It’s coming to the point where it seems BTC – Powered by LIME is ready to start up its engines yet again. With the 2G Ericsson system (which is replacing the original 2G Nortel system), it seems that some of the problems are being ironed out.
We’ll see exactly how the HSPA+ network runs with BTC’s 2G network managing the voice and text, while the 4G network manages the data aspects of the network. Perhaps this will give a boost in the speed that is promised. Currently, most customers are getting close to the 2 MBps given to prepaid customers (3G type speeds). With the push of the network overhaul, perhaps those on postpaid will actually start to come close to their mentioned 8 MBps?
So what does mobile internet speed have to do with OS Market shares? More than most think, actually. As the speed goes up, and landline speeds look more and more dismal, people are looking to their phones to provide them with the speeds they want. Some are also using their SIM cards to power up their laptops while they are on the go.
With this massive shift in consumer demands, smart phones are becoming more and more popular. People are shifting away from their Nokia bubblers, their BlackBerry Curves (though a lot are still getting them), and heading towards the middle to higher end devices. Some of these range to the Samsung Galaxy Y (5360), the Galaxy S II (GT-I9100), the BlackBerry Bold 9900, Torch 9860 and 9810, and of course the iPhone 4S. Some are still purchasing their devices from away, however, which adds on to another level of phone types which is hard to mark up.
It’s becoming a bit more normal to see anyone from a junior high school student to one of the elderly with a smart phone now-a-days, even just in passing on the streets. And from my point of view, it seems Samsung is the main holder in the Bahamas, with a close follow up by BlackBerry and then Apple. Sadly, Apple’s pricing is hurting them the most in the Bahamas, as most people would like to get one, but are daunted by the $727 price tag that carrier BTC has been made to sell them at, much like how Apple treated the US carrier AT&T when it first came out. Perhaps it’s a wiser choice to allow the same perks from the US, down to the Bahamas, so that they can pull ahead a bit further. Then again, Apple hasn’t even mentioned that the Bahamas even sells the iPhone. It’s also bad to note that HTC’s only phone, the HTC Incredible, well…I rarely see anyone with one. We’ll have to see how it turns out.
