Friday, November 6, 2009
Is Verizon’s New Early-Termination Fee Anti-Consumer?
Beginning Nov. 15, Verizon subscribers looking to get out of their smart-phone contracts early will pay $350 for the privilege. That early-termination fee is double the current one, but Verizon insists it’s justified because of the higher prices of today’s phones. An interesting move for a carrier that just last year agreed to pay $21 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by California consumers over the very early-termination fees it is now increasing.
Customer satisfaction with the iPhone continues to run high–among both casual and business users. Apple’s smart phone scored highest in the both consumer and business categories of JD Power’s Smartphone Satisfaction Study, besting rivals like Research in Motion and LG.
No wonder Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is so dismayed by the company’s Windows Mobile division: Most Windows Mobile users aren’t even aware their phones run it. In fact, according to the CFI Group, WinMo has such poor brand recognition that it was forced to group it in the “Other” category in its Smartphone Satisfaction Survey. 
Microsoft brought it’s not-so-anxiously-awaited Zune HD to market today. With its touchscreen, Wi-Fi capability and high-definition video output, the device is intended as an answer to the iPod touch, though it lacks the application marketplace that helped make Apple’s device so popular. And it’s not going to be getting one anytime soon, either.
As Apple marks the one-year anniversary of its App Store with a bit of celebratory smack talk, Microsoft has provided a few more details about its forthcoming rival offering: Windows Marketplace for Mobile store. At its Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans this morning, the company said it will begin accepting applications for the store on July 27 with an eye toward opening it by the end of the year. 
Windows Mobile 6.5 might be a necessary stopgap on the path to 7.0, if not exactly an elegant one. But what can you expect from an OS with such a hurried path to launch? Not much, according to Microsoft developers who admit that the incremental update was a rush job that suffers from all of the problems attendant thereto.
As if the Zune weren’t embarrassing enough… Microsoft and Verizon are reportedly discussing a touchscreen multimedia cellphone that could launch on the carrier’s network in 2010. The project is codenamed “Pink” and will apparently involve some ungodly combination of Windows Mobile and Zune software.
Ugly just isn’t going to cut it in today’s mobile device market. That’s what Dell is finding as it attempts to build a smartphone capable of holding its own against the Blackberry, iPhone and upcoming Palm Pre. According to Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu, the PC maker’s first smartphone prototypes have been rejected by wireless network operators, which found them dull compared with current and upcoming devices.
What an uncomfortable moment for Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at the CIO Summit Wednesday. Fielding questions at the event, Ballmer was asked how best to handle workers who prefer consumer handsets like the iPhone to Windows Mobile devices, which are more apt to meet the security requirements of large organizations. His answer left something to be desired.
Apple’s iPhone and Research in Motion’s BlackBerry are little more than consumer phenomena. This according to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who professes to be unimpressed by both devices. In remarks at Microsoft’s annual Strategic Update in New York Tuesday, Ballmer said that while consumers might be fascinated with the iPhone and BlackBerry, carriers and OEMs much prefer Windows Mobile. 
