TelstraOne Experience does work for the user too

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 06 January 2010 06:12

Opinion and Analysis

OK, I admit it: the TelstraOne Experience user interface that Telstra delivers on some mobile phones does provide benefits for the user as well as the company.

Back in November, I was a bit scathing about Telstra's announcement that "Data and content revenue on TelstraOne Experience handsets is more than 11 per cent higher than on the identical handset model we compared".

I still don't think that it's a good idea to tell prospective customers that they're likely to spend more, but I accept that Telstra was using revenue as a proxy for use.

The company provided me with a Sony Ericsson T707 with the TelstraOne Experience user interface to try, and I agree that it does make some tasks easier just by exposing them more clearly.

For example, promoting Search to the home screen was a good idea, simply because you need to use it so often.

But there doesn't seem to be any provision for exposing services other than Telstra's, such as Google rather than Sensis search. And that doesn't sit comfortably with me.

If I were a frequent mobile Internet user, I'd still prefer a handset like an iPhone or Blackberry, because entering URLs and completing form fields is just too cumbersome without a QWERTY keyboard. (You're right - I don't send many SMSes either.) And the larger screens on those models helps too.

Telstra does deserve praise for making Internet services more easily accessible to owners of lower-end handsets, but I would like to see a mechanism for customising the home screen with the user's choice of services.

After all, deciding which search engine (or other service) suits you best is - or at least should be - a completely separate decision from picking the mobile carrier that's right for you.