ChiaTown» Revenue Models

Why Sprint, Why? (Rate Increases? Really?)

Chia — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:21:40 +0000

Sprint shall soon be adding $10/month to users of 3G smart phones. They already did that for the 4G phones and I didn’t care that much as I don’t have a 4G phone. In fact it’s one of the reasons I didn’t go out and snag a Samsung Epic. The phone looks cool as hell but not worth $10 more a month for me.

You’ve seen me singing Sprint’s praises on Chia Town for quite a while. Blazing fast network, good customer service (after fixing the crappy customer service they were known for), and GREAT prices. I laughed at my friends who were paying AT&T boatloads of money for crappier service. Alas…such is not the case.

Sprint’s timing is REALLY bad. They announce this just as Verizon is about the get the iPhone. Perhaps Verizon isn’t as bad as AT&T in some people’s minds and a defection from Sprint to Verizon for the iPhone alone won’t be such a big deal. I had planned on sticking with my Android phone (a Samsung Moment which increasingly seems like a big heavy brick as I look at the new phones coming out…but I’m still happy with it) with Sprint because it just makes sense to stick with an affordable plan on a good network.

But now this.

Seriously Sprint, WTF? Did the Clearwire debacle go so badly that you’re trying to recoup losses and are sticking it to your customers? You have to remember Sprint, the only reason MANY people stayed with Sprint was because it was night-and-day cheaper than the competition. AT&T had exclusivity with the iPhone, Verizon had a big fast network, Sprint had…well Sprint had Android phones and a price that couldn’t be beat.

I’m seriously questioning this move. I love Sprint. I love their service, I love their customer service, and I love the tenacity they’ve shown to rebuild after getting beaten down. I applaud Dan Hesse for taking the helm of a sinking ship and getting things back on track. Good job!

But WTF Sprint? This may be the single biggest thing to get people to defect. It’s not like Sprint has the biggest market share as it is to toy around with. Under this price change, the other carriers will now be CHEAPER. Cheaper I say! I was fine settling for a cool phone (but not a “holy crap this phone is awesome” phone) because I had a good network and a stupidly cheap plan to use it on. Now I can pay less AND get a better phone, Android or iPhone?

I don’t know what you’re doing Sprint. Maybe you’re making boatloads of money from NASCAR or from your LBS (Location Based Services) offerings, but this makes no sense to me.

Think Small And Go Big

Chia — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 17:20:50 +0000

Many of us dream of going big. It was just announced that Oracle is buying Sun for $7.4 billion. Gee, wouldn’t it be nice to sell off your company for a few BILLION dollars? We keep seeing news blurb after news blurb about companies recording record profits (Exxon Mobile anyone?) or being bought for billions and I think it sets unrealistic expectations for many of us. Imagine starting up a company and selling it for $2 million. “Two million dollars? That’s it? Just two million?”

Seriously people…be HAPPY you can get two million dollars, especially now in this economy. While so many people (save from those AIG execs) make a modest living and live paycheck to paycheck. A few more put in a good day’s work and make a bit more. However, this being the celebrity-crazed, sports-loving, voyeuristic society that we live in, we love to see the football players with their multi-million dollar contracts, the movie stars that make $40 million per movie, the companies that are being run by college kids that are being bought for hundreds of millions. Time to come back to reality…

I was reminded that we need to come back down to earth as I was talking to a friend (and coincidentally a business partner from another company we co-founded and sold off many years ago) about one of his pet projects that we’re about to revitalize. Years ago we parted ways (on a good note of course! no speculation here people…we’re best friends and always will be) as he went off to law school and I continued on with my wily ways. As a Mac user he was having a frustrating time in a PC-centric world of law and education, thus he started up the site Mac Law Students. He was bound and determined to find solutions to his Mac problems (what time tracking software is there for the Mac? How can you take an exam that was designed for PCs? What’s the best solution for…) and report this to other law students who didn’t want to trade in their Macs simply to go to school and practice law. (In a funny random side note, my first real gig out of college was doing support for an IP law firm that was all Mac-based aside from the Netware server here and there). The site became fairly popular but as we all have time constraints he could not continue on with this after graduation. It’s been a while since that decision was made and he decided it’s time to bring it back.

So just what does this all mean? What am I rambling about? I start with billion dollar deals and then move on to a small niche site? Stay with me here…

We have no illusions that doing this site will make anyone stupid rich. And ya know what? That’s ok. It’s kind of a fun project to work on and could bring some sort of notoriety down the road, but it’s just a fun thing for now that could help fund a hobby or two.

Or could it get bigger? Who knows. I mean, wasn’t that company Apple started in a garage? Did you know the first Apples had a WOODEN case? Or those other little companies (FaceBook, Microsoft, Yahoo, etc) started in dorm rooms or as small things that happened to get big? I believe so.

Not EVERY venture needs millions in seed money just to get off the ground. Take a good idea, some passion, and some hard work and you can succeed. Not only can you succeed, you can go nuts and thrive.

So if you’ve got a good idea that you want to try, just go ahead and do it. Maybe you’ll get rich. Maybe you won’t. However, if you don’t even try there’s a 100% chance you WON’T have something to sell off for a hefty price. At the very least, find something you enjoy doing and then you can have something fun to do. At the upper end you’ve got something you can possibly retire on. Think small and go big.

New Revenue Models For Big Oil?

Chia — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 01:42:12 +0000

Will the big oil companies change their revenue models? This is a question that popped into my head as I saw a commercial for a petroleum company (it may have been Exxon…I don’t really watch enough TV to see commercials enough to remember who does what) talking about their commitment to finding new energy sources for cars and other such non-gasoline related items. It also reminded me of BP ads pointing out they were interested in other energy sources too.

What do you make of these commercials? Do you believe that Exxon, the company that posted $10.89 BILLION in profits in quarter…not a year…but a mere three months…is dedicated to other energy sources? Why should they? $10.89 billion. Staggering.

There has been talk of alternate energy sources (bio-diesel, electric, solar, etc) but none have taken off. Even with oil prices where they are, these alternate sources have gone nowhere. Why is that? Well…let’s think of the infrastructure we’ve got right now. We have cars that run on gasoline. We have gas stations peppering our lands. Buy an electric car, where are you going to recharge it? Bio-diesel? Can’t really find those gas stations anywhere either. So we’re stuck with what’s readily available.

Ponder this though. These petrol companies know consumers are feeling disenchanted with current gas prices. Hybrid vehicles and scooter sales are on the upswing. More people are taking mass transit. This means less gasoline is sold. So perhaps these companies WILL look for alternate sources of energy to sell to consumers. But…are you ready…here’s where it’s all about to make sense.

Let’s go back to that $10.89 billion in profits in three months. They easily have enough money to dump into R&D. They could come up with a product to sell to consumers. Next, they already have the most expansive distribution network available in the land. You hear people complaining about a Starbucks or a Wal-Mart on every corner, but what you REALLY see is a gas station on every corner. And in the most remote lands as long as there is a highway.

So there you go. I would actually be surprised if I didn’t see one of the oil companies introduce a new non-petroleum based product. They’ve got the money, they’ve got the distribution, they’ve got the willing consumer. It’s only a matter of time before we see the next retro-fitting of our gas stations and what they will offer for their new methods of revenue generation.