So early morning today surfing through the tech updates, I came across two interesting things:

• The share of the Windows phone in the market has grown by 52% with the introduction of Windows Phone 8.
• There seems to be a growing consensus amongst people who matter and influence the industry that Nokia should consider introducing Android phones.

For the former, I would say that this success is not for Windows phone themselves, but can also be attributed to Nokia, as being privileged partners of Microsoft they have built and designed phones which are beautiful really in every detail. Other manufacturers, mainly HTC and Samsung haven’t made much progress, Samsung in particular. Samsung is in fact trying to stall Windows 8, for its own sale largely depends on the success of Android. Consider the factors, two years ago nobody even knew about Android, and Samsung’s own BADA OS had foreseeably crashed which coincided with its launch. Most people at that point considered Samsung phones in the same line today as to what the masses count the Chinese Alternative. But with Android, Samsung emerged victorious, for the first time their sloppy engineering team could concentrate only on the UI and some minor kernel tweaking, instead of building a flawed OS ground up.

Secondly, and more importantly, what is even more fascinating is the Samsung’s product cycle which also functions as a marketing strategy.

• Build a product.
• Package it with either the latest, or one generation older Android OS and make it upgradeable to the latest. (Can’t actually blame them for the latter as by the time these phones hit the market they sometimes lag behind because Google got ahead of them)
• Now to stop code fragmentation as mandated and regulated by Google, mind you this exercise is not voluntary; Samsung has to deliver upgrades for 18 months. Often these updates are slow in coming, and by the time these updates come in; the update is in itself obsolete. And Google is still getting further and further in the race.
• Announce a new product with almost the same specification, and the cycle repeats.

The inherent flaw in this cycle, is that by announcing new designs by the end of every month from pocket standard issues to the giant slates which are supposed to be portable phones but I really wonder how will they will ever fit into my pockets, the market is flooded by so many phones, that a user feels he has the power of choice. But what an average user fails to realise is that there is no standardisation of hardware designs and with it the cost margins. Talking to a friend recently who was searching for a phone, the most difficult task was narrowing down the choices, because they all looked the same. The reviews are no help either. For the uninitiated, they can be the worst nightmare. As the experience of the Android OS is different with every manufacturer and depends on the kind of hardware it is packed with. This in turn has flooded the market with locally manufactured units, which in majority are substandard and lacking even in the minimum hardware, and there aren’t any hard specifications for the hardware. The cheap phones are laggy and sometimes buggy to the point where the camera doesn’t work, the screen is unresponsive etc. And when it comes to Samsung, the occasional trickle of updates stop because by the time the support team got together to deliver the updates for every handset, the 18 months were up.

Consider the case of Windows Phone. Microsoft laid down hard specifications with regards to minimum hardware. This not only ensures that the Windows experience stays constant irrespective of the manufacturer and that updates are compatible throughout but in turn also solves the problem of code fragmentation. Problem solved. A seemingly huge problem which should never have existed in the first place has been solved just like that.

I have rambled on and on. My point being, that instead of building more phones and distributing resources to small teams, maybe manufacturers should start concentrating their resources and make phones for a price band- High end exciting, high end partially exciting, high-mid end, mid end, and low end. This strategy seems to be working in the case of Nokia Lumia (920, 820, 720, 620, 520), now if you re-read the previous sentence again, and it makes more sense. The result of this strategy would be that existing phones would be supported for a longer time, vastly reduce the cost of designing and producing new phones & setting up exclusive support teams for discrete models. However following this strategy is very hard for Android manufacturers as it will lead to admission of liability, when clearly their market relies on the hype of a model refresh every 6 months.

For those who crave stability there’s always Apple and Microsoft to the rescue.

This is now I come to the second point, if Nokia were to ever consider Android. Against the general opinion, I believe it will fail.

 

Disclaimer: I have bashed Samsung long enough, and I admit no liability. If you feel offended, or your business has been affected by this post, I feel honoured and complimented. This post is not open to debate. Any legal action is subject to my personal jurisdiction only, and in that case you lose the motion, and hence the trial.

Why does Samsung SUCK?

“Value for money”, a sentiment which resonates strongly with my beliefs, that when you buy some product or service, it must be worth it. The recent events and my tussle with Samsung India, has led me to believe otherwise. Whenever I set out to buy any electronics, I always read not just the specification and the data sheet, but the consumer manual, and the manufacturer’s terms & conditions as well.

So what happened?

I or more precisely, my Father bought a Samsung Primos S5610. It was barely 2 days, when the phone developed a snag, due to which the screen blacked out. Since, the Samsung consumer policy- dictates product replacement within a window of 4 days only, we went to the service centre immediately.

Point of interest: Most manufacturers offer replacement policy of 30 days, 15 days or at the very least 7 days. But Samsung beats them all with its 4 day policy.

So, I return to the service centre, and after waiting for half an hour, we get to the service engineer- the ultra smartass dude who seemed to have invented the telephone. And then he drops the bombshell, the phone can’t be serviced, as warranty is void. Why? Because, the defect was apparently due to liquid damage.

Point of interest: Samsung declares warranty void on its mobile phones if there’s any water damage, which though a little harsh, is actually fair, considering people actually flush their mobiles and then take it back to get it serviced. Urgh!

He then proceeds to show us where the damage was done, pointing to a small corner of the phone motherboard where it was blacked out. Not only this, he also points out that liquid had entered through the small crevice where the camera key was situated. See a picture of the mobile below:

Point of interest: The motherboard had blacked out at the area which was almost opposite to the camera key. Water could actually not even reach that part, as the damaged area was too constricted.

Nothing would convince the jackass that it was a manufacturing defect. And so he proceeded to his next scam, where he tells me that it would take 3000 INR to repair a mobile which cost me 5000 in first place itself. Not only that, the repair will have no warranty of any sort, and if the mobile undergoes any damage during the repair itself, the service centre will have no liability.

I quietly collected my mobile, after I had declined his offer and made up my mind to go to another service centre. And I was in for a surprise; the world is full of bozos, who really are drunk on stupidity. My little experiment had the same result again, and boy, they are consistent! I do actually give them that credit.

Returning home totally exhausted, I looked up the Samsung mobile website again, this time the “Contact Us” web page. I find  “Contact the CEO”, though it was totally pointless and I had little hope of being heard, I anyway wrote them an email detailing the events.

I got a return call from his office next day itself, but there is no end to stupidity. These guys had contacted the service centre, and tried to explain me that the warranty is void. And all this, when I had actually complained not just about the mobile, but the incompetency of the service engineer itself, but they conveniently skipped that part.

Almost 10 emails, and an equal number of telephone calls, and a dozen threats of lawsuits. The guy caved. But he would still not replace my mobile, and only agreed to full repair and warranty intact. And though this was a violation of their own terms,  I compromised and settled, as I had had enough of the phone calls.

I went to the service centre again, the same jackass greets me and repairs the mobile. Yet, this time he actually lets slip out, that Samsung’s 4 day replacement policy is a farce, and they never replace any mobile, unless it’s beyond repair.