Hasta La Gadget!

Verizon and Nokia are expected to announce the Nokia Lumia Icon a.k.a Lumia 929 soon. The handset has made countless appearances in leaked photos, appeared on Verizon’s website, appeared and sold in China, but yet we still do not have an official announcement or release date yet. We really have no clue what’s going on over at Verizon, but the handset has once again made an appearance on Verizon’s website and appears to cost $777 on and off-contract, which is odd because $777 with a new two-year contract should be much cheaper, so if we had to guess, it looks like the website went live a little earlier than expected. It also looks like customers will be able to order the handset in either a black or white finish. (more…)

Nokia Lumia Icon Makes An Appearance On Verizon’s Website (Again) original content from Ubergizmo.

Up till now the lowest customers could pay for a Verizon share data plan was $40, which got them 500MB of data per month. Big Red is going to add a new tier tomorrow which will be offered for both smartphone and feature phone users. The new Verizon shared data plan offers 250MB for $20 per month and it can be coupled with a $30 per month feature phone basic plan or with the $40 smartphone access monthly fee. The carrier says that this new tier will only be available for a limited time, though it hasn’t clarified just for how long this new plan is going to be offered.

In this day and age, smartphones are very popular. For most smartphone users, 250MB of data is peanuts. Power users can blow through that in less than a day, Verizon estimates that an average user on its network uses between 1 and 2GB of data every month. So in order to avoid Big Red’s $15 overage charge for every 200MB that exceeds the bucket, customers will be better off with a tier that offers more data for a higher monthly fee. AT&T has a similar offering, the lowest data plan available costs $25 and brings 300MB per month, though that too might prove to be inadequate for the connected smartphone user.

Verizon Shared Data Plans Get New Tier Tomorrow original content from Ubergizmo.

The Nokia Lumia 929 a.k.a Lumia Icon is very real. We’ve seen the device pop up on Verizon’s website and last we heard, it was rumored for a 16th of January release, but safe to say that did not happen. We’re not sure why Verizon is waiting around to announce the handset, let alone release it. Could it be that they are waiting to make an announcement at MWC 2014? Well whatever the case is, it seems that the Lumia Icon has managed to traverse the seas/skies and make its way into China where it is being sold, and interestingly and bizarrely enough, it looks like the model sold in China is actually Verizon’s model and boots up with Verizon’s logo (pictured above).

This seems to suggest that Verizon might have stock of the Lumia Icon but might be simply sitting on it for whatever reasons. The listing in China has given it a price tag of $630, which we’re not sure if it could be reflective of Verizon’s own pricing. For those hearing about the Lumia Icon for the first time, it is basically a smaller version of the Lumia 1520. Instead of sporting a large 6” display, the Lumia Icon is said to sport a smaller and more manageable 5” display, and for the most part will retain the same hardware specs as the Lumia 1520. In any case we’ll definitely keep our eyes peeled for more information regarding the Lumia Icon’s availability, so check back with us at a later date for the details.

Verizon’s Lumia Icon Goes On Sale In China original content from Ubergizmo.

It all started with T-Mobile and its uncarrier initiative last year. Magenta did away with conventional service contracts and announced its Jump program, through which it allows customers to upgrade their phones without having to worry about waiting to be eligible for an upgrade. The other carriers went down this exact same route, Verizon launched its Edge program through which it began allowing existing subscribers to upgrade mid-contract after six months had passed. Big Red has now cut down the upgrade time on the Edge plan from six months to just 30 days.

What this means is that after just 30 days, subscribers will be able to upgrade their phone, provided that at least 50 percent of the phone’s price has been paid off. They can then select a new phone and pay its full retail price in 24 monthly installments which will be added to the usual monthly bill. Existing phone can be traded and for a limited time, Verizon is offering a $100 gift card when subscribers trade in an old phone and buy a new 4G LTE smartphone on Verizon Edge. The carrier will also throw in free activation to further sweeten the deal. This new deal is said to be a promotion, though Verizon hasn’t specified what the end date is just yet.

Verizon Edge Upgrade Time Cut To 30 Days original content from Ubergizmo.

Different customers have different expectations when it comes to carriers. Some are looking for the cheapest plan, some are looking for the fastest speeds, some choose a carrier because they like the image they portray, and some choose a carrier for its customer service. Basically at the end of the day everyone has different reasons for choosing the carrier they did. However it seems that as of late, T-Mobile’s customers are here to stay, at least according to a report from Wireless Week who revealed that T-Mobile actually sports the lowest churn rate at 15.4% for Q4 2013. It should be noted that the churn rate is based on customer surveys as opposed to actual figures released by the carriers themselves, so they might not necessarily be representative of the entire story. In any case this is a huge drop from the carrier’s churn rate back in Q3 2013 where it was sitting at a whopping 42.9%, meaning that almost one in two customers would switch to a different carrier.

In fact T-Mobile’s churn rates are so low that they beat out the likes of Verizon, who has typically had some of the lowest churn rates (Verizon sits at 17%), but did not beat out their rival AT&T whose churn was estimated at 11.1%. As far as Sprint is concerned, it does not look too good as their Q4 churn rates was at 31%, although admittedly it is an improvement over the 41.7% in the previous quarter. What could it be that made T-Mobile customers suddenly decide to remain loyal to the carrier? Perhaps it could be the carrier’s Uncarrier program, and also maybe the fact that they started to officially offer the iPhone as well. However recently T-Mobile has unveiled newer and more aggressive plans, which means that at the end of Q1 2014, we can expect the carrier’s churn rates to be even lower, or at least that’s what we hope. What do you guys think? Will T-Mobile’s new plans make customers want to stay?

T-Mobile Sports The Second Lowest Churn Rate For Q4 2013 original content from Ubergizmo.