Promotional $80/10 Gb and $100/15 Gb Shared Data Plans Reintroduced by Verizon

Introducing yet again its reduced promotional pricing for ‘more everything’ shared data plans, Verizon has made an offer for a 10 GB plan for $80 per month, down from $100; it also re-introduced a plan of 15 GB for $100 per month.

The said offers do not comprise the price of monthly access charges that are applicable to connecting smartphones, tablets and other devices. As different plans keep running from time to time, these current plans will also be useable for a limited timeframe; however, nothing is defined as to when the plans will cease.

Such promotional pricing was first introduced by Verizon in November 2014, during the holiday season of festive shopping. The timing also coincided with the launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. However, later in February, prices for most offers for its ‘more everything’ plans were cut by Verizon, including many by $10 per month.

While the telecom giant does want to retain its existing customer base and is doing its best to service them the way customers would want, the company will not get drawn into a price war for price-sensitive customers, CFO Fran Shammo said. Shammo also shared his observation that while the first quarter has experienced minimal promotional activity, Verizon certainly plans to speed up its promotions during the second quarter with much movement expected to happen around Mother’s Day and Father’s Day celebrations related to communication. In response to the perpetual competition debate, Shammo put things in perspective saying that the industry is really about overall revenue growth and the profitability of the business than simply managing to keep up with the competition.

The analysts further shared that the latest changes in pricing as shared by Verizon could hint success for T-Mobile US's popular four lines for $100 per month 10 GB promotion. They look for AT&T Mobility to remain focused on ARPU and margins over subscriber gains.

Battle of the Chargers

With the experimentation always on in the mobile manufacturing industry, smartphone batteries being modified to fit themselves neatly behind the growing screen size of the devices, struggle to support the power needs of both the screen and faster chipsets. Slower to drain, the newer batteries proved slower to charge too, an issue many manufacturers handled with new standards.

The most popular charger currently, USB 2.0 typically puts out 500mA. Manufacturers too slowly started bundling more powerful chargers, going over 2A in some cases. USB 3.0 offers slightly more power than the previous standard, however, its wide adoption in smartphones doesn’t seem to be happening any sooner.

Manufacturers and chipset makers alike voiced their discontent with this and developed their own standards. They will be testing solutions from Qualcomm, Oppo, Samsung and Intel (the last two seem to use Qualcomm’s tech). We also have two iPhones in the mix even though Apple doesn’t have an official fast charge solution.

There’s a mutual standard too - while USB 3.0 couldn’t take hold on mobiles, the USB Type-C connector might prove rather successful. Reversible and adequate to carry more power – up to 3A at 5V for 15W total, it looks to have what it takes. It is still somehow larger than 2.0 connectors though, so we’ll see if it will play nice with the ongoing struggle to make smartphones as slim as possible. This equals the power from the Quick Charge 2.0 standard, though the latest USB standard also has an elective power delivery profile that can push up to 100W. This provision is particularly intended for laptops and monitors, however, the profile also has a number of lower steps that may one day land on phones and tablets.

As these charging standards perform best when the battery is close to empty, they were particularly tested with a fully drained battery and recorded the charge every five minutes. The phones were off initially and were later powered on after the first five minutes.

It is ‘Immaterial’ if T-Mobile Passes Sprint’s Subscribers, Says Sprint

Sprint as announced openly that even if T-Mobile officially passes outdo them with their total subscribers to reach the No. 3 position as the U.S. carrier, it would not impact Sprint’s business in material terms.

Sprint’s president of postpaid and general business organization, Jaime Jones, shared with the Kansas City Star that the ranking for them is “immaterial” if seen in light of the plans devised by Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure. Neither the customers not the employees are any bothered or even inquisitive about it.

Sprint is more glued to their upcoming plans on “winning in the long-term and not really worrying or being concerned about whether we’re No. 3 or 4 in the short term,” Jones clarified. That also reverberates statements made by Claure and CFO Joe Euteneuer during the last few months.

Just in about a few weeks from now, the wireless industry will report first-quarter earnings and T-Mobile is likely to surpass Sprint then. The CEO at T-Mobile, John Legere, has pledged to pass Sprint any time this year.

Around the end of the fourth quarter of 2014, Sprint had shared that it counted 55.929 million total customers, including the MVNO customers, and T-Mobile said it counted 55.018 million customers--officially 911,000 behind Sprint. 

Sprint has been clambering to retain its postpaid customers as it has worked to expand its LTE network, and more specifically, its faster 2.5 GHz TD-LTE service. The carrier has primarily just been wading waters during the last two years in terms of subscribers, counting around 55 million customers around that time. In contrast, T-Mobile added 8.3 million total customers in 2014 alone.

It is expected that Sprint will share more information on their plans to expand and enhance its network when it reports first-quarter earnings. The company is also anticipating that an improved network will enable it to draw more customers, along with promotions to reimburse all of the costs for a customer to switch over, such as their Early Termination Fees and other payments on equipment installment plans that will be due. Sprint also hopes for its plans to expand into 1,400 RadioShack stores to help its distribution as well as sales.

Sony is Here to Stay in the Smartphone Industry

Sony is launching a brand new campaign to give a ray of hope to its dwindling mobile unit, as confirmed by a Sony executive. The comments point at Sony pulling back in the smartphone market, but clarifying at the same time that it is not exiting the market.

The top executives at the firm reiterated that Sony Mobile is here to stay and that they all are rigorously focused on delivering profitable growth. Smartphones rule the gadget market and can be found in the hands of customers everywhere. As a result, smartphones are positioned strongly enough that their existence and growth can only move forward.

The comments appeared on the scene a little less than two months after Sony asserted that it would cut another 1,100 employees from its Mobile Communications business, in addition to the 1,000 job cuts it had already implemented in that unit. Sony plans to cut the mobile division down to 5,000 employees by March 2016, a 28 percent cut to a unit that Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai said in the past would be a key element of the company’s electronics business.

Hirai also said “there’s no guarantee that we'll be in any business in five years’ time. That’s just the nature of the electronics business and the industry that we’re in.”

However, Sony’s new global marketing campaign would aid in building on the momentum of Sony’s new flagship Android smartphone the Z3, which is quickly becoming popular as it becomes Snoy’s best-selling smartphone ever.

For Sony, the new campaign is definitely going to be an uphill climb. According to research firm Gartner, Sony was the No. 10 global smartphone player in 2014, with 37.8 million smartphones sold, figures that were roughly flat compared with 2013.