||||Shawn Baden

I believe there is a sizable market in waiting for “capable” smartphones on no-contract carriers.

I fall into that market. For as long as I can remember, I have been using a lowly Motorola RAZR for my phone on Verizon Wireless (previously Alltel). I’d really like a smartphone. But on contract carriers, I just can’t stomach what they charge. And that’s just for voice plans. Throw in data plans and I get nauseous. Back to “the market in waiting.”

There are more searches for “kyocera zio boost mobile” and “kyocera zio” which I think is telling. So what’s so special about the Kyocera Zio? It’s the first capable smartphone that’s going to show up on a no-contract carrier (note: the Motorola i1 on Boost Mobile doesn’t count as it’s iDEN). It’s confirmed on Cricket where it’s called the Sanyo Zio by Kyocera. The price has been set for $299 which is very reasonable for a no-contract Android phone. It’s also been rumored for some time to be headed to Boost Mobile as well.

So what makes no-contract carriers so exciting? Simple: PRICE. Look at these plans that require no contract:

Here’s the other little secret with no-contract carriers: YOU ONLY PAY SALES TAX. None of those other ridiculous “other” fees. Oh, and THERE’S NO ACTIVATION CHARGES on these plans.

Personally, my threshold is $50/month for unlimited* talk, text, and data (unlimited to me means virtually unlimited, meaning 98% of users will never hit some actual limit that is placed on these services). But having calculated how much talk time my wife and I use, we’ve never went over 1000 minutes in a single month for BOTH of our phones. With that knowledge, I think Virgin Mobile’s $40/month plan with unlimited text and data with 1200 minutes IS KILLER. Now where’s a capable smartphone, Virgin Mobile?

Here’s another no-contract though a co-worker and I keep coming back to. You know all those Palm Pre’s on Sprint that were “stuffed in the channel.” Why not roll all those onto Boost Mobile? Charge $200 to $300 for a Palm Pre, rock the $50/month unlimited everything plan, and you’re done. Had Palm gone this route, i.e. be THE phone on no-contract carriers, they might have made a go at it.

This market is real and it’s waiting. Get us a “capable” smartphone (i.e. Android 2.0 capable or better or Palm Web OS) and keep the price around $300 or less, throw in a $50/month unlimited talk, text, and data plan, and prepare to bank. Cricket is stepping up to the plate with the Zio. Who else wants a piece?