Editor’s Note: In this monthly feature, RCR Wireless News talks to retail managers across the country to get a first-hand view of what’s hot in wireless.
Retail store manager Mark Jones manages an Alltel store in the carrier’s hometown of Little Rock, Ark. The location is the newest one in the Little Rock area. It opened in November. Jones spoke with RCR Wireless News about trends in retail sales at his location.
What are the most popular handsets selling at your location?
The most popular handset recently has been the LG 8600, which we just launched, so we’ve had a lot of interest in that. One of the unique things about it is that it’s available in three different colors, and so customers have had a lot of fun trying to decide which color they’re going to go with. A little bit of a bonus there is you don’t have to accessorize it very much since it is available in three colors. Something else that’s been really popular among our smartphone customers is the Motorola Q.
Speaking of accessories, which ones are hot?
Bluetooth [headsets] are becoming more and more popular. I know in this area, there’s talk of making it a legal requirement to drive with a hands-free headset. . The Motorola H700 we sell the most of, but we’ve just launched a couple of new styles and I’m curious how they’re going to do. One thing we’ve also seen a lot of lately is things like memory cards. More people are using phones as mp3 players, cameras and video cameras, and it means a lot of people are getting those accessories like memory cards that will facilitate those other uses of the phone beyond just making calls.
Which plans are customers most interested in?
We’ve just recently launched a calling Family Choice plan, and that’s basically built around our mycircle offer. It’s kind of got a few features built in, including mycircle but also things like starting night [off-peak] calling at 7 p.m. or getting 1,000 text messages built into the plan-not necessarily an extra add-on that you would typically pay for. People are loving those plans. I think we’re going to continue to add more options to the plans as far as choices for how many minutes you have and be able to add extra options. I think we’re going to be able to grow that through the year.
Mycircle is doing great, that’s a big differentiator for us right now. People are continually coming in, asking about mycircle, making sure they’re on a rate plan that includes mycircle, adding and changing the numbers that they’re using. That’s probably our most popular feature right now that’s unique to Alltel.
What are you seeing in terms of plan add-ons?
Well, Alltel has done a really neat thing here . for our smartphone users, we’ve built in the features that we used to consider add-on features, and we built those into a group of rate plans called Smart Choice plans. Those plans include the data features that are needed for, let’s say, your Blackberry or Motorola Q, but also includes the mycircle. I think the trend that we’re heading toward is a lot of things that we used to consider add-ons we’re now including that into rate plans. That really gives a benefit to the customer. These things are included; I don’t have to worry about paying extra for them, or “What do I have or not have this month that I need based on my usage.” It’s bundling features into rate plans so you don’t have to worry about the extras that you used to.
What trends do you expect to see in 2007?
Our Celltop [user interface] that is right now available on one of our Samsung phones, we’re going to make that available on the majority of the phones that we launch through 2007. I think that’s going to be something that will gain a lot more momentum as the year goes on and as we offer more handsets that have Celltop.
We’ve gotten really great feedback on it so far, and so I think as we offer that on more phones, with more options for Celltop as far as the cells go and the information that’s available, it’s only going to grow. I really expect to see a lot more about that this year.
