Strangely, I feel a bit of remorse writing this piece. It's always hard, especially in the cell industry to hear three little letters - "E-O-L" - which in terms that non-tech can appreciate, means that dinosaur is dead. According to a screen shot captured by a faithful Sprint employee and leaked on to SprintFeeds, the EVO 4G is destined for the refurb yard as early as September for the white model and October for the black.
Normally, pieces like this are a dime a dozen, but normally, they don't involve a device that possibly saved a wireless carrier. Sprint was in disarray, losing customer share left and right, bleeding money and had almost nothing to offer a consumer to jump on board. The Pre was a year old, the Moment was plagued with issues and the Hero just didn't have the guts to keep up with the newer devices anymore. They were treading water...
Along came the world's first "4G" phone and the front facing camera to the US. The commercials made it seem almost too amazing - and for the record, they did fudge a little. Sure, it had it's issues, and the battery life was pretty pathetic, but overall, it's about all you can ask for in a smartphone and more - even today.
The marking down to $99 on contract was the first step in the eventual kiss of death to the original EVO, but the lackluster response to the EVO 3D almost breathed new life into the aging device. Perhaps it would be wise of Sprint to consider dumping some of those "Entry Level" LG Optimus handsets and maybe a certain under performing Zio and think about keeping their "cheap" handset offering in the form of the EVO 4G?
We know, wishful thinking, but doesn't it really make more sense than pumping cheap crap in to the market where users become dissatisfied and leave for another carrier? Just our 2 cents...
No comments:
Post a Comment