PhaseOut
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The cost of switching to LTE: Sprint to spend $10 billion over the next two years
Wonder just how much it costs to phase out iDEN and WiMAX networks and put all your eggs in one, CDMA / LTE-flavored basket? Well, Joe Euteneuer, Sprint's CFO, just offered up a frank answer here at its "Strategy Update" event: $10 billion over the next two years. That's a heckuva lot more than the $4 billion to $5 billion Wall Street was expecting, but Euteneuer assured all the suited-up financial analysts in the room that the company should save $10 billion to $11 billion through 2017 (a figure widely reported before today), with $4 billion of that resulting from not having to maintain the 'ol ball and chain iDEN network anymore. Now it's true, we're a minority in this meeting of industry analysts, but you don't need to be a banker to understand that's one telling figure: clearly, the company's betting its future not just on the (CDMA!) iPhone, but LTE's brand of 4G.
Right on time: Verizon phasing out Pre Plus, Storm2, Curve 8530, others?
Judging from some documents we've received, Big Red is looking to clear out a lot of inventory right about now -- presumably to make room for some upcoming models, some of which we've already heard about through the grapevine. Specifically, the Pre Plus along with the BlackBerry Storm2 and Curve 8530 are apparently marked "Phase Out"; in the case of the Pre Plus, we know Verizon's site has had it marked out of stock for a little while now, while rumors of a Storm3 and Curve 9330 have been floating around for some time. Also on the chopping block are a couple netbooks, a USB modem, and the MiFi, a device we've heard would be replaced with the ZTE-sourced, dual-mode Fivespot in the near future. All makes sense, doesn't it? Follow the break for a second shot. [Thanks, Wildkat]
Lenovo ThinkPad X300 series to be phased out, replaced by T400 this year
We're not sure what tea they're being served in the Far East these days, but the peeps at Lenovo have somehow convinced themselves to let go of the legendary 13-inch ThinkPad X301 and replace it with the 14-inch T410s by the end of the year. Ouch. While you mop up the tears pooling around your boots, here's Marketing Director Wang Lipin's reasoning: with the T400 series capable of offering more powerful CPU and GPU at a similar portability but much lower price (we're talking about a $980 difference between the T410s and X301 base models, at the time of writing), the X300 series has since lost its special place in the ultraportable category. It's tough to argue with figures like that, and hey, at least that's one less temptation for the sake of your piggy bank. Or so we're left to tell ourselves.
NTT DoCoMo announces farewell to mova and DoPa 2G services
You've had a nice run, 2G, but the time has come to start looking beyond to bigger, better and (most importantly) faster things. With LTE just over the horizon, NTT DoCoMo is proactively announcing the phase out of its mova and DoPa 2G services. The 2G mova services encompass car phone and Pre-Call prepaid -- which got their roots in March of 1993 -- while the 2G DoPa packet communication service sprouted up four years after that. Both of these longtime favorites will be disconnected at the close of 2012, with the company noting that "associated services and related billing plans will also be terminated at the same time." Anyone still relying on this stuff will be contacted sometime over the next three years to ensure that they aren't shocked and surprised when December 2012 arrives, and they'll be encouraged to make the not-at-all-painful shift to FOMA 3G services. It's better in the fast lane, we promise.
Boost Mobile pulling the plug on CDMA promotion
The writing was probably on the wall, but no one's paying close enough attention to what Boost Mobile's doing to even notice. phonescoop has it that the company famous for pushing its services with giant sized humans uttering one liners such as "yo" and "where u at?" is getting set to slowly (but surely) phase CDMA out of its life. According to company spokesperson Tatum Hawkins: "Boost Mobile will still operate, support and service its CDMA-related products, but it will no longer promote them. If customers wish to sign up for CDMA-based services, they may still do so. However, Boost will no longer create new CDMA products and/or services, nor will it add new CDMA phones to its roster of devices." From here, the firm hopes to focus on "building up the strength of its iDEN-based services and devices," so from us to you -- good luck with that Boost Mobile.
Sony have "ample supplies" of 60GBs available for the foreseeable future
Dave Karraker has updated the PlayStation.Blog today with a clarification about today's "60GB phase out" murmurings. The post begins with a "thanks to the fans" for their E3 support and ends with a explanation about the current situation regarding the 60GB PS3 and its place in the US lineup. Karraker states that there are "ample supplies of both models to meet the needs of consumers for the foreseeable future." Nowhere in his post does he deny that the 60GB is being phased out, though his post does infer that what David Reeves said was incorrect. The 60GBs won't sell out for the foreseeable future.This makes sightly more sense than the 80GB being introduced just as the 60GB is removed, as Reeves suggested was the case. Instead, the 80GB system can retail for the higher price, allowing the 60GBs to sell out (which we hope to see happening at the end of the year, at the latest, as a result of the Christmas rush). We would then like to see the 80GB model having its price lowered to fill the gap that the 60GB leaves behind. We could say that we "expect" this to happen but the fact is that, with Sony, you never know what they're going to do.We have faith in Sony's pricing strategy. Making such a big deal about a price drop, then removing it three weeks later would be ridiculous. These "ample supplies" should last for a couple of months, at least. We'll keep you updated as and when developments occur.
Apple beginning to phase out the 15" PowerBook?
TUAW has received a tip that points to the possibility that Apple could already be phasing out the 15" PowerBook. The tipster, whom we'll call Bob for anonymity's sake, manages an Apple B2B program for a U.S. institute. Recently, Bob noticed that, as you see in our screenshot, the 15" PowerBook has disappeared from their program's offerings. After Bob verified this disappearance with his Apple sales rep, the rep also (reportedly) explained that it would slowly begin disappearing from other catalogs as well.As with all claims like this, TUAW can neither confirm nor deny their validity. If this is true, however, it could force some uneasy decisions for those who had their eye on picking up a pro 15" portable from Apple, as we've already found out that some pro apps, such as Adobe's Creative Suite and After Effects, won't be Intel-ready until at least 2007.
