Doug your forgetting a few things:
- You're assuming Apple's "plan" is to be #1. Maybe it is, but it also might not be. Apple has been happy for a long time not being #1 but rather building the best products and being super profitable. Not sure that the iPhone changes that overall corporate DNA.
- Who says people will switch in droves to Sprint? Sprint doesn't necessarily have the best reputation for service, coverage or voice quality. What will happen is that there are people in Sprint contracts or Sprint coverage areas, people who use Sprint for business who I'm sure would love to pick up an iPhone.
I agree in that their goals are geared towards developing great products, but no one strives to do such things without the thought of being number one in their field! That should really go without saying. And again, this is business... if you don't strive to be the best, you tend to lose sight of certain things, so it's only good business practice to want to be #1
I didn't say people would switch in droves, but Sprints current mantra (getting more for less) would certainly be a big push towards getting a lot of switchers. Sprint has done a lot of work with their trunk lines in the past few years, and things are only getting better. I've traveled a lot, all around the country with my EVO, and have yet to find an area which has been different from where I live.
4G isn't everywhere yet, but 3G has been great everywhere I've been to. Don't forget, if there's no real Sprint tower around, the phone will piggyback on Verizon's towers (not considered roaming) and I've never been able to tell the difference, considering that VZN customers get priority on said towers.
Anyway, none of this really matters. What ever will be, will be. None of the big networks really care about anything but the bottom line. What I CAN say however, is that having been a customer with every other network before, Sprint really has been the best thus far in terms of features and customer service .. seriously!
Voice quality with ATT was a bit better though.. not meaning reception, but more like amplification... somehow voices had more heft on ATT's lines. With VZN, I had dropped call after dropped call and lots of reception/quality issues. Didn't matter which phone it was. One thing with Sprint, which I had never gotten with the other two is full reception in a lot of underground subway stations. Probably just repeaters very close by but still, always nice to be able to have that at 2 am when waiting forever for a train.
Doug
