T-Mobile soon says goodbye to Sprint
During last week’s Un-carrier announcement, T-Mobile has revealed that the carrier is planning to retire the Sprint brand as of August 2. That’s the day T-Mobile will be rebranding all Sprint assets including most of Sprint’s legacy retail outlets. T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert later announced that although the legacy stores will be rebranded and the carrier will no longer be accepting any new Sprint customers after the announced August 2 deadline, they are not truly “sunsetting the brand”. T-Mobile also teased customers and prospects that new “fresh deals” are on the way to commemorate the unification of the brands.
The NPD Take:
- T-Mobile’s recent announcement on the retirement of the Sprint brand is in line with the previous roadmap provided during the conclusion of the merger at the beginning of April 2020. The rebranding of the stores is crucial in accelerating the brand unification efforts; while there might be doubts about the Sprint brand superseding the T-Mobile brand in certain parts of the nation (hence the inclination not to charge full throttle with the brand retirement efforts), our February 2020 Connected Intelligence Mobility survey revealed that T-Mobile enjoys a higher brand recognition than Sprint in all tracked major demographical regions.
Low-end Samsung Galaxy A series commercially debut in the U.S.
The last couple of weeks have been busy for Samsung as its previously announced low-end Galaxy A series phones – the A01, A11 and A21 – all found new homes in the US market. The ultra low-end A01 model, which was a Verizon exclusive since April, is now available through AT&T, Cricket, and Metro for as low as $59 (at Cricket). The one notch above Galaxy A11 (which includes a no-bezel 6.4-inch HD display, 4,000 mAh battery with fast charging capability, a wide-angle camera and a fingerprint reader), on the other hand, can be purchased through AT&T and Verizon for $179. Notably, Dish’s Boost Mobile will sell the Galaxy A11 for $129 for a limited time beginning this Tuesday. Finally, the Galaxy A21, which boasts upgraded optics and higher RAM over the A11 version, is available at an MSRP of $249. Notably, Boost Mobile offers a similar $50 discount on the Galaxy A21.
The NPD Take:
- If history is any indication, Samsung’s new Galaxy A01, A11 and A21 are poised to be quite successful among price sensitive customers looking for a device from an established OEM. Samsung’s predecessor A10 and A20 models were two of the top-selling handsets (especially in the prepaid market) back in 2019, and the COVID-driven economic downturn makes the new variants an even better option for customers looking for value.
- Dish’s decision to promote its A11 and A21 with a $50 discount is certainly welcome as the new owner of Boost Mobile needs to go as aggressive as possible with its device and service pricing to fight off churn and attract new customers while building up its new network services.
T-Mobile makes another Un-carrier move
T-Mobile last week announced the 16th of its eminent Un-carrier moves. The new Un-carrier offering is dubbed Scam Shield, which offers customers a free AI-powered spam/robocall blocker solution they can control via a downloadable application. The solution provides multiple tiers of protection including Scam ID and blocking (to flag and block unwanted numbers), enhanced caller ID (for caller verification), a second number to be handed to solicitors (dubbed T-Mobile PROXY) and the ability to get a new personal number. All of these features will be offered to T-Mobile, Sprint and Metro customers for free of charge beginning July 24 when the new Scam Shield application goes live.
The NPD Take:
- T-Mobile’s latest Un-carrier move may not be as exciting as some of the ones announced in previous years (i.e. Netflix On Us), but there is no question that it provides a remedy to a real pain point for consumers. It’s noteworthy to mention that T-Mobile’s solution is not super unique; the carrier and its rivals have long been offering such protection, but customers need (or in the case with T-Mobile, needed to) to pay for it, and very few customers actually pay for carrier value-add services such as Family Tracking or Scam Protection. Offering this solution as a free value-add will be a good differentiator for T-Mobile.