REVIEW: AT&T Mobility’s virtual “store” is online shopping at its most difficult

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly feature, Yay or Nay. Every week we’ll review a new wireless application or service from the user’s point of view, with the goal of highlighting what works and what doesn’t. If you wish to submit your application or service for review, please contact us atrcrwebhelp@crain.com.
Service: AT&T Mobility “Online Experience Store.”
Running On: Desktop computer.
Yay: A slick, polished and glitzy site – which includes show-and-tell videos – that looks at a handful of AT&T Mobility’s services and phones.
Nay: Missing from the “experience” is almost all mention of price, which is arguably the top concern in most shoppers’ minds. Further, many other Web sites provide side-by-side pricing and feature comparisons and other, more useful information.
We Say: If this is the future of online shopping, we feel a great swell of pity for those users who will have to navigate it.
Review: AT&T Mobility, the nation’s largest carrier, took the wraps off a new Web site aimed at enticing Internet surfers into a virtual AT&T Mobility store. The Web site, www.att.com/onlineexperience, provides an interactive, Flash-based, 3D view of the carrier’s phones, and guided tours through a handful of the carrier’s wireless data services.
AT&T Mobility said the launch of the Web site coincides with its introduction of Microsoft Surface technology in its brick-and-mortar retail outlets. Microsoft Surface is “a 30-inch, tablelike display that allows individuals or multiple people to interact with devices and content by using touch, gestures and placement of devices on the display,” according to the carrier.
Thus, when logging on to AT&T Mobility’s Web site, users are presented with what looks like the inside of an AT&T Mobility retail outlet, with a table of phones in the center and kiosks behind detailing various services. When clicked on, the kiosks cover services including music, video, messaging and “productivity.” (Translation: Smartphones.)
The kiosks, as well as the Web site as a whole, rely on Flash-based animations and full-motion videos to detail various features and functions.
As for the table of phones, six are presented – from a Sony Ericsson Walkman phone to a HTC-built Tilt – and each phone is linked to a video demonstration and a list of technical specifications.
While strolling through the “store,” a button to interact with the carrier’s customer service is omnipresent, and offers links to various areas of AT&T Mobility’s already established Web site. Further, each location within the “store” is tied to an offer: “Packages starting at $19.99” is plastered at the bottom of the video kiosk, for example.
Though the store does a passable job at introducing novices to the newest technologies in the wireless industry, it does little to present useful shopping information – such as price. Instead, shoppers must surf off of the “Online Experience Store” and onto the carrier’s standard, non-animated Web site to get such information. And even on the standard site, it’s still difficult to find the cost of sending a text message, for example, or evaluate AT&T Mobility’s various data bundles.
Instead, we much prefer independent Web sites, such as WireFly.com or PhoneScoop.com, which provide side-by-side comparisons on price and features, and also allow users themselves to review various items.
Though visually appealing, AT&T Mobility’s virtual store comes across as more of a marketing gimmick than a shopping utility.