Crave

Text 'til your heart's content with the Moto Clutch.

(Credit: Motorola)

Earlier in May, Bonnie Cha told you about Motorola's first iDEN phone with a full QWERTY keyboard. Availability details were slim at the time, but this week we saw that the Clutch i465 has landed at Boost Mobile.

The Clutch offers a rugged design that meets military specifications for dust, shock, moisture, and the like. The black-and-maroon color scheme is rather unique and its keyboard and navigation controls have a promising layout.

Features include a VGA camera with video recording, 20MB of internal memory, Bluetooth, a 1.79-inch display, messaging, POP3 e-mail, and a basic MP3 player. The Clutch is $129.99

Odd couple or happy marriage?

Even now, I'd still call Sprint and Nextel an odd couple. Three years after these two crazy kids shocked everyone by getting hitched, the combined carrier still struggles to find its identity. Admittedly, the obstacles of combining two distinct networks and customer segments were daunting, but like an undecided voter choosing between candidates, I struggle to know what the company stands for.

A quick look at the other major carriers shows that they've been more successful at developing distinct identities and brands. AT&T is the big kid on the block with a large section of handsets and a monopoly on the iPhone; Verizon Wireless has a solid voice and 3G network and a growing assortment of fancy phones; and T-Mobile wins customer service awards and it aims for a urban, youngish audience by offering affordable calling plans and unique handsets like the Sidekick and (as of Tuesday), the T-Mobile G1.

But what can you say about Sprint? What exactly is its brand? Heck, I can't even think of Sprint's marketing slogan (as in AT&T's "More bars in more places"). On one hand, Sprint can claim some interesting phones of its own--there's the Samsung Instinct, the HTC Touch Diamond, the LG Rumor, and the Palm Centro, to name a few. And I've long said that Sprint's music and video content is some of the best in the business. But even with those upsides, I don't see the company packaging them in a way that refines the carrier's image and attracts new customers, not to mention keeping current ones. Indeed, during the last four financial quarters, Sprint has continually lost subscribers, dropping from 54 million in the second quarter of 2007 to 51.8 million in the second quarter of this year.

The Instinct is cool, but is it enough?

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)

Though customer churn is far from being a carrier's only sign of success, Sprint is facing challenges on other fronts. As News.com's Maggie Reardon reported last month, the carrier lost $344 million during the April to June quarter. Though that was an improvement over the previous quarter, its stock price remains in the cellar. Similarly, while the company no doubt enjoyed a boost from the June 20 release of the Instinct, I agree with Maggie that Sprint needs more iconic high-end phones like it. Simply put, Sprint needs more pizazz in its product line that will deliver new subscribers.

But beyond just developing signature phones, Sprint has another problem: what will it do with its iDEN network? Indeed, iDEN remains a big concern of many Nextel loyalists who have long feared losing their rugged, dependable phones and their beloved Direct Connect push-to-talk network. But as I wrote earlier this year, Sprint's rather circuitous post-merger strategy hasn't done much to calm those concerns. First, it said it would move all Nextel customers over to CDMA, while keeping iDEN for PTT calls. What's more, it introduced dual-mode iDEN/CDMA handsets to make the move easier. But after those bridge-building handsets failed to catch on, the company changed its mind. Not only did it keep the Nextel and Sprint brands separate, but it also went back to introducing iDEN-only phones. It even brought CDMA phones into the Direct Connect fold with QChat phones like the Motorola V950.

Is it just me, or is Sprint really trying to confuse the heck out of everyone? When the carrier merged with Nextel almost two years ago, everyone in the cell phone world thought it was the oddest of odd couples, and it was. Not only did the two companies operate incompatible networks (Nextel had its signature iDEN service while Sprint used CDMA), but also they attracted different consumer segments. Though at the time Sprint promised that it would be a "merger of equals," Nextel fans weren't so sure. How would the combined company integrate the two carriers without alienating either customer group? Nextel loyalists, which are some of the most fiercely loyal customers around, had the worst doomsday scenarios. Would Sprint eliminate Nextel's popular Direct Connect push-to-talk services and force them onto Sprint's inferior (as they saw it) CDMA service? They were all good questions, and at first Sprint didn't reveal much right away.

The Motorola i530, now that's a Nextel phone

(Credit: CNET Networks)

But before long some Nextel customers began to smell trouble. Sprint announced that it would continue to operate the iDEN network through at least 2010, but eventually it hoped to migrate all Nextel users over to the CDMA network for voice calls. Sprint already operated its own PTT network called Ready Link, which Nextel customers could use, and it promised that its new 3G EV-DO network would be a unifier between the two technologies.

The Motorola i355 could take a licking

(Credit: CNET Networks)

As for phones, Sprint also tried address concerns that it would abandon Nextel's line of rugged, durable Motorola phones that Nextel customers loved. It highlighted some Sanyo handsets that, while not , were built to last. But the biggest change would come later in 2006 when Sprint introduced new dual-mode handsets. Though they used the iDEN network for PTT calls, Voice calls ran on CDMA. The first such model, the Motorola ic502, was a bit of a dud, but the ic902 which came in July 2007 was a solid device. On the outside the two handsets looked like Nextel phones, except for the Sprint logo, but it when it came down to it, they're weren't Nextel devices. At the same time, a trickle of iDEN-only phones continued to appear, such as the high-quality i580.

The Motorola ic902, change was on the way

(Credit: CNET Networks)

In some surprising developments since November of last year, after all the promises of ending voice calls on the iDEN network, Sprint introduced two new handsets that are pure Nextel phones. The Motorola i335 and Motorola i570 use only iDEN for voice and PTT calls, and they look and feel like the Nextel phones of the pre-merger era. Both are tough as nails with simple, functional feature sets and reliable call quality. Compared with the Motorola i880, which brought a much-needed high-resolution display and multimedia features to Nextel, the i335 and i570 almost resemble antiques.

So what exactly is Sprint doing? Is it quietly admitting that a move to bury iDEN isn't working? Some analysts seem to think so. Interestingly, Sprint spokeswoman Amy Schiska-Lombard told RCR Wireless News that Sprint "has no plans to shutter its iDEN network." While that's always been the case essentially, the company did express a desire to end voice iDEN calls. No, that's not the same thing, but it almost is. What's more, Sprint has sent Ready Link to the graveyard in favor of Direct Connect, which was always better anyway.

The Motorola i570, back to basics

(Credit: CNET Networks)

It's no secret that Sprint is having a tough time lately. Just in the last year it lost 1.2 million customers. Sprint has admitted that many were former iDEN customers. It's no secret that the merger (like so many before it) presented Sprint with some significant hurdles.

It certainly looks as if Sprint is trying to remedy its situation by breathing new life into the Nextel brand. In the process, Sprint seems to be going back on its original plans. The renewed emphasis on iDEN and the introduction of two very Nextel phones within a couple months of each other are a testament to that. Though they're not pretty to look at, and they're almost a step backwards in cell phone design evolution, the i335 and i570 are good performers. They offer all the phone features that Nextel fans clamor for. The very fact that they exist at this point in time seems to be a sign that someone wants them.