Dan Hesse sez Android "not yet good enough" for Sprint brand

[wraggster]

Look, Dan Hesse is an intelligent individual, which means he knew good and well that he'd start a flame war when making one particular comment to the National Press Club in Washington. The CEO of Sprint casually proclaimed that he didn't feel Android (in its current form) was "good enough to put the Sprint brand on." In all fairness, Sprint has shown a friendly side to Google in the past, and he did promise to sell an Android-powered phone "at some time in the future," but asserting that Sprint is in the position to shy away from what's arguably the most exciting thing to happen to the mobile realm since the advent of the iPhone is, um, questionable at best.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/25/dan-hesse-sez-android-not-yet-good-enough-for-sprint-brand/

[BJ_Sprint]

Hi, my name is BJ DeHut, and I'm a representative for Sprint. We appreciate the discussions that Dan Hesse’s comments have caused, but we believe his words were taken out of context about Android. Here is a statement from James Fisher, a member of Sprint's communications organization, who was in the room at the National Press Club for Dan Hesse's speech:

"I’m in Sprint’s communications organization, and I actually was in the room at the National Press Club for Dan Hesse’s speech. As with any single comment from a speech, it’s important to understand the context. Rather than criticize Google, Sprint is a partner with Google (it’s the default search provider on Sprint phones) and we are a very strong supporter of the Android community as a charter member of the Open Handset Alliance. We are interested in developing an Android-based handset, but we would want to make sure it fully leverages all of the advances of Sprint’s current handsets and the data strength of our wireless network. We have a unique approach to making data use easy, intuitive and simply priced. I think what Dan meant is that, only when we are certain we have fully leveraged all the advantages of Android with the advantages we’re known for, that’s when we’d introduce our Android handset. And as for speculation from anonymous folks about our plans, industry folks always trade gossip, but it’s not always true. "

Source: http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/10/sprint-ceo-disses-google-s-android-phone-wishes-he-had-one-s-/page/1#comment-4905d5d314b9b932003811a4

If you have any further questions about Dan Hesse's comments about the Android phone, feel free to email me at [email protected]