Would Sprint ever offer direct connect as an app?

[pyroscott]

Migrated from Original Forum. Originally Posted 29 January 2012

 

Currently the phone offered with Sprint direct connect have the capabilities baked right into the chip. This allows better performance and reliability I'm sure. There are several walkie talkie apps in the market that offer cross platform and cross carrier connectivity but they can't offer the response of the SDC phones. It would certainly make SDC more popular and help it catch on if you could add it to any Android or iPhone, but would it degrade the quality and drive people away from SDC altogether? I would like the feature, but I can't see myself buying anything like the current SDC phones sprint offers.

[legion125]

Migrated from Original Forum. Originally Posted 29 January 2012

 

If Sprint offered this feature as standard on its mid and high level phones, this could be the nuke (as Hesse refers to game changers) that it could be differentiator in the market. SDC/PTT would be available to just about everyone and would certainly be an exclusive feature. Eventually unlimited data is going away, and text messaging is not the cash cow it once was with the other messaging factors coming to maturity.

 

The military spec phones of course would still be available to the construction market, but to have an android phone that you could chirp to a friend/family or group without having to text, IM or MMS would make Sprint unique among U.S. carriers.

[pyroscott]

Migrated from Original Forum. Originally Posted 29 January 2012

 

It would be a nuke for Sprint, but would the handset makers go for adding a Byron to Sprint models and using a different chip set?

[legion125]

Migrated from Original Forum. Originally Posted 30 January 2012

 

With all the new chip sets being designed to carry multiple frequencies on LTE and the eventual transition to VoLTE, the chip industry is going through a quasi-revolution in design and implementation, so no I don't think it would be a big leap or a big cost although Sprint would have to pay more because it would be a carrier specific requirement. It this were to take off, the other carriers may jump on board as well and cost would go down.

[pyroscott]

Migrated from Original Forum. Originally Posted 30 January 2012

 

I tried the loudtalks walkie talkie from the market. It is a bit slow, and it seems like if you leave the program running in the background, it uses battery and slows the system. If they could tweak it some so it can "sleep" when not in use, and allow for faster transfer when you are on 4G or WiFi, it could be useful. It even lets you map a PTT button, I used the volume down button. Overall, it is pretty decent, but doesn't give the same performance that a dedicated PTT gives.