4G

HTC EVO Design 4G debuts Oct. 23 for less than $100 – offering high-end 4G capabilities at an easily affordable price

October 19, 2011--Sprint continues the award-winning HTC EVO family legacy with the addition of HTC EVO Design 4G, the first EVO family member touting World Phone capabilities. HTC EVO Design 4G boasts many of the "must-have" features of its predecessors, including Sprint 4G and a large touchscreen display, while sporting a slim, pocket-friendly aluminum unibody design at an easily affordable price.

HTC EVO Design 4G goes on sale Oct. 23 for just $99.99 (excluding taxes) with a new two-year service agreement or eligible upgrade and after a $50 mail-in rebate via reward card1. It will be available in all Sprint sales channels, including Sprint Stores, Web Sales (www.sprint.com) and Telesales (1-800-SPRINT1).

"Priced at under $100, HTC EVO Design 4G is the perfect device for consumers looking for both the benefits of 4G and the latest in device style," said Fared Adib, Sprint vice president-Product Development. "When matched with one of the Sprint Everything Data plans, our customers will unlock the value of unlimited without worrying about the cost or surprises on their monthly bill."Read more

As Verizon continues to roll out their 4G LTE network across the country at an accelerated rate and AT&T also picking up speed in their 4G deployment, it would seem that widespread 4G adoption is a foregone conclusion. Unfortunately, it looks like consumers may be so confused over 4G that they become hesitant to move to 4G, at least in the near term. In a recent Retrevo Gadgetology study, only a little less than a quarter of the respondents say they're going for 4G. With so many potential 4G customers expressing concerns about cost and performance, providers of 4G phones and services could be in for some disappointment.

A Third of iPhone Owners Mistakenly Think Their Phones Have 4G
Maybe the "4" in the iPhone 4 name gives iPhone owners (34%) the false impression that they already own a 4G phone but the fact is Apple doesn't offer a 4G phone at the moment. Coincidentally, a suspiciously large percentage of Android and BlackBerry owners may be suffering from the same delusion. BlackBerry owners (24%) are almost as confused as iPhone owners since RIM doesn't currently offer a 4G phone. At least some Android owners could be answering correctly as Android 4G phones like the HTC Evo 4G or Samsung Infuse 4G have been available for some time. If nothing else, this large number of misinformed phone owners serves to emphasize the fact that consumers are quite confused about 4G.Read more

May 2011 - T-Mobile USA, Inc. just announced two new No Annual Contract, unlimited Monthly4G plans starting at $50 per month, bringing more choice and value to customers on America's Largest 4G Network™. The new plans make it easier than ever for customers to step up to a rich data experience across T-Mobile's entire portfolio of Android-powered, Windows Phone and BlackBerry smartphones without an annual contract.

"Consumers today want more value and simplicity in how they purchase wireless," said Cole Brodman, chief marketing officer, T-Mobile USA. "And that's exactly what we're delivering with our new Monthly4G plans — providing customers with the nationwide network, great prices and a choice of any of our latest smartphones." Read more

CES 2011 officially opens on Thursday, January 6th and Retrevo is already getting a sense of what products and categories are going to stand out from the crowd. They still believe that 2011 will be the year of the tablet and expect to see lots of them in Las Vegas. They have provided us with the following predictions for 2011 CES:

Android Tablets Will Be Everywhere

Google may have been caught off guard in 2010 as far as a tablet-friendly version of Android but with new versions including Gingerbread and Honeycomb about ready to ship we expect to see Android-based tablets make up for lost ground this year. We expect to see large crowds gathering around a Honeycomb-based tablet at the Motorola booth. Android tablets will most likely be featured in booths from vendors like LG, Toshiba, Samsung, Acer, Asus, MSI, Dell, Lenovo, and many others while we expect to see Windows Phone 7 (or some other Microsoft mobile OS) running on tablets in the Microsoft booth. HP and Palm have managed to keep the wraps on their "PalmPad," tablet but we could see a WebOS tablet make an appearance at the show as well. Intel will surely have something to promote in the tablet "engine" department along with Nvidia who will be bragging about Tegra 2's graphic processing power for tablets. Read more

Let's start by saying 2011 is going to be the year we wanted three years ago when the financial institutions "borrowed" our global wellbeing! It was the first time we entered unfamiliar territory because the financial meltdown didn't affect just one country but all of us.

Economic Outlook

Internationally governments are feeling their way along the precipice because the depth and duration of the recession was beyond what most could clearly recall. They are moving – hesitantly – but still slightly dazed by the headlights of the near miss.

At the same time the U.S. government ground to a near halt because of the partisan politics that could last for two years.

Fortunately as in past recessions companies have finally become sick and tired of being sick and tired and realized that government – any government – can't move things forward…it is up to business to get the job done!

Most of the 80+% of the employed U.S. population (10% tracked unemployed, 8% dropped off the grid) are certain that conditions are and will continue to improve. This was apparent over the holiday buying season where PC/CE/communications sales increased more than 7% with a greater percentage being cash sales…resisting mounting additional personal/family debt.Read more