NEW ORLEANS—With many big phone makers off the floor of CTIA, the little guys have come out to play at this year's show. You probably haven't heard of them: Eyo, Unnecto, and Plum Mobile are a few of the prominent names. They all have two things in common, and both of those things are SIM cards.
Dual-SIM phones are extremely popular in Latin America, where several of the smaller handset manufacturers at CTIA are currently selling phones. The South American markets are mostly prepaid and GSM, with a welter of different offers and few subsidies. With carriers offering better rates for calling their own customers than competitors', plenty of South Americans have two subscriptions: one for calling friends on each of two different carriers, or one for work and one for home, for instance.
U.S. carriers have generally barred dual-SIM phones (or their CDMA equivalent, dual-NAM) for competitive reasons: they don't want people to have subscriptions on two different carriers. People who want to have two lines on the same carrier are collateral damage here.
But Unnecto and Plum, at least, are going to try to get this foreign concept into Americans' hands. They're the two most viable of the unknown phone makers at this show, in large part because they have U.S.-based, English-speaking marketing staff.
Unnecto, a brand-new company, is based in New York. They're picking and choosing Asian phones, which they rebrand. They have a close relationship with Mediatek, a Taiwanese maker of inexpensive processors.
Several of Unnecto's phones are texting phones that look like smartphones, most notably like a BlackBerry 8800 or a Nokia E71. The company's flagship is the Quattro, a relatively nondescript budget Android 2.3 phone with a 4-inch, 800-by-480 screen, 5-megapixel camera and a single-core 650-MHz Mediatek processor. And of course, it supports two SIMs. It'll sell for under $200 without a contract, Unnecto spokeswoman Sarah Mogin said.
Plum Mobile has an even broader range, with many brightly colored feature phones and some more powerful smartphones. Plum is based in Miami and has been selling phones in Latin America for years, CEO Sam Hussain said.
The Plum Might looks a lot like a Samsung Galaxy Note, with a giant 5-inch screen, 5-megapixel camera and a 2800mAh battery. It's running Android 2.3 on a 650-MHz Mediatek processor. I found the phone felt really slow when I was using it. The Plum Capacity, meanwhile, is a more traditionally sized black slab smartphone, with a 3.5-inch, 320-by-480 screen, and 3.2-megapixel camera. It also uses the 650-MHz Mediatek processor.
Both Unnecto and Plum are looking primarily to third-party retailers like big-box stores, drugstores, Dollar General, and online retailers to sell their unlocked phones.
Why Dual-SIM Probably Won't Work Here
Plum's and Unnecto's handsets could appeal in a lot of countries, including much of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. But they probably won't sell here.
The U.S. mobile market is dominated by large minute buckets or unlimited plans, and carriers generally have incompatible bands and technologies. The first point makes it less appealing to have a dual-SIM phone; the second means there are few SIMs you can combine in one device.
Plum's and Unnecto's phones are GSM-only, and generally only have AT&T's 3G bands. So they don't work at all with Verizon, Sprint, MetroPCS, Cricket, U.S. Cellular, Boost, Virgin, or many other CDMA carriers. Folks with SIMs from T-Mobile and Simple Mobile, meanwhile, would be stuck on 2G. That's fine for 2G-only voice and texting phones like the Unnecto Pro, but it's a bummer with a smartphone.
That leaves AT&T and companies which use its network, like Straight Talk and H2O Mobile. Yeah, sure, that's a couple of options, but it's much less appealing than in countries where you could plug any available operator into your HTC BTR6300B mobile phone batteries.
The phones also just feel cheap. I'm less bothered by the companies' small, brightly colored voice phones, which would make dandy backup, emergency or tween phones. But with MetroPCS, Virgin, and others offering no-contract, brand-name smartphones from companies like LG and ZTE for $99, it's hard to suggest that consumers take a flyer on a new name without a clear advantage. We'll see if these new manufacturers make a dent in the market.
For more from CTIA, check out the photoblog below.
source from blog: Could Americans Learn to Love Dual-SIM Phones?
Both Unnecto and Plum are looking primarily to third-party retailers like big-box stores, drugstores, Dollar General, and online retailers to sell their unlocked phones.
Why Dual-SIM Probably Won't Work Here
Plum's and Unnecto's handsets could appeal in a lot of countries, including much of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. But they probably won't sell here.
The U.S. mobile market is dominated by large minute buckets or unlimited plans, and carriers generally have incompatible bands and technologies. The first point makes it less appealing to have a dual-SIM phone; the second means there are few SIMs you can combine in one device.
Plum's and Unnecto's phones are GSM-only, and generally only have AT&T's 3G bands. So they don't work at all with Verizon, Sprint, MetroPCS, Cricket, U.S. Cellular, Boost, Virgin, or many other CDMA carriers. Folks with SIMs from T-Mobile and Simple Mobile, meanwhile, would be stuck on 2G. That's fine for 2G-only voice and texting phones like the Unnecto Pro, but it's a bummer with a smartphone.
That leaves AT&T and companies which use its network, like Straight Talk and H2O Mobile. Yeah, sure, that's a couple of options, but it's much less appealing than in countries where you could plug any available operator into your HTC BTR6300B mobile phone batteries.
The phones also just feel cheap. I'm less bothered by the companies' small, brightly colored voice phones, which would make dandy backup, emergency or tween phones. But with MetroPCS, Virgin, and others offering no-contract, brand-name smartphones from companies like LG and ZTE for $99, it's hard to suggest that consumers take a flyer on a new name without a clear advantage. We'll see if these new manufacturers make a dent in the market.
For more from CTIA, check out the photoblog below.
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