Amidst all the chatter from Verizon Wireless about being the first major carrier in the United States to offer shared data plans for families this summer, T-Mobile is taking a radically different approach. In a blog post, senior vice president of marketing at T-Mobile Andrew Sherrard made his views perfectly clear: shared data plans are not the way to go.
“Some of our competitors are backing away from simple, unlimited data and moving to family shared data plans. But would this approach actually deliver a better value to consumers? Do families really want to keep track of each others’ data consumption? We don’t think so,” he writes. “Just imagine mom’s email is suddenly unavailable because her teenage son watched an HD movie on his phone, consuming the family’s data allotment.” He then goes on to talk about how optimal data plans should contain three qualities: affordability, worry-free, and fair — i.e. if you pay more, you should get more features and flexibility.
A few parts of this post deserve special attention. Without wording it this way, T-Mobile basically said it does not think families with smartphones want shared data plans. Is this based on a survey of some sort? If so, where are the statistics? If not, why is T-Mobile basing an entire business strategy on pure speculation? Also, the point about someone’s Internet being cut off due to a different family member’s high usage is fair, but the same can apply to certain family calling plans. Data should be no different than tracking minutes or texts.
In a nutshell, it’s a really long way of T-Mobile announcing that it has absolutely no plans of offering shared data plans for families any time soon. The message is that customers with smartphones should instead choose an appropriate data package that best suits their needs without having to monitor their family’s usage or consume data from one large pool.
Do you agree? Give your input in the comments below.
T-Mobile: Shared data plans are not good for consumers originally appeared on IntoMobile.com on 2012-05-18T21:31:04Z. FV1gMYsz9b5j
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If you’re going to Google I/O, you may want to take a look at the conference’s event calendar and start planning your week. As reported by Android Police, Google is fleshing out the schedule for its June developer’s conference. You can attend sessions on game development, using the YouTube API and more.
If you’re not able to make it to the three-day conference, then you can watch the sessions from the comfort of your computer. Google is going to live stream many of the events and will make the rest of them available after 48 hours. It’s not the same as actually being there, but watching it from home is better than nothing.
[Google and Android Police]
Google updates the session schedule for Google I/O originally appeared on IntoMobile.com on 2012-05-18T20:02:55Z. FV1gMYsz9b5j
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