In another effort to stop the hemorrhaging of customers it has experienced since its ill-fated merger with Nextel, Sprint announced on Tuesday the introduction of a touch-screen phone aimed at regaining market share.
"Instinct brings customers what they want with the immediacy they want. Every decision during the development process focused on simplifying the user experience," said John Garcia, senior vice president of product development and chief marketing officer for Sprint in a statement. "The end result is a great-looking phone that makes the value of Sprint's fast NOW Network come to life, but most importantly, it is fun and easy to use."
The company will spend $150 million on an advertising campaign for the device; typically the company spends $30 million on product launches.
"What really sets the Instinct apart is the ability to access users' favorite features with just one touch of the device … Samsung feels the Instinct will increase our status as the fastest-growing mobile phone manufacturer in the U.S," said Bill Ogle, chief marketing officer for Samsung Mobile.
The Instinct is the first iPhone competitor that has been built from the ground up as a touchscreen phone. The LG Voyager, Verizon's answer to the iPhone, added touch screen technology as an afterthought - many functions on the phone can't be utilized using the touch screen. So while the Instinct provides a better challenge to the iPhone from a technological standpoint, it's likely to fall flat, as Voyager did.
Why? Garcia and his pals over at Sprint seemed to have forgotten what Apple is all about: its brand. People buy Apple products because they typically come to market first with a given technology, brand the hell out of it, and create what has become almost a cult following. Case in point: Zune.
Microsoft has struggled to give its Zune player any significance in the market. Apple got to market first with the iPod, and created a brand identity around it as the portable music player.
The Instinct will be a better phone than the iPhone, as it utilizes Sprint's EVDO Rev A technology, Sprint's high-speed mobile broadband network. The iPhone was released on AT&T's outdated GSM network, not its third-generation high-speed EDGE network. While the second-generation iPhone will utilize the EDGE network, the Instinct will offer a night-and-day speed advantage over the current iPhone.
But nobody cares. And the Instinct won't save Sprint. Throw all the ad money you want at promoting the phone, the second-generation iPhone will be out soon enough, and while it may last a little longer, the Instinct has the same destiny as all the other iPhone wannabes.
Sprint, on the other hand, should take a good look at its market position and find a strategic way to save itself. A new device, no matter how feature-rich, is never going to have the same success as the iPhone, and it won't turn Sprint around.
My bet? Deutsche Telecom (DT) is going to acquire Sprint, spin off its near-failing WiMax business to Clearwire Corp. if Sprint has not done so already, and get a foothold in the U.S. market.
DT, the parent company of T-Mobile, is finding that the only way it can compete in the U.S. cellular market is through a price war with other providers. But T-Mobile has run a profitable shop, despite its small size. And T-Mobile's management could turn Sprint's large network into a profitable venture once again. Maybe.
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