Sprint cheers as ‘bought’ DJ smashes iPhone
By Erna Mahyuni
Kansas City DJ, Mix 93.3 FM talk show personality Ponch smashed his iPhone live on air. When the first call after the live on-air event happened to be by Sprint CEO Dan Hesse, can anyone say publicity stunt?
As seen on the SprintConnection blog: The claim by Ponch is the decision was made after fellow host, Rocket, of the Rocket and Teresa show announced his purchase of the Samsung Instinct. Who carries the Instinct? Well, AT&T’s rival, Sprint.
Supposedly, Ponch, a fan who bought the iPhone at $600, boasted about his phone for a year. Rocket, in turn, purportedly showed off his Instinct to Ponch.
"I started looking at the stupid thing…it’s better and it’s faster," Ponch said.
Then Sprint sent over a VIP version of the phone in the gift bag that celebrities like Jack Nicholson and Matt Damon received. And after just a whole day and night with the phones together (his current iPhone and the Instinct), Ponch declared, “After all day and a couple of drinks, it was the perfect phone," he said.
Ponch then handed 16 nasty blows to the iPhone with a wrench.
To be followed by a pre-arranged call from the Hesse, of course.
"That was music to my ears," Hesse said.
Hesse also took the opportunity to comment on the Instinct’s popularity as well as indulge in some PR-speak."We really wanted people to try everything a wireless network is capable of doing, especially ours," Hesse said. "Then you needed the perfect phone that did all those things and did it well."
When rival phone providers arrange silly stunts like these, you really wonder how threatened they feel by the iPhone’s arrival. Prediction: Ponch will smash his Instinct once he gets his hands on a brand new iPhone 3G and see how fast it goes on AT&T’s network. Or maybe he’ll get smart and recycle it properly.
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