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Telecommunications Cellphone bells and whistles are sounding alarms
Telecommunications Cellphone bells and whistles are sounding alarms | Cellphone bells and whistles are sounding alarms |
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| by Stuart Corner | |
| Tuesday, 18 July 2006 | |
  
UK consumers' magazine 'Which' in 2005 found that one in seven new cellphones were being returned as faulty within the first year, and that 63 percent of these were in fact fault free. In an analysis of the problem, UK mobile customer support provider, WDSGlobal, concluded "With Operators, manufacturers and retailers collectively covering administration, shipping and refurbishment costs approaching £35 per device this equates to a potential cost to the UK mobile industry of £54 million and more significantly a global industry cost of $US4.5 billion. By analysis call patterns to operators' help lines WDSGlobal concluded that 24 percent of callers "had resorted to abandoning the device after a lengthy and frustrating battle with the usability of functions or applications." This, it said: "provides a clear indication that manufacturers still need to invest considerable time and effort into the user centred design and modelling of device software." However manufacturers do not get all the blame. "The majority of mobile retailers are not equipped with the expertise to provide informed advice on the more complex features of mobile devices," WDSGlobal concluded "Many high-end mobile phones are now differentiated through data communications technologies including GPRS, EDGE, UMTS and Bluetooth which are complimented by an equally confusing array of applications such as WAP, MMS, e-mail and Streaming media...A recent mystery shopper survey carried out by WDSGlobal identified that only 20 percent of retail staff could provide a moderate description of what 'BlackBerry' functionality could provide within a device, despite its prevalence as a powerful differentiating business function." WDSGlobal found the most significant contributor to the 'No Fault Found' problem derived from users who were unable to connect to WAP or email services. "While many operators attempt to set up services for immediate 'out of the box' usage the more popular applications such as e-mail will be left to the 'DIY' devices of the user." Despite the seeming huge cost of the problem, WDSGlobal does not see cost the major issue, saying it "can be easily absorbed into the growing overhead associated with launching new products, or in many cases simply hidden within the inflated consumer price tag." Of greater concern, in its view "is the less tangible qualitative issues:...Mobile subscribers are becoming increasingly despondent with mobile technologies, and a frustrating user experience has sadly become the rule and not the exception. Brand loyalty and subscriber churn once again come under fire as mobile users migrate between device vendor and mobile operator brands in an ostensibly eternal quest for an optimal user experience." The results of the study are available here. |
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