MetroPCS might be the smaller of the two parties in the proposed merger with T-Mobile, but it certainly knows how to coin a profit in difficult times. The carrier recorded a massive $ 193 million net profit this quarter, $ 44 million more than the $ 149 million it made in Q2, despite losing 312,000 subscribers in the three month period. The reason behind the rosy numbers was a combination of cash-saving exercises and canny investments in securities, pushing total revenue to $ 1.3 billion. The network now has just under nine million customers, with more than a million of those subscribing to one of the company’s LTE packages. It’s also managed to reduce churn down to 3.7 percent, a reduction of 0.8 percent since Q3 2011. CEO Roger D. Linquist remarked that the next quarter will see the business “re-energize” subscriber growth at the expense of its bottom line — probably wise, given that it’s lost just over half a million customers in the last six months.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless
MetroPCS breaks 1 million LTE customers, makes $ 193 million profit despite losing 312,000 users in Q3 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Oct 2012 06:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The latest and greatest 5th generation iPod touch, with its 4-inch Retina Display and new multi-colored aluminum backs, is reportedly preparing to ship out, according a couple different sources. First, MacRumors reports that pre-order customers are seeing their order status turn to “Preparing for Shipment,” and separately, Japanese Apple-watching site Macotakara reports that Apple will begin selling both the new touch and the new iPod nano starting October 9 in Japan.
One customer is also reporting that his credit card has been charged, according to MacRumors, which generally means that the shipping process is underway. yesterday, estimates in Australia changed from October to an estimated wait time of “3 weeks,” and some new customers just pre-ordering now were seeing specific scheduled delivery dates of later in October and the beginning of November.
Apple had said that the iPod touch and nano would ship sometime in October, but gave no definite timeframe. Here’s hoping users will be able to get our hands on some of the new hardware soon. If you’ve pre-ordered, and are seeing your status changed or your card charged, let us know in the comments.
If you call the Dell support line, chances are you’re the lucky winner of the chance to pay $ 300 for Dell warranty protection. Laptop Magazine called Dell three times with a number of simple problems, including trackpad issues and software problems. Each time the CSR informed the reporter that they had won a “daily drawing to purchase a four-year extended hardware warranty for our laptop for $ 317.”
The CSRs also offered software warranties for hardware questions and even forced a warranty on the customer during a question on how to use the trackpad with three fingers.
When we told him that we weren’t interested in a warranty, Sherma told us that only three customers win the drawing per day, and that the normal price for such a warranty is $ 512. We again told him we weren’t interested, at which point Sherma said that if we didn’t want the discounted offer, he would give it to his next caller. We once again told Sherma that we didn’t want to purchase the warranty, to which he replied in a clearly agitated tone that he was only trying to save us money. He then began telling us that we were also eligible for a software warranty.These call centers were apparently all in India and Dell responded by explaining that many of the behaviors exhibited weren’t sanctioned by the company. “Daily drawings are not a regular practice nor encouraged tactic in technical support and we have used your feedback to reinforce this with our teams. Their only priority is to resolve our customers’ issues,” they wrote.
This sort of behavior suggests a few things. First, these guys are paid commission for every warranty they sell and by gar they’re going to sell them some warranties. Second, if Dell, ostensibly no longer a PC company, is reduced to the worse tactics than Best Buy, there may be some problems internally. I’m surprised they didn’t try to upsell Monster USB cables.
A major factor of the Apple v. Samsung case has been whether consumers are confused when purchasing a Samsung device, believing it to be one of Apple’s iThings.
Peter Bressler, Apple’s expert witness in the Apple v Samsung case, just took the stand and cooly confirmed all of Apple’s claims against Samsung. But during cross-examination, Samsung’s counsel started throwing some punches with regards to prior art. Bressler had originally said in his testimony that the prior art he had analyzed has no bearing because of minor differences, such as a curved front rather than a flat one, as on the iPhone.
To combat this testimony, Samsung counsel introduced four different versions of prior art, including the 2005 Sharp design and LG’s Prada smartphone. With each example, Samsung counsel went through a checklist of questions: Is it rectangular? Does it have rounded corners? Does it have a balanced screen (centered both horizontally and vertically)? Does it have a speaker grill?
Bressler answered “Yes” to most of the questions presented to him, but not without throwing out objections to the way patents and prior art were being analyzed. Samsung counsel was only showing the front view of each piece of prior art, rather than showing all eight views of the devices.
“This is not how you review figures in patents,” said Bressler. “I believe this is a distorted view of how one should analyze a patent.”
Then Samsung counsel moved to specific Samsung handsets with regards to Scott Stringer’s July 31 testimony on one of four design patents Apple is asserting, ’087. Stringer said that it was important that the bezel be of uniform thickness all the way around, that it should be nominally flush with the front glass, that the corners all have equal radii and that the losenge shaped design of the speaker grill be centered both horizontally and vertically on the phone. He also brought up Stringer’s testimony on the iPhone’s “black oily pond,” which is a reference to the minimalist black front face.
Samsung counsel then tried to go into very detailed, minute differences between this patent’s embodiments (specific features in patents are referred to as embodiments) and both the Infuse 4G and the Galaxy S 4G. He said the Infuse 4G doesn’t have a bezel, and if the casing it does have were to be called a bezel, it’s much wider than the iPhone’s (and the ’677 patent). He mentioned that the radius of the corners on the Galaxy S 4G aren’t actually equal — the top has a 10mm radius and the bottom 13mm.
He went on and on, showing various buttons on Samsung’s handsets to show a distinction between Apple’s black oily pond and Samsung’s buttoned, branded front face on the Infuse.
To almost everything that was asked of him, Bressler explained, “I believe the ordinary observer gets an impression of an overall design,” he said. “The ordinary observer doesn’t view one element of the design at a time.”
A major factor of the Apple v. Samsung case has been whether consumers are confused when purchasing a Samsung device, believing it to be one of Apple’s iThings.
Peter Bressler, Apple’s expert witness in the Apple v Samsung case, just took the stand and cooly confirmed all of Apple’s claims against Samsung. But during cross-examination, Samsung’s counsel started throwing some punches with regards to prior art. Bressler had originally said in his testimony that the prior art he had analyzed has no bearing because of minor differences, such as a curved front rather than a flat one, as on the iPhone.
To combat this testimony, Samsung counsel introduced four different versions of prior art, including the 2005 Sharp design and LG’s Prada smartphone. With each example, Samsung counsel went through a checklist of questions: Is it rectangular? Does it have rounded corners? Does it have a balanced screen (centered both horizontally and vertically)? Does it have a speaker grill?
Bressler answered “Yes” to most of the questions presented to him, but not without throwing out objections to the way patents and prior art were being analyzed. Samsung counsel was only showing the front view of each piece of prior art, rather than showing all eight views of the devices.
“This is not how you review figures in patents,” said Bressler. “I believe this is a distorted view of how one should analyze a patent.”
Then Samsung counsel moved to specific Samsung handsets with regards to Scott Stringer’s July 31 testimony on one of four design patents Apple is asserting, ’087. Stringer said that it was important that the bezel be of uniform thickness all the way around, that it should be nominally flush with the front glass, that the corners all have equal radii and that the losenge shaped design of the speaker grill be centered both horizontally and vertically on the phone. He also brought up Stringer’s testimony on the iPhone’s “black oily pond,” which is a reference to the minimalist black front face.
Samsung counsel then tried to go into very detailed, minute differences between this patent’s embodiments (specific features in patents are referred to as embodiments) and both the Infuse 4G and the Galaxy S 4G. He said the Infuse 4G doesn’t have a bezel, and if the casing it does have were to be called a bezel, it’s much wider than the iPhone’s (and the ’677 patent). He mentioned that the radius of the corners on the Galaxy S 4G aren’t actually equal — the top has a 10mm radius and the bottom 13mm.
He went on and on, showing various buttons on Samsung’s handsets to show a distinction between Apple’s black oily pond and Samsung’s buttoned, branded front face on the Infuse.
To almost everything that was asked of him, Bressler explained, “I believe the ordinary observer gets an impression of an overall design,” he said. “The ordinary observer doesn’t view one element of the design at a time.”
Here’s hoping you weren’t planning on using one of Google’s Nexus Qs any time soon — the company has just revealed to pre-order customers that it has postponed the device’s consumer launch because users wanted more out of the curious little orb.
That said, Google’s tiny media streamer has been unceremoniously yanked from the Google Play store. All interested consumers can do now is give the company their email address for future updates on the situation, as there’s no word yet on when Google expects that full-blown launch to take place.
Thankfully, there’s a silver lining to be found here: anyone who already pre-ordered the Nexus Q will receive a developer unit (a.k.a. the existing device that Google gave out in droves at I/O) for free. Seeing how the developer device is exactly what those customers pre-ordered in the first place, I’d say they’re making out pretty nicely. Still, there are some intriguing new questions at play now — what exactly does Google plan to add to the little guy to make it more of a competitor in a space already crowded with arguably superior hardware?
An actual user interface would be a nice place to start; while the dev model connects to a television just fine, users have to select content for the Nexus Q to play from a wirelessly-connected Android device. Being able to call up YouTube videos and movies from the Google Play Store directly on the television screen (perhaps using those additional Android devices as remotes) could help the Nexus better hold its own against the Apple TV and the Boxee Box. It wouldn’t be a shock to see Google cram support for more media sources into the thing too — Netflix, Hulu, and the like would be great additions to a device that otherwise lives solely within Google’s content ecosystem.
Google is playing its cards close to its metaphorical vest, but for now here’s the email notice in full courtesy of Droid-Life:
We have an important update about your Nexus Q pre-order.
When we announced Nexus Q at Google I/O, we gave away devices to attendees for an early preview. The industrial design and hardware were met with great enthusiasm. We also heard initial feedback from users that they want Nexus Q to do even more than it does today. In response, we have decided to postpone the consumer launch of Nexus Q while we work on making it even better.
To thank you for your early interest, we’d like to extend the Nexus Q preview to our pre-order customers and send you a free device. If you had other items in your order, your credit card will be charged for those items only.
Your Nexus Q will be on its way soon and you will receive a notification and tracking number from Google Play when it ships.
Everyone’s favorite roadside explosives purveyor, Phantom Fireworks, is now offering “firework previews” on a fleet of Nook Tablets that will be available in stores. The tablets will will allow customers to view photos and videos of the fireworks they’re buying and will streamline retail operations, allowing customer service reps to place orders at the customer’s side.
The Youngstown, Ohio-based company is one of the first to use cheap, entry-level tablets on the show floor. Fans of snailnet will appreciate the method of video distribution: “All the demo videos are stored and uploaded onto a secure digital (SD) card at the Phantom Fireworks corporate office in Youngstown and shipped out to the different showrooms across the country.” This presumably reduces the need for the local sites to have a fast Internet connection.
Quoth Phantom PR:
“The tablets provide a fantastic tool for our customers to demo fireworks before they buy them,” Kendall said. “It’s always about improving their customer experience in the showrooms. With the Nooks, we have the ability to turn customers onto Phantom products they’ve never experienced or purchased, which is a great thing.”This also points towards an interesting trend. Obviously Phantom Fireworks locations don’t need to look as fancified so the Nook Tablet – or a Kindle Fire, for that matter, although the sneakernet SD card swap system wouldn’t work, – is a perfect device. It’s solid, has an acceptable screen, and the floor staff look automatically cooler for using it. Coupled with their excellent Fireworks.com URL it looks like these Phantom folks are pretty darn plugged in for the second place that you visit before you go drink in your cousin’s back yard.
At a J.P Morgan conference held in Boston on Wednesday, Netflix CFO David Wells said that the company was looking up and, more importantly, customers who cancelled the service because of the Qwikster rebranding, plan repricing, and subsequent poor PR are now returning.
The company drove users away due to a considerable price hike on its cheapest disk plan – from $ 9.99 to $ 15.98 – as well as its ham-handed decision to split the company into a streaming arm – Netflix – and a disk-in-the-mail arm – Qwikster. Wells said:
We think there’s room to grow, but the improvements in retention and our growth in Q1 and Q2 since Q3 and Q4 of last year make us feel pretty good. Rejoined or folks rejoining the service still remain about a third of our new subscribers that are coming in.Even streaming-only subscriptions, who should not have faced an impact, reacted to last year. We think that’s a result of the negative PR, the swirl that was around the brand and the company will dissipate over time. We even saw that in Canada, which you could argue should not have seen it.Netflix pricing is currently set at $ 7.99 a month for one DVD (not Blu-Ray) disk out at a time a month and $ 16 for unlimited streaming and one disk. The steady return of disgruntled customers is a testament to the breadth of Netflix’s streaming selection and general economic improvements.
At a J.P Morgan conference held in Boston on Wednesday, Netflix CFO David Wells said that the company was looking up and, more importantly, customers who cancelled the service because of the Qwikster rebranding, plan repricing, and subsequent poor PR are now returning.
The company drove users away due to a considerable price hike on its cheapest disk plan – from $ 9.99 to $ 15.98 – as well as its ham-handed decision to split the company into a streaming arm – Netflix – and a disk-in-the-mail arm – Qwikster. Wells said:
We think there’s room to grow, but the improvements in retention and our growth in Q1 and Q2 since Q3 and Q4 of last year make us feel pretty good. Rejoined or folks rejoining the service still remain about a third of our new subscribers that are coming in.Even streaming-only subscriptions, who should not have faced an impact, reacted to last year. We think that’s a result of the negative PR, the swirl that was around the brand and the company will dissipate over time. We even saw that in Canada, which you could argue should not have seen it.Netflix pricing is currently set at $ 7.99 a month for one DVD (not Blu-Ray) disk out at a time a month and $ 16 for unlimited streaming and one disk. The steady return of disgruntled customers is a testament to the breadth of Netflix’s streaming selection and general economic improvements.
HBO will reportedly extend access to its HBO Go streaming service to more cable customers tomorrow. Engadget has screenshots of Xbox 360 and Roku activation menus that show the previously unavailable Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks logos, along with Comcast and DirecTV appearing for Roku. The site’s sources also say that Time Warner Cable customers will be able to access HBO Go on Samsung HDTVs and Blu-ray players, though the service actually rolled out for TWC on Samsung Smart TVs back in February. No mention of specific models was made.
HBO and Time Warner Cable are yet to comment, but if you subscribe to one of the mentioned providers (and HBO, of course) it might be worth trying the activation process once or twice come…
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