Sprint's product development guru bolts from yellow pastures, heads to greener ones
By Darren Murph 
posted August 12th 2010 8:35PM
posted August 12th 2010 8:35PM
Look out, Sprint -- if you aren't careful, you might just end up pulling a Palm. Shortly after Dan Schulman, Sprint's prepaid business honcho, announced that he'd be leaving The Now Network for a position at American Express, product development guru Kevin Packingham has announced that he'll be packing out on Monday. The 39-year old is responsible for spearheading some of Sprint's most highly sought after products, namely the HTC EVO 4G and Samsung Epic 4G. He'll be leaving his Senior VP office in order to "run another company in Kansas City," but Sprint's remaining mum on what exactly that company will be. For what it's worth, a spokeswoman for the carrier confessed to the Wall Street Journal that the departures aren't a concern, and that "Steve Elfman, president of Sprint's network operations and wholesale business, and Fared Adib, vice president of product development and Mr. Packingham's lieutenant, will share oversight of product development."
Sprint...don't F up now
@finishhim27 Agreed, I really like there two 4G cell phones. Guess my credit card is gonna me American Express.
@finishhim27
I believe in you Sprint!!!
@finishhim27
Seriously! I JUST switched to Sprint.
@Stratus41298 well welcome and this doesn't mean that they are going to tank. just leave an opportunity for some one better and more fresh to come along.
@finishhim27 Don't worry Sprint never screws up! JK- Where to begin with Sprint screw ups... Hmmm - I think their quarterly customers losses for the last few years might be a great place to start - and each quarter they try to Obama spin it by saying how great their quarter has been - far less loss than predicted! or far less loss than the previous quarter. Shouldn't they want to boast like ATT, Tmobile, Verizon - far more subscribers than the previous quarter?
FIRST
@androidfan1
Your first at being fourth
@finishhim27
He's uh 2nd actually...
@JonnyB He's the first to say first.
I hope Sprint still gets good NEW cell phones. Sprints stepped it up, it would suck to see them regress.
As long as we have our epics and our evos, it's all good
Surprised you used "bolts" and not "sprints." Actually nvm, that's really lame
Sprint just stop trying to pit the Epic 4g against the EVO 4g and market both your phones against other carriers please?
Whocares they can be replaced. if Dan Hesse leaves then sprint should be concerned
@young hov 718 Yes that would be good news - maybe they'd start gaining customers instead of having far the least loss of cutomers in over a year!
Maybe with Sprint gone we might see free and clear contracts being observed for new phones, maybe they'd start offering some of those great SERO plans again - and for all you who say - how could they make a profit - it is far more profitable for sprint to maintain a customer on a sero plan than for them to lose that customer and to gain a customer is more expensive than keeping an existing customer - just read what is available on the web. Maybe if Sprint honored their old plans they'd have more customer loyalty - far less balking on their own company forums and people would recommend Sprint to their friends.
I used to recommend Sprint to my clients until they stopped offering really good deals as their lack of phone selection and heinous customer support make them far than ideal for business use. My clients actually pay me to deal with Sprint to get their phones activated as Sprint still can't make their Ensemble system easy enough for monkeys to press a button and get the phone provisioned properly with voice and data on the first try. "Call back in 4 hours, it can take up to 4 hours for a phone to be provisioned" BS- if you escalate to a higher support team they magically get it provisioned in 2 minutes.
Let's see, spring just had a banner year, is the only 4G network running, and is making cash for the first time following a string of steady of improvements since Dan Hesse took over.
And Engadget likens this to Palm who planned a "slow and steady" roll out of their phone/OS in the only 6 month void of new smartphones that has existed in years?!!? Are we going to say someone pulled a palm every time more than one employee leaves in a close time period?! The implication is ridiculous
Spring should've bought Palm, mind BLOWN.
@Seakip
DOUBLE BLOWNED
As long as they keep front cams standard in all 4G phones, push for the best features, more 4G coverage & exclusives. They should be fine.
Maybe he left to protest the $249 price of the Epic 4G...
@busdriver71 Now that was funny!
I don't find this interesting or news worthy.
@Deihmos
Yet, you're here posting.....
What makes you think Kevin Packingham had anything to do with any of Sprint's successes?
I support AT&T but I do like Sprint very much. I have watched them from the start. They started out and I would see their competiton as Boost and Virgin Mobile. It used to be the big 3 Tmobile, AT&T, and verizon. I think Sprint has become more popular than Tmobile. I give them props but I will always support the big blue
@Troyb0y29
[[ I will always support the big blue]]
Corporate allegiance, what a strange human trait
@Troyb0y29 "I would see their competiton as Boost and Virgin Mobile."
Um...what are you talking about? You think that Boost and Virgin Mobile are AT&T's competition? Sprint's? Regardless, Sprint owns both, so it doesn't matter.
As for Sprint being "more popular" than T-Mobile, that's ALWAYS been true. However, despite that, T-Mobile still manage to get pretty awesome exclusives of their own, offers comparable (if not better) rate plans, and can at least make a profit even if they lose a few customers. Plus, Sprint is still hemorrhaging customers on the iDEN side since the company refuses to advertise Nextel, refuses to expand the iDEN network, and simply refuses to offer iDEN/WiMAX handsets.
If this loss in product development means that we can now see actual iDEN/WiMAX handsets (or at the very least a return to WiDEN for data), then I say "Good riddance, Dan Schulman! And don't let the door hit you where the sun doesn't shine." However, given Sprint managment's inability to do anything seriously positive so far (heck, they're pitting the Epic 4G AGAINST the Evo 4G? SERIOUSLY?!?), I'm guessing this will end up biting Sprint in the behind.
I was trying to say when I first heard of Sprint I thought they were just a little crappy company that will soon go out of business. They have came a long way. My teacher has the new Evo and it is so cool. I have an iPhone 3GS and the Evo has a lot of the same apps and it has a lot of stuff the 4 does too like a front camera. Even though Sprint did a stupid thing with those 2 phones I am still very impressed by the company.
Is it really a big deal when two of your people leave for companies you don't compete with?
It's so sad how much Engadget prays for Sprints downfall. They ONLY post things that dont show something positive, such as twisting the words around on the 2Q earnings.
They posted this, instead of writing about the other news today. Sprint was ranked 2nd in JD powers new rankings for in store customer service. Sprint finished 1 point behind T-mobile, while ATT and Verizon were 3rd and 4th...No mention of this article ANYWHERE on Engadget.
easy to have good customer service in your stores when they're always empty
@obobo Speak when you know the facts. Sprint retail stores LEAD the industry in foot traffic in their stores, as Sprint is the only provider that offers in store repair (VZW does in SELECT markets). NOW whats the excuse? Foot traffic in stores:
1. Sprint
2. AT&T
3. Verizon
4. T-Mobile.
@Josta Maybe Engadet has had to deal with Sprint saying you need a new contract and can't get that phone on their existing contract, maybe they've called Sprint "customer service" every 4 hours trying to get someone who knows how to provision a phone properly on the first try, maybe they've had to deal with Sprints continuous billing errors month after month even though each "customer service" rep assures them that the issue has been resolved, maybe they are upset that they finally get a phone and discover that Sprint's "testing" department didn't notice that the BT on the device doesn't work properly or that the batteries on the phone only last a few hours because of a design flaw where it can't lock on signal even though they've beeen "testing" the phone for over 6 months.
@Josta
AT&T also offers in-store phone repair and has done so for some time.
bolted... or was fired... like he should have been months ago...
Nice. It's a view from inside the Sprint Center.