The Smartphone OS Debate - Does The Consumer Really Care?

[Mike Temporale]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://disruptivewireless.blogspot.com/2005/12/smartphone-os-debates-who-really-cares.html' target='_blank'>http://disruptivewireless.blogspot.com/2005/12/smartphone-os-debates-who-really-cares.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"It doesn't matter if 2008's coolest phone runs on FORTRAN or has a dozen monkeys with abacuses inside it. People will buy it, the way they bought the Moto RAZR, because it's cool. And therefore operators will clamour to sell it, irrespective of their internal goals to reduce the number of OS's they support."</i><br /><br />Dean Bubley has posted his take on the Smartphone OS wars and for the most part, it's just what I've been saying. Most people don't know what OS is in their phone, and they don't care. Of course, we're the exception to that. Anyway, give his analysis a read and share your thoughts with us. :)

[Rocco Augusto]

ive said it a million times and ill say it again. while big name companies think the consumer doesnt care about function, just style, theyre wrong.

if these companies that created the os as well as the carrier and the sales associate actually take the time to educate the customer then style would be a close second to function or they would be on the same page.

there are pleanty of times when dealing with customers that i take the extra half hour to show them how to use there phone, smartphone or not, and show them what their phones can actually do that they easier become better users of their phones or decide that they want more than style.

why have a phone that can use opera mini to browse the web or has bluetooth functions if all you do is use it to make calls? im talking about the razr here because its the nicest looking phone out there. when it comes to phones the truth is customers only choose style over function because all they know is 'hey this phone looks pretty, ill go with that'

[Duddy]

An unusually high amount of people in the small town I live in have Smartphones. Mostly, Treo's and the Audiovox SMT5600. As a Mobile Enthusiast, I usually offer tips and tricks to them when I see them. They are always very appreciative.

Now when I explain the tip, most of them say they will not pursue it. They will say things like, "As long as it has my contacts list" or "I just want it to keep my Calendar." :cry:

I have noticed that most people do not use their Smartphones to their full abilities. In fact, only one person knows as much about Smartphones as me, and that's my brother. It's like an unknown zone for the average consumer.


So yeah, let them buy their FORTRAN Primal ABA c700. As long as their happy.

[robertotores]

With the avaliablility of J2ME games an programas I think that in the near future no one will care much about the OS.

For example the most popular games for phones are Prince of Persia, Age of Empires, Sims, and Bejeweled.

All of these games are available for almost any phone that runs J2ME.

By the way it is disturbing that you can play Age of Empires on a "Dump Phone" but not on a Microsoft Smartphone.

Come on MS give us some games.

[robertotores]

Off topic:

Mike, I saw the review of the Orange C600 in the link you posted and the pics looked nice. How about doing a similar pictorial on this site comparing Quasimodo (Aka 2125) to the SMT 5600?
I saw your "hump pictorial" but I mean regular pictures not empasizing the hump.

Maybe if Quasimodo looks acceptable (including fugly hump) besides the 5600 I will consider it instead of the RAZR V3i I am thinking about.

[Mike Temporale]

Mike, I saw the review of the Orange C600 in the link you posted and the pics looked nice. How about doing a similar pictorial on this site comparing Quasimodo (Aka 2125) to the SMT 5600?
I saw your "hump pictorial" but I mean regular pictures not empasizing the hump.

Good idea, but I don't have a Quasimodo to take pictures of. The T-Mo and Cing devices in the other post were just ones that people in the room @ Mobius had. During a break between the sessions I grabbed their phones and snapped some pics. I'll try and keep this in mind and if someone picks one up, we'll try and do a photo shot. :D

[Sven Johannsen]

I have to agree that the average consumer neither knows or cares a whole lot about what their phone does beyond the usual phone stuff. Style and hype is king. Recovering from some foot surgery so been watching a lot of TV. Saw a Razr commercial today, that I thought was pretty exciting ( ;) ). It was a girl struggling into a skin tight pair of jeans. When she finally got them on, she slipped a Razr in her back pocket. Tell me that was marketing to people who even cared if it made phone calls. It was a pink one BTW.

[Rebecca]

By the way it is disturbing that you can play Age of Empires on a "Dump Phone" but not on a Microsoft Smartphone.



The problem is that the smartphone OS is just one of many phone OSs.

Aside from Smartphone and Symbian we have the follwing propietary OS: Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericson, Sanyo, LG, Audiovox, series 40.

What those all those OS have in common? J2ME

Companies like Jamdat, Gameloft and Infusio write their games and apps for Java in order to sell to customers using any of the OS.

Also for programs that are available in both platforms Java and Smartphone sometimes the Java version is better.

For example take Opera browser as someone mentioned in another topic.

Opera for Java uses a proxy to compress pages, is up to date and runs very fast and best of all it is completely free including the proxy service.

On the Smartphone Opera costs $30 and there is no support for the proxy so you have to download the full size page.

On Simbian Opera also costs $30 and you have to pay $18/yearly for using their proxy. That's why many users of Simbian are using the Java version instead.

This brings me to an important thought: Why isn't Microsoft or OEMs like HTC doing something about Java for the Smartphone?

The HTC phones have J2ME support but I don't understand why no one cares ther are no Jamdat or Gameloft games anounced to work with HTC phones. Cingular game and apps download section says the SMT 5600 does not support downloadable games.

The future as it seems is prgrams coded in Java to work with all phones regardless of OS.

[Rebecca]

Mike, I saw the review of the Orange C600 in the link you posted and the pics looked nice. How about doing a similar pictorial on this site comparing Quasimodo (Aka 2125) to the SMT 5600?
I saw your "hump pictorial" but I mean regular pictures not empasizing the hump.

Good idea, but I don't have a Quasimodo to take pictures of. The T-Mo and Cing devices in the other post were just ones that people in the room @ Mobius had. During a break between the sessions I grabbed their phones and snapped some pics. I'll try and keep this in mind and if someone picks one up, we'll try and do a photo shot. :D

There are some nice pics (If that Humpphone can be called nice) at Mobile Burn: http://www.mobileburn.com/news.jsp?Id=1859&amp;source=SIDEBARHOME

They call the Hump an "Ice-Scrapper".

Nobody likes humpphones!

PS: They also metnion it has office 8O