Monday, June 21, 2010

EVO 4G Looks Great, Sprint Retailing Lags

On Friday afternoon, I met the CTO of Limelight networks for lunch in Palo Alto. Hanging out on university avenue in Palo Alto, about 15 minutes early for my meeting, I walked through the Apple store and then on to the Sprint store. At the Apple store, I did what I always do: swore I woulnd't buy anything and then bought something. In this case, a stand for my iPad. It set back $30.

I then wondered over to the Sprint store. Balloons were out front and the place was surprising crowded for Sprint store (there were like 10 people in there!). I forgot that the HTC EVO 4G launched on Friday. I went over to have a look at it. Hard to do so when there were 10 people straining to get a look and only 2 on display.

Killing a few minutes and waiting for the crowd to disperse so I could play with an EVO, I wandered over the Palm Pre display. I've never had a chance to play with the Palm (soon to be HP) pre. This was not my time either. Both Palm Pres on display in the store were dead, no battery and no power. And so the painful contrast with Apple was so very clear. At the Apple store, there are dozens of every new device on display. You never have to wait to get your hands on a device. And they all work.

I did finally get my hands on an EVO. It's huge yet slim, it has a beatiful screen, and HTC has done a terrific job making Android look slick. Every thing on it is fast and powerful. Web surfing is amazing on the huge screen and Sprint's 3G network is respectably fast. Despite this, I'll be sticking with my T-Mobile blackberry for the moment. Early data shows that T-Mobile's 3.5G network (HSPA+) is running faster than Sprint's 4G network and with a $300 early termination fee for new users, I'm not in the mood to be chained to Sprint at the moment.
Big & Beautiful, the EVO 4G. Flickr CC photo:
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