We've gotten used to reading Sprint's quarterly reports: the questions have always been "how many subscribers lost, how much money lost, and how many more quarters of this can Sprint take?" Well, things are still in the red for Sprint when it comes to profit and subscribers, but it's not quite the free-flowing blood-red that we've become accustomed to, at least when you look at the subscriber base.
Sprint registered a net loss of $478 million on revenue of $8 billion. The press release hastens to add that they have $660 million in "Free Cash Flow," which we're reading as "We're not dead yet!"
They also lost a net 135,000 subscribers, but Sprint hastens to call this their "best net retail subscriber results in more than two years." Yeah, it's been like that for Sprint.
Last quarter, which ended at the end of July, saw Sprint drop 257k subscribers. Sprint also lost $384 million last quarter
We're going to go ahead and give the Pre some credit for the improvement despite whisperings that the device still isn't performing up to expectations. Sprint actually had a nice time these past few months, with arguably the best high-end handset lineup in the US.
Competition is getting tougher for Sprint, though: Verizon is catching up and quickly in the handset department and T-Mobile is coming at them from the other direction with calling plans that take a page from Sprint's own everything plans.
Comments
Lowest Prices, fastest clocked 3G network, coverage has improved, Customer Service has improved, can upgrade every year, 25% off all accessories, and good phones. Not sure what else Sprint can do. Just waite and see. I question them shutting down so many stores. I guess that helps the bottom line. It looks like they are going to rely on Best Buy and The Shack to push their devices.
The other day I called to complain because my daughters Samsung phone broke. We did not have insurance, so I just wanted to complain to someone. As soon as I got done with my first round of complaints, the girl said okay I'll give you a free phone. I didnt even get realy cranking good. I was in shock, so I said we dont want that phone again. The lady said okay ive reset your account, you can upgrade her phone anytime. Im also going to reset yours so you can upgrade, due to the incoventience. I havent been this happy since I made HP send me a brand new laptop.
For one they can stop with the cookie cutter family plans. There are many people who have either children or older parents on their family plan that don't need data on their phones, yet in order for them to have a phone like the Pre they have no choice but to pay for data that will never be used on those additional lines.
They're business plans are just plain ridiculous. They're more expensive (a LOT more expensive) and give very few advantages over the consumer plans. As a business user I don't mind paying a little more when I'm getting a little more, but that isn't what's happening.
You are correct there. I do pay around $20 more than I should for my kids phones. That being said, my Pre is free. Its part of my wives unlimmited plan for he Blackberry.
You are also correct on the buisness end. Their plans are to high and not enough nice looking lower end phones. Most companies dont want blackberry or Palm. They want a phone they can reach their staff on.
Yes there needs to be a cheaper plan with less minutes. Since they rolled out the free mobile to mobile feature, I don't think we've used 300 of the 1500 minutes. That said it was nice to upgrade all the phones to data and only be spending about $50 more a month wasn't bad. Just wish there was a lower minute plan for about $70 less.
For one what's the point in having a smart phone without data? There is no point in that. I sell sprint, att, and tmobile and out of all of them sprint by far is the cheapest and best value. They easily have att and verizon by at least $20 a month. Not to mention they give out discounts here and there. For instance if you have a credit union account they give you 10 percent off (google sprint credit union discount, first link).
As for the article, what a lot of people are not looking at is yes people are leaving sprint, but going right back to them. With Sprint owning boost, virgin mobile, and clear, people are definitely going to them because no contract and 50 bucks a month. Also they are getting money coming in from comcast because now comcast has an aircard available using the Clearwire towers.
I was worried about coming to sprint from ATT, but so far am pretty happy with my service. Of course, I came for the pre.
The one thing sprint needs to do to keep me as a customer is get rid of the ridiculous .20 per minute charge for call forwarding, since I get bad reception in the house and need to forward to the vonage number when there.
Have you already tried the airave?
Correct that to read Sprint lost 135,000 retail customers and net wireless customers declined by approx 545,000, including net losses of 801,000 post-paid customers. The numbers get confusing when adding back new prepaid customers but Sprint says that they now service 48.3 million customers compared to 48.8 million at the end of the second quarter. That shows a net loss of approximately 500,000 customers for the quarter. Sprint's free cash flow numbers are a result of a huge decrease in capital expenditures (no further build out of their 3G network).
I just started with Sprint in Sept. from T-Mobile. I to came here for the pre. I keep hearing how Sprint is losing customers and how Palm isn't doing so great either. Did I come at a badd time? I hate to think that Palm is going to tank or that Sprint won't last very long or bought out by the company I left. I hate feeling like I'm on a losing team. I'm satisfied with Sprint so far and I love my Pre. Uncertainty is an ugly feeling.
Just do your best to spread the word about your Palm Pre and Sprint... it's the best we can do. :-/
I'm not worried, tho... the nosedive that both Palm and Sprint were on takes time to correct. They've hit the valley and are on the way back up. That's my prediction.
its not your mortgage man, just a phone service so don't lose too much sleep over it...
I'm still wondering why Palm jumped on a sinking ship.
Because Palm was a sinking ship as well. AT&T & Verizon weren't exactly knocking at their door.
As pointed out, Palm may have been worse off than Sprint on day 1. Not a great positon for VZ or ATT. But, as a user, also look at their history.
Sprint is aggressive, low costs and few restrictions and lots of underutilized broadband already in place. Look how poorly ATT 3G customers are feeling and that is with restrictions on usage. VZ has a history of restricting smartphones as well and their billing is astronomical.
So if you're going to offer a disenchanted public a new toy (that still needs development), at least you can offer them Sprint with a reliable fast network, plenty of capabilities and great value. It was a natural marriage, Sprint has always given Palm free reign to deliver great capabilities to their customers.
Now, getting more carriers to offer their products would be nice, but more and more, every day, the question seems to be why other people are not breaking ranks and getting much more for much less money by picking up sprint.
Question for all, where would you rather be, and why?
Sprint needs to step up and take a clue from Verizon's "There's a Map for that" and Droid's "iDon't". They need to start pointing out the price and network advantage they have. While pointing to the fact that both AT&T and Verizon are falling short on both network and value. Also calling the iPhone and Droid on their lacking ability to truly multi-task. They and Palm still haven't seemed to be able to sell the Pre's strongest advantage over Apple and Google. If they showed a real life situation with a real person using a number of apps and them being live in the background, it would really show where the Pre shines.
Sprint has to really push their pricing and 3G somehow. I'm not sure what they can do, but the customer service has been lacking from this verizon convert (and I jumped out mid contract for a family plan...)
#1: My Pre is a day 1 Pre, missing camera protective lens since day 1, noted, and was told I'd be getting a swap with the next shipment. This is more the store's fault, but Sprint wouldn't do anything about it. After two months, I gave up because it wasn't pressing.
#2: They screwed up my bill for two months early on. This one I give Sprint cred, they fixed and back dated it.
#3: The referral from other Sprint customers. I entered in the whole deal when I first got my phone, after numbers had ported completely. Forgot about it, called back, said it was "stuck" would take a week. Gave it a week and a half. Called back, no record. Said it would get resolved. Get a call to another number in my family (mine is the main contact) saying it was not approved. Called to ask why, no record. Deeper investigating by them, the wrong number was listed somehow.
Now waiting for that call back. While $25 to each of the referrer/referee isn't much, the lack of their ability to keep this simple endeavor going makes you wonder how they keep their other shit straight, if at all.
I'm 1 for 3 on CS right now, and sadly early in my contract. Their pricing is what will likely keep me w/ them so long as they can maintain getting good phones w/o gimping them. Hopefully palm can maintain it, but if not, Android 2.0 seems to really be giving google the steam to roll in hard in the smartphone world (even if it's about 1.5yrs after I expected them to, heh)
All Sprint customers need to check their bills closely. They overcharged me $120 dollars for overage charges when I did not even come close to my minuets. Of course they fixed it after being on the phone for twenty minuets. It is that anymobile to anymobile deal. They chrged me for every minuet. The girls said it was a computer glitch. I wonder how many people wont catch it and will overpay.
Too late.
Verizon already got on the "There's a map for that." train toward hawking their 3G coverage. It was a great TV marketing campaign, whether they can really deliver true 3G to all that red is another discussion, but again, it's public perception that they are trying to change.
Sprint needs something along those lines to push it's service, rather than its phones. Big Red has been #1 charging more for plans and with fewer "cool" phones for a long time. Now when they get their upcoming Android phones and Pre there really won't be any reason to head over to Sprint other than the money you save every month.
So that has to be where Sprint draws its line in the sand. Cost of the plans isn't sexy, but there it is. Sprint's not gonna draw in customers touting 4G. Most people don't even understand what 4G is......
Hey all,
This is my first comment here but I've been following Pre/Sprint since February.
The way I look at it is to be patient. Right now I'm on Verizon with a Centro (No data plan). I'm waiting for the Pixi so I can get that for my wife and I can get a Pre. Even if Verizon gets the Pre I'm switching and here's a very simple reason.
Unlimited text, Data, Mobile to Mobile Talk and 1500 mins on Sprint: 110$ a month. (With my company discount)
Same on Verizon: 230$ a month (with Company discount).
There is NO WAY I'm over paying to the tune of $1440 a year to stay with Verizon. Their data plans are way too expensive and as contracts expire and more people crave smart phones (Palm or otherwise) you'll see people like me jumping ship. Give it time.
Sprint historically had the worst advertising and PR out there. So much of this field is public image. Lots of the people I've spoken to say that they think of Sprint as the low-end carrier because they used to be the only one who gave phones to people with shitty credit. They also got a reputation as having poor customer service.
Still, in all the time I've used them (maybe 6 or 7 years) I've never really had a problem with them. Coverage improved drastically a year or so into my contract and with free roaming on VZW I never lack a signal even in VZW-only areas like the DC Metro. They have consistently offered the best rates for users concerned with unlimited data--so much so that I've had a data plan going back to when I had a Sanyo flip phone.
It's good that their aggressive pricing is helping their image as well as driving competition from TMo. I don't see Sprint going "under" anytime soon because of all the other assets they own in the telco arena. Companies just don't make or break their image and customer base overnight.
I think to the average Joe, They see the VZW commercials and buy into the whole "network" thing not knowing Sprint shares that network. They see the iPhone ads and how nice the device looks. They see ads for things like the MyTouch heavily advertised in an entertaining way as well and now the Moto Droid ads directly positioning them as the only real alternative to iMadness for people who want a better network and not to give up their QWERTY.
Sprint had a little boost there with the Pre launch but as is the nature of this business, the buzz goes away fast as new devices are coming out like crazy now.
Sprint needs to improve Palm Pre advertising and also keep planning for their own next-gen Android device which hopefully has a nice big screen, fast processor like the upcoming HTC Dragon, and keeps the QWERTY slider. That would be a worthy co-flagship device with the Pre while the Pixi and Hero can pick up the lower-end smartphone market.
I left AT&T for Sprint and the Pre and am quite happy with both. My contract was already satisfied with AT&T, and was free to make my move. I read all kinds of negative reports about Palm and Sprint on the boards, but perhaps people mostly speak up when they are dissatisfied than when they are happy. As far as numbers go, not an expert, but I guess we will just have to wait and see. Competition in business is good though, so maybe we will benefit in the long run.
This is Sprints own damn fault for losing customers instead of gaining them. They have never wanted to go with the flow of the other carriers. Until recent, Sprints plans were one of the priciests. And until the Pre came out, their phones were lame. Everytime the other companies got on the bandwaggon with popular phones, Sprint was the only one not to get them. When the Motorola Razor came out, Sprint got with Samsung and came out with the blade, cheap immitation phone. When they finally came out with the Razor, this phone was on it's way out. People actually switched carriers or refused to go with Sprint because of this phone. (i know this because my friends are with the other carriers and I have NOT gotten one to switch to sprint) The majority of people will go with the attractive phone no matter how bad the service is, example = iPhone. I hear people complain about how bad the service for ATT is and how pricey it is but people are still not willing to dump ATT.
Whem SMS became all the rage, Sprint refused to add it to their phones, instead they had a web based sms that was a pain to retrieve because you had to keep logging into the web to read a message.
And when blue tooth was starting to gain ground, Sprint was the last one to jump on this bandwaggon. They didn't want it on their phones.
You see all this time, all the other carries gained ground on Sprint for all the features people wanted when Sprint refused to offer them. Even when you pay a high price, when you gain customer loyalty, it's hard to get people to leave you. Even if you charge more then the other carriers, IF you give people what they want they are more likely to stay and pay the price.
Ive been with Sprint since 1997. And Ive been tempted to leave. I did leave once to tmobile and it sucked. After a yr I went back to sprint because their signal is better. I had left them because Tmobile phones were better.
If all this time, had Sprint chosen to go with the flow instead of trying to be different, they wouldnt be in this uphill battle they are in now. Even their adds suck. All other carriers market to families and have good attractive commercials that will attract kids. Sprints commercials are bland and lame. Advertising is killing sprint too. If I was new to cell phones I would NOT chose sprint. It's all based on Hype not actual coverage. Example: iPhone.
I know Sprint is a good company and I love thier service but if they havent gotte a clue as to why they are losing customers by now then they are on their way to fail.
SoCalMario,
You are definitely right on alot of your points. Alot of that was the Sprint under it's old leadership. Yeah that web based SMS messaging sucked. I forgot what it was called, but I hated it, so slow and clunky. I actually paid full price for the first sprint phone that had regular sms after that. Their prices never were the highest, but they definitely weren't the lowest either a few years back.
Im starting to feel sorry for Sprint, what more can they do? They have by the most affordable and comprehensive plans, and as of late imo they have the best lineup of phones. Pre/Pixi, HTC Hero, Samsung Moment, Blackberry Tour, TouchPro2, Instinct HD...etc. There network you could consider at least very good, certainly better than T-Mobile, and no worse than AT&T, plus they roam on Verizon.
They need to advertise better. The MyTouch isn't better than any other smartphone around but they advertise it in a way that makes it cool, almost trendy. Sprint needs to do the same. Phil Jackson needs to be on TV holding a Pre instead.
Sprint - best plans, best phones best network..they need to bring that simple message home. (Best network is a stretch but they can find something to replace best..."dependable" or something.)
Offering the best deals isn't enough. being the best or talented at something has never guaranteed success. The best singers don't go platinum. The popular and well marketed ones do.
image is everything!!
I've had Sprint since 2000 with no complaints. I've always had good service. To make that better, as of September (I think), all of Sprint's call centers are now in the US. No more support calls to India to talk with "Jim", or "Bob" or "Susan". They've made great efforts to improve their customer service, and I for one, am proud to be a Sprint customer.
I agree for the cost they can't be beat. Since they now have good phones, a solid network, lots of stuff thrown in and the best prices I guess it comes down to marketing better.
However, I thought the NOW NETWORK ads were good but the Pre ads should have been those Droid adds since everything they talk about in the droid commercial the Pre does as well just 5 months earlier.
Instead Palm/Sprint ran those awful weird chick ads that left most people scratching their heads going w - t - f. Maybe the only solution is to change their name and logo since everyone still thinks of Sprint as that crummy company they were a few years back.
Anyhow none of this good news for us (Sprint customers) as the future of Sprint looks pretty bleak at this point.
Lets not forget the disaster that they made out of the Nextel purchase. Nextel had something truly unique and were on the way to building up a strong base of business users, but when sprint bought network they messed up things pretty well. They stopped developing new phones, they down played the whole push to talk feature, and basically stopped supporting Nextel. Later they realized this was a bad idea but they lost a lot of customers by then.
Fortunately Sprint does have some good things going for it. Despite losing customers they do have a strong fast network. And lets be honest, the iPhone is just unbeatable among the average consumer. They need to keep pushing phones like the pre and wait it out.
I think Sprint needs to keep making rather radical changes if it wants to stay in the game. The iPhone will continue to grab people away from them. Period. Full Stop. It's going to happen. The iPhone simply has that level of allure.
That said, Sprint has some really nice phones now. I have the Pre and overall, it's nice but there are some glaring bugs that I just don't want to deal with. I want to switch to the HTC Hero with Android. Sprint CS won't let me do that so I called the retentions line and they want to talk to me about it.
That got me thinking - why can't I just buy a new phone (yes, at the low, upgrade price) anytime I want to? I understand the 2-year SERVICE contract but being stuck with a device for that long is total crap. The industry is advancing so rapidly that a device bought today can be obsolete in a week. I should be able to get a new phone every month if I wanted to and were willing to pay for it. If I pay $19.99, I get a simple phone, if I pay $199.99, I get a smartphone. I know the devices cost more than that at retail and we're being subsidized but yeah, I don't care.
Let me purchase a new phone every month within my contract if I want to. This will let everyone who has phone envy to simply walk into a store and buy that new phone to "one-up" their friends.
Now THAT'S a plan.
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