Smartphone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

"The price of cellular phone calls should decline more slowly in 2006 than in recent times as the duration of phone calls expands less rapidly, a top executive at Sprint Nextel Corp. said on Wednesday. U.S. operators have driven down the price of mobile phone calls in recent years as they tried to win new customers or steal each other's subscribers in the fiercely competitive market, which had as many as six national operators at one point. But as increases in the amount of time customers spend on the phone slow, operators will likely be less aggressive in lowering their prices this year, according to Len Lauer, chief operating Officer of Sprint, the No. 3 U.S. cellphone service."

Cheaper minutes might not get much cheaper, but I wonder what will happen to data plans in the USA? Based on what I've read about data plans, they've gotten better but still have a way to go - especially on the EVDO side of things. I feel a twinge of jealousy when I compare plans from American carriers with what carriers in Canada offer. It's like we're going backwards in time up here - we used to have flat-rate GPRS for about $75 a month, which at the time (2003?) was revolutionary. Since then Fido, the carrier that was offering it, was bought by Rogers, their only competitor in the GSM space, and the flat-rate pricing is no longer offered. Now rates are $100 CND ($90 USD) for 100 MB of data per month. Meanwhile I've heard of people on T-Mobile in the US getting unlimited GPRS for $4.95 a month. 8O

Europe isn't much better off with their data plans from what I know - Paul from MoDaCo in the UK was thrilled that his carrier was finally offering flat-rate plans, years after other places in the world. What about where you live? Do you feel like your rate plans have been getting cheaper, or has your usage of data plans for your Windows Mobile devices been offsetting the savings?

Last week we told you that the Audiovox SMT5600 had finally appeared on Amazon's site, and unfortunately there was no rebates or discounts offered. Well, that's changed. You can now get the Audiovox SMT5600 with Cingular branding from Amazon for just $99.99 after rebates. Now that's a nice deal. If you've been holding out for a SMT5600, I would think this is a good time. 8)

Our affiliate partner Tek 'n Toys is now offering the iMate SP3i for sale on a pre-order basis, and the price of $461 USD for an unlocked, tri-band phone is rather good. :-)



All the specs can be found in this PDF file. You can order one today. [Affiliate]

"A recent price war has made Internet song downloads cheaper while the price tag on a mobile phone ringtone has barely budged, and in some cases, is creeping up, a new report on Tuesday said. The price discrepancy between downloads and ringtones -- those ubiquitous tuneful greetings programmed into millions of handsets -- can be laid squarely at the feet of record companies, according to London-based consultancy Informa Plc. The main culprit is the advent of so-called "sample" ringtones, the latest stereophonic tones pulled from actual studio recordings..."

I've never been into pre-bought ringtones, so this news doesn't impact me very much. I think it's far cooler to make your own ringtones, which is easy when the Smartphone plays WAV (2002) and WMA (2003) files. Take your favourite song, rip it from the CD into a WAV file, edit it down to the part of the song you want, then put it on your phone. Bam! You're done. I understand that process is more complicated than most people want to go through, but I find it quite fun. :D The other option is to make your own music using Acid, which is what I've done on our downloads page.

Our affiliate partner Tek 'n Toys has kicked off a contest that will interest some of you. The last we did this event with Tek 'n Toys, one of you won back the purchase price of an iPAQ 4150! Here's the contest blurb:

"How would you like your next Pocket PC of Smartphone for free? For those of you who have been looking for the opportunity to be wireless and mobile this is your time. For the next four weeks you will have the opportunity to win back your purchase price of your device. Both the amazing Pocket PC Phone Edition and the Smartphone 2 will give you the chance to qualify. As an added bonus we will be giving away three (3) Sony Ericsson HBH-65s." [Affiliate]

I'm not sure when this went into effect or when it will end, but while browsing our software store I noticed that they have the very popular SoundZ Cool app from AIM Productions selling now for a discounted price of $4.99. If you like customizing your Smartphone with ringtones and sound themes, SoundZ Cool is a must have app. It comes with 5 sound "themes", 24 bonus ringtones, and the ability to download 10 more themes for free. I wish they had a trial version so people could see if it meets their needs, but at less than $5 there isn't much to lose.