Kellen
In the world of tech news, we’ve always got time for teases from Samsung when it involves new premium Galaxy Watch devices. Our eyebrows will also never stop raising whenever a carrier talks about older plans and how they might optimize pricing on them. Last, we can’t forget about some of the smaller players in the game, like Mobvoi, who is apparently still trying to sell Wear OS watches.
Here’s a look at some recent industry news.
PREMIUM GALAXY WATCH 7: Samsung has been rumored for some time to be working on 3 different Galaxy Watch 7 models. Two are expected to be the Galaxy Watch 7 and Galaxy Watch 7 Classic, but a third could revive the “Pro” line. Samsung has seemingly confirmed the move in a write-up on their first quarter 2024 results.
When discussing revenue growth and smartphone demand from the quarter, Samsung said it plans to strengthen the Galaxy ecosystem by offering up new models, one of which is the already-teased Galaxy Ring. But the big reveal here is in smartwatches, where Samsung noted that is will “strive to meet demand for upgrades through the launch of new premium models.”
It’s hard to know exactly what they mean by “premium models,” but the assumption is that the Pro line will return as the Galaxy Watch 7 Pro. Unless, of course, “premium” means more premium materials used with bigger price tags.
T-MOBILE PRICE HIKES?: Verizon is a big fan of sneakily raising prices on its older plans that you continue to hang on to. They do this to move you to their more expensive plans that offer them higher margins and you less freebies. T-Mobile, at least up until this point, hasn’t followed Verizon’s lead and has mostly let you keep whatever plan you’ve had without worry. That could soon change, maybe as soon as this year.
During their earnings call at the end of last week, T-Mobile CFO Peter Osvaldik mentioned in his opening statement that they were anticipating “taking further rate plan optimization actions within the base” and that those actions could cause “slight year-over-year headwinds to postpaid phone net adds in Q2 and Q3 related to those rate plan optimizations.” That’s all executive code for, We plan to mess with plan pricing and it might piss a bunch of customers off.
Once the Q&A for the call opened, they were immediately asked to be more specific on what they meant. At that point, CEO Mike Sievert jumped in to assure everyone that “nothing we do is going to question or challenge our long-standing strategy of being the value leader in this market.” However, because “costs have risen” and other industry changes have happened, he thinks “customers understand that if there are changes around the margins once every many years in a world where costs change, they’ll understand and accept that.” He then finished by saying that “there may be more changes, particularly with older rate plans,” but that they had nothing more to announce.
You get what he’s saying, right? Then are looking at doing what Verizon continues to do and they think you’ll understand and be OK with it. CEO speak is wild, man.
MOBVOI TEASES NEW WATCH: Fans of Mobvoi products, a new smartwatch is on the way. Well, that’s what we’re taking from the teasers that Mobvoi began sending out this week with a picture of a smartwatch and the words “A NEW ERA DAWNS.” There’s no teaser on their site, but they’ve shared this image through email and to all social media channels.
It has been almost a year since they introduced the TicWatch Pro 5 with the latest in Wear OS tech. Is this just a new model of that or are we talking about a TicWatch Pro 6? I guess we’ll find out soon, although they have yet to include a date in any of these teasers.
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