Hello! And welcome to our Friday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWireless.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!
And without further ado:
Man, wireless carriers and device makers are going bonkers rolling out new smartphones this year. It seems not a day or two goes by where there is not a new Android/Symbian/MeeGo/Windows Phone 7/BlackBerry/webOS/Atari-based device is not thrown out into the wild.
I know this segment is hot and everything, but I can’t remember a time in the mobile industry where so many new devices, regardless of the segment, have been unleashed onto an apparently “can’t get enough” public. (Haven’t we had enough yet?)
This onslaught of new devices is a boon for those in the media that make their living reviewing new mobile devices as well as for those consumers that not only must have the latest and greatest, but plan their lives around making time to stand in line so they can purchase the latest and greatest. (These people then typically spend more time that they should be working buggering up message boards about how horrible that new device is and how they can’t wait 24 hours for the next new smartphone to hit the market.)
This phenomenon is spread across the market, with just about every carrier and device maker looking to one-up a rival in launching a more “advanced” device, all to the detriment of the poor consumer that in the end really just wants to buy an iPhone.
Take Verizon Wireless for instance. The carrier currently shows 40 smartphones via its website for purchase, spread across new and refurbished devices. Half of those devices run the Android OS, while the others are made up of various BlackBerry, webOS, iOS, Commodore 64 and Windows Whatever. (Luckily for most consumers, this selection also includes the iPhone.)
That’s a lot of devices, and at first glance they all look the same, except for the white iPhone 4, which is like looking at a unicorn flying directly into the sun. It’s glorious!
The only one that really stands out is the bad-ass Casio G’zOne Commando, which in addition to having the most bad-ass name is also ruggedized to handle whatever sort of trouble a bad-ass person can get into. Did I mention “bad-ass?”
The rest, whether they be the Droid Incredible 2, Droid X, Fascinate, Vortex, Citrus, Continuum, Sega Genesis, Droid 2 Global, Fathom or Ally, all on first blush look identical. Even if you dig down a bit into the specifications, there is very little to differentiate these devices, unless you are a tech-geek well versed in the differences between Bluetooth 2.0 or Bluetooth 2.1. (Answer: 2.1 is .1 better.)
I can’t imagine being an average consumer walking into a retail outlet looking at buying a new phone. All you see lining the shelves are nearly identical black, slab bricks with similar price tags and similarly lame names. (Except for the G’zOne Commando. That is definitely the most bad-ass name. I would have to guess that they would also need to keep the G’zOne locked in a cage so it does not go around beating the crap out of the other devices. Especially the white iPhone. You know that is the G’zOne’s bitch.)
This mass of sameness unfortunately requires most consumers to seek the help of a store employee, which in many instances is only a step or two up from getting information from a used-car salesman. Now, I will admit that I have on occasion been amazed by the knowledge and professionalism of some in-store employees. But, more often than not I have realized that some sales people may have recommended certain phones or rate plans that were … how should I put this … not in the best interest of the consumer.
I know a lot of retail agreements call for stores to receive a commission from certain carriers in connection with the sale of certain devices or with having customers sign up for certain rate plans. This is the American way, and I have no qualms with such an arrangement. However, this does seem to lend itself to a conflict of interest when it comes to what might be best for a customer and what might be best for an employee.
(Best advice in this situation is to find a store employee you can trust, and then hang onto them with all of your might.)
And really, this is not the fault of store employees. They are just a pawn in the system that is being driven by carriers and device makers pumping out devices that consumers can’t possibly keep track of. The iPhone is really the only device on the market that consumers likely know by name, but if that consumer is looking at a retail location or carrier that does not provide the iPhone, they are then placed at the whim of the system.
The only solution I see is for device makers, and to a larger extent their carrier overlords, is to hold off on throwing new devices into the market unless those devices are actually different in a measurable way to what is already out there. Larger screen? That’s enough of a difference. Faster processor? Sure, that’ll do. Updated operating system? OK. A bad-ass design with a bad-ass attitude? Most definitely.
OK, enough of that.
Thanks for checking out this week’s Worst of the Week column. And now for some extras:
–I know one way or another it will come to an end, but I gotta say I am all about this while AT&T/T-Mobile USA merger and the angst it’s causing the industry. Not that I like others being all angst-y, but the bickering this issue is rightly causing continues to bring out the middle school girl in just about everyone. Nothing like listening to supposed mature and upstanding citizens of the mobile industry and accompanying legal profession screaming at the top of their lungs whilst having finger wedged so solidly in their ears and throwing all reason to the wind. Good stuff.
All I can hope is that the government does its part and thoroughly bungles the proceedings so that drag into at least the holiday season.
–Whew! And to think that a week could have gone by without Clearwire making a major announcement that changes its future.
I welcome your comments. Please send me an e-mail at: dmeyer@rcrwireless.com.
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