Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Why do Android Phone Manufacturers Need to Update their Phones?


The other day, my roommate wanted to know how he could connect his 3G enabled android phone to his laptop in order to just surf the internet. I asked him to go the 'Settings' application on the android phone and enable 'Tethering'. When he went to the 'Settings' application, he couldn't find the option. So, I immediately checked out the android version he was using and I found that it was Android 2.1 (Eclair). As you guys would be knowing, tethering capabilities have been enabled in Android 2.2 (Froyo). So, I had to look up the internet to find out what were the alternative options that I could adopt to enable tethering. While some websites prescribed me to root the phone (which my friend was dead against. Obviously, since that nullifies your warranty!!!), one other website prescribed me to download a simple application to enable wireless tethering on an Android 2.1 (Eclair) phone.

There are a lot of people out there who wouldn't go through this painful process of finding out what their smartphones in fact offer and what they do not. They wouldn't know whether their smartphone would be capable of tethering or not. If the phone is updated to a better version which provides more features they will easily spot it and use it. If the phone isn't updated, they just accept the fact their smartphone is in reality, not that smart!!! It was decided at a Google I/O conference that manufacturers will support devices until 18 months after their release, but I hardly see that happening. A case-in-point is my roommate's phone. He purchased his android phone one-and-a-half years back and it still hasn't been updated from 'Eclair' to 'Froyo'. In the age of 'Ice Cream Sandwich' such news sounds like blasphemy!!!.

You don't need an expert to tell you that what's going is on not right. People purchase their smartphones investing a lot of money and they expect it to get updated to the latest versions at least for a reasonable period of time. I had a 'Nokia E71' previously (I have an Android now!!!) and even 2 years after purchasing that phone, I used to receive updates (Long live Nokia!!). I still have a sense of attachment with that phone and even today, my father uses it and he is very happy.

Let's look at the whole issue from 2 perspectives: the 'Customer' and the 'Mobile Manufacturer'. As far as the customers are concerned, the example I quoted above is what makes them develop a sense of 'TRUST' towards a brand. This is what makes them 'LOYAL' to a particular brand. There are plenty of people, even today, who will swear by a Nokia phone even though other manufacturers have surpassed it in terms of features integrated in their smartphones. When customers become loyal to a brand due to the immense satisfaction they have had from using it, in the future, if they want to purchase a phone, they will consider the same brand from where they had purchased earlier.

As far as the mobile manufacturers are concerned,  they can derive a lot of value from the customers due to the sense of loyalty that they develop in people. Just to make this point more clear, movies like 'Avatar' and 'The Dark Knight' haven't become 'Top Grossers' just due to the high ticket rates or the movie being watched by more people. The reason that they became 'Top Grossers' is because they had attracted 'Repeat Audience'. That is the exact reason why they had become so commercially successful. If you want an analogy with respect to the 'Smartphone' industry, you can always remember the company from Cupertino which has shown that it will take care of its customers who had purchased its phones even 3 years back. That is where the current crop of android phone manufacturers should aim. Otherwise, it is a known fact that smart people will buy only those flagship phones from the android phone manufacturers, that they believe would be updated in the future.

Stay Tuned.!!



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