I don’t have a “smart” phone and am in the market. So what logically comes to mind? The iPhone, of course. But I’m a T-Mobile customer and most my extended family are as well, which means we can all talk to our hearts’ content without worrying about minutes. Thus, it’s hard for me to give up the plan my wife and I are on: 1,000 shared minutes for only $50.
But our contract with T-Mobile recently expired, so I thought I’d use that as leverage to see what T-Mobile could offer me to, you know, “retain” me. At the same time, though, I don’t want to admit that I’m mostly happy with their service. What followed was an interesting conversation with a T-Mobile “retention representative” I was transferred to.
She pointed out a lot of information I already knew, but I was fascinated by the approach. The message was basically a “don’t go, just wait” message but with no “official” information given. She talked about a “Google” phone and the 3G network, both supposedly coming in October. She took that and combined it with T-Mobile’s competitive pricing and threw at me the “iPhone killer” phrase.
The problem? Even though this was all coming from a very enthusiastic T-Mobile employee, she couldn’t point me to T-Mobile press releases, a T-Mobile FAQ, etc. She said it’s all coming “for sure” but then told me to search Engadget and The Boy Genius Report for more details.
What?! T-Mobile has an “iPhone killer” and their retention program is based on sending customers to search third-party blogs for more details? How bizarre. Hurry up, T-Mobile, I’m waiting to be amazed in October. But a word of advice: wake up the marketing department and start talking or you might just lose a lot of customers to the iPhone in the interim.
Hmm. I've heard of “underpromise and overdeliver,” but this seems a bit too light on details to give me the impression there's much substance to this routine. For that matter, saying “iPhone killer” is actually promising a lot, come to think of it, so it's kind of the worst of both worlds.
But hey, you never know. Maybe it'll be really cool. And it sounds like you've got other reasons to stay with T-Mobile, so it might be worth the wait for you even if it doesn't quite rise to the level of iPhone killer.
Exactly. I'm not holding my breath for something super amazing, and I'm in no hurry to get an iPhone. That said, it would be really nice if T-Mobile delivered because I think that's what I'd prefer for those other reasons you mentioned.
Those are the same reports I am hearing as T-Mobile expands its 3G service in October they will also release the first gPhone which is speculated to be the HTC Dream.
I posted that this may be offered for free as a promotion to sign up for the 3G service at http://www.googleandblog.com/free-htc-dream-goo…
,Michael Martin
http://www.googleandblog.com/
Thanks for the additional details, Michael. Interestingly enough, I followed your link trail and found that all this talk of 3G and Google phone is coming from blogs. Each blog seems to cite another blog, and nothing goes back to anything substantiated. Hopefully there's some truth to all this.
Thanks for the additional details, Michael. Interestingly enough, I followed your link trail and found that all this talk of 3G and Google phone is coming from blogs. Each blog seems to cite another blog, and nothing goes back to anything substantiated. Hopefully there's some truth to all this.
Good Morning! I would like to reach the marketing departmeand the head person of that department. Could you please direct me to the right place?
I offer direct mail to customers; our website is http://www.mailcci.com.
Thank you,
Carolyn Brungardt