It’s barely even lunch time, and the HTC Dream rumor mill is already churnin’ away at full force.
Just minutes ago, an insider involved with the development of Android confirmed to us that the HTC Dream will set you back just $200 bucks after contract. While they weren’t able to provide a sans-contract price, they did say that T-Mobile’s subsidization wasn’t very large.
Now, they’ve still got just under a week to switch things up, but with the oft-compared iPhone sitting at $199 and most rumors pinpointing the Dream to come in between 150 and 250 smackers, a 200 dollar price point seems plenty reasonable. (Plus, a price tag of only two Franklins might just make up for the fact that it’s not exactly the prettiest handset ever launched.)
For the same price as a new iPhone I could get this instead?
Umm…. I’m confused.
That’s right. I’m not sure what else is confusing you. One difference between this and the iPhone is that it’s an open Linux-based platform.
Less than a year since the announcement, good job guys!
This is old news, the 200 price point has been known for a while.
@Pat: Actually, it’s the other way around. You could get a new iPhone instead…
Android is gonna own for the techie crowd. Granted, the release phone looks like a pile of crap but I’ll deal with that. I cannot wait to run over my iPhone after this drops.
Please YouTube that.
Having been with t-mobile, let me say this…. we’ve all heard the saying, you can put lipstick on a pig, it’s still a pig. i.e. a carrier can spend big $$$ and get a cool handset but doesn’t mean their service improved. t-mobile is grasping to keep churn and cancel rates from increasing. It’s tmobile their service sucks! Probably one of the worse in the industry for dropped calls. 3G or no 3G, this isn’t going to help them until the build out their own network on a large scale.
Really? I thought it was AT&T and the iPhone that was just in the news recently about the horrific rate of dropped calls? Also, where did you read about T-Mobile’s dropped call rate? The industry reports that I’ve read show that they’re pretty even across the board. Just because T-Mobile has the smaller network doesn’t mean it has more dropped calls.
One more thing, I think you keep confusing carriers. It is Sprint that is grasping at straws keeping churn. They have been consistently losing 500,000 subs per quarter, while T-Mobile has been gaining that many.
I think you’re confused. Very confused.
Sprint is obviously in trouble, they are trying everything they can to get out of the mess they are in. Instinct…
One of the main reasons t-mobile is doing the droid is to have something to compete with AT&T on in the handset area. T-mobile has been hurt by the success of the iPhone and AT&T, there is no doubt.
Yes, t-mobile has a smaller network, I don’t even know how many towers they really own, most are probably leased. If you do any traveling or talk to other users on other networks, tmobile is by far the worse. Probably something like this.
Verizon -best
Sprint
AT&T -
Tmobile -worse
I’ll dig up the rates from Wireless weekly, when I saw t-mobile starting to take a beating it caught my eye.
I’m sorry Victor, but I have to defend T-Mobile here. Now, I will not go off the deep end and rank them as the best company out there, but on the list you just gave, they are definitely ranked number 2. I believe the rankings are 1) Verizon 2) T-mobile 3)AT&T 4) Sprint.
Now we all know coverage is different according to the location you live in, so I’m ranking these from the Southeast region here in Florida. Fact #1 T-mobile is consitently ranked high by JDpower in customer service and call quality. Fact #2, T-mobile has constantly increased their subscriber base … How? … by appealing to the younger generation with low rate plans and the introduction of MyFaves. Fact #3, many people were leaving T-mobile NOT b/c of dropped calls but rather a lack of high speed network. Due to this not being T-mobile’s fault but rather the ineptitude of the government not vacating a spectrum, their recent roll out of a 3g network will only increase their subscriber base.
Currently, T-mobile is very *Stable* as the number four company and ultimately may never reach the subscriber base of those other companies unless they “merge” with another company as Sprint and AT&T did …
Apple stock is below $130 today. This rumor is really killing them.
I hope the phone is really that good so that 23 months from now when my AT&T iPhone contract expires I can buy one.
Yeah, it must be the rumor because the markets are otherwise calm.
Can someone please tell me why this Google phone has icons? Google has always been a text-only company (just look at search, adwords, or gmail). That is their sweet spot – why would they suddenly switch gears — seems very risky to move away from the business you know
Google applications all have an icon and that’s what you’re looking at on the interface. Also, icons are preferable to text in what is going to be an international platform.
What about the data plan? AT&T mandates an additional $30/month plan for iPhone contracts. I hope T-mobile does not something similar. After all we should be able to use wi-fi only if we want..
tinyCrunch will be doing updates from the Mobilize conference tomorrow. We’ll get the low down on the Android.
I live in Austin and T-mobile has hands down better signal over Sprint or At&t. Victor, your area may not have great T-mobile coverage, but that doesn’t mean the majority of the other subs have same service as you. They have a unlimited data plan for $20 and there phone rates are on par with other carriers. I am glad for the competition, this will be a good catalysis for more amazing products and features from all the competitors. Google Rocks!
I’ll be getting one. I wouldn’t move to AT&T for anything in the world (bunch of cowards). They come up in last place in almost every survey I read, and their rates suck! I’ve been with T-mobile since it was Voicestream then bought up. Rates are good, service is good. Can’t complain (other than the fact they are behind in cool phones and 3G) LOL.
I won’t switch to tmobile for any phone, the service sucks..
Okay im tired of People saying that tmobile has bad service and sucks. Can you support your conclusion by any facts other then opinions..? because what ive read/seen is tmobile getting more and more customers each year’ and have you seen there rates? i can say its way more better than at&t sure tmobile doesnt have 3g yet, but its still ranked number 4 in united states based on its customers and when it comes to customer service they won the J.D Power in customer service award’
Omg that G1 is one VERY UGLY phone! Especially when you slide it up. I mean yeah…htc has never made some of the absolute “best looking” phones, but still…that’s just ghastly!
I would very seriously think that if they were going to premier the new O/S that they would do it on a much more attractive device.
All that aside, I am glad to see Android finally make it debute. I just hope that it’s release version isn’t all buggy, or unstable. I am completely ready to see some serious competiton against Windows Mobile. And I’m definitely anxious to see smartphones hitting the market that isnt loaded with it (WM).
I mean yeah, there are a lot of blackberries out there, but they are proprietary. You have to subscribe to additional fees to get your services. Android is gonna be open source, which means you should be able to do whatever you want to with it, unless you are hindered by your provider.
I’ll also be glad to see an o/s on the market that is icon based. How much of a pain is it, to try to touch those lousy LITTLE text commands on a windows mobile device? Especially on a phone that doesnt have that great of a touchscreen?
So yeah, while the phone itself is disappointing as far as appearance, I am glad, and hopeful, for the awaited release of Android. I hope that it lives up to our hopes.
Sprint is in trouble. I can’t say that I am really sorry to hear that. We had them for landline, and it was a horrible experience. Always charging us for stuff, telling us they were gonna get it cleared up, and then it was right there again on our next bill.
Not to mention that **** they pulled when they layed off… what was it, 6,000 workers on the same day that they agreed to pay some of their VIPs a retirement of over 10 million dollars? The same VIPs which were caught embezzling from the company? (And yeah, a cousin of mine was one of the guys they laid off).
Sprint will be in trouble, and the trouble is corporate management. Until they straighten up their act, they will be trouble.
Same with Verizon. They are leading the way technologically, and they are leading the industry. But they are bunch of thieves too. Same crappy practices of throwing extra charges on your bill, and supposedly taking care of it, only to get hit again. How many lawsuits have they had against them? A friend of mine got an invite for a class-action suit against them just the other day.
Ok, yeah…I’ve had a few problems with T-mobile (namely them charging me for a replacement phone that I never received, because they couldnt get my address right, and were sending it to a vacant building!!) but my service has always been pretty good. The coverage here in MO/KS is tight. I do get a dropped call every now and then, but its rare, and far between when it occurs.
AND my bill is almost always the same!
The question I’d like to have answered is, how much will it cost me to upgrade? I’m about 14 months into my 2 year Tmo contract (Dash in case anyone is curious), and normally Tmo doesn’t offer a price break until you hit 22 months. So am I basically SOL for 8 months, or will they be offering a loyalty discount, or … ?
although you are not yet at 22 months into your contract you can still get a partial discount upgrade on any new phone from t-mobile, but you will also have to accept a new two year contract for a partial discount.
Well I have T-MObile here in Michigan and have had it for over 8 Years.
It is Absolutely hands down the BEST Provider in Michigan and Rarely EVER have any dropped calls in 8 years.
People need to stop Hating for no supported reason.
Hey guys, I do live in a horrible area for tmobile coverage, tmobile has acknowledged and are willing to let me out of the contract. Believe it out not. This is pretty good considering.
I have several friends and family friends that live in the la area, that have had tmobile and switched and have been so much happier.
Back to handsets, I have tried several handsets from tmobile and they all suck. The motorola is the worse, blackberry is ok, samsung is best. Will I try the android, i am tempted. Not enough info yet to make the decision.
Here’s part of what I was referring to regarding t-mobile growth.
from: http://seekingalpha.com/article/90484-wireless-carriers-sprint-and-t-mobile
nlike Sprint, T-Mobile USA added customers: 668,000 in Q2, down from 981,000 additions last quarter and 857,000 last year. However, thanks to the SunCom acquisition completed in Q1, total customer base grew to 31.5 million from 26.9 million last year. The decline in additions is mainly due to higher churn following the expiration of two-year contracts introduced in April 2006. ARPU was $51, down from $52 last year. Things might look up for T-Mobile with the BlackBerry Bold being released on the network later this month. It is also planning to launch a mobile phone application store similar to the Apple iPhone App store.
Just received this… very interesting..
1. T-Mobile USA expands UMTS footprint
By Phil Goldstein Comment | Forward
T-Mobile USA is expanding the reach of its UMTS footprint by pushing into 13 new metropolitan areas. The company said it was on track to expand to 27 major markets by the end of 2008.
The move came as T-Mobile also announced a series of new backhaul agreements to transport the high-speed data traffic.
T-Mobile currently has UMTS access in Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, Minneapolis, the New York metro area, Phoenix, Portland, San Antonio and San Diego and plans to expand to Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Orlando, Philadelphia, Sacramento, San Francisco and Seattle later this fall. The backhaul agreements are meant to increase bandwidth and access of applications using HSDPA technology as well as to expand service in Tampa, Orlando, South Florida, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Memphis.
All of this is meant to boost T-Mobile’s 3G presence as it fights with AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless for market share and plays catch up in deploying high-speed data services.
For more:
- see this article and release
Here is a link I found with a “supposed” picture release of the HTC Dream phone:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/2008/09/16/dlgoog116.xml
Tell me if you think that is the actual phone for release……I would buy that in a heartbeat!
That looks a lot more like the HTC HD which does not have the qwerty kb and is not the same phone.
EwanG- I am about 15 months into my contract with T-mobile. I am eligible for about a 40 dollar discount if I upgrade my phone at this point in time. Tho doing so also means renewing the contract.
Since buying one under a New contract would mean spending about 200 (probably After some kind of rebates) you would probly be spending somewhere around the same amount since I doubt that we would be eligible for the additional rebate, just the dollar amount discount.
Thats taking a guess tho. Your best bet is to either talk to somebody at a store, or talk to t-mobile customer service for confirmable answers.
natack- Thats definitely a nicer looking phone. UNfortunately…thats a set of pictures of the HTC TOUCH HD, which is also mentioned in the article that you posted a link to (and is gonna be a WM device :-( ). Here’s more info on that particular device-
http://www.htc.com/www/product.aspx?id=64796
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=htc+touch+hd
Having an online store would be kinda nice. I know that it would definitely kick up some sales with the younger crowd, which is the center of T-mobile’s target consumer.
Myself tho, I wish that they would spend the money on getting some better phones. Maybe something (DECENT!) to replace the SideKick as their flagship.
I have to agree with Victor. T-mobile definitely needs to improve the selection of their devices. Samsung can build some really great phones, and have some AWESOME devices in the works (Can we say… OMNIA?) Espcially now that they have HTC doing some of the work for them. But so far, T-Mobile only sells these cheap econo phones that Samsung makes.
T-Mobile Always goes with the cheap version of a phone when the carry it. I’ve written in and complained about this so much that they dont even bother to respond to me anymore (lol).
I do have to say this in their defense tho. The amount of coverage that a carrier can cover in any given area, isnt entirely up to the Carrier themselves. See- every given service area has X amount of bandwidth allowable for that area, alloted by the FCC.
And the FCC doesnt dole it out evenly. No…what do they do? They AUCTION it. So say that T-Mobile and AT&T are both bidding on bandwidth in say… St. Louis. T-Mobile throws out a top bid of say… 12 million for 8 MGh of bandwidth. (this is all purely for example, dont take any of the figures or locations at face value! Aside from yeah….they Do bid in the Millions). AT&T throws a top bid of say… 12.35 million dollars. Who gets it? AT&T.
So basically they are playing the same game of chance on bandwidth that we are playing when we are making bids on items on ebay. And it all comes down to who’s willing to throw the highest stakes.
Actually- I am a T-Mobile customer and the price tag for an upgrade is $350??? How does that make sense? You make the phone MORE expensive for your loyal customers?
It sounds like you are not qualified for the best pricing yet. You could go to ebay and buy one for over 400, take a small discount from T-Mobile now or wait until you’re qualified and get the best pricing.
They didn’t make the phone more expensive for loyal customers, that is just twisted logic. Does your cable company give you discounts on TV’s every 2 years just because you’re “loyal”. Remember, T-Mobile can’t make money if they take a loss giving all of their customer’s discounted phone whenever the customer asks. Thats why every carrier requires a set amount of time between fully discounted purchases.
Cab- this is an old article. The 200 dollars that is quoted at the top of this page was a limited time introductory offer made to t-mobile customers before the actual release of the phone to the public.
We were allowed to PRE-ORDER the phone at a price tag of 199.99 (with an extension of contract). But that offer has expired.
It was a pretty cool offer for the customers, and for t-mobile. It allowed us to get their new phone at a largely discounted price (about HALF market cost). And it allowed us to get it, without fighting the mobs at the stores trying to get one. It saved us a Lot of hassle.
It also worked out well for t-mo because their customers were getting these phones a day or two before they actually went out on the shelves, so here they had all these peeps that already had the phones, telling other people “how cool they are” and telling them that they need to rush out and get one.
Like Amused is saying, we DO actually get a discount on it, if we are a customer. But, we have to qualify for that discount, depending on how long we have been a customer to the company.
AND we now have the option to get the phones at a discount thru them and their authorized dealers without the contract extension. But just for less of a discount.
A lot of other companies WONT do that, because it doesnt guarentee them a continuous income for the company thru a longer service contract, or thru a cancelation fee.
On the flip-side of what you are saying Cab, I can see the other side of the point. I can get, say… a LG voyager thru verizon for 75 bucks as a new customer. Or pay about 250 bucks for it, as an existing customer. (Which is still about 70 bucks less than market).
IS that fair to existing verizon customers? No, not really fair at all. However, these companies HAVE to draw in new customers, in order to stay in business. So they make offers like that to draw in new suckers, er… I mean customers so that they can stay afloat.
Besides, we STILL end up paying for that phone, regardless of what we pay up front for it. Part of what we pay every month goes to paying for that phone. Or part of the cancelation fees goes to paying what they lost money on, on the price of the phone.
Actually you all are wrong–minus the Verizon part.
It depends on where you live. For instance, T-Mobile down south here is fairly good, along with AT&T (Verizon is the best, while Sprint is horrible).
When I was in Texas, T-Mobile was horrible, Sprint was pretty good and Cingular (which is now AT&T) was okay.
There are some areas where T-Mobile is better, and others where AT&T is better, but both of them have better customer service than Sprint (which treats customers like dog food).
That aside, I am glad T-Mobile has a decent phone now (with “cool” factor added inside). Now my friends won’t be jealous of my iPhone any more. :-)
Yeah, victor sounds pretty clueless – or he simply lives in a poor coverage area. AT&T stopped advertising “fewest dropped calls” simply because the survey that they based their claim on (a Telephia survey) actually showed that T-Mobile had the fewest dropped calls of any national carrier in 28 of the TOP 30 markets. He asks how many towers T-Mobile has – try 41,000 cell sites and growing! He really should do a little research and stop buying into the marketing that most carriers spend their money on.
I work for one of the top four cellphone carriers and as far as coverage its 1)verizon 2)t-mobile 3)at&t 4)sprint.