Release could have been so much more...

[Codeworks]

I realize I am a relative newbie on this site, but have been in the phone business for years. Myself and a colleague have been discussing the EVO for the last couple months and when it comes down to it, I feel Sprint really missed a golden opportunity.

My thoughts...

a. Sprint is and has been in trouble for a while. They needed a phone like the EVO to help ease the bleeding... If only they had additional stock to sell the thousands of people that want one!

b. Droid Incredible has been unavailable for weeks. Again, a golden opportunity to snag some Incredible/Verizon customers... But instead, the EVO is also unavailable. Hard to lure customers with another out of stock product.

c. The new iPhone... iPhone comes out in a couple weeks. Another opportunity for users to snag an EVO and see what this thing can do before the fan favorite iPhone is released. Thats right, not enough stock.

d. Accessories. Car Dock/Desk dock/HDMI cable/etc... Personally I am most likely to buy accessories when I pick up my phone. Nope, dont want a gel skin, BUT I sure would have bought a car dock and nice leather flip case... If available. But they will be available in a couple weeks.. Too bad.

e. Qix. This was heralded as one of the big selling points... Sure it is cool, but the fact that it didnt work out of the shoot, systems were overloaded and (at least in my mind) doesnt work quite as nice as the promo videos show it does is once again leaving the door open for the iDevice to get a little facetime.

f. Price plans.. Throw in 6 months of the $29 MiFi package. Waive the $10 charge for 6 months. Again, Sprint had some opportunities here.

OK... Dont get me wrong. I have an EVO and I love it. More than anything I want to see Sprint succeed (especially since it is the only carrier that works in my business). I just feel they had some really great opportunities here and were unable to take advantage of them.

Just my 4 cents worth.

 

[R1_Rydah]

I agree 110%!!

 

[storino03]

well, we don't know if the evo has been a success or a failure yet, so i don't see how this is relevant.

 

[Codeworks]

I am not in any way calling it a success or a failure. I was simply stating that (I feel) Sprint/EVO/HTC squandered some opportunities.

 

[YBCold]

Well since the hype wasn't plastered across everything it made it easier for me to get one so no complaints here!

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

 

[Gigity]

well, we don't know if the evo has been a success or a failure yet, so i don't see how this is relevant.

Not being able to sell one to anyone willing and ready to buy one is an utter failure.

 

[dullgeek]

I'm not a sprint apologist. But I really don't understand this thread.

a. Sprint is and has been in trouble for a while. They needed a phone like the EVO to help ease the bleeding... If only they had additional stock to sell the thousands of people that want one!

Sprint can't possibly know how much demand there is going to be for this phone. They were disappointed last year w/the Pre, so it's not surprising that they'd be cautious this year.

b. Droid Incredible has been unavailable for weeks. Again, a golden opportunity to snag some Incredible/Verizon customers... But instead, the EVO is also unavailable. Hard to lure customers with another out of stock product.

f. Price plans.. Throw in 6 months of the $29 MiFi package. Waive the $10 charge for 6 months. Again, Sprint had some opportunities here.

Um... what? Adding incentives to something that sold out without them? If anything basic economics suggests that sprint should raise the price to match the demand, not throw more at it to increase the demand that they already can't match.

Basically, it seems to me like you're saying that you wish Sprint would have anticipated demand better. And I'm sure they wish that too. Every day that they don't have stock, is a day where someone else doesn't give them money and extend a contract. But it's not that simple. No one has a crystal ball into the future. And when looking forward, there were two ways they could have been wrong when predicting demand:

1. They could have under-predicted demand, in which case the sell out and get a positive buzz about high demand
2. They could have over-predicted demand, in which case they're stuck with a supply of phones that they can't get rid of.

If I were running Sprint (or Verizon) I'd choose #1. The other is a much bigger risk for the company. The 3rd option is, of course, being exactly right in their estimates for demand. But that requires a working crystal ball or a very lucky guess. Both of which are in short supply.

 

[mvpilot172]

Well after Sprint didn't have enough Palm Pre's for launch they do it again. They should have bought a million, they would sell throughout this year. Sprint keeps shooting itself in the foot.

 

[sonso]

I agree with the OP

 

[pwnst_r]

I am not in any way calling it a success or a failure. I was simply stating that (I feel) Sprint/EVO/HTC squandered some opportunities.

Truth.

 

[gbm85]

This thread is so funny I'm not even going to bother posting a rebuttal.

 

[meyerweb#CB]

Umm, did it occur to you that it's probably not Sprint who's responsible for the shortage in supply? HTC builds both the Evo and Incredible, and both are in short supply. Maybe HTC can't keep up with demand.

And Sprint had a second batch in less that a week after release. I somehow doubt they lost millions of customers to Verizon (for what, the non-existant Inc?) or Apple (for the non-existant 4g?) in a week.

Some people will complain about anything.


I would like to see Sprint start some advertising, like Verizon did with the Droid. There's almost no one in America who doesn't have some idea that Droid = cool Verizon phone.