Main Area and Open Discussion > Living Room

Nokia CEO admits that the cell phone industry is a gimmick.

<< < (2/3) > >>

MerleOne:
It would be very nice to see total decoupling, as THAT would make the market truly competitive. i.e. Decouple everything so you buy 3 things:


* Phone - the device
* OS - e.g. Android, Windows Mobile
* Service - i.e. the carrier-Renegade (September 22, 2010, 02:31 AM)
--- End quote ---
Hell yeah!
-superboyac (September 22, 2010, 08:47 AM)
--- End quote ---

Just imagine the complexity !  A user should install the specific drivers for a given hardware, then configure it to match its plan.

I once bought a Nokia, the one that could be unfolded so as to propose a big qwerty keyboard. It was not on my Carrier catalog.  It was a living hell to configure it.

Eóin:
Having your choice of OS would be fantastic, but I think phone hardware isn't standardized enough yet.

That said, if you go the unsupported, void your warranty approach, it's amazing to see what the hackers at xda-developers can do with HTC's phones. They've ported various WM versions and Android to all sorts of models.

Renegade:
It would be very nice to see total decoupling, as THAT would make the market truly competitive. i.e. Decouple everything so you buy 3 things:


* Phone - the device
* OS - e.g. Android, Windows Mobile
* Service - i.e. the carrier-Renegade (September 22, 2010, 02:31 AM)
--- End quote ---
Hell yeah!
-superboyac (September 22, 2010, 08:47 AM)
--- End quote ---

Just imagine the complexity !  A user should install the specific drivers for a given hardware, then configure it to match its plan.

I once bought a Nokia, the one that could be unfolded so as to propose a big qwerty keyboard. It was not on my Carrier catalog.  It was a living hell to configure it.
-MerleOne (September 22, 2010, 09:05 AM)
--- End quote ---

I don't think it would be that complicated. Vendors would jump on the opportunity to roll out packages of pre-configured devices that meet your requirements. I don't think you'd have to lift a finger.

The Dell site is a good example. You pick a computer, then customize it. I think it would end up being about the same. Sure, you could still buy software and hardware off the shelf then do it all yourself, but most people wouldn't. They'd want simple packages that met their needs and allowed them to interoperate with people easier.

JavaJones:
There are some additional complications in the US when it comes to network/frequency/spectrum support which do make it actually technologically more difficult to make a single phone which supports all major carriers. That is of course in addition to the carriers making this difficult or impossible since only 2 of the 4 major carriers (AT&T and T-Mobile) support SIM cards. With Spring and Verizon (the other two), it's much more difficult to bring in a phone bought out of contract or from a different carrier.

That being said, it doesn't have to be this way. With the coming higher-speed network deployments ("LTE"), they have the opportunity to standardize more. Each carrier tends to own a different portion of the spectrum and has vested interest in keeping their customers on their spectrum and away from other carrier's service, so this is very unlikely to happen (in fact it's already not happening - Sprint and T-Mobile have both already rolled out "4G" networks with different technologies and spectrums. But it *could* be more standardized...

And what about explicitly allowing alternative OSs? Great I guess, but useful only to a small minority of purchasers and so clearly not a priority for handset manufacturers, especially when you consider issues like DRM control necessary for current content streaming agreements (e.g. Netflix). Having your customers able to use a service like Netflix seems a lot more important than enabling some DIY people to tinker (and, granted, produce some cool stuff).

Interesting though how some businesses do "get by" on "mere" aesthetic differentiation for their products. Think of watches for example. Most watches sold have the same essential functions. In truth the more techie watches, like with a calculator, or pedometer, or whatever, sell far less than the basic digital watch, or analog fashion watch. The major difference between all watches is aesthetic in most cases: fashion. Cell phones could be similar (and this is part of what Apple has done with their products :D). There's nothing saying that Nokia, Motorola, and others could not compete and sell just as well when relying on aesthetic differences vs. technological. In fact, underneath all the bluster about "Droid this" and "Droid that", the real differences between most models in a given functionality bracket (e.g. smart phone vs. "feature phone") are incredibly small most of the time. Maybe 200Mhz more CPU here or some more memory there. Rarely you will have the option of a slide-out keyboard with one model, or a front-facing camera. Front-facing cameras will become standard soon, and slide-out keyboards are functional but also influence aesthetics, and are really a binary decision/difference (have or have not). So really the feature differences are minimal and much is about aesthetics or ease of use/UI already.

Thus I agree we should have more standardization (let go of Touchwiz, Motoblur, and Sense UIs!), incorporate the best of 3rd party UIs into Android core, and go from there. Each manufacturer can put out one portrait, one landscape phone, with each having a variation of slide-out keyboard or no, and then lots of different aesthetic variations. Imagine, isntead of buying a case that has a pattern you like and attaches poorly to your device, instead you can buy the device with leopard print on it permanently. Hehe.

- Oshyan

kyrathaba:
It would be very nice to see total decoupling, as THAT would make the market truly competitive. i.e. Decouple everything so you buy 3 things:

    * Phone - the device
    * OS - e.g. Android, Windows Mobile
    * Service - i.e. the carrier
--- End quote ---

+1

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page