Generally, first adopters get a bonus as a company grows and flourishes - or in most cases, gets bought out. Unfortunately, for EVO 4G users that have come to depend on Qik for Sprint on their devices, the new Premium service plan has cut the service level immensely from what was there previously.
From day 1, Sprint EVO 4G users could upload videos, chat away with friends and even share online streams with relatives with no additional cost. Today however, Qik announced for ALL users a new Freebie/Premium structure that decapitates the service that so many have been using for so long.
Beginning with the buyout of Qik by Skype (now a Microsoft company), the service level and quality of Qik has been dropping quickly. It began as an all-you-can-eat buffet of video sharing and streaming over Sprint's 4G network. Today, it has become a $5 bill to continue that usage. Sure, you still have the free option - capped at 25 uploads, but still offering the unlimited Qik to Qik service, and streaming (if it doesn't replace video #1 with the streamer)...
Basically, for EVO users, Qik was the fastest and easiest way to share videos with everyone on the internet. Today, we are now faced with paying that $5 fee per month or reassessing how to share videos or switching to YouTube, Facebook Video or another video sharing site to continue that practice over 25 flix. The chat service is easy enough to replace as Tango, Skype and for root users, GTalk are now all making use of the device's camera.
Overall, we just hope this prompts Sprint to allow bloatware removal on the 4G soon (maybe with one last update that fixes the Sense issue as well?) because for most avid video sharers, Qik just became dead weight and a hefty amount of storage space that isn't going to be used.
Oh my God. I just updated qik on my HTC EVO in response to the standard software update notification, and now I can no longer send video emails using the free service. So qik is owned my Skype, who is owned by Microsoft. Is it really going to drive Microsoft out of business if they allow already absurdly overcharged mobile phone customers to send video mails to other qik subscribers via the free account level? Are we to expect kids btw the ages of 13 and 16 to get part time jobs to pay for qik so they can talk to out of home Moms, Dads, and other close relatives?
ReplyDeleteMust Microsoft be so inexcusably greedy in today's already challenging economy? Shame on you, Microsoft.