Sprint, in partnership with big names like Notre Dame, Oprah and MTV, announced its Sprint ID service for Android today at the carrier’s CTIA press event (see the liveblog here). Sprint ID takes the idea of HTC’s scenes to the next level, giving the user an “ID Pack” for different scenarios. Users can view available ID Packs, select desired ID Packs and install ID Packs straight from the device. Learn how at www.sprint.com/sprintid
Sprint ID introduction
But what exactly is Sprint ID? Customers can download and store up to five IDs — filled with preloaded apps and icons — designed to meet specific needs or interests. Once the IDs are loaded, switching between is only a click away, and applications, widgets, ringtones and other parts of your Android experience change to suit your mood. Along with the bundled applications and media, you can load any application from the market (and other sources likely) and continue to customize your phone to fit you. Sprint ID will ship with the trio of new phones announced today, but no word on backwards compatibility.
Read more cool Android stuff at www.androidcentral.com.
06 October 2010
Sprint Revolutionizes the Mobile Wireless Experience with Sprint ID – A New Way to Personalize Mobile Phones in an Instant
Sprint ID combines and integrates apps, widgets and more into a “total experience,” relevant to specific needs and interests, with just one simple click; Available on three new Android phones – Sanyo Zio™, Samsung Transform™ and LG Optimus S™
Initial partners include Amazon, Blackboard, Comcast, Disney, E!, Electronic Arts, eBay, ESPN, HSN, LatCel, MTV, Notre Dame, Oprah Winfrey Network, RadioShack, Weather Channel, Where and Yahoo!
SAN FRANCISCO (BUSINESS WIRE), October 06, 2010 – With more than 80,000 apps available in Android Market, have you ever wondered which are just right for you? Have you wanted a mobile phone so personalized, it has bundles of apps, widgets, wallpapers and ringtones all tailored to fit your lifestyle? As a small business owner or entrepreneur have you needed a simplified way of offering your employees a portable toolkit of the resources they use on their computer, or need to get their job done, on their mobile phone, that also allows them to easily switch to fun, entertaining features on their phone when not on-the-clock? The wait is over.
Sprint (NYSE: S) today announced Sprint ID, allowing consumers and business customers, on three just-announced Sprint smartphones, to instantly customize their mobile experience with an ID pack, complete with apps, widgets, ringtones and wallpapers. Whether they’re an avid sports fan, a casual gamer, a fitness fanatic, a fashionista, a music lover, an auto enthusiast, a social butterfly, or they rely on their phone to improve their business efficiency, customers can now easily discover just what they want, bundled together and available with virtually one simple click.
Sprint has teamed up with some of the most recognizable brands in the country to bring this revolutionary experience to customers – brands including Amazon, Blackboard, Comcast, Disney, E!, Electronic Arts, eBay, ESPN, HSN, LatCel, MTV, Notre Dame, Oprah Winfrey Network, RadioShack, Weather Channel, Where and Yahoo!
Sprint customers can customize their device with up to five ID packs. Once an ID is loaded – easily in one quick step and free with a select service plan – users can further customize it with additional apps and content. ID packs can be easily switched out without customers losing the apps and content they value most. Because Sprint ID packs are built using the Android platform, the ID packs work across various manufacturers and will launch on three Android handsets – Sanyo Zio™, Samsung Transform™ and LG Optimus S™. A range of lifestyle packs, plus Yahoo!, game packs from Electronic Arts and business packs, will be immediately available with more packs rolling out in this quarter and beyond.
“Sprint ID is another innovative Sprint ‘first’ which revolutionizes the wireless customer experience, and it’s a new way to leverage our open mobile strategy,” said Dan Hesse, CEO of Sprint. “As the market for mobile applications expands, mobile users want a simpler way to access the data most relevant to their needs at that time. Sprint ID offers unprecedented customization and personalization. Businesses will be able to deliver innovative, customized resources on mobile devices to their employees. We have an outstanding group of partners – some of the best brands in the U.S. – helping us deliver this new mobile experience to consumers.”
According to Yankee Group, store revenue from smartphone app downloads will exceed $11 billion in 2014, up from more than $800 million in 2009.
“With Sprint ID’s dynamic shaping of the Android user experience, Sprint has created a unique approach to helping top brands and corporate customers take full advantage of the dramatic growth of the Android ecosystem,” said Andy Castonguay, director at Yankee Group. “With Android device growth out pacing a burgeoning field of smartphones, Sprint ID gives companies a rich canvas to leverage that growth and design a multiscreen, interactive experience that provides content and apps to their audiences.”
Key facts about Sprint ID packs:
What are Sprint ID packs
Deliver consumers predefined mobile experience, complete with apps, widgets, ringtones and business tools tailored to a specific interest
Allow brands to connect directly and build relationships with their customers
Designed to meet customers’ interests; brand-specific; allow users to easily switch between English- or Spanish-language; or they are specifically tailored to the customers’ business or line of work.
Handsets
Sanyo Zio™
Samsung Transform™
LG Optimus S™
Availability
All Sprint channels, including www.sprint.com, Telesales (1-800-SPRINT1), and national retail partners RadioShack and Best Buy (retail, sprint.com, telesales, direct and indirect)
Consumers will be able to also purchase from Direct-to-Consumer partners on the partners’ website
Types of packs
Consumer
Business
Wholesale
Education
Hispanic
Partner Categories
Direct to Consumer
Wholesale
Enterprise
Education
Developers
OEM
Who needs packs
Consumers who appreciate the power of their smartphone for entertainment or business, but are not inclined to spend time fully customizing their phone
Consumers who would enjoy the enhanced and predefined experience from their favorite brand or interests
Businesses seeking customized phones for employee use
Companies seeking white label services
Students who need information about their classes, campus life
Hispanic consumers who value the convenience of switching between English and Spanish for content and to text/e-mail
Pack examples In addition to name-brand packs, non-branded pack examples include Entertainment; Socially Connected; Health and Fitness; Business Productivity; Fashion and Beauty; Auto Enthusiast; and Golf Enthusiast
What Sprint ID means for consumers:
Consumers will enjoy the ease with which they can access a customized experience on their phone that will support their interests whether they are at work or at play.
Companies including Amazon, Disney, E!, eBay, Electronic Arts, ESPN, HSN, LatCel, MTV and Yahoo! support the Sprint ID approach and signed on as founding partners to provide customers a unique, customized and specific mobile experience. Many will launch Sprint ID packs between now and the first half of 2011.
Here is what some Sprint partners have to say about Sprint ID.
eBay says:
“Smartphone technologies are transforming the mobile phone into the new digital wallet and consumers are clearly using their phones to shop,” said Steve Yankovich, vice president-Mobile and Platform Business Solutions, eBay Inc. “Our Sprint ID pack will help us make the most of that trend by making eBay’s mobile applications more discoverable and acting as an information hub so that shoppers never miss out on great deals and items they’re watching, bidding on or buying. Our ID will also notify users about new eBay apps or features we have released.”
ESPN says:
“Sprint ID is another way ESPN and Sprint continue to work together to bring ESPN to our fans,” said John Kosner, senior vice president and general manager of ESPN Digital Media. “This year we launched the ESPN Mobile TV Channel on Sprint TV, which delivers extensive live sporting events. Now, Sprint ID will enable fans to create a richer, more personalized content experience on their phones than ever before.”
E! says:
“The E! ID pack will make it easy to access the breaking entertainment news, photos and videos fans of E! can’t live without, while delivering a unique user experience that includes “Everything E!” – all in one convenient location, your Android device,” said John Najarian, executive vice president-Digital Media & Business Development for the Comcast Entertainment Group. “We know our audience is passionate about all things entertainment and they’re always looking to have the latest Hollywood buzz right at their fingertips. We’ve taken this into consideration and designed our Sprint ID pack to take advantage of all of the terrific features that the Android platform enables for our content.”
MTV says:
“MTV has become a trusted source for providing fans access to their favorite artists and music across multiple screens,” said Dermot McCormack, executive vice president, Digital Media, MTV Networks. “The MTV and Sprint partnership allows fans to stay connected to each other and to the music that they love where ever they happen to be.”
Oprah Winfrey Network says:
“We are excited to be part of this new communications platform, which will allow fans the ability to enjoy the rich, compelling programming they’ve come to expect from Harpo Studios on a new generation of handsets and phones with our Oprah Mobile app,” said Erik Logan, president, Harpo Studios. “We’re proud to be part of Sprint’s continuing efforts to provide their customers with the best programming available, wherever they are.”
Yahoo! says:
“As a leader in delivering personally relevant mobile Internet experiences to millions of users around the world, Yahoo! is excited to provide Sprint users a Yahoo! ID pack offering easy access to 12 different Yahoo! apps directly on their Android phone,” said Raymond Stern, senior vice president-North America Audience, Yahoo! Inc. “With one-click access, Sprint users can stay in-the-know as well as connect with the people who are important to them through Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo! Finance, Flickr, Yahoo! Weather, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger and more – all in one place.”
What Sprint ID means for businesses:
Companies can build a branded user experience for their employees and their business-to-business customers. Sprint ID represents an innovative mobile solution that businesses will value for its flexibility and other advantages.
For businesses – especially large enterprises – deploying Sprint ID gives employees in multiple locations instant access to corporate applications and data on mobile phones. Customizing the user interface for employees fosters greater productivity, improves employee satisfaction and streamlines processes. It also can reduce IT costs by decentralizing deployment of applications, tools and widgets to employees.
A couple examples include Sales Force ID, which provides access to time and expense reporting, CRM, navigation/driving directions and product collateral, and Field Service ID, which provides access to turn-by-turn driving directions, a third-party work order application and a fleet management application. In addition, business customers can easily establish the kind of corporate image they want on their device for daily business by downloading a business-related ID pack – but when the employee goes home they can switch to their evening or weekend ID pack.
Handmark has created 10 different packs, available when the new Sprint ID phones launch, that bundle together the best apps, widgets and content to meet a specific need or interest. For example, the Business Pro ID Pack features all the best tools to assist with travel plans, expenses, organization and communication.
“Sprint ID packs broaden the smartphone experience to a new set of consumers and business users who want to enjoy all mobile data can do, but given the overwhelming array of choices, appreciate having applications best suited for them hand selected and assembled,” said Paul Reddick, CEO of Handmark Inc. “The 10 different special interest packs we’ve created provide a great starting point for users by automatically populating their smartphone with the best collection of apps tailored to their interests.”
Santa Fe Towing says:
“Sprint ID represents a big opportunity for us,” said Jon Kupchin, president of Santa Fe Tow. “We have offices in four different cities and 60 staff, including 54 drivers. It’s challenging to keep it all running efficiently at times. Sprint ID gives us the tools to tighten up the administrative part of our business, track driver productivity better using a handheld device, and potentially cut costs on fuel, forms and HR-related functions. And it’s easy to use – almost intuitive for our drivers, office people and everyone else who’s used it so far.”
What Sprint ID means for Hispanic users:
Sprint ID allows Hispanic customers to flow seamlessly between bicultural and bilingual worlds by providing both English and Spanish language content and the ability to easily switch between languages while texting or e-mailing.
LatCel says:
“It is important to ensure that Latinos have a choice with access to varied mobile content to fit their different needs and language preferences,” said Jorge Rincon, CEO of LatCel, a Latino Mobile Media company. “LatCel is excited to be able to offer the Hispanic consumer three different Lo2Yo ID packs at launch. The ‘Lo2Yo Futbol’ ID pack is perfect for the avid soccer fan while the ‘Lo2Yo Mujer’ pack is customized to the Latina, whether young and single or a career woman with children. And the ‘Lo2Yo Latino’ ID pack has a bit of everything for all Hispanics. The Hispanic population is growing at an unprecedented rate, so it is imperative that we both continue to evolve these initial packs with additional content as well as add new packs that fit even more specific lifestyles and preferences of this target.”
What Sprint ID means for students:
Sprint ID allows universities to create ID packs that can serve as a mobile tool for students and faculty, which will enhance their educational experience. For example, packs may allow students to receive updates and alerts on grades, assignments, tests and other information from courses they are taking, as well as sports schedules and news about their home team. Packs also can include widgets to the local pizza shop or other local, relevant content.
Notre Dame says:
“Notre Dame looks forward to working with Sprint on how the latest advances in telecommunications services can enhance teaching, learning and research efforts in higher education,” said Ron Kraemer, CIO and vice president for IT, University of Notre Dame. “The wireless communications world is moving at a transformable speed, and applications and platforms such as Sprint ID may hold promise for Notre Dame and other leading research universities.”
Blackboard says:
“This effort is a big step in making the mobile experience more personal,” said Eric Denman, Senior Manager of Java Development at Blackboard Mobile, which creates mobile applications for education institutions worldwide. “We’re anxious to begin exploring ways our clients can use this to make the mobile experience more immersive for their users.”
Application Developers
Developers will appreciate Sprint ID for the opportunity it offers to help their apps reach the consumers and businesses who will value them the most.
The Sprint Application Developer Program will offer support to developers for Sprint ID through the developer website at http://developer.sprint.com/sprintid. More details about Sprint ID will be announced at the 10th annual Sprint Open Developer Conference, Oct. 26-28, Santa Clara, Calif. During the conference, Sprint ID will be featured in breakout sessions, discussed during the Android coding lab and demonstrated in the exhibit hall. Developers can register for the conference at http://developer.sprint.com/devcon2010.