It’s official, I have no idea what is going on in their heads.
I’ll admit to having been critical of Sprint over the years. As a long-distance company, they were all right, but it’s been one misstep after another in the cellular arena. Do I have to even recount them anymore? After so many bad ideas, so many purchases that made no sense, their long-term inability to get the iPhone (although they finally have it now) and the whole mess they got into last year, the real surprise is that they are still in business. I suppose that shows how good their money management is.
But to be honest this latest move has me shaking my head. Our friends at DSLReports tell us that Sprint will be rebranding their business services as “Nextel.” Do they have a death wish? Nextel is a long-discredited brand that reminds people of giant, boxy phones with annoying chirps. The name takes people back to the days of dial-up modems and Dawson’s Creek. How could this possibly be viewed as a positive thing? I guess the only good thing you can say is that Sprint doesn’t own the rights to “Blackberry,” “Commodore” or “Univac” … you can only imagine how Sprint would rebrand its services if it had a whole stable of antique brand names from which to choose.
Someone came up with this cockamamie idea and that person needs a long vacation. That’s just plain out foolhardiness. Is there any possibility that the same person who proposed this idea was responsible for the “Qwikster” name? Perhaps this is a pet project of someone in Sprint’s Softbank parentage, someone from overseas who may or may not have positive associations with the Nextel name for other reasons. Whatever the reason, however it is that Sprint got to where it is now, this rank foolishness needs to stop and stop now.
Because honestly, if the Nextel name doesn’t work out for Sprint (and how could it?) there’s an even better embodiment of obsolete technology, and you just know Sprint would use the term if they could…
“Just sayin’.”
