 4:39 pm | Comments (0)
With the launch of Google’s Nexus S smartphone, the ability to pay for items with a phone (using Near Field Communication) instead of a credit card has arrived in the U.S. One small step for mankind, one just as small step for payment solutions. The caveats for this service abound: You must be a Sprint customer to get the phone; you need a PayPass-enabled Citi MasterCard (or a Google Prepaid MasterCard); and, most importantly, you must understand what this all means and have a desire to use the phone for payments. Read more »
In thinking about how Android has turned the U.S. smartphone market on its head over the past eighteen months, the musical anthem that most readily comes to mind is James Brown’s “This is a Man’s World.” This really is an Android world . . . an Android-Android-Android world . . . at least from a smartphone OS penetration perspective. At least half of all smartphone purchases in the past three quarters have been Android-based. Read more »
They may be “vibrant” and even “epic,” but will they “captivate” and “fascinate”? It’s certainly no surprise that the Galaxy S II smartphones — the successor to Samsung’s breakout cross-carrier handsets — exceed their predecessors in nearly every specification. The Galaxy S II has a newer version of Android OS, double the number of processor cores, twice the RAM, higher digital-still and video-capture resolution, a larger screen, and a thinner profile. But there are other differences in the lineup that are not so quantifiable. Read more »
As you may know from some of my previous posts, I have four sons who love to play video games. Whether I hear explosion blasts blaring from my living room speakers from a heated game of “Call of Duty: Black Ops,” or see one of my sons drop to their knees after defeat in a close tennis match of “Wii: Sports,” I’m quite familiar with the sights and sounds of console, PC, and portable device gaming. Other methods of gaming are certainly starting to gain favor in my house, and while traditional devices still reign supreme, there are instances where I take note of the growing use of these other devices. Read more »
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