Sep 07
26
Marketing Blunders
First on my list today: Motorola. A little over 2 years ago, my wife and I were shopping for a new mobile phone package where we could share minutes and not spend more than $70/month. We found one from Cingular. We found that we could even get 2 brand new RAZr’s for free* (* should be read as “ok, not really, but the lawyers tell us we can kinda lie about it.”) so we signed up. Loved the phone. Loved the service. Loved the rollover minutes. I had quite the stockpile growing until I started my own business. So everything is just wonderful.
Then on the morning of Sept 25, my battery was dying. I went to charge it up and it wouldn’t charge. “Crap, the charger died”, it’s the only logical assumption. So I brought it to work and tried my charger here. Still nothing. Tried it on Joel’s charger. Nothing. Tried another battery. Nothing. Tried my batteries in Joel’s phone and on his charger. SUCCESS! “Wait, so it’s the phone? Crap” Well I have been looking for an excuse to get an iPhone. So I went and got one. “Woohoo. now I’m happy!” Better call the wife to let hew know the good news. Hmmm, no answer. All day no answer. Get home and find out that here RAZr is doing the exact same thing. How odd.
Two exactly identical phones; two identical mysterious, undocumented by AT&T support, Crippling situations. Coincidence? Come on, really. What are the odds? “Well I defy you Motorola! You’re not going to trick me into upgrading to another booby trapped RAZr!”
Second on my List: Apple. I am more than pleased with the new iPhone. It’s almost what all the hype has cracked it up to be. No seriously, it’s freaking cool. I got a ton of things customized. So I have my old ring tones (which you CAN’T buy on iTunes) and I want to put them on my phone. Especially the one I want for my early morning wake up alarm. Well it turns out that I can’t. Apple has made it impossible to put your own ring tones that you have edited or created onto your iPhone without voiding the warranty. Sure I can go get any of 500,000 songs in iTunes and pay AGAIN to make it into a ring tone. But I don’t want those songs. I want “Busted” by the Social Comas. I want a bunch of other indi titles but NOOOOO! Lame Apple. Lame Lame LAME LAME LAME! Apple has historically been pretty good about listening to their users and giving them what they want.
Message to APPLE: Please figure out that people want their own ring tones before a halfway decent iPhone knockoff comes out. Because even if it was Motorola, I’d probably get it just so I could have MY ring tones.
