Comments on: The Cell Phone Fairy Cometh

By: lot dan

lot dan — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 16:26:41 +0000

please can i get a blackbery cell phone for free, or any phone please

By: Marisa

Marisa — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 17:24:57 +0000

Thanks Nick, it helps when you’re a web developer by trade ;)

By: Bill J.

Bill J. — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 23:37:21 +0000

whats the new motorola music phone go for?

Bill

By: The Goodspeed Update » My New Sprint Phone: First Impressions

The Goodspeed Update » My New Sprint Phone: First Impressions — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 05:53:51 +0000

[...] Readers of this blog will know that I was recently sent a free cell phone from Sprint to use for 6 months as part of an “ambassadors” program which seems to be both a mechanism to collect feedback about their service, and also promote their new “Power Vision” technology. Basically, the Power Vision network is their new high-speed data network and phones which allows you to watch live and on-demand TV, listen to streaming radio, and download music on-demand. The phone they sent me, the MM-A920, is both a phone and also plays MP3s and streaming content. I am fairly sure they are trying to run a blog payola gig where they give me free stuff with the hopes I’ll write about it, but I decided because I have been gadget obsessed for many years an blogged about my Sprint phones in the past, I didn’t face too much of an ethical quandary about assessing the new phone. [...]

By: dumi

dumi — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 23:25:21 +0000

And I now present… Dumi’s things to do for April

1) Make my blog happier. I hear the advertising guys like happy stuff. My current sociopolitical rantings don’t go over well with the over 30 white demographic.

2) Mention that I’ve been obsessed with my Treo repeatedly on my blog and link to my favorite treo blogs, but complain that I don’t moblog because data packages cost too much.

3)Hit Rob up for his “new” now old treo since he got a “new” phone.

4) Wait for the perks to roll in ;)

By: The Goodspeed Update » PR and Blogs

The Goodspeed Update » PR and Blogs — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 21:33:34 +0000

[...] I’ve been thinking about PR and blogs quite a bit lately after giving two presentations on the topic. For both I emphasized two general approaches: to understand and strategically engage the blogosphere, or the larger task of utilizing the medium yourself for promotion purposes. During one of the presentations I found myself giving several examples of how companies have successfully engaged bloggers. The first was the Sprint Power Vision Ambassador Program which is sending free phones to bloggers to generate buzz for their new multimedia phone technology. Another company, Soda Club, sent me a free soda-making machine to test for DCist. I know of at least one friend who purchased a machine as the direct result of seeing mine in action, and I have no idea what impact it had in DC after I ran the review. With over 10,000 hits a day and many more using the archive, even if they sold just a handful in the city their initial investment would have paid off. [...]

By: Martin

Martin — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 15:36:07 +0000

I’ve been a lot more impressed with Sprint since I got my Treo. The phone itself is prone to some truly astounding glitches and screwups–yes, Rob, I hate you because yours works perfectly :)–but Sprint’s tech support and customer service has actually improved noticeably in the last few months.

Maybe they realized that simply buying out Nextel wouldn’t give them the kick in the arse they needed, and they’d have to–gasp–provide better service.

By: Neil

Neil — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 01:10:36 +0000

I’ve been using the phone as a “Sprint Ambassador” and I think the idea was very clever on Sprint’s part. If they had offered the phones to the usual suspects like Engadget, it would have just smelled too much like product placement. Instead, they sent it to a broad range of bloggers, most who have written about it in one way or another — creating a buzz that cost them practically nothing. And I really appreciate that they didn’t ask for anything in return, so you don’t feel obligated to write a fake review just to get a free phone for six months. I’ve been impressed with their service and I might even switch over to them from Cingular when my contract is over.

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 21:32:06 +0000

Well, for a company that routinely drops tens of thousands of dollars for lavish newspaper ads, TV commercials, and billboards, it’s really not that expensive to send out a few hundred phones …

By: Eston Bond

Eston Bond — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 19:26:00 +0000

I'm in on it too, and I'm wondering why as well. I'm not awfully popular except in a really, really small community, so I'm unsure as to what Sprint's decision was behind giving me a phone. That said, Kristine: Check out the terms and conditions for Sprint's Ambassador program: although it's a lot of legalese, there's really not much of a catch to it. It's funny how the first people they sent these phones to were A-list Advertising executives. It's nothing more than really clever marketing, but it does seem expensive to me. I'm going to be talking with Jaffe about it in NYC on Thursday, so I'll see if he can provide any more insight into this. I'm certainly no marketing guru.