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T-Mobile To Launch Second Android Phone for $199

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t-mobile-mytouch-3g-ofc Yep, $199 is the new entry point for smart phones. T-Mobile sort of made that official with news that the myTouch 3G, the second Android phone, will launch in July. Existing T-Mobile customers can pre-order beginning July 8 with delivery scheduled for late July, and general availability will be in August. The myTouch 3G is based on the HTC Magic which has been available in Europe and Canada. The phone will have Android 1.5 as the OS and they are touting customization of just about everything and also an application called Sherpa from Geodelic that supposedly learns how you use the phone and returns information based on your usage habits. Here’s a quote on that:

At the heart of the T-Mobile myTouch, Sherpaâ„¢ is an application with a built-in learning engine that automatically customizes itself to your preferences. Created by Geodelic, the application learns your likes and dislikes through behavior and user feedback, prioritizing recommended retailers, restaurants and attractions. Seamlessly blending behavior recognition, a recommendation engine and location-relevant information, this combination of learning is exclusive to Sherpa and unlike any experience currently on the market.

It has taken awhile, but I’m interested to see how the Android platform continues to advance in and of itself, as well as its impact on the market.

Via TechCrunch

2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. Ian Dixon

    06/22/2009 at 9:31 am

    I was a long term WinMo user and found Android to be a great phone OS and can only get better.

  2. marcmywrdz

    06/22/2009 at 2:32 pm

    I am involved in a customer service nightmare with T-Mobile. I’ve tried dealing with them to no avail. First I spoke with â€ŔRalph” from the â€Ŕoffice of the president.” I’ve also written to their media relations department, Robert Dotson, Brian Kirkpatrick, Susan Nokes and Hamid Akhavan, all of whom have ignored me. All I want is something fair and simple, yet the are they have dug their heels in and are being completely unreasonable—and have been quite deceptive to boot!

    My 19 year old daughter has not has good luck with her T-Mobile phones. She had a Razr which gave her problems on many occasions. She eventually switched to a Wing—the source of her current, ongoing problem.

    My daughter has gone through several Wings. In the beginning, they were replaced with refurbished units. She dropped one and paid the insurance claim out of her own pocket. Her current Wing (a new unit), which she received a few months back, started to give an error message saying it was out of memory, repeatedly froze, etc. It finally stopped working altogether. Research on Google shows that this is common problem with this phone. The tech at a T-Mobile store said that there was nothing they could do and suggested she go to Wal-Mart and get a pre-paid phone until she got a new Wing!

    I tried reaching Ralph from the â€ŔOffice of the President”several times. After leaving many messages, Ralph finally called me back. He said, â€ŔIf the account number isn’t left, I won’t return the call.” To me, that is NOT customer service. All he would have to do is to look up my daughter’s records OR call me back! Finally, Ralph got back to me, then my daughter. Initially, Ralph told my daughter that he would exchange her Wing for any other T-Mobile phone. She was pleased to hear this. My daughter went to a T-Mobile store again and tried out different phones. Because of her needs and the shape of her fingers, etc., she settled on the G1.

    When my daughter called Ralph back and told him the phone she wanted, he told her that she could have any phone EXCEPT THAT ONE! I’m sure you can imagine her disappointment—and outrage. He offered to give her a Sidekick 2008 (quite old) or a Dash (even older—and one she doesn’t like). These are not even close to being in the class as a G1 or a Wing. He said that she could get the G1, but she’d have to pay for it—and offered her a â€Ŕdiscounted” price of $179.99. I then spoke with him and expressed my disappointment and how it was insulting that even though she had a flawed, lemon of a phone, she’d have to pay even MORE money for a different one—one that was also close to a year old technology-wise. I asked for his supervisor to call me.

    Jennifer Martinez called me the next day. She basically reiterated the same offer, making it sound like we were getting some amazing deal, saying that â€Ŕretail” price on the phone was $399.99. This was absolute deception, of course, as hardly anyone ever pays the â€Ŕsuggested retail price,” and, the T-Mobile website offers the very same price of $179.99 to ANY new customer!

    I declined Ms. Martinez’s offer and told her that I would be contacting other people. She said that â€ŔI could feel free to do so, but they would tell me the same thing.” Now, I understand empowering employees, but when they come off as sounding like even the owner or CEO can’t or won’t do anything they won’t do, it just sounds ridiculous.

    Apparently, my letters trickled back to Ralph, who called me and clearly indicated that he was authorized to speak on behalf of all of the executives that I had written to.

    Among the many absurd things that he said, he told me that he could not (or…WOULD not) contact my daughter when I called him the first time, since I didn’t’ leave her cell number, since there were others with her name in their system. I told him flat out that as far as I knew, there are NO other people with my daughter’s name in the world! I again wrote to T-Mobile asking for some type of proof of this. The fact is, Ralph refused to be proactive and just make a simple phone call to me. He tried to cover his tracks with this ridiculous statement. Ralph also told me that the $179.99 was a huge discount—the only thing that that my daughter qualified for. It seems that T-Mobile is more is more interested in getting new customers than keeping the ones that they have.

    This situation has been going on for over a month. My family has had an account with T-Mobile for many years. We’ve paid T-Mobile thousands of dollars through the years. My daughter’s Razr and now her Wing have given her problems. I’ve tried to resolve this fairly, yet they refuse to budge over $200—and an old phone—one that’s already being updated!

    I have recently filed complaints with both the Better Business Bureau in DuPont, WA (the office closest to T-Mobile HQ) and the FCC.

    I appreciate the chance to share this information with your readers and let them know that the vows of great customer service by Susan Nokes and her team are nothing but lip service.

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