Cingular Renews Vows to Microsoft
Lack of Interest or Too Expensive?
crood said:
You can get a decent PDA and a new phone for a lot less than the wireless providers charge for a smartphone.
I just don't understand why providers still sell the phones. Why not have Nokia or Moto stores where you purchase the phones and then call the service providers to get hooked up, just like landlines? Then, the rate plans would be cheaper for the consumer because the providers wouldn't have to buy them and give them out for free.
Why is there not a carrier bold enough to do this? Or in a move of unity, why don't they all do it together?
Reason being, for the unsavvy user, they would go in, buy a phone, and not know anything about it, and expect it to work with every provider. I understand there are ways around this, but I don't feel that a "sales person" would always lead them in the right way. Either from ignorance or greed. Atleast when they are in the Cingular Store and you have to get a Cingular contract, you know that it will work flawlessly on their network.
Now on the other hand, if we were in a Utopia and all networks were exactly the same, and people didn't have to worry if there handset was going to work on another provider, or if this that or the other feature would work correctly I could see this. It would be ...
(continues)
I actually think this is a good idea but it does raise certain questions about functionality. Right now Verizon is about the only provider that has the phone 100% locked down so you have to get everything (wallpapers, games, ring tones, etc.) only from them. Now that Nokia is going to compete against Qualcomm 's BREW I'm sure more providers will go this way.
What about people living in more rural areas where it wouldn't be viable for Motorola or Nokia to open their own store?
It does raise questions though...
phonescoopjunkie said:
But in rural areas there are few if any Cingular or Verizon stores, anyway. The people would have to drive to a Nokia store and buy the phone they want. The store rep would tell them which phone works on which networks. It's not that hard. Then if they somehow aren't able to activate it, they carry it back to the store. That way there is no waiting for an exchange to come in the mail. I think it would save everyone a ton of grief. Think, no contracts to get a new phone. You just go in and buy it.
I think it is a good idea, In Europe they do have these stores but everything is GSM so you just put in a sim car download the settings if you need to from the nokia website and done. Simpl...
(continues)
phillyslickster said:
Honestly, I believe that many of the sale reps in the stores are ignorant when it comes to the products that the store offers. I was in the Cingular store over the holidays to add a line on my account and the sales rep was baffled when a potential customer was asking him questions about different phones. I helped the customer by asking him what he was looking for in a phone and what he needed to accomplish with it. I answered the questions he had. The customer ended up purchasing a more expensive phone and accessories. The salesperson was telling this man the lower end phone would things that it wouldn't.
*********************************************
I agree, as sad as that is... ...
(continues)
jramossteel said:...phillyslickster said:
Honestly, I believe that many of the sale reps in the stores are ignorant when it comes to the products that the store offers. I was in the Cingular store over the holidays to add a line on my account and the sales rep was baffled when a potential customer was asking him questions about different phones. I helped the customer by asking him what he was looking for in a phone and what he needed to accomplish with it. I answered the questions he had. The customer ended up purchasing a more expensive phone and accessories. The salesperson was telling this man the lower end phone would things that it wouldn't.
***************************************
(continues)
muchdrama said:...jramossteel said:phillyslickster said:
Honestly, I believe that many of the sale reps in the stores are ignorant when it comes to the products that the store offers. I was in the Cingular store over the holidays to add a line on my account and the sales rep was baffled when a potential customer was asking him questions about different phones. I helped the customer by asking him what he was looking for in a phone and what he needed to accomplish with it. I answered the questions he had. The customer ended up purchasing a more expensive phone and accessories. The salesperson was telling this man the lower end phone would things that it wouldn't.
***
(continues)
The rub here is that because this is a converged device there is more R&D that goes into producing these hence the higher cost.
The functionality may be greater than the two items separatel...
(continues)
This forum is closed.