MagnusOchncap

Saw an interesting photo essay on Gizmodo this morning about the NYC subway building out full station cellular coverage through an intermediary called Transit Wireless. It looks like it is a massive distributed antenna system supported from a couple of central 'base station hotels.' Sprint joined Transit Wireless as a provider in July 2013, but I haven't seen much news about the rollout or how it works in the last year. Are there other instances of Sprint working with a partner for these kinds of DAS network setups? And is this distributed architecture more akin to traditional cell tower deployments (with larger distances between base stations and the radios), or more like the small cells some Sprint executives have been talking up in recent months? Does anyone have any idea what Sprint bands are being deployed with this project? 800MHz 1x Advanced for voice and 1900MHz PCS EVDO/LTE for data? I cannot imagine this is a Spark-capable project yet/ever/at all?

All of those articles sourced the 3.5x purchases of iPhone 5s from an app analytics company. So, likely not representative of realty, but simply of people opening applications on their new iPhones that use Localytics' backend. Much as we can assume from third-party application analytic data that consumers who purchase less expensive handsets are likely not pro users that use lots of applications on their phones. In example, if people that normally wouldn't chose a $199 iPhone 5s are instead buying a $99 iPhone 5c rather than a competing $99 Android handset, they are likely to use less applications or even browse the web on their devices. [source: http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/07/22/apples-ios-maintains-dominance-over-android-with-63-mobile-browsing-share] All we know if Apple sold nine million iPhones, a combination of 5s and 5c. Is that a 50%/50% split? We'll never know, and anecdotal evidence from third party backend service providers are suspect for being representative of reality.

It is probably a little bit of that, but perhaps mostly of launching in more markets this year for the simultaneous retail start. Last year was nine markets; this year was 11 markets, including China.

Yea, I bet you are right. $99 is a great entry price for the 5c. Muggles will walk into the stores and see these new 5c devices and wonder why they should spend $200 for the iPhone 5s and most Android phones when they can get that for $99. One imagines the 5c becoming their most popular phone, like the MacBook Air is their most popular laptop, and the 5s and MacBook Pros is where they do the new technologies at a slight premium.

What you said is a rumor. ABC News repeated a rumor. ABC News repeating a rumor does not make it a fact. I also saw rumors stating they would be showing off ARM powered laptops, new iPads, new Apple TV, and Apple TV Screen, NFC in the iPhone 6, 802.11ac in the new iPhones, Mac OS X Mavericks launch, Apple iWallet, etc. Two years ago, October 2011, talking heads on CNBC went on and on about Apple releasing the iPhone 5 as a WiMAX-capable device exclusively on Sprint. Because they read some junk at BGR. Apple rumors are rumors until Tim gets up on stage and says they are facts. Regardless, we're all off topic about the iPhone 5C and 5S. =)

No rumors about potential new Apple products are facts until Tim gets up on a stage and introduces them to the world. Until that point they are only rumors.

Correct, no band 41. Sad panda. =(

I agree, but Nexus batteries have always been small. Gotta get the bill of materials down to meet that $300 price point I guess... ;-)

SEC just gave it's blessing to the SoftBank-Sprint union. http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/2/4293352/sprint-clear-to-vote-on-softbank-buyout-after-sec-approval

Yea, I personally think that Sprint would be much better served with the backing of SoftBank and its CEO, who have the experience to grow Sprint into a much stronger company. Charlie Ergen's idea of using spectrum for video transmission is just insane. I don't understand that at all. Wouldn't you rather have even more LTE-powered spectrum that can serve any kind of data requested (including video)? And I have yet to understand the idea that Dish and Sprint will gain synergies from combining customers. They cannot suddenly sell their 14 million satellite TV subscribers on phone service; normal people have two year contracts from the big four. And they will not be able to move their 50 million Sprint customers over to DISH; many of those subs will be on cable and not want to move to satellite (or on a one or two year contract with DirecTV or the local cable company).

That... is just nuts. Is Dave Moody a reliable source? =P

Definitely. Motorola needs their own brand of Android phones they can sell whole kit to carriers. They need to start walking away from special one off designs and builds. If you make a couple of good phones every year the same worldwide, component pricing and cost of goods sold drop, marketing dollars can be better spent, and people more identify with the brand name than the carrier. But, Google owns it now, so who knows. =P

I forgot that Verizon bought a ton of AWS spectrum during the 2006 auction. [source: http://www.phonescoop.com/articles/article.php?a=99&p=1495 ] Geez, that was a lot of spectrum to just sit on until the SpectrumCo swap and T-mobile sale last year.

Seconded. But I believe that Googlerola will be better going forward. A lot of after-sale support by the manufacturer is built into their supplier/vendor contract with the carrier (we will pay you $x per sub that has your phone for two updates over the next nine months; bug fixes are your responsibility). And Motorola's acquisition only closed 10 months ago. Google CFO Patrick Pichette admitted they have 12-18 months of shitty products to roll through [source: http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/03/08/motorola-is-still-a-work-in-progress-for-google/] before 'good' stuff starts being released, as that 12-18 months of product didn't 'wow' Google [source: http://blog.laptopmag.com/google-throws-motorola-under-the-bus-says-phones-lack-wow]. So, we're coming up on that 12-18 months in the second half of this year. Hopefully some good product announcements and after-sale support then. =)

Good to know. Was under the impression the Snapdragon chip line had the modems integrated.