Archive for Phones
Verizon Wireless and Chicken FCC Chairman
Posted by: | CommentsI like Verizon Wireless and its not just because I’m a former employee. I feel they make wise decisions when it comes to business. For example, next time you are at the mall…check for other people’s cell phones. You can always tell who is a Verizon Wireless customer…the majority of the time they are the cell phone users who can have either a case on their phone and use a headset. The reason why you can almost make this bet is because Verizon Wireless’ sales reps HAVE to sell accessories! Part of their quota structure is selling 3 accessories per phone that leaves the store or kiosk. Now, the accessories have great benefits, but from a company perspective, this is a GREAT move on their behalf. The accessories that Verizon Wireless gets, with the expensive branded packaging, probably cost them a few dollars, $4 maybe? They then turn around and sell those accessories for at least $20. That is a lot of profit just off of accessories.
But this isn’t about Verizon Wireless and what a great company they are in some regards. This is about their recent lawsuit against the FCC and their proposed 700mhz wireless spectrum auction. Let me just say…Kevin Martin is dumb. He looks like an idiot. He allows some open-access rules for the wireless auctions and now is changing his mind and back pedaling in his decision just because Verizon Wireless isn’t happy. Verizon Wireless barely said a thing while Google petitioned the FCC for the open-access rules. Now they are suing saying that these rules violated the US Constitution. Psh. Verizon Wireless has one of the most locked down networks in the world. Every single one of their handsets has special software! All of their basic phones has the Verizon Wireless UI and the PDA’s software is locked down to take away certain features like the obex bluetooth profile! Come on!
I will say that this could change in the future. Verizon Wireless and Vodafone announced recently that they both will be adopting the Long Term Evolution(LTE) technology which is similar to the current 3g UMTS networks that the GSM carriers have. LTE is a GSM technology which should allow customers to swap their sim cards into another handset.
We’ll see how it all pans out. I am excited for the spectrum auctions and to see who ponys up for it!
Standard Charging and Syncing Port for Cell Phones
Posted by: | CommentsI was working for Alltel Wireless a few years ago and I absolutely HATED Motorola. The Motorola v60s were a tank of a phone. I had a customer accidently put one through his snow blower, got chucked 10-20 feet, and was still working! There was one flaw with the Motorola cell phones…the charging port. It got so bad, that Motorola recalled a bunch of them and was replacing them with an upgraded phone, I think it was the old 720s. Not very durable, but it had a “redesigned” or “reinforced” charging/data port. During this time frame there was all this talk about Motorola changing the charging port but it didn’t come for years later when the mini usb port came out. Slowly but surely cell phone manufactures started “standardizing” their charging ports (Motorola, UT Starrcom, and Blackberry use similar mini usb chargers).
Now, with much happiness, the Open Mobile Terminal Platform (OMPT) agreed on a micro-usb standard for the charing ports of cell phones! I’m sure it will be awhile before this actually is implemented, but it will be interesting to see if any new or different cell phone accessories come out of it.