Interview with Rogers EVP John Boynton on Chatr: It’s “Unlimited Wireless that works”

Rogers confirmed yesterday that they’ll be launching a new wireless brand later this Summer called “Chatr”. This will offer unlimited talk and text with no contracts. I had the opportunity to speak with John Boynton, EVP & CMO of Rogers about why they created “Chatr” and who their target audience is.

The full interview is below and there are some good takeaways. He said Chatr will be an entirely separate division, separate billing system, separate outsourced customer care organization, separate staff in a separate building. Chatr started about a year ago and is based off the Metro PSC and Leap Wireless model in the States. In the interview he used what could be their tag line of “Unlimited Wireless that works”.

The Chatr target customer is “the very basic need customer with above average usage, average to below average income, sophisticated in the sense that they’ve been a wireless customer for a little while so they don’t need a lot of help with support. They get it and don’t need their phone other than text and voice.” Boyton also stated that Chatr is an “Urban brand” (each city will have calling “zones”) and “Is not a 21 network, doesn’t need to be the fastest”.

When I asked John Boyton about directly going after their competition such as WIND, Mobilicity and Public Mobile he stated “that a statement that bugs me little… what did they do? They looked south of the border and said, ooh look at that, that might work. So why are we any different?… We are later that WIND, Mobilicity and Public but earlier that Videotron and Shaw… We’re not first but not last. But a big difference: our works.”

The early rumours of these where Chatr will be available are in Toronto, Calgary, Ottawa, Edmonton and Vancouver. But with the above statement you can also bet that you could see Chatr cover the Quebec region.

In closing Boynton stated that “If people thought that we were going to leave this segment to just everybody else to have and not us, then they don’t understand the competitive nature of the industry. We’re going to compete for our customer needs just like we would and any other company in any other industry would.”

Check it out here:

Video Review: Rogers Acer Liquid E

The Acer Liquid E was recently released by Rogers and it’s their newest Android-powered device. This runs OS 2.1 and I believe this will be included in the few devices that will get an upgrade to the new OS 2.2 when it’s released.

The overall design of the Liquid E is well put together. Sleek, all decked out in a glossy back with curved edges (dimensions are 116×54×12.75mm and weighs in at only 135 grams). The specs are solid too. The 3.5-inch touchscreen display has a resolution of 480×800 but captures a massive amount of fingerprints. Pictures and videos from the 5 megapixel camera show all show up nice – the only issue I found with the camera is the quality of sound from the video. It came out sounding really low and muffled.

Using the QWERTY keyboard on the screen didn’t present any issues over the past few days. The touchscreen is responsive and the Liquid E comes with a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor that’s unfortunately been reduced to 768MHz to preserve its battery life.

Even with all the other goodness that’s packed into this Acer such as WiFi, full HTML browser, GPS, 3.5mm headset jack, access to the Android Market, all your e-mail, Google Maps, Google Talk, Bluetooth and that it can holds up to 32GB… I found the device somewhat had a cheap feel to it. There’s a good reason why Rogers priced this at $49.99 on a 3-year contract. This is not something I would be proud to carry with me for the next several years. In addition, we’ve already seen this hit the low no-contract price of $375. I’m sure we’ll see this hit the $0.00 mark within a couple months max. Check out the review here:

Video: Quick look at the upcoming Samsung Wave

The Samsung Wave is coming to Canada soon (via Bell) and we got a very quick walk through of it today.

The video is below but the one of the major highlights is the 3.3-inch Super AMOLED display. Samsung is hammering home the screen quality and the Wave has a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels and is incredibly bright… even in bright situations. Other quick specs of the Wave is that it operates on Samsung’s new open mobile platform called Bada where developers can create and share apps, 1GHz Samsung processor, 5 megapixel camera that can record HD video, 3.5mm headset jack, holds up to 32GB with a microSD card. In addition it has a dominant set of speakers… you’ll hear them in the video we checked out on YouTube below.

This is going to be available very soon… check it out here (video still processing through YouTube)

HTC Legend arrives at Bell… no-contract price is $50 more than Virgin

Right on schedule from what we said a few weeks ago, Bell has released the Android-powered HTC Legend today.

There’s something odd about this release though. First it was a bit bizarre that Virgin Mobile released the OS 2.1 device before parent-company Bell. The Virgin price plans are really impressive: $79.99 on a 3-year and $349.99 no-contract. But this is where it gets a bit strange again. Bell has the same 3-year price plan at $79.95 but the no-contract price is $50 more than Virgin at $399.95.

Regarding the actual device… we’ve put it through a drop test and a couple reviews and it’s a solid device. Specs of the Legend are that it comes with HTC Sense, 3.2-inch display, 5 megapixel camera with auto-focus, flash and video capabilities, 3.5 mm audio jack, Wi-Fi, music player, FM radio, and can hold up to 32GB with a microSD card.

Check it out here at Bell
Here are a few video reviews of the Legend:

Video: HTC Legend Drop Test

The HTC Legend was just released and the design is really elegant – very similar to the HTC Hero that we saw TELUS release a few months ago. We took a quick look at the hardware in our first review but promised we’d show you another video specifically with a drop test. The Legend looks sleek with it’s 3.2 inch display and one piece aluminum case. The only plastic are the keys on the front and a couple small areas on the back: one is door cover for the battery, SIM and microSD card and the other for the speaker and camera.

You’ve got to think long term with these devices mainly because we have the dreaded 3-year contract and they’ve got to last (or you can buy this no contract). With everything so flush I decided to do a drop test because the Legend looks so delicate and I wanted to see if it shattered when it hit the ground. After 4 quick tests and the last one I launched the Legend from about 4 feet off the ground and threw it another 3 feet… only a few scratches on the case. Pretty durable. Check it here

Update: People have been asking if the Legend turned on and if it still works. The answer is yes with no problems. The aluminum case only has a few scratches and all the parts that flew off went right back on.

Virgin HTC Legend Unboxed & Hardware Review

Virgin launched the HTC Legend and it’s a great addition to their lineup. Over the past few months – ever since Bell took complete control of them and hopped onto HSPA – they have insanely started to offer better devices. A few to mention are the BlackBerry Bold 9700, Pearl 3G, Apple iPhone and now their first Android-powered device.

We got hold of a Legend and did a quick unboxing and hardware review. The overall design looks almost identical to the HTC Hero, but a main difference is that the handset is made from one piece of aluminum. This certainly makes it more appealing to look at. It also feels great in the hand and only weighs in at 126 grams – but I’m honestly scared to drop this thing as I feel it’ll shatter on me. We’ll actually follow up with a drop test video and report back. The Legend has a 3.2 touchscreen display that has a HVGA resolution of 320 x 480.

In the box you get the standard stuff like warrant, quick start guide, wall charger/ Micro-USB connector, earphones. When it comes other aspects of the hardware… you’ll see in the video that there are minimal buttons: volume rocker on the left side, Home, Menu, Back and Search on the front along with a optical trackball that’s flush to the device. In addition this comes with a 3.5 mm headset jack. On the back it comes with a 5 megapixel camera with flash, auto-focus and can shoot video. The Legend also has a 1300 mAh battery. To insert the SIM and microSD card you slide the rubberized bottom cover on the back down.

Overall very impressed with the hardware – super slim. It’s probably best to get a case of some sorts. In the next review we’ll go more into Android OS 2.1, HTC Sense, Friend Stream, Android Market etc…

If Rogers wanted to lose subscribers they’d “like to lose the lower-value”

At the RBC Technology Conference in New York yesterday Rogers CEO Nadir Mohamed said that they are actually not going to compete on price with the new carriers because he doesn’t expect to lose many smartphone subscribers. “If we lose subscribers to new players, we would like to lose the lower-value (customers). We want to keep the ones that are higher value… You won’t see the Rogers brand being priced in a way that provides a disconnect between the quality and what we offer.”

This then begs the question about what “value” actually is. In these highly competitive wireless days isn’t every customer valuable? Value in this case is clearly about how much per month a subscriber contributes to the bottom line and making sure the shareholders see a profitable return on investment. I believe when Nadir Mohamed speaks about “Quality” he’s referring to the size, speed and reliability of their network.

Flanker brands such as Koodo Mobile, Solo Mobile, Virgin and Fido and the new entrants like Public Mobile, Mobilicity and WIND Mobile all have marketing strategies to go after the “value conscious” segment. The incumbent players like Rogers, Bell and TELUS have certainly adjusted their price plans accordingly to keep and grow their subscriber base. In addition, all Canadian carriers offer some type of Smartphone (not Public Mobile) and according to research more people are migrating to this type of mobile device.

With subsidized pricing usually coming in around the $49.99 – $99.99 price point on a 3-year, any device is actually affordable. Smartphone plans start these days around $10 a month for basic data. So these days even the lower-value customers could afford a Smartphone. Not the newest one on the block but one good enough to get started.

Nadir Mohamed makes a solid point because he knows with all this competition that customers might go and try something new. Even with Rogers being the largest wireless player in Canada with over 8 million subscribers…  a customer leaving is never a good thing as it takes more time, money and resources to eventually bring them back.

Via: Yahoo

Koodo to set HSPA network live June 15th?

For those wondering about an update how Koodo Mobile’s transition from CDMA to HSPA is going… we’ve been informed that SIM/HSPA training has been pushed out to all employees over the last few days and it’s looking like they’ll go live around June 15th. We stated that Koodo will be launching the 3710 and can now confirm this will be their first official HSPA device. On a separate note – this is the same day TELUS will be releasing the Nokia 3710.

In addition, our tipster let us know that Koodo will be doing something different for then but similar to Wind Mobile… for those customers who pay their monthly bill on time for 3 consecutive months Koodo will unlock your phone for you.

We’ll have more info soon.
Check out the Koodo SIM/HSPA inventory shot here
Check out the Koodo Nokia 3710 here

(Thanks B!)

Motorola Quench now available at Rogers

The revolution is back in business… Rogers has released another Android-powered device. You can now get the Motorola QUENCH on the following price plans:

3-year contract: $49.99
2-year contract: $324.99
1-year contract: $374.99
No-Contract: $424.99

The Quench comes with Motorola’s MOTOBLUR, runs on the first Android OS version 1.5, a 3.1-inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 320×480, 5 megapixel camera, auto-focus, flash & video capabilities, WiFi, Bluetooth, holds up to 32GB with a microSD card, GPS, SWYPE full HTML browser. Overall dimensions are 116.8 x 60 x 12.5mm and weighs in at 119 grams.

Here’s a video of the Quench demo in action.
Check it out here at Rogers

Rogers Samsung Messenger now available

Not that this is any surprise but for those who want to pick up the Windows Mobile 6.5 Samsung Messenger… you can now make your way to your local Rogers store. This is priced on the following plans