Concerning signs from AUS - whats the US like?

[Strider_Aus]

Just blogged about my experiences walking in off the street to a few different non-carrier based phone retailers.

One store not maketh the OS….worrying on the ground results for WP7.

Interested in the US experience.

Very concerned that MS need to change their Marketing strategy and hit Mango HARD when it is released.

C'mon MS!

[CrowdAds]

[saratoga]

I think its like that most places. Carriers realize that if any one vendor gets control of the market, they're going to get squeezed hard for revenue sharing and device subsidy agreements. So they're pushing Android as best as they can to try and counter Apple and break their control over the high (and most profitable) segment of the market. Going out of their way to sell someone WP7 who doesn't come in demanding a WP7 device isn't really in their best interest. What they really want is two equally powerful vendors fighting it out so they can play one against the other for low cost devices and favorable revenue sharing agreements. Right now thats Apple and Google (and in some places to a lesser extent RIM).

[Confispect]

2nd paragraph has a small error. Edit.

[steinburger1109]

I have noticed them in most stores I walked past, actually. Though, the center of the roam is devoted to Android normally, and WP7 is off to the side. The employees never hang around the WP7 area... So I think saratoga's right about them only wanting to put their efforts into one challenger. Three, in this case, is not a party.

I do have to give props to my carrier, though. I wandered in to the US Cellular store at my local mall one day just to check things out because my plan is a bajillion years old, and was surprised to see that they had some marketing about WP7 up, even though they don't have a WP7 device yet. The employee I talked to was enthusiastic when I asked her about when they were expecting WP7 to hit them. It doesn't sound like US Cellular is putting much more weight behind it, unfortunately. They're rolling out 1 device this year. That's all she could tell me. This was back in May I think.

[Fallstar]

Originally Posted by steinburger1109

I do have to give props to my carrier, though. I wandered in to the US Cellular store at my local mall one day just to check things out because my plan is a bajillion years old, and was surprised to see that they had some marketing about WP7 up, even though they don't have a WP7 device yet. The employee I talked to was enthusiastic when I asked her about when they were expecting WP7 to hit them. It doesn't sound like US Cellular is putting much more weight behind it, unfortunately. They're rolling out 1 device this year. That's all she could tell me. This was back in May I think.

I'm with US Cellular as well. My local corporate store has had the HTC 7 Pro for a couple months. I don't know how it's selling, since I'm kind of stuck in my final contract, another year left. But I did get to play with it in-store, and really like it. I'm hoping, by the time I'm up for an upgrade, they have more...and with larger screens.

[steinburger1109]

Ah, yea, they said they'd get one over the summer, but it's been a while since I stopped by.