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Shoddy phones becoming the norm
MOBILE PHONE MAKERS are becoming increasingly reliant on being able to patch dodgy mobile phone firmware after the device has made its way into the hands of customers.
This trend was highlighted by the recent debacle with Sony Ericsson's Satio phone, but mobile comparison site Rightmobilephone.co.uk reckons that phones are now often released before they are ready, in a bid to meet marketing and seasonal deadlines.
"The Sony Ericsson Satio has been a big talking point on our website, but for all the wrong reasons," said Neil McHugh, co-founder of the site.
"It's great that consumers can receive software updates after purchase, however it is unacceptable for the product not to be capable of its core functions and features at the point of purchase."
According to McHugh, the site's blog on the Satio story has become one of its most active pages, with scores of readers all chiming in with their own comments and experiences.
"In situations such as this it would appear that consumers are used as guinea pigs, to run tests, diagnose faults and report issues," added McHugh.
With mobiles becoming increasingly capable of being upgraded automatically once they are connected to a computer, or even directly over-the-air, McHugh argues that this is leading to sub-par devices being rushed out the door, with manufacturers sitting safe in the knowledge that they can correct mistakes as complaints arise from users.
"I think this has definitely highlighted the need for better testing within the mobile phone industry," he concluded.
Similar arguments have been raised in the past regarding software, particularly video games. As internet access became increasingly ubiquitous, users would often complain that games and other programs were being shipped with major bugs still present, only to have these addressed shortly afterward - one a few occasions, on even on launch day - through a downloadable patch.
Over time this has become increasingly accepted practice, which doesn't bode well for those hoping to see this trend avoided by the mobile industry. µ
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There are specially made mobile phones for old people that have extra large buttons and are only phones...
Tiny and long battery life isn't physically pssible, but someone could make a phone that just plugs into a wall socket anywhere, a UK power plug unfolds... maybe I should patent that? No, it's probably unsafe.
Open source software often is released in parallel stable and
experimental versions... is that what we need for our phones? Or is that the problem, "our" phones? Manufacturers and networks act like the things still belong to them. At least, if I follow, iPhone only has Apple jerking you around on software updates, and not your network as well?
There are a lot of shit software developers out there in the world. India and China are usually the worst offenders, but a lot of UK grads are just really really bad. But cheap.
First thing I do when interviewing devs is to get them to write code. I check it for neatness, and then correctness. If you can't type clean code you can't think clean code.
Over the last 15 years I've had phones, mp3 players, DVD players, Blu-Ray Players, Minidisc players, broadband routers, network switches, freeview boxes, PVR's.. the list goes on and on.
Sony are particularly bad for doing this, their 1st gen Minidisc players wouldn't play minidiscs! Their early DVD players wouldn't play some discs, and even after patching still play some with clear errors in decoding.
So, it's not phones, it's a blight across all consumer electronics.
/agreed 150%
dont think its gonna happen thou -- how will you sell a phone that all the tech kiddies wont drool over? -- "wheres da MP3 player?? ROFFDFGDLOLLOL it dunt play MP3s?? OMG liek when wuz dis made in liek 1992?|"
I recently got a new phone (LG Neon)
It's great and all but I only use a cell phone for calling people......that's all I want it to do.
I couldn't even but a phone that has no options.
ALL I WANT IS A FREAKING SIMPLE COMPACT FLIP PHONE WITH AN ABSURDLY SIMPLE INTERFACE AND DISPLAY. A LITTLE LCD THAT HAS TIME AND # CALLING.....THAT'S IT. SOMETHING TINY WITH A VERY LONG BATTERY LIFE, IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK!!!
I totally get what's going on here. Why should these money-grubbing cheapskate corporations pay someone for quality control work when they can get the hapless consumer to do it for them for free! Bastards!
So are Microsoft. There are several updates for Windows Mobile 6.1, but when I try to run Windows Updater from my phone it always fails to find the server.
I am using my home wifi connection to do this because Orange only include 3MB/month (yes 3 Megabytes per month) on my £45/month business contract. If I go over this then I am charged 100,000% more per MB than it costs using broadband (static line).
And this is a top Orange business package. Laughable when I see receive there business "catalogue" in the post every 6 months. It's full of talk of getting your business better connected, well if they are so keen to see my business better connected then they should include more than 3MB/month! ;-)
Rough cost per MB on broadband is 1000x less than Orange charges on mobile.
My phone is HTC Touch Pro, great phone, slightly flakey Windows Mobile 6.1 which would work better if Orange passed on the several Windows updates.
On balance I must say that the contract does give me over 1,000 minutes to mobiles/landlines across Europe, which is excellent. I highly recommend it if you make a lot of Euro-calls.
Except when you don't get the update because your carrier installed a custom/crippled version and can't be bothered to release an update. If you are lucky you can hack the phone and install the factory (working) version of the software.
Not on the E72, for sure. THAT was hardly rushed.
Felt like everyone else when through a hardware generation between the E72 announcement and its release to market.
What the BS is is that the new attitude is that mobiles are software platforms.
Yeah, like it's early 90s again. You get Mac, single tasking only, silly hardware price, or Windows with problems you don't know will ever get solved, or UNIX, i mean Symbian, which you can get working but forget about it being pretty or latest drivers etc.
I guess Blackberry is the outlier for my analogy. Call it a mainframe, you want one of those attached to your corp systems anyhow.
I DONT. I JUST TALK A LITTLE LOWDER.
Satio is an excellent phone. Many of the featues it has are state of the art. Nokia and Samsung still cannot catch up with it inspite of running on symbian. Every software whether apple , microsoft has bugs, which only come out during real use. Testing can discover many but not all of them.
Not sure if this is quite the same thing, but the Nokia 5800 which I picked up back in February 09 has got quicker and quicker in its UI with each update. Of course many people aren't getting updates because their network operators aren't releasing their tailored firmware.
While a slightly sluggish UI may be acceptable on release, the GPS is a different matter: before it used to take upto 5 minutes in decent weather to lock on, now it takes a few seconds. (That said, I did just get the handset replaced for other issues so it may be down to the hardware revision).
the hardware and support on my last 2 phones were crap, too:
- on my Motorola e398 (name and shame !), the connectors were so flaky, I several times realized after getting to work that the simple fact of setting my phone down on the table after plugging the charger had disconnected it. Same with the wired headset: unusable. PC Synch: not working, no support (it's the software's editor's problem... no it's Motorola's problem...)
- My current LG KS20 has such a crappy software + OS (windows mobile) that the hardware problems almost seem secondary: it freezes once a day (not very handy to receive calls), synchs to my PC... occasionnally, requires a reboot to access my SD card... Still, my Bluetooth headset crackles, the touchscreen is very imprecise and unreliable, the screen is barely usable in sunlight...
I have had major service faults for the best part of 2 years. The carrier was O2 the handsets 2 diferent LG Viewty's, LG750 and LG Renoir. All returned, no joy. All could fail to make or receive calls at home only, elsewhere 100% ok.
I was a BT network techy for BT etc, I know a network fault when I see it, pity O2 customer services don't. After making waves with O2 this summer I finally got to someone, not a tech ( customers are not allowed speak to techy's, certainly in BT ) but familiar with the fault.
Under instruction I reverted it to 2G, suddenly all calls at home now 100% OK.
This fault is ongoing now for many months/years. The cell is owned by Orange with perhaps O2 sharing it. Is it an access problem, are O2 too lazy to fix it?
The mobile phone industry has become a joke. Every 2 years, I have to get a new phone because I simply can't buy anything for my current one. There's nothing wrong with it, but when something breaks, I simply can't replace anything without upgrading the phone.
This is why I like the iPhone strategy. My brother has the original iPhone, and he keep it updated and there are still plenty of accessories and replacement parts to keep it going. Sure, it's a little more expensive, but the longevity of the product pays for itself and the bugs continually get worked out for it. Now, if only iPhone would come to my carrier...