What did it graduate to, on February 28th? 250,000 subscribers. Again, this may not sound like much but for the area that it covers, and the age of the company (slightly under two years...shorter than the usual cell phone contract) it's huge. This is up from about 200,000 at the turn of the year, and 175,000 forty-five days or so before. In other words, if Pocket keeps up this crazy growth rate they might just double by the end of the year, or more.
Such large-scale business leads to an ability to get higher-quantity phones, and it looks like that's where Pocket is headed. Hopefully though, they won't discontinue their rather high0end lineup that they have now, with the Razr v3m and the Rokr z6m. I say that because MetroPCS and CricKet have turned toward the low-end recently.
The phones I'm talking about are the Motorola Razr v3a and the Motorola w385. The former is $200 on Pocket, or will be once it comes out, and the latter will be $180. This is respectively $20 and $30 more expensive than the prices of MetroPCS and CricKet on these phones (though CricKet doesn't have the w385...yet...and is out of stock of the v3a right now, as well as the Samsung r500) but when you notice that Pocket's plans are at least $5 cheaper than those offered by CricKet or metroPCS...and that Pocket's coverage in San Antonio is actually quite good, Pocket wins out here.
Though I have to say that Pocket had better not go down the primrose path of offering cut-rate phones on their service; while the Motorola w385 and v3a are certainly quite new in comparison with the phones that make up the main body of their offering at the moment, their feature sets are rather pared down; neither the w385 nor the v3a have high-speed data or anything better than a VGA camera. Then again, they also don't cost $259, nor do they have the Kyocrap...er...Kyocera brand name on them. Well, I suppose that, so long as they don't restrict Bluetooth (which isn't restricted on their v323i phone) everything'll be all right. As far as I know, neither phone is a piece of junk, which is always a plus...
...but wait! There may be yet another phone coming in for a Pocket landing: the Kyocera E1000 Deco. I'm thinking it slides right into the spot currently occupied by the K342. It would make a worthy upgrade, though I'd better be aerodynamic, 'cuz I don't trust Kyocera phones any farther than I can throw 'em. Fortunately for Pocket, this one looks slick and aerodynamic...while it isn't thin it looks sophisticated enough.
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