Comments on: Virgin Mobile swallows Helio, Helio posts Q&A

By: kevin

kevin — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 03:03:31 +0000

dont be so quick to judge VM i had them as a teen up until november of 07 which is 2 years plus never had a dropped call(can u say that cricket?) plus their interface works well as far as CS theyve gotten jd power and associate awards they arent like peoples choice awards but as far as helio they had the 1st phones that actually had features their demographic preferred and used only other competition is the sidekick and g1

By: eres pendejo

eres pendejo — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 00:21:41 +0000

fuck you bitches i still love my helio

By: Fast Talkin Bastard

Fast Talkin Bastard — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 13:18:27 +0000

SK Telecom sold Helio so it can buy Sprint. LOL

By: N Courtney

N Courtney — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 23:19:51 +0000

In the US since phones are subsidized, the carriers do deals with the manufacturer as to exclusivity deals software, etc. being an engineer and having worked in the wireless industry, the manufacturers would like to make a phone that would work on any network which would make the phones a lot less expensive in the long run even without subsidies from the carriers, the manufacturer can make more profit making one million of the same unit, than they can making 200,000 for one carriers network, and 100,000 for another, even though you have a CDMA phone in the US, the software varies from carrier to carrier, the firmware may be the underneath but the top layer software is going to be software developed for the carriers.

Carriers fight this because it would basically mean you could take your telephone number, and you mobile phone to any carrier, and there would be no need to unlock a phone. Just reprogram the mobile to the appropriate SID.

The carriers subsidizes the phones for about 300.00 per mobile, and lock you into a 1, 2 or 3 year contract plus they make money on providing you service and even if you don’t like the service you still have to pay them to get out of the contract, and since most people stay with their carriers even after the contract is up, and the customer has paid for the subsidy paid to the manufacturer, and the carrier has made a profit.

By: The Outside

The Outside — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 21:52:58 +0000

i wouldnt say their phones were crappy so quickly. they had the fin, ocean & their first 2 phones were pretty feature packed when they came out. no mnvo can stand up against the major national carriers of course. but some put up a damn good fight and manage to do pretty well. helio’s downfall came when they stopped selling feature packed phones that gave the public exactly what they wanted and more. how they succumb to virgin mobile out of everybody is beyond me.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 21:34:01 +0000

Your missing the point… Helio had a crappy selection of phones. Out of its whole line up only one or 2 stood out. When compared to other providers its line up was pure $hit really.
Compared to Verizon, T-Mo, and AT&T Helio didnt stand a chance.

Of course though its downward spiral was also a result of other issues as well, but you can sure as hell bet its phone line up was one of them.

By: The Outside

The Outside — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 21:15:28 +0000

gsm has nothing to do with this strictly CMDA county

By: bob

bob — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 21:13:39 +0000

And yet T-mobile is still highly profitable, and without a 3g network. No use getting the latest and greatest phones if the network doesnt support yet, yet tmobile offers innovative products and service plans that att can’t match (hot spot @ home, my faves)

for the geek, its about the phone, but for the average user it isnt. Look at the deep subsidies with the iphone, is it worth it?

And for virgin mobile is getting helio for about 1/10 for what sprint paid for nextel’s subscribors

By: Daniel

Daniel — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:49:55 +0000

Read the post fully, AT&T vs T-Mobile was used as a example on my rant/post..

By: Hinano

Hinano — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:18:55 +0000

This post has nothing to do with Tmobile, so why is it being brought up…?

By: Daniel

Daniel — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:05:49 +0000

Just???

More like why really…… I say they overpaid still for that company. They had potential at first but they just didnt stand out enough or have enough strength to compete against AT&T, Verizon, or even T-Mobile and Sprint.

The phones were lackluster except for the helio ocean, thats about it really. The phones on the network can make or break a phone provider. I mean look at AT&T they are signing every damn phone close to being released ages before T-Mo. its sad really how tmobile has been kicked back so behind.

By: The Outside

The Outside — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 19:52:38 +0000

1st.
btw just 39million?