Do we really need another smartphone out on the market right now? While it seems like there is a new mini gadget-phone released every week now, there’s no denying that they are going to keep coming — and they’re going to be getting smaller and more powerful.
The really problem is that many of these “new” smartphones aren’t so new at all, just repackaged versions of older models with a few bells and whistles added in for good measure. But every now and then, an original smartphone comes along to add something new to the marketplace. One of the last big examples of this was the Apple iPhone, which stirred things up good in 2007 and set the bar a little higher for the competition.
Now it’s Samsung and Sprint’s turn to shake things up a bit. The two wireless industry giants have teamed up to offer the new Samsung Ace mobile smart phone. The design is very similar to the popular Samsung/Sprint blackjack phones, but the Ace is a full-fledged smart phone, complete with QWERTY keyboard, Bluetooth support, stereo speakers and access to Sprint TV, featuring more than 50 channels of mobile TV programming and on-demand video.
The Ace is also designed with business users in mind, using the Microsoft mobile operating system, and featuring a full suite of Microsoft office products including Word, Excel and even PowerPoint. The Ace also weighs in at under 4 ounces, making it one of the thinnest, lightest smartphones on the market.
And when it comes to web surfing, the Ace is certainly more than capable. The phone will operate on a variety of high-speed mobile networks, including CDMA, GSM and GPRS. It also features inbuilt international roaming, and comes preset by Sprint with the ability to place or receive calls in about 180 countries, making it an ideal smart phone for serious travelers or global business users.
Of course, like most all mobile phones these days, the Ace is also a fully fledged media player and ships with 2 GB of flash memory for your MP3 and video library. Additional memory can be easily added, thanks to support for external microSD cards, allowing power users to upgrade to 16, 32 or even 64 GB of storage at competitive rates.
The phone also features a — now ubiquitous — 1.3 megapixel digital camera and camcorder, capable of producing web quality videos and digital photos on the go.
While it is clear that the Samsung/Sprint Ace is not exactly an iPhone killer, it does provide a stunning amount of functionality for a seriously low price. Sprint is currently offering the phone to business users on a two-year service agreement for approximately $100, after a $100 mail-in rebate.
In other words, the Ace provides about 95% of the functionality of an iPhone for about 25% of the price. Anyway you do the math, that’s a whole lot of smartphone for your money.
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In Shanghai, there are thousands of factory workers that spend their days assembling Apple iPhones. But sadly, all of the iPhones created in China are exported to Western nations for sale, so even the workers who assemble them in factories can’t own one. Or at least they couldn’t, until recently…
A new study shows that Apple iPhones are being bootlegged back into China nearly as quickly as the factories can export them out. Apple first began to suspect that something funny was going on when an analysis of their iPhone sales showed that approximately 3.7 million units had been sold, but only 2.3 million have actually been registered on Apple’s partner cellular networks (all of which are based in the Europe or North America).
While the disparity in the numbers initially confused Apple executives, at this point it seems clear that a great many iPhones are being bought, unlocked and bootlegged back into China (where Apple currently has no partner networks, making the phones untraceable once they are used within the Chinese mobile system.
While there are certainly professional bootleggers at work re-importing the iPhone to China and other Asian countries, it is also likely that many of the phones find their way back into Asia by “amateur” bootleggers in a type of ad hoc distribution network. In other words, Chinese nationals visiting Europe or North America are likely picking up a
few extra iPhones for their friends while they’re abroad.
Once the phones are returned to China, they are “cracked” so that they will work on local Chinese cellular networks, and fitted with customized local software. Currently, the price of an unlocked “bootleg” iPhone in China is around $500, compared to approximately $400 in the US.
As China becomes more and more of a industrial powerhouse, a new breed of young urban professionals is emerging in the country with plenty of expendable income. These young professionals tend to define themselves by the latest and greatest Western gadgets and electronics, and the popularity of the iPhone is a particularly high-end example of this trend.
When purchasing an iPhone in North America, the user signs a purchase agreement with Apple that prohibits unlocking the phones software for use on other networks. However, using the iPhone in China does not appear to violate any statutes of Chinese law.
And if $500 seems a bit too steep, Chinese consumers can also opt for a so-called iClone, a knock off of the iPhone which currently sells for about $125 on the street. Most Chinese, though, opt for the cachet and prestige of owning the real thing. Until Apple signs a deal with a Chinese cellular network to “officially” introduce the iPhone to
China, they’ll just have to keep on “re-importing.”
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If you live anywhere in the Western world, you might be forgiven for thinking that mobile phones are as ubiquitous as trees. In the industrialized world, you can barely throw a rock without hitting a cell phone, but the fact is that most of the world still does not have access to mobile phone technology.
A recently released UN study indicates that in 2008 mobile phone use worldwide will reach 50% of the earth’s population for the first time in history. Although the percentage of mobile phones in North America, Western Europe and most of Asia is much higher than 50%, in the developing world a mobile phone is still very much a luxury, and many areas do not have mobile networks in place for individuals who can afford the phones.
Mobile phone ownership rates have been rising significantly this decade. Countries such as India, Brazil, and China are seeing astronomical growth in the number of citizens owning a mobile phone. For example, China had an estimated one billion cell phone subscribers last year.
At the current rate of growth, mobile phone rates should reach 50% of the world’s population during the first half of 2008, amounting to over 3.3 billion cell phone subscribers worldwide. Back in 2000, a meager 12% of the world’s population owned a mobile phone, indicating that the market is growing faster than even the most optimistic industry analysts had predicted.
The new figures also do not include users who have more than one phone, which could place the number of cell phones worldwide even higher. Another trend reflected in the study was “mobile phone sharing,” which is a common practice in much of the developing world, and gives more individuals access to instant communication.
When you take into account the phenomena of mobile phone sharing, the percentage of individuals worldwide who “have access” to a mobile phone could likely be much higher than the 50% estimate being reported by the UN telecoms agency.
Worldwide increase in cell phones is good news for several different reasons. First, individuals with access to a cell phone tend to be better informed about current events and issues affecting their daily lives, such as severe weather or other emergencies. Cell phone use also keeps people connected with other cultures, which contributes to greater global understanding, and could help reduce the most extreme elements of nationalism and racism.
Mobile phone use also gives individuals access to employment opportunities, and “instant information,” which can improve living conditions and lead to healthier and safer living conditions.
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Infoworld.com is reporting that eBay is shaking up its policies, and attempting to crack down on disreputable sellers. The changes are coming in response to warnings to eBay investors that 2008 profits may fall well below expectations.
With Wall Street already a bit jumpy lately, eBay Inc. is attempting to take a pro-active stance against flat earnings in 2008 by lowering their seller fees to increase the overall volume of sales on the mega-successful online auction site. The goal is to make eBay shopping safer for the consumer, and less expensive for sellers.
After raising their seller fees in 2006, eBay was roundly criticized by sellers, including some of their biggest “power sellers,” who saw their profit margins shrink under the weight of increased competition and higher eBay marketplace fees. eBay is now attempting to “roll back” fees to encourage greater volume of overall sales on the site, and hopefully, increase profits.
Specifically, eBay is reducing their “insertion fee” by 25% beginning February 20. This is a measure to reduce the risk incurred by sellers, particularly when items don’t sell. eBay’s current policy makes it very difficult for sellers to “take a chance” on an item that they are unsure will sell quickly. By lowering the fees eBay hopes that sellers will list a greater number of products. The company is also eliminating the fees associated with including photos on an auction listing.
But the news isn’t all good; while eBay is reducing the risk to merchants who list items that don’t sell, they are actually increasing the “final value” fee charged to a merchant when an item is sold. The bottom line is, eBay will still be making roughly the same amount of profit from sellers, they just won’t make as much from items that go unsold.
At the same time, eBay is attempting to improve their reputation among consumers by cracking down on “less than reputable” sellers. One long overdue policy change is in the way eBay handles search queries for items on its site. Sellers who have higher customer satisfaction rates will rank higher on the search results, while those with lower overall customer feedback scores will receive much less exposure.
This improvement alone should help crack down on unreliable or disreputable sellers, as merchants with lower customer satisfaction ratings will see their web traffic dwindle, while those who provide quality service will see an increase in the number of visitors to their auctions. This “nice guys finished first (on search results)” strategy should drastically improve both the safety and quality of customer service when buying on eBay.
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