

Ten Brands That Will Disappear in 2011 - obsaysditto
http://247wallst.com/2010/06/15/247-wall-st-ten-brands-that-will-disappear-in-2011/2/

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byoung2
On T-Mobile: _A merger with Sprint-Nextel has been mentioned several times.
The combined company would have a customer base about the same size as AT &T
or Verizon_

After the difficulties of merging with Nextel (competing corporate cultures
and different networks), I doubt Sprint would be eager to see history repeat
itself. To have to run possibly 5 different networks (CDMA, GSM, iDEN,
4G/WiMAX, LTE) would be too much to handle.

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rbranson
Agreed, totally asinine. Carriers tend to acquire each other along protocol
boundaries. Verizon acquired Alltel, which was a predominantly CDMA2000
company. In addition, T-Mobile's network is predominantly urban, which is
already well-covered by the existing larger carriers. They generally acquire
carriers that are in areas for which they don't have coverage. Further:

* T-Mobile has been adding customers while Sprint has been losing them year over year. Just check their investor relations sites, it's in their quarterly report.

* T-Mobile has won ALL of the J.D. Power & Associates customer service awards for 5 years running.

* T-Mobile is the only nationwide carrier offering unsubsidized post-paid phone plans in the US. This can save up to $50/mo off of AT&T or Verizon.

* T-Mobile's data networks are not congested like AT&T's are. In addition, T-Mobile was the first US carrier to add HSPA+, which can achieve speeds that are at par with WiMAX in real world conditions.

* T-Mobile has never competed against the big three on coverage or phones. They compete on customer service and value.

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wmeredith
I came here to say something similar. T-Mobile not only competes on customer
service they _destroy_ their competition in this area. (Value, too, with the
unsubsidized plans.)

I have been with T-Mobile for about a year now after going through the pain of
dealing with both Sprint and AT&T, I will not go back.

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tedshroyer
Interesting that Radio Shack is only changing their name and image now. They
objected to Auto Shack's name in the late 80s forcing them to become AutoZone
which really took off after the rebranding. It seems like they would have seen
how well AutoZone did with a modern sounding name and done the same before
now.

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prewett
I don't think a modern sounding name would help revive Radio Shack. AutoZone
would do fine with many names, because they carry products people want to buy.
I can't think of anything I'd want to buy from Radio Shack, now that they
don't carry electronic components any more.

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devonrt
Some of these arguments are very weak, especially for Kia which amounted to
"Well, Ford and GM couldn't handle a dozen brands each so obviously Hyundai
can't handle two." Couldn't the author give at least sales figures?

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fanboy123
Moody's is not going anywhere. Many regulations and investment charters
require an NRSRO opinion. Inclusion of MCO got me to stop reading the article.

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InfinityX0
List post, plus paginated to up the number of page views on site while
lowering usability. Basically, I love this site. And this post.

