Firing at the fans that flamed me
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O2 offers users green advice
MOBILE PHONE OPERATOR O2 is hoping to help its customers make more informed decisions about how they can avoid destroying the planet by providing eco-information about handsets.
According to the firm nearly a half of all consumers that answered a survey, when really they should have had better things to do, professed an interest in the green footprint of their phone, explaining that it had an impact on their handset of choice.
Forty-four per cent of respondents said that environmental factors would have an impact on their purchase, and in order to help them O2 has taken the entirely altruistic step of creating a rating system for handsets.
Sony Ericcson's Elm is at the top of the list that takes in 65 phones from six manufacturers. The Elm gets only 4.3 out of a possible 5 points but, as for the rest of the handsets, well, we have to wait 'til later in the week to find out.
O2's release says that the list is already on its website, but we can't find that. Although most people will probably prefer a list, we get the impression that the ratings will be placed somewhere within the phone's individual description, making the chore of actually comparing them rather annoying.
The eco-ratings, if you can find them, are based on information provided by six phone manufacturers - Nokia, Sony Ericsson, HTC, LG, Samsung and Palm - all of which volunteered to take part. Cynics might say that this makes the whole thing seem very cosy.
"We know that sustainability is important for many of our customers and for the first time they will have the whole picture from which to make a full and balanced purchasing decision," said Ronan Dunne, O2's UK CEO. "Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the social and environmental impact of the technology they buy and we believe this kind of product transparency will help empower them to make greener choices."
We tried calling O2 for comment but our call kept going through to a vanilla 'You have called the O2 messaging service' message - the irony of which we rather enjoyed. µ
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Soo, let me get this right, o2 are going to run this eco phone thingy based in information that the manufacture supplies?
ok, my names Darren, im Boss of HTC uk marketing, all our phones are very good, but this years models are better than lasts so everyone buy a new phone to be more green..... can anyone else see the dodgy logic behind this?