Official EVO Rumors and Speculation thread

[RiverOfIce]

I agree with you 1000000%. But all of the "experts" On these forums are saying it is to early to advertise...lol. I still think they should be pounding this phone into peoples heads like Apple and Verizon does! They should have started weeks ago!

And you are 100% correct, but this is sprint. They are not experts in marketing, heck they are mediocre at running a phone company. No one ever says "sprint the people that revolutionize cellphone marketing." No one ever says that, to expect more out of sprint is just pointless and sad.

Here's some interesting reading regarding the Sprint EVO playbook:

It is clear that who ever is running that website should not get the htc evo. They should just avoid the phone like the plague.

 

[The Monsoon]

Hello everyone, first post here and I'm really excited for the EVO! I've been a Blackberry customer for many years and will probably keep my 8350i in service for the direct connect but will be picking up 4 EVO's June 4th! But my main question here is that I have been in constant communication with my Sprint/Nextel dealer and he knows my order but he has assured me that there are no pre-orders AND that the earliest anyone will get these phones is June 5th because they can't order until the 4th????!!!! Now I'm reading this forum and I'm getting pissed! You guys have had them ordered for 3 weeks!? I'm in a 4G area and have been anticipating this phone for a loooong time so any more of a wait will really bum me out

 

[RiverOfIce]

Now I'm reading this forum and I'm getting pissed! You guys have had them ordered for 3 weeks!?

Sorry he/she lied to you. Most of either already have the phone or have pre ordered it right now. As with everything you should always shop around and ask questions. Trust no one.

 

[cary328is]

It is clear that who ever is running that website should not get the htc evo. They should just avoid the phone like the plague.

He does make a good argument that people who cannot access 4G should not be charged the $10.00 fee until their area has it available. On the other hand, it's $10 and still ends up being cheaper than the others in the long run I bet - it's just hard for Sprint to argue since AT&T and Verizon doesn't have 4G yet LOL I bet he won't be complaining after he sees their "premium data" fees

 

[GhostFlame]

He does make a good argument that people who cannot access 4G should not be charged the $10.00 fee until their area has it available. On the other hand, it's $10 and still ends up being cheaper than the others in the long run I bet - it's just hard for Sprint to argue since AT&T and Verizon doesn't have 4G yet LOL I bet he won't be complaining after he sees their "premium data" fees

and i think that also includes free unlimited usb tethering

 

[chrissyd]

By any chance does anyone in this thread/forum work for the mobile department at Best-Buy or "The Shack"? And if so, will you let us know when the phones actually arive at the store so I can call and try to get mine early?

Not sure how valid this is, but I was told on this past week from my local BB that they had received the phones in the store but they were unable to release them until the 4th. Other than just having someone's word, I have no other factual evidence. He could have been saying that just to keep me locked into the excitement, I dunno...but good luck on getting it early =)

 

[Ronnie]

on the iphone you can take a screen shot of any screen you are on by pushing the menu key and power button at the same time. is there a way to do this with the EVO. cause sometimes im on a webstie and want to take a pic of what im looking at and send it to a freind.

 

[GhostFlame]

on the iphone you can take a screen shot of any screen you are on by pushing the menu key and power button at the same time. is there a way to do this with the EVO. cause sometimes im on a webstie and want to take a pic of what im looking at and send it to a freind.

yes there is, i just forget what its called

 

[RiverOfIce]

He does make a good argument that people who cannot access

This has been rehashed soo many times. Here what reality of the this.

1.) There is a 10 dollar fee.
2.) The htc evo has 4g.

If you do not want to pay the 10 dollar fee, do not get the phone. That is really not that hard. But they want all the "premium data and features" of the htc evo with out paying the price. The best way to see if this is a good argument is to appy it to other cases.

"I bought a $450,000 home, but since I live in a bad part of town, i only want the value to be changed to $40,000 and I will pay for the tax on that." The 10 dollar fee is a tax. Like all taxes it exist to exploit money out of people. If you do not want to pay for the full tax on something, you should not own it. What really bugs me is, if you pay for the htc evo, the 10 dollars will help expand the network. If sprint sells alot of phones in let say Delware, then sprint know where to go next.

Bottom line, if you want to have the htc evo, pay the tax. If you do not want to pay the tax, then do not buy the phone. Same goes for property, if you want to pay taxes on a 450,000 dollar home, then buy the home. If you do not want to pay taxes on the house, then do not buy it. So he is 100% wrong, I do not care what you want to do with it, it is a tax, pay for it or move on.

 

[njf520]

Not sure how valid this is, but I was told on this past week from my local BB that they had received the phones in the store but they were unable to release them until the 4th. Other than just having someone's word, I have no other factual evidence. He could have been saying that just to keep me locked into the excitement, I dunno...but good luck on getting it early =)

i spoke with three different RS stores here in san francisco. they all said they would not be giving out the phones before the 4th. they hinted that they were contractually obligated not to give them until then.

 

[toothpick]

This has been rehashed soo many times. Here what reality of the this.

1.) There is a 10 dollar fee.
2.) The htc evo has 4g.

If you do not want to pay the 10 dollar fee, do not get the phone. That is really not that hard. But they want all the "premium data and features" of the htc evo with out paying the price. The best way to see if this is a good argument is to appy it to other cases.

"I bought a $450,000 home, but since I live in a bad part of town, i only want the value to be changed to $40,000 and I will pay for the tax on that." The 10 dollar fee is a tax. Like all taxes it exist to exploit money out of people. If you do not want to pay for the full tax on something, you should not own it. What really bugs me is, if you pay for the htc evo, the 10 dollars will help expand the network. If sprint sells alot of phones in let say Delware, then sprint know where to go next.

Bottom line, if you want to have the htc evo, pay the tax. If you do not want to pay the tax, then do not buy the phone. Same goes for property, if you want to pay taxes on a 450,000 dollar home, then buy the home. If you do not want to pay taxes on the house, then do not buy it. So he is 100% wrong, I do not care what you want to do with it, it is a tax, pay for it or move on.

There is laws about taxes too and I think this one is wrong,And the guy is 100% right he even shows the emails he got back from sprint,Also with all of your tax talk you have a house to show for it but sprint can not show you anything for the $10 they just keep telling you about the hardware and you MIGHT use more data, So your tax talk crap is for the birds.

 

[tp2386]

Next week is gonna be awesome. Its gonna be a short work week for me seeing that im off on memorial day. I should see the Lakers beat Boston in game 1 of the finals on Thursday night and then pick up my evo friday morning. I cant wait.

 

[cary328is]

This has been rehashed soo many times. Here what reality of the this.

1.) There is a 10 dollar fee.
2.) The htc evo has 4g.

If you do not want to pay the 10 dollar fee, do not get the phone. That is really not that hard. But they want all the "premium data and features" of the htc evo with out paying the price. The best way to see if this is a good argument is to appy it to other cases.

"I bought a $450,000 home, but since I live in a bad part of town, i only want the value to be changed to $40,000 and I will pay for the tax on that." The 10 dollar fee is a tax. Like all taxes it exist to exploit money out of people. If you do not want to pay for the full tax on something, you should not own it. What really bugs me is, if you pay for the htc evo, the 10 dollars will help expand the network. If sprint sells alot of phones in let say Delware, then sprint know where to go next.

Bottom line, if you want to have the htc evo, pay the tax. If you do not want to pay the tax, then do not buy the phone. Same goes for property, if you want to pay taxes on a 450,000 dollar home, then buy the home. If you do not want to pay taxes on the house, then do not buy it. So he is 100% wrong, I do not care what you want to do with it, it is a tax, pay for it or move on.

Good point. The way I also see it, I think $10 is pretty small considering the cost to implement a 4G network across the country. They have to recover some of that too somehow right? But yeah excellent point. I'm paying it and moving on. It's ridiculous to complain about $10 a month when I'm pretty damn sure I spend $100 a month on starbucks trips.

 

[swnic]

Good point. The way I also see it, I think $10 is pretty small considering the cost to implement a 4G network across the country. They have to recover some of that too somehow right? But yeah excellent point. I'm paying it and moving on. It's ridiculous to complain about $10 a month when I'm pretty damn sure I spend $100 a month on starbucks trips.

Agree!!! Enough about the "tax". I want the 4G rollout to happen as soon as possible so I have no problem paying the extra $10. Also, this is the price and if you don't like it, get an iphone!! sheesh Enough is enough all. There is nothing you can do about it except bitch to Sprint and hope they give you a $10 credit per month. Then you may be able to sleep at night with the knowledge you have done nothing to help the 4G roll-out. end rant


EDIT: Sorry, this is not pointed at any one, just needed to vent. (i feel better now)

 

[MCStone]

If it's truely for the "Richer data experience" and "uncapping" the data. Why not make it optional? I don't think I'm in any danger of going over 5gig (or even close) so why should I be charged for it. I think this guy is right on. If the plan was 79.99 that'd be one thing and I'd gladly pay it. But it's 69.99 and a 10 dollar fee that they come right out and say is for features and benefits that I won't be using. Either just raise the price of the plan or make the fee optional. It really is stricltly about preception. I really want the phone so I'm on board anyway, but it's not gonna help win over any of the people that were on the fence.

 

[VGPOP]

If the EVO is complete, why do we need to wait until June 4th?

I'm dying in here....

 

[thaprinze]

If the plan was 79.99 that'd be one thing and I'd gladly pay it.

Agreed. I absolutely love Sprint, and haven't had any complaints about my service in the 4 years I've been with them. However, they have a very ambiguous explanation for their $10/mo charge. I believe they did this on purpose so they can apply the charge to anyone, whether they have 4G service or not. But to say you're paying $10/mo because you now have a 4.3" display or 8MP camera leaves the door open to releasing a phone with 4.1" display & 7MP camera that does not need the additional $10/mo.

Just drop the whole "premium data-pack" & say all phone rates will go up by $10 starting June 4th. It's clear that's the direction they want to move in.

 

[SHO_ONE]

I agree with you 1000000%. But all of the "experts" On these forums are saying it is to early to advertise...lol. I still think they should be pounding this phone into peoples heads like Apple and Verizon does! They should have started weeks ago!

Here's my theory. As you mention.. the "experts" say we will see a commercials in the following month as to not step on the iphone's toe's ( for God's sake we wouldn't want that, would we?! ) However, I can't imagine this train of thought working on anything else. Take for example war. If you all believe the hype and believe we new about the terrorist plot to hijack planes then crash them into the pentagon / twin towers... wouldn't it have behooved all American's to act first. I just find it odd that, as you say kcs7272, they didn't start the advertising weeks ago. As a matter a fact I said the same thing a couple weeks ago myself.

Could you imagine watching your child hanging from a cliff, knowing he'll / she'll fall, the fall wont kill em it's the ravenous dogs waiting down bellow.... What do you do.... wait to see how it plays out... no you seize the moment and act NOW.... whatever... who am I, but a lowly customer

 

[shappy]

With regard to the whole $10/mo issue, I am acquainted via email with the Sprint Business Markets Group Director of Business Pricing & Analytics. His explanation was that the faster processor of the Evo will let it consume more data (via browsing) than other lesser phones and the fee removes the 5GB soft data cap.

While this may actually be the case (web browsing on phones like my current TP2 really is held back by the processor that is half as fast as the Evo), I told him that preemptively charging the fee was not particularly consumer friendly and that it should be charged only when the 5GB soft cap is hit.

He also agreed that it had less to do with paying for a 4G buildout and more to do with 3G data usage. In reality, WiMax is relatively inexpensive to deploy (compared to LTE) and Sprint should want as many people on it as possible since a GB of data on WiMax is less expensive for Sprint to deliver than it is on EVDO.

The more people who are on WiMax, the better off Sprint is. This is especially true if they can have the ability to offer VOiP on WiMax will take strain off of the 1XRTT network.

Of course, he had to stick with the company line.

 

[HTCeasar]

I have to agree that not advertising seems kinda dumb. How u supposed to sell sell sell and no ones even heard of the phone. Maybe the supply wouldn't meet the demand with heavy advertising months early. Or maybe they're taking notes from what happened with the Nexus One (which seems like a great phone IMO). Or maybe they're broke and can't afford it. I hope it's not what the other post said about not stepping on Apples toes. I wouldn't only step on Apples toes I'd try to run em over ! repeatedly !

 

[swnic]

OK, so I just had to go to BB and check to see what accessories they have, or will have. i am REALLY wanting the car dock. They said they were going to get some things, screen protectors, gel covers and the like but didn't have any info on the car dock. I did get to hold the phone, which wasn't a live phone, but it was weighted like the "real phone". It felt AWSOME. Then I went to the Sprint store and asked if they would have the car dock on launch day and the guy there said they have the bodyglove for it. I said I would like to buy one and he told me he couldn't sell it to me until the 4th. WTF?!? He also said he didn't know what other things they would have. I love how Sprint is keeping the stores on the "duh, we don't know" line. Just thought I would share.

 

[eieio]

I have to agree that not advertising seems kinda dumb. How u supposed to sell sell sell and no ones even heard of the phone. Maybe the supply wouldn't meet the demand with heavy advertising months early. Or maybe they're taking notes from what happened with the Nexus One (which seems like a great phone IMO). Or maybe they're broke and can't afford it. I hope it's not what the other post said about not stepping on Apples toes. I wouldn't only step on Apples toes I'd try to run em over ! repeatedly !

In theory yes it seems that way.. But think about this with no heavy advertisement Sprint presold 400K?+ phones.. Why would you advertise and you can accomplish this on word of mouth and reviews??

I have said it time and time again the phone is great but wimax-4g makes it an incredible phone.. I would not advertise until the major 4g markets are ready..

If 4g is up and running nothing any other phone can do to touch it.. Not Apple or anyone else..

They need wimax up to make this a superstar of a phone and its not there yet..

30-60 days it will be.. Preselling as many phones as they did in the usa alone is an amazing feat by its self..

 

[njf520]

my $0.02 on the "why isn't sprint advertising more?" thread...

i work for one of the largest ad agencies in the world. we begin to discuss campaigns for products months and months before they come out. there are tons of metrics that are gathered. surveys are sent out, people are interviewed, focus groups are formed. decisions are made based on tons of data AND the input of the client. tens and sometimes hundreds of people are involved just on the agency level. furthermore, multiple agencies are involved when dealing with a big company like sprint. there may be one agency for digital ads, one for radio, one for tv, one for print, etc.

do we screw it up sometimes? yeah. of course. hindsight is 20/20. but, people, posting a "sprint is sooooo dumb not to advertise this thing all over the place" are saying that with very, very little info.

how often do you see ads for cars that aren't yet out? do you see ads for the new BMW in may when it doesn't come out until september? how about TVs? do you see ads for a sony TV that you can't buy yet?

now, i am NOT saying this is the reason we don't see hundreds of evo ads on TV. and i am not saying this strategy will turn out to be a good one. but, we might want to take a step back and realize that a) most of us know a lot less about advertising than the people sprint has hired b) we haven't seen any of the metrics and c) we need to stop thinking that "some guy at sprint" forgot to click send on the "start the evo ads now" email.

in the meantime, it makes the evo easier for us to get.

 

[thaprinze]

I agree with what you're saying, and while some of the decisions they've made are beyond me, I know those decisions are made by people much more knowledgeable on the subject than me. What I don't understand is when you have an Evo on hand, and someone walks in and says can I see it, why not show it to them? Seems to me that would be free advertising. The customer somehow found out about the phone, and showing it to him isn't going to cost anything. If you have accessories in store & someone wants to buy some, why not sell it to them? Worst case scenario, they return it; best case, they keep it.

Now I could understand Sprint saying we want to have accessories available for purchase when we release the phone, but in either case, you're selling accessories.

 

[spar10]

i'm not sure i understand why everyone thinks sprint is making a bad move by not advertising the phone yet. i think it makes complete sense.

forums like this represent a minuscule part of the demographic that will buy the phone. do you realize how much moaning and groaning and whining and pain everyone has shared here and in other forums for the past month in anticipation of this phone? look how hard it's been for everyone here to wait this long. now imagine that across their entire advertising population. that would not be a pretty site nor would it make for a happy customer base.

it makes sense to me they're apparently waiting until launch to begin advertising.