Sprint's 'iPhone for Life' plan to offer annual upgrade

print is not standing still, continuing to tinker with its plans as it seeks to win over new customers.

Sprint is trying to attract more iPhone customers.CNET

The latest: an adjustment to its widely touted "iPhone for Life" plan, now offering customers the ability to sign up for a version of the plan that lets them swap in a new iPhone every year. The original plan called for customers to pay as little as $20 a month to lease a new iPhone 6, which could be turned in for a new model after two years.

The new plan now allows for annual upgrades and starts at $30 a month. It will also make the iPhone 5S available for lease. Both options take effect on November 14. In addition to the cost of the iPhone itself, customers need to sign up for a $50 plan for unlimited talk, text and data.

It's just the latest offer from the suddenly active Sprint, which under new CEO Marcelo Claure has been relentless in rolling out new plans and promotions. The original iPhone for Life plan was intended to let Sprint stand out in a period where it typically suffered higher subscriber losses as customers looking for an iPhone switched to a rival carrier. With the annual upgrade option, Sprint is upping the ante.

Sprint has been particularly aggressive because it continues to bleed subscribers. Its network is widely perceived to lag far behind its competitors in both speed and coverage, due largely to the slow process of upgrading its infrastructure. Sprint touts its Sprint Spark, which combines multiple bands of spectrum for a faster connection, as its answer to the competition, but it is only available in limited markets.

The new option comes just two days after Sprint introduced a low-end family data plan that offers 1 gigabyte of data for $20. Last week, it vowed to double the data on high-end family plans offered by AT&T -- a response to AT&T doubling the amount of data it was willing to offer.

While a customer choosing a base 16GB iPhone 6 model will pay $30 a month under the new program, the fee rises to $40 a month for a 128GB iPhone 6. A top-of-the-line 128 GB iPhone 6 Plus costs $45 a month.

Sprint claims its plan saves customers $444.96 over a comparable T-Mobile plan, $570 over AT&T and $667.44 over Verizon. Unlike the rival plans, Sprint customers under iPhone for Life don't own their iPhones. At the end of the lease period, customers can continue to pay the lease on a month-to-month basis, purchase the smartphone or turn it back in.

In addition, the iPhone 5S 32GB will be available for $21 per month and the iPhone 5S 64GB for $24 per month.

Google's head of Android to oversee its most important products

Google's most powerful product chief just got more powerful.

Sundar Pichai, a well-respected executive who oversees some of the company's most important businesses, has been elevated to take on even more of Google's core products, the company confirmed to CNET.

Pichai already runs Android, the most widely used mobile operating system in the world; Google's Web-based software Chrome; and the company's suite of apps, including Gmail and Docs. Under the reorganization, he will additionally have oversight over research, search, maps, the Google+ social network, ads and infrastructure, according to Recode, which earlier reported the news.

The promotion punctuates Pichai's quick rise inside the company as well as CEO Larry Page's desire to focus on off-loading some of his management duties to better focus on overall business strategy. While Google's search and advertising business still generates $50 billion a year in revenue, some financial analysts fear its business is slowing. The company last week reported that paid clicks for the third quarter rose 17 percent from the same period last year. That compares with 26 percent growth the year before.

While Pichai is taking on those new responsibilities, Page will continue to directly oversee a number of Google's divisions, including the YouTube online video service run by veteran Google employee Susan Wojcicki. Page will also manage business and operations.

Pichai, a well-liked figure at the company, has been a magnet for Google's product teams. He has been at the company since 2004, managing the Chrome department. He added Google Apps to his responsibilities in 2012 and Android in 2013.

Pichai was the clear star of Google's I/O developer conference in June -- serving as the keynote's master of ceremonies as Google showed off its latest developments in Android and Chrome.

Though Google confirmed the staff change to CNET, it declined to comment further or disclose his compensation.