Posted on 05 March 2010 by Stephen. Tags: Deal, Google, Policy Changes, Search, T-mobile USA, Yahoo
Well, its over! T-Mobile has ended its year old search deal with Yahoo. It comes as no surprise to hear that Magenta has replaced Yahoo with its biggest rival—Google. The deal is important because it now shifts search dominance away from Yahoo, as the Big G is now working exclusively with two of the top four carriers in the United States. A Yahoo spokesperson said that Yahoo will still be working with the fourth-largest U.S. carrier on other content services, such as Yahoo! Mail, Messenger, News, Sports, Finance and Flickr. It should also be noted that Yahoo will continue to work for T-Mobile International in Europe. Interestingly, the break-up follows last weeks discovery that AT&T will replace Google with Yahoo on their upcoming Google Android device-the Motorola BACKFLIP (really? replacing Google on a Google Android handset?) Well folks, how many of you think the Google-T-Mobile search deal with last longer than the Yahoo one? Lets hear some comments below!
mocoNews
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Posted in Upcoming Services
Posted on 08 February 2010 by David, Managing Editor. Tags: Google, Google Customer Service, Nexus One
After taking quite a beating in the blogosphere after the initial launch of the Nexus One, Google has officially launched phone support. That’s right; 888-48-NEXUS (63987) will get you customer service from Google, open daily from 7AM to 10PM EST. That’s right, from Google. Read those words, stop, close your mouth and let the wow factor hit you. Google finally recognized that live phone support is what it will take to help service the mighty Nexus One and all that might follow. This follows on the news that Google has reduced the ETF for Nexus One users so all in all not a bad day for them.
Not much else to see here, but hey, way to go Google, now can you tell me why my Google Reader constantly freezes?
Google Support
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Posted in Uncategorized
Posted on 08 February 2010 by Alex. Tags: ETF, Google, Nexus One
The FCC has been eye-balling the four major U.S. carriers regarding Early Termination Fee’s and when Google dropped their bombshell, it certainly raised some eyebrows. Thankfully, Google has thought twice about their own ERF on the Nexus One. Starting today, Google has reduced the “Equipment Recovery Fee” on the HTC Nexus One from $350 to $150. While its better and a recognition of the disapproval of the original outrageous fee, all the major players still have a long way to go to solving this issue.
Still, if you’re wanting to cancel your T-Mobile service (You had better not) within the first 120 days you can pay $150 plus T-Mobile’s $200 ETF, costing you a total of $350, whereas before it was $550. Nice move Google, but how about getting rid of the ERF all together? Statement from Google courtesy of the Wall Street Journal below:
“A Google representative said the company had been working with T-Mobile to lower the equipment fee.”
“Google’s overall financial philosophy with regard to operator service plans remains unchanged: We make no profit from commissions from operators or from equipment recovery fees, and our recovery fees are based on operator charges to Google for early termination of service,” the company said in a statement.
Feel free to voice your opinions in the comments!
WallStreetJournal
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Posted in Nexus One
Posted on 05 February 2010 by David, Managing Editor. Tags: Google, T-mobile
Based in no small part to the comments posted on blogs everywhere, including yours truly that have followed the news Deutsche Telekom might IPO or possibly spinoff its US division. Interestingly enough, readers on almost every blog/news outlet that posted this article are tossing around the notion that Google should consider purchasing T-Mobile. Google, having released its Nexus One and having expanded its Google Voice offering is clearly interested in the telecom industry. However, is Google a suitor T-Mobile would even consider? Should consider? More importantly, would the government allow it? Google has its fair share of detractors regarding its size, privacy issues and its sudden expansion into almost everything internet related. Nevertheless, let us be honest for a minute, Google is not thinking about today or tomorrow, they are thinking about tomorrow a year from now, especially in respect to technology and their investments. I cannot even pretend to know what sort of huge undertaking this would be if such a deal were to piece itself together. For the record, this is complete speculation, there are no hints whatsoever that T-Mobile is actually for sale or that Google has even heard of yesterdays Wall Street Journal report.
I bring this up, not just because of the comments I have read but also because of a Gerson Lehrman Group, report that says it makes sense for Google to buy T-Mobile. However, it is thin on information and even thinner on reasons why…but the fact that the article was written shows that people are starting to think of what a T-Mobile sale could look like. I mean let us just placate these rumors for a moment. Imagine Google suddenly has 33 million Google Voice customers. What is to stop them from giving away their phones ad-supported? Would people really go for phones that are free, but inundated with ads every time they make a phone call, or go to browse the web. Free sounds great in theory, but there is a price for that freedom and speaking frankly, I’d MUCH rather pay for a phone and not deal with ads than receive something for free than view an ad for a watch company every time I go to browse the web.
Therefore, for the moment, this is all rumor, speculation and a little fantasy. I do not want to see T-Mobile go by the wayside and I do not think any of our dear readers do either. That being said, if the wheels are turning somewhere, Google might be using their bright minds and wondering if this is a chance to begin their global takeover.
What say you?
Gerson-Lehrman
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Posted in Uncategorized
