HTC garners limelight at Sprint Nextel

‘Mogul’ aimed at SMB, enterprise

By Phil Carson

Sprint Nextel Corp.’s heritage in serving business users has dovetailed with HTC Corp.’s own ambitions and device evolution to produce the “Mogul,” a $400 entry in the high-tier productivity market.

The device is but a refresher model to the Sprint Nextel PPC 6700. But therein lies much of the story.

HTC: The brand

First, the Mogul is HTC-branded—Sprint Nextel logo on the faceplate, HTC logo on back. That’s a first for HTC in the United States.

Sprint Nextel has granted HTC an opportunity to bring its global, self-branding strategy—the journey from original device manufacturer to original equipment manufacturer—to the U.S., where the carrier-dominant business model makes that mission a bit tougher. In turn, Sprint Nextel will get device support for its business customers through training and support for its staff from HTC.

Second, HTC and Sprint Nextel jointly developed the “Mogul” moniker and they’ve done away with the alphanumeric tag that moves no one.

One can question what’s in a name, but the name merely reflects what’s happening inside the device. And what’s happened with the device’s evolution speaks to the rapid pace of innovation as carrier portfolios get refreshed, which also speaks to shelf life in these modern times.

A short list of the changes between the PPC 6700 and the Mogul underscores the competitive pressures in the smartphone space as well as Sprint Nextel’s own customer-based research. A study of more than 1,000 smartphone users last year yielded answers, according to Josh Miner, group manager for business and productivity devices at Sprint Nextel.

“We asked them what they wanted in their next device,” Miner said. “And they said: smaller, thinner, more battery life and more memory. We delivered on that.”

Enhanced specs

In brief, the Mogul has an internal antenna, slimmer form factor, 256 megabytes of memory (double the PPC 6700, and the Mogul includes a 512 MB card), about 20% longer battery life, a higher resolution camera and an added thumbwheel for one-hand control. It is the first CDMA device in the U.S. with Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Mobile 6 Professional Edition and can be upgraded to CDMA2000 1x EV-DO Revision A with a software upgrade later this year.

So for those seeking the familiar PC environment of Windows, e-mail, calendar and document editing, the Mogul’s horizontal slider design with QWERTY keyboard represents a competitive choice, Miner said. Add multimedia functions, which include access to the Sprint Music Store, and out-of-box accessories that include that 512 MB microSD card, stereo headphones and leather pouch and business users and productivity hounds should find the Mogul a serious value, Miner said. The CMF (colors, materials, finishes) includes brushed metallic face plate set in a gray matte finish, with the case made of grip-able material.

“It does have ‘cross-over’ appeal, especially with the name, which provides a bit of swagger,” Miner said, referring to the prosumer market.

Aging gracefully

Where the PPC 6700—cutting edge for its day, Miner said—had a shelf life of about 15 months, the Mogul is designed to keep pace with innovation for a similar if not longer period. Besides the Rev. A upgrade to come, enhanced GPS features (such as turn-by-turn directions) and other downloadable features are in the works.

“The value of this device will continue to grow,” Miner said.

David Smith, director of marketing at HTC America Inc., said that the device and its capabilities were designed to match or best the device turnover period among U.S. users; currently, the industry has a replacement cycle of 12 to 18 months, he said.

“It’s future proof,” said Smith of the Mogul. “We listen to the market. We’ve met expectations.”

HTC has had long discussions with its carrier partners about “who is the business buyer,” and concluded that—apart from the enterprise gorillas that take large device orders—there are “many millions” of small- and medium-sized businesses to be served, Smith said.

“Sprint has seen the value of HTC’s products and innovation,” Smith said, “and our additional programs to support their sales teams.”

(Smith added that the Mogul represented a three-way partnership with UTStarcom, which is an HTC customer and distributor to Sprint Nextel.)

Smith said that Sprint Nextel’s initial order for the Mogul had sold immediately and was being refreshed by HTC and UTStarcom.

Challenges?

According to analyst Avi Greengart of Current Analysis, the effort is worthy, even if it doesn’t realize all the benefits Sprint Nextel and HTC sought. He noted that the first public photos of the handset did not reflect an HTC logo on the back; many co-branded handsets include the vendor’s logo on front. The $400 price tag definitely puts the device in the high-tier, where HTC has managed to place its devices across most of the U.S.’s top-tier carriers, and that price is considerably higher than many competing productivity devices on the market.

However, Greengart said, the device works well to bolster Sprint Nextel’s reputation for realistic enterprise offerings, which have been based on “very powerful devices and reasonable data plans.” The upgrade to Rev. A will improve on that, he added.

“The economical use of 3G is something that Sprint has long stood out on,” Greengart said. “Its unlimited, 3G data plans are reasonably priced.”

Further, the analyst said, Sprint Nextel has an “accommodating, aggressive” policy that encourages the use of its smartphone devices including the Mogul as modems for mobile broadband—as opposed to competitor, Verizon Wireless. The Sprint Nextel-HTC partnership over the Mogul is also another win for Microsoft and its mobile OS.

“HTC has practically been Microsoft’s mobile hardware division,” Greengart noted in a recent report on another HTC device—a remark clearly intended as, if not a straight compliment, certainly a reflection of HTC’s rising fortunes outside its home base in Taiwan.