why are we so behind??

smemon

i have my sights set on the 6600, whenever it arrives here feb-march whatever....
almost bought the 5100 a few months ago but didnt as i heard a newer model was comming out and it did- the 5140 i think, due out in april or something.

basically, i dont want to pay 400/500 euro for a phone that will be out-dated in a few months. everytime i think of buying a phone, people say, "well if you hang on a while the so-and-so phone is much better". im sick of it and am just buying the 6600 whenever it comes out.

thats provided mms will work of course. it frustrates me that we cant keep up-to-date with the uk and us in phones, here on the net we hear these great phones comming out and about3-4months later they arrive here, by which time a better phone is on its way in the us/uk.

jesus_thats_gre

You are slightly exadurating there. But overall, I do agree with you. The main delays in this country are always to do with handsets, new services are always launched pretty much at the same time as other countries here. Who is responsible for this though? Is it the manufacturers holding more units for bigger, more important markets or are the operators up to something? Conspiracy theory time. Any recent cases where handset have been late coming out here have been due to them failing software testing.

smemon

i'd blame the operators, surely manufacturers want to sell as many handsets as possible, as quickly as possible.

i look at vodafones, meteors and o2's phones and their all so outdated! yet some of them are only released here a while. we use phones more than any other country bar a few, dont we? have we not earned the right to have the latest phones and technology seen as we use them the most?

were a small country i know but surely manufacturers dont look at that, surely they dont care who gets the phones so long as their sold.

jesus_thats_gre

Originally posted by smemon
i'd blame the operators, surely manufacturers want to sell as many handsets as possible, as quickly as possible.

i look at vodafones, meteors and o2's phones and their all so outdated! yet some of them are only released here a while. we use phones more than any other country bar a few, dont we? have we not earned the right to have the latest phones and technology seen as we use them the most?

were a small country i know but surely manufacturers dont look at that, surely they dont care who gets the phones so long as their sold.

I wouldnt be so hasty in blaming operators. In some cases, they will push a certain brand of handset more than another, but I dont believe they purposely hold back the release of handsets on purpose.

As I stated already, one reason for handsets being delayed is due to network testing and the handset failing test. Some networks have fairly stringent testing procedures in place before they will release a handsets to the market. The T610 and P800 are recent examples of handsets the persistently failed testing and it wasnt until a particular firmware version passed, were they released.

I would put more of the blame on the manufacturers personally. When a handset is first released, it is only available in limited numbers. I am of the opinion that the manufacturer would prefer to have as many units as possible in the larger markets like Britain, France, Germany and Italy than the like of Ireland. Whether it is a coincidence or not, the 6600 have been available for a few weeks in the above countries but is only in testing with operators in Ireland.

Services such as MMS, WAP, GPRS and so on were released here pretty much around the same time as other countries from memory. If the operators are willing to invest money in launching the services, it would not be in their interest to hold back handsets that utilise these services.

seamus

Originally posted by smemon
i'd blame the operators, surely manufacturers want to sell as many handsets as possible, as quickly as possible.

Therein lies the crux of the problem. As phones get more advanced, so too does the hardware, and the firmware OS that runs the phone. Just like Microsoft, manufacturers happy to release things that may not be perfect, because they can update/patch them later on. The goal is to get as many people as possible to buy it. Perfecting the firmware only delays this.

But it's different with phones. If someone's phone doesn't work, they don't think "Oh, maybe there's a patch.", they go back to the shop, kick up a stink, and demand a new phone, or change operators. Operators get all the flack for bad manufacturing, and the manufacturers keep the cash rolling in. With mobiles, people don't distinguish between manufacturer and operator. The operator is held responsible for everything to do with the phone.

If you buy a computer with Dell, you don't complain to them and return the machine if Windows doesn't work properly.

I prefer that there are tighter standards for a phone to be accepted by our operators.

MiCr0

on one had i'm delighted that phones take so long to get released here

in other markets the operators release the phone as soon as they are available - in spain they sold 30000 siemens phones - only to discover that they didn't work correctly with their network -> no picture messages..........

as you can imaging - there were thousands of unhappy customers

if delaying the phones means that they get tested properly with the network - well and good


if you want the latest phone *NOW* (and generally i do) you can go out and spend loads of €€€ in expansys or mphone ---- but then again - it mightn't work here