You know that down-homey guy who shows up in a diner during commercial breaks in Heroes? That’s Old Man Hesse, up Sprint way, who has him a bone to pick with Android.
Sprint may be having a lot of problems marketing its own brand in the last few years, but according to Chief Executive Dan Hesse, Google’s Android mobile operating system isn’t perfect either.
He told the National Press Club in Washington that he didn’t think Android in its current form is ”good enough to put the Sprint brand on it.”
He also doesn’t like kids walking on his lawn, hates the farm subsidies given to big producers, and genuinely misses real movies like Hud and A Night to Remember and none of this mamby pamby crap they’re playing now with robots and ghosts and what not. He wants his pickled eggs and a beer now, dammit.
News to Hesse, Sprint sucks bad thats why they are loosing customers & money and are way behind their competitors
Regardless of your opinion of Sprint (I’ll still never ever ever get people’s love affair with Verizon and their ridiculous prices and ridiculously locked down stripped down phones, and who really cares if your wireless provider is losing customers? Wouldn’t that help you since they would probably come out with more competitive pricing and features i.e. simply everything $99 vs verizon having the same plan costing $140 a month, but whatever I guess)… This is seriously terrible news to Sprint customers. Sprint has been a member of the OHA and to have Hesse speaking out against Android is not good. I’ve been realy hoping that us Sprint people would have an Android device early in 09. So much for that I guess…
I used to travel a lot on business and the one thing I can tell you is that Verizon has hands down the best signal quality across the US. My EVDO card is lighting fast compared to other others.
Yes, you pay more with Verizon, then again you get what you pay for.
However, I do agree with you that Verizon butchers their phones. Then again, just about every provider hacks up the firmware and does crazy crap with it.
Sprint just makes me giggle, they try so hard to be the cool kid and comments like this from their CEO prove it. Don’t get me wrong, Android has a ways to go before it can even come close to the iPhone, but kicks the crap out of anything that Sprint currently provides. What do they have for smart phones, Treo (total trash), Blackberry (excellent for 1 thing only, email), and a wide range of Windows Mobile phones. What a joke.
They have the HTC Diamond, and I will be a proud owner in about 48 hours. My friend already has one and he loves it. My friend and I formerly had the Sprint Mogul. Also an excellent device. I don’t know why everyone has so much beef with Sprint.
I have unlimited txts, 500 minutes, unlimited data, unlimited roaming, nights/weekends (nights start at 7:00) oh, and did I mention: The plan is only $30.00 a month? Good luck beating that.
I don’t know if you can read into a quote taken out of the context of an entire talk to mean that Sprint won’t be having an Android-powered phone. First of all, this is obviously a quote of someone else’s take on what Hesse said, not a direct quote. What that indirect quote says is that in its *current* form, he doesn’t want to use it.
Probably wise to avoid 1.0 technology, but it doesn’t say he won’t ever have a phone with Android. Doesn’t say he hates Android. Doesn’t suggest that he’s an old curmudgeon stomping up and down as John suggests. All it says to me is that he wants to wait and see. This post is an overreaction to a small tid-bit of information that doesn’t actually say all that much about what Hesse really thinks.
Ron Miller
By Ron Miller Blog
http://byronmiller.typepad.com
You mean that we would have to read more into the matter in order to form an educated opinion about a matter? Sounds crazy…
One other point: Click through to the piece John is quoting, which is pretty thin on substance, by the way, and you will learn that:
But Hesse promised to sell a phone powered by Android “at some time in the future.”
Ron Miller
By Ron Miller Blog
http://byronmiller.typepad.com
“Shows up in a dinner during commercial” !?!
Really? We’re cannibals now?
Hesse’s first commercial ended with “Pretty awesome, huh?” It was probably the first time the guy ever used the word “awesome” in a sentence.
I don’t understand why some companies have such an aversion to Android. I just bought my G1 and as a developer and a consumer (the two audiences that make or break any platform) I love it. If there’s anything about Android that sucks, developers can make an application to do its task. I already have something that replaces the ringtone picker.
Now that I have an android phone, it’s very unlikely that my next phone will be anything but. So if Sprint decides to weakly support Android, then I guess I’ll never be a Sprint customer.
“He told the National Press Club in Washington that he didn’t think Android in its current form is ”good enough to put the Sprint brand on it.””
And he’s right. Android is about 10x worse than iPhone 1.0.
10x worse than iPhone 1.0? How does that work? Like it is ten times less able to copy and paste?
Atleast with Android the way is open for anyone to download the SDK and fix the problem. What do iPhone users get? I suppose http://www.pleasefixtheiphone.com is the next best thing.
Can I install Android on my 2 year old HTC smart phone to get rid of Windows Mobile?
Sprint’s former CEO said the same thing about the iPhone.
In context, this is much less a news story than it’s made out to be. Hess is smart, he knows that Sprint has a PR problem and he’s been doing a great job getting them out of that slump. Recent report shows good news on the customer service front. He can’t burned the brand with something still rough around the edges. I will admit, Android is a nice product and appears to be a step ahead of WinMo, Instict, and other interfaces. But Sprint needs to ensure they don’t get into something that will put some negative pressure on their brand.
Sprint is part of the OHA, and they will have Android phones. We all know the iPhone 1.0 software was a step ahead, but flawed in many ways. Due to it’s novelty, it wasn’t a problem. Android will not be on 1 phone, it will not be on 1 service, therefore competition can break a brand if they are behind in anyway. Sprint is waiting for the “3G”. (for lack of the better analogy) Once Android is out in the open, people get to play with it, and the complaints get identified and eliminated, Sprint will be in the game.
If you’ve been following along, you’ll have seen how excited we’ve been - and are - to publish millions of lines of code to the outside world.
First Android Patch Accepted!
I have been a Sprint customer since I first bought a cell phone in 2000. I stay with them because my plan is pretty much unbeatable because I’ve asked for features for free and have gotten them. I was seriously tempted to leave them when the G1 was announced. If Sprint doesn’t release any good Android phones, although I’m pretty sure they will, I will probably leave Sprint and send a message to them with the reason why… their CEO.
NEXTL IS VICIOUS.
LOSE A PHONE AND TURN ON A TEMPORARY REPLACEMENT AND THEY WILL RENEW YOUR CONTRACT. SPEND AN HOUR ON THE PHONE AND AFTER 2 REPS THEY FINALLY RECIND THE RENEWAL OF THE CONTRACT. BEEN A CUSTOMER FOR 8 YEARS WITH MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS. THEY DONT CARE WHO IT IS. RUTHLESS COMPANY.
TRUTHLOCATOR.COM
I love my SERO plan but I don’t know how much longer I can wait untill Android comes over to Sprint… it might be time to switch.
This isn’t even a bash against Android. I read it as Sprint can help make Android better on its own phones than T-Mobile can at this early date. Look for Sprint to come out with something superior with Android. That’s what they’ve done with the Simply Everything plan and Nextel Direct Connect. No one is competitive with either of these offerings. Verizon’s PTT and AT&T’s PTT are both vastly inferior to NDC, despite the fact that Verizon can afford to run commercials every hour of the day (Where do you think they get all that money to spend on advertising? That’s right — their fleeced customers).
The picture very funny:D
The initial comments attributed to Hesse were in a blog. A blog, as we can see from reading this one, is about opinion and has nothing to do with fact. If you want to read facts, you need to read a news source written by trained and educated journalists.
”good enough to put the Sprint brand on it.”
funny he said that, as today i switched from sprint to t-mobile, and got myself a G1; and I when i said I switch, i mean 4 phone lines less from sprint which now are with t-mobile.
too bad sprint ceo doesn’t have the vision.
ceo
Hi, my name is BJ DeHut, and I’m a representative for Sprint. We appreciate the discussions that Dan Hesse’s comments have caused, but we believe his words were taken out of context about Android. Here is a statement from James Fisher, a member of Sprint’s communications organization, who was in the room at the National Press Club for Dan Hesse’s speech:
“I’m in Sprint’s communications organization, and I actually was in the room at the National Press Club for Dan Hesse’s speech. As with any single comment from a speech, it’s important to understand the context. Rather than criticize Google, Sprint is a partner with Google (it’s the default search provider on Sprint phones) and we are a very strong supporter of the Android community as a charter member of the Open Handset Alliance. We are interested in developing an Android-based handset, but we would want to make sure it fully leverages all of the advances of Sprint’s current handsets and the data strength of our wireless network. We have a unique approach to making data use easy, intuitive and simply priced. I think what Dan meant is that, only when we are certain we have fully leveraged all the advantages of Android with the advantages we’re known for, that’s when we’d introduce our Android handset. And as for speculation from anonymous folks about our plans, industry folks always trade gossip, but it’s not always true. ”
Source: http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/10/sprint-ceo-disses-google-s-android-phone-wishes-he-had-one-s-/page/1#comment-4905d5d314b9b932003811a4
If you have any further questions about Dan Hesse’s comments about the Android phone, feel free to email me at BJD@Sprint.com
500 minutes, 7pm Nights, and unlimited everything else for $30… Bullshit. If you do actually have that plan, it damn sure isn’t available to everyone. Sprint sucks. I can’t wait for my contract to expire in February.
You’re right. It doesn’t exist anymore. I would probably have a different opinion of sprint if I didn’t have this plan with the Diamond.
Chris,
This is not BS. It sounds like Jeremy is talking about one of the no longer offered grandfathered SERO Plans. These plans were replaced with the Everything Plus plans in July 2008. Here is a link: http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2008/07/13/sprints-fabled-sero-plan-rides-off-into-the-sunset/
Chris,
This is not BS. It sounds like Jeremy is talking about one of the no longer offered grandfathered SERO plans. These plans were replaced by the more expensive Everthing Plus plans in July 2008.
http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2008/07/13/sprints-fabled-sero-plan-rides-off-into-the-sunset/