Sunday, June 15, 2008

What's Round the Corner

These are some of the things you all can expect in the near future

1. 10 neat applications u can install in your PC.

2. 2 minute guide to becoming a tech whizz.

3. Tech trends

4. Cool Tricks

5. Personal Reflections

9 comments:

Vidyashankara Iyer said...

dude, the iphone has an unlimited data plan for 20$. The 3g data plan is 30$.

Also, for the iphone you are forgetting,
1. Multitouch
2. Visual Voicemail
3. faster 3g speeds (google "3g network speeds of At&t and sprint")
4. More inbuilt space - upto 32gb
5. MS Activesync and exchange support
6. really really cool Enterprise support with remote wipe support
7. ability to sync with PC and Mac
8. Mobile-Me support

Dude, Instinct is OK as a phone, comparing it to an iPhone is too much.

And I thought it was gonna be given for free. 129$??? day light theft!!!!

-V

VBR said...

Hey V,

The iPhone voice plan starts at $39.99 which only give 450minutes of talk time. The unlimited data plan costs another $20 more and it still does not include free text messaging. On the other hand for the same price Sprint offers all the above at 3G speeds in addition to unlimited texting for $69.99.

1. Round 1 - iPhone
2. Instinct has Visual Voicemail as well.
3. I can give sites where Sprint's EV-DO powered 3G network is faster than AT&Ts'. The simple truth is it depends on cell coverage in that area.
4. More memory translates to greater costs.
5-6. Rounds 5,6 - iPhone. Remember iPhone did not have enterprise support in it's first edition. Give Instinct time.
7. A natural adv for Apple.
8. I have mentioned this in my blog. In fact I have even included a video.

U want an Instinct for free... hmmm...think the latest news is that Instinct sales has exceeded Sprint's expectations. So there is a clearly a market out there to lap up the Instinct.

Great comment V..as always I value your insight. Keep em coming.

Vidyashankara Iyer said...

Here is how I handle the SMS problem. You connect to the App Store, download the Free SMS app. It replaces the existing sms application on the iPhone. The difference is, the app uses the internet to send SMS. So, I can actually send free sms to India, or any other country in the world for that matter. I would like to see any phone (forget Instinct, take the smartest phones you have out there) top that.

I really don't see any comparison. The only reason anyone would buy the Instinct is if you absolutely love Sprint, or if you want to stay away from At&t. There are definitely a large number of people who absolutely love Sprint and hate At&t [though they are largely Sprint employees :P ]

If you think of it, the phone as we knew it earlier was mostly hardware bundled with some crippled software. Today, its mostly software bundled with some decent hardware. Take a (decent) laptop for example, its function is limited by what you can install on it. The iPhone is similar. The reason is why I say that Instinct does not compare that well is because of the software advantage that the iPhone has.

Apple is a computer software company. How can a hardware (largely) company like samsung compete with something like that? These guys have a quarter century experience in doing such stuff. Its like saying Samsung writes better software then MS (considering Vista, one can argue that, but lets not go there).

VBR said...

Concerning the SMS. SO we have an solution out there which is free. Inspite of this how many business associates you know (forget college students since most people who can afford high end phones with high end service plans have regular jobs) have downloaded this application and use it to send free texts. Most(not all) users do not install applications on their phones.

I think iPhone is a great phone and needs to be credited for breaking the mould of what we had come to expect from phones. It's definitely got a great software. It's UI is stunning. Not immune to hacks but then again no phone is. Just as an FYI, Samsung only presented the hardware. The credit for coming up with the software for Instinct goes to Sprint which they built with the help of 3rd party inputs.

Vidyashankara Iyer said...

Well, you asked for a solution for SMS, you have it now. Most people dont install apps on their phones - Agreed. But most iphone users do. The apps is what makes the iphone different and their consumers take advantage of it.

P.S. The app store is releasing only on july 11. There are many people like me, who have jailbroken their iphones to install 3rd pary apps.


Correct me if I am wrong, I thought the Instinct does not have third party application support.

Maybe Sprint did come up with the software, then again, Sprint also does not have the software advantages that MS or Apple has.

Imagine this: Take the best hardware out there, couple it with the best software out there. Thats what the iPhone is. I think the Instinct is a cool phone on a good network, but its really not breathtaking.

When I saw the iPhone, I was in AWE. When I saw the Instinct, I was not, as I had already seen most of the features on the iPhone. The worst part of being second in making something is that you have to make it much better, else its just a borrowed feature instead of improvising.

Anonymous said...

Well I do not know who is Vidyashankara but I completely agree with Vinay in this aspect. And moreover which ever comes first is always the best for sure and its the originality. But the fact is we need to live in the present, rather than saying old is gold.

Simple analogy to this the difference between test matches and T20 in cricket. Well if you feel you like siting for 5 days without even sure if there will be a result for the match, well do it. If you want to enter the faster world where the result sure in 3 hours, watch T20.

The reason I compared it in this way is to emphasize the difference in Instinct with Sprint and iPhone with AT&T.

iPhone with AT&T is like a test match where you wait for ages to download a website. And moreover, iPhone uses the local WiFi network most of the times and this was a huge bug initially when it was released. It was blocking the network in many universities. While Instinct with Sprint is like a T20 Match. Get it Now. So I dont see a point in saying iPhone is the best and nothing can beat it. Give it a chance and see couple of years down the lane.

And you can never say how can Samsung compete with Apple. In that case how did apple emerge out when Microsoft was leading the world.

Thanks,
Chaitanya.

Vidyashankara Iyer said...

I dont think the emphasis is on whether the Iphone or Instinct will be better in the future. Its the present.

And NOBODY says old is gold. We are all extremely technologically aware, and we make switches in technology faster then anyone would expect.

My point is not that iPhone is better, or Instinct is better. The basic problem here is that these two phones exist is two different categories. iPhone is a phone that can be used in both enterprise (come july 11) and the common man. Instinct can only be used by the common man. I dont know how the Instinct sales are, but I am sure they are better then the other phones that Sprint offers. To be truthful, The Instinct is definitely better then any other phone that sprint/versizon/att (iphone excluded) offers. It gives Sprint users the option to have a phone that is close to what the iPhone offers. Like Vinay said, it is an imitation, and a good one at it.

Maybe a year for now we sould have a better picture.

First year iPhone sales: 6 Million and is available in 70 countries worldwide. I dont think Sprint wants to compete with iPhone, they just want a small chunk of the market, and they are happy with it.

At the end of the day, like vinay said, Sprint does offer you a different choice. My take is - unless you really want the Sprint network, or you really want to stay away from ATT, iPhone is the way to go. Its a personal choice and you guys might like the Instinct better, and thats ok.

As per the network comparison to cricket, you either watch too much cricket or your thoughts are indeed very deep :) I think all companies have understood how important it is to have a fast network. With the introduction of the 3G network speeds in att, I think this should reduce some argument on better networks. It doesnt really matter to me as long as there is some good speed. ATT 3G speeds are rated at about 1.5mbps. We can argue about which technology is better for days without resolution. But the fact is both companies now offer really fast service, and that is all that matters.

MS has always been the world leader. It was the leader 10 years ago, and it is the leader now. The only change is Apple used to have a 3% market share before, and it has a 7% market share now.

VBR said...

RECORD INSTINCT SALES.

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/2008/06/23/daily23.html

I hope it puts to rest any spectulation on whether the "Common Man" has cozied upto the "Instinct" or not.

Vidyashankara Iyer said...

I never said the Instinct is not a good phone. Record sales were expected of the Instinct. Everyone who is on Sprint would naturally buy the Instinct as it is much better than their existing phone.

I would like to see how many "new" contracts Sprint signed on. I.E. How many people left Verizon or ATT and joined Sprint just for an Instinct?

None of this argument actually makes any difference. Even if the Instinct is viewed at a competitor for the iPhone, the market is big enough for both of them. Like I said before, Instinct is just trying to get a small piece of the pie, not crush iPhone.