MetroPCS COO: "We think feature phones are dead"

February 25, 2011/Joe Pawlikowski/

MetroPCS‘s earnings conference yesterday, COO Tom Keys did not mince words, as the headline makes clear. We already knew that the company added 298,000 subscribers in the fourth quarter, but Keys made the conference interesting with lines like that. He also claimed that the new plans Metro introduced a year ago were the “single-largest product transformation” the company has undergone. We can expect more LTE smartphones from MetroPCS in 2011, but CEO Roger Linquist noted that the real changes will come in 2012. Via FierceWireless.]]>

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4 Comments

  1. Pete on February 25, 2011 at 11:10 am

    There will still be a market for feature phones, but the trend is certainly towards smartphones. The prices will come down, as they are already doing with prepaid operators like Metro and Straight Talk bringing in credible, low cost smartphones.



  2. Robyn on February 25, 2011 at 6:20 pm

    I think the cost of a plan plays a key role in consumer decision making. If you can get a phone that’s the nearest thing to a smartphone with a plan like the $45 unlimited from Straight Talk prepaid or have a Blackberry with the $63.59 unlimited prepaid plan from MetroPCS then there’s little reason not to have a smartphone – unless the price of the phone is a major factor. With smartphone prices dropping, I don’t see it as being a factor for long.



  3. Diederiks on February 28, 2011 at 2:04 am

    Trends aside, I find it hard to envision the natural transition from start up basic tracfones, to a better phone, and then finally getting a smart phone. It’s very likely that feature phones will merely be priced out of the market once smart phone become cheaper. And they will, because the moeny is not in the phones, it’s in their ability to gobble up usage and bandwidth.



  4. The Lil Rascal on March 28, 2011 at 2:20 pm

    I think it’s so great how you can get such nice smart phones on pre paid deals these days. Straight Talk has some really great options! That used to be the main draw card for talking out a contract and slowly but surely the gao is narrowing and there really are more and more benefits on pre paid actually. easy budgeting and saving each month is definitely a huge plus!