Audiovox SMT5600 Featured Product in Parade Magazine

[Mike Temporale]

http://www.parade.com/current/columns/gadgetguide.html

Parade Magazine, the most widely read magazine in America with a circulation of more than 36 million copies (according to Parade's website), has featured the Audiovox SMT5600 in the November 21st edition.



It looks like the word is spreading on this device. It's too bad that we don't know what the future holds for the SMT5600. It appears to be a very popular device, and is getting good reviews every where it shows up. Despite the fact that it is only available to consumers from Amazon.com. I hope Cingular gets their act together and we see this phone back on the shelves soon.

[Mike Temporale]

http://www.parade.com/current/columns/gadgetguide.html

Parade Magazine, the most widely read magazine in America with a circulation of more than 36 million copies (according to Parade's website), has featured the Audiovox SMT5600 in the November 21st edition.



It looks like the word is spreading on this device. It's too bad that we don't know what the future holds for the SMT5600. It appears to be a very popular device, and is getting good reviews every where it shows up. Despite the fact that it is only available to consumers from Amazon.com. I hope Cingular gets their act together and we see this phone back on the shelves soon.

[jkkw]

Despite the fact that it is only available to consumers from Amazon.com . I hope Cingular gets their act together and we see this phone back on the shelves soon.

don't know why you folks, and other sites keep saying this... the ex ATTWS store near me has the 5600 on sale despite it's conversion to Orange

[Mike Temporale]

Originally Posted by jkkw

don't know why you folks, and other sites keep saying this... the ex ATTWS store near me has the 5600 on sale despite it's conversion to Orange

Um, I think you mean Cingular. :wink:

If you goto attwireless.com you won't find the Audiovox listed on their site, and stores have been told to remove them from the shelves. Consider yourself lucky if your local store still has them available.

[mel]

I am almost certain Cingular will bring out this device at some point in the near future. My guess is that they are probably configuring and testing all the customization options available to carriers. As a carrier, you can customize everything from branding logos, ringtones, Favorites, home screen plugins, WAP/GSM/GPRS settings, registry settings, startup sound/banner etc. Till now everything on the 5600 was branded with AT&T WS stuff. Notice the custom home screen plugins and wallpapers with AT&T mMode icon. AT&T engineers and designers probably spent lots of time getting those things ready before launching the 5600.

However, since AT&T Wireless doesn't exist anymore, it doesn't make sense to to sell phones with that branding and it has to be done all over again. The merger has probably created lots of priorities of varying importance so that customizing the SMT5600 for Cingular network is taking some time. Silly as it sounds, when large companies merge, there are many more important things to worry about other than the logos on a product. Still, proper branding is important, and releasing or supporting products with the wrong brand name can lead to confusion and customer service hassles. That is why I think Cingular pulled the SMT5600. Would Cingular like to have this device in stores for the holiday season? Sure, that would be terrific, specially for gadget lovers on our gift lists. But if Cingular rushed out and simply slapped on a different set of logos, but forget to update some important registry keys or settings that were relevant to AT&T's setup, it could lead to recalls, customer service issues a 'la MPX 220, or simply inconsistent branding. Give them 3-4 weeks to a couple months, and we should see this excellent device back on store shelves. In the meantime, I love my SMT5600! (on T-Mobile network)

-Mel
www.twopeaks.com

[shahni2]

This phone is available on the att site, you need to go into the site as a business user.

http://www.attwireless.com/midtolarg..._smt5600.jhtml

It's still better to buy this phone from Amazon. Better deal. If you are worried about the 29.99 data plan amazon forces you to purchase, it's easy to change with AT&T once you get your phone. You will need to keep a data plan though even if it's the lowest cost plan, as the voice plan is a secondary option on this phone.

[Mike Temporale]

I don't doubt that they pulled it for branding issues. It's either that, or the phone competes to closely to another phone, and they no longer want to carry it. Not very likely.

However, Considering the phone was released only a couple short weeks before the merger, why not just hold back and release it once, with the correct branding. Also, they should acknowledge that this is what happened to the phone, and not leave it up to customers to guess. And if branding is such an issue, why are they allowing Amazon to continue to sell the phone?

The SMT5600 is a great phone, but it's fate is unknown until we learn more about Cingulars plans.

[mel]

Originally Posted by Mike Temporale

And if branding is such an issue, why are they allowing Amazon to continue to sell the phone?

Mike, my guess is that AT&T signed some sort of deal with Amazon before the merger, and now has to honor it, at least while stocks last. For example, Amazon might have "purchased" 2,000 Smartphones from AT&T and hasn't depleted all it's inventory yet. Who knows....it's a great phone and a good deal if you need this phone right away and don't mind unlocking it yourself. Let's hope this phone gets official sales and support channels soon.

-Mel
www.twopeaks.com

[seaflipper]

Originally Posted by Mike Temporale

Um, I think you mean Cingular. :wink:

If you goto attwireless.com you won't find the Audiovox listed on their site, and stores have been told to remove them from the shelves. Consider yourself lucky if your local store still has them available.

Mike, the stores haven't actually been told to remove them from the shelves. They have been told to sell them! While at the same time the salespeople in stores are being told to encourage existing AT&T customers to convert to Cingular, they are also being told to get rid of existing AT&T stock. The local store that I go to here in Seattle still has them in stock and on display at the store and my regular sales guy said that they have not been told to not sell it or remove it from the shelves.

But they won't last long, that's for sure. Hopefully Cingular will bring it out ASAP, rumors are already that Audiovox is working the Cingular ROM.

[Kris Kumar]

More SMT5600 news stories in the print media:

USA Today: Smartphones do it all to keep savvy users in the know

South Bend Tribune: Microsoft Windows runs this cell phone

[Kris Kumar]

Originally Posted by seaflipper

Mike, the stores haven't actually been told to remove them from the shelves. They have been told to sell them!

The two stores in my area are not carrying them anymore. I had called them up last week to find out if they are having a clearance sale or something on the AT&T phones and if they still had the SMT5600. ;-) The answer was no to both.