"Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) CEO Dan Hesse unveiled the carrier's new Sprint ID effort here at the CTIA Enterprise & Applications show, which the company said will help customers personalize their Android devices and easily navigate and discover applications. The ID packs will collect applications, widgets, ringtones, wallpapers and more, and will come from brands such as Amazon, Yahoo!, ESPN, Home Shopping Network, Disney and MTV...
'Sprint ID is about accessing content,' Hesse said, noting that currently only one in four smartphone owners knows how to download an application and use it.
Hesse said he expects users will download different Sprint ID packs--essentially new software skins for phones--for different parts of their lives. For example, a consumer may have a Sprint ID pack for their work and another for their personal life. Consumers can choose from up to five IDs. Once an ID is loaded, users can further customize it with additional apps and content.
The ID packs can be geared toward consumer tastes as well as enterprise uses.
For content providers, such as MTV, the Sprint ID pack is an opportunity to deliver content to their audience--similar to early MVNOs but without service plans and handsets. In addition, the ID packs offer publishers the opportunity to curate consumers' mobile app download experience, guaranteeing that users obtain an aggregate of integrated, complementary solutions in one fell swoop, said Yahoo Mobile vice president David Katz."