Props to Sprint for a few news items: yesterday they became the first U.S. company to offer music downloads over a cellular network, besting the Apple/Motorola ROKR’s circuitous “iTunes-to-pc-to-phone” route. Puh-leeze. The dilly: at launch, subscribers have access to some 250k songs from the stables of EMI, Sony/BMG, Warner and Vivendi’s Universal; for $2.50 you get two copies of the song (read: a tinny phone version and one for your PC). Downloads are available to those with EV-DO phones (i.e. those with wireless broadband), which at the moment are only Samsung’s MM-A940 and Sanyo’s MM-9000 phones. With the record labels continually fighting with Steve Jobs over iTunes’ $.99 song price, I’m sure some execs are smiling about Sprint charging $2.50 for a single song (get real – the phone version doesn’t count). With a very small user base and a pricing structure 2.5x greater than the market leader, this has some hurdles to overcome, but Sprint is the first one out there. Check this review of the Sprint Music Store (Laptop Magazine) for more. Their rating? 3/5 stars.
Second morsel: speaking of EV-DO, Sprint’s getting serious about competing with Verizon, offering several data plans that, I must admit, are very tempting. Where’s my PPC-6700, you ask? Puh-leeze. Mere details! Plans are as follows:
-
• $15/month gets you the basic Power Vision Access Pack, including an unlimited supply of tasty EV-DO and streaming news and music.
• $20/month for the Power Vision Plus Pack, which includes unlimited messaging and Sprint TV (content from ABC, Fox News/Sports, etc.).
• $25/month for the Power Vision Ultimate Pack includes everything above plus more channels.
I’m waiting for the Power Vision Super Duper Better Than Anything Else Pack! Damn marketing jargon. Yeesh.