You wouldn’t buy a car without a test drive.*
Ergo, why do mobile retailers generally insist on displaying plastic replicas in store — in this day and age?
I know that Vodafone have begun to have ‘live demos’ ready and accessible for people to play with. The Three store in Lakeside, Thurrock, actually has live demos on display throughout the store: no fake plastic crap.
Shouldn’t live demos be the norm?
(Thanks Alex for the inspiration)
* Unless like me, you walked into the garage, pointed at the Range Rover and said, ‘that one’ and walked out again. I was sold on the vehicle without having to drive it. It’s all about the road presence — and the fact it drives over almost anything. You need that in the Highlands you see.
Related Posts
On this day- Ben Harvey wants to know where you are, right now - 2007
- Expedia UK offers free international sim card with holidays - 2007
- YouNeverCall offers $10k for the first mobile call from the moon - 2007
- 3UK win Best Network at Mobile Entertainment Awards - 2007
- Minick launches mobile services for Nuts TV - 2007
- Shure's music-phone-adaptor coming shortly - 2007
- Virgin Mobile USA launches 3jam 'SMS 2.0' services - 2007
- ROK Talk on the bus - 2007
- Truancy Call introduces Anti-Bullying text service for schools - 2007
- Mobibucks introduces cashless mobile transactions - 2007
Bensmith on 
Comment by Jim Black on 21 September 2006:
One reason cost - the cost of the devices and the cost of devices being nicked. Somebody in the food chain would need to absorb these costs.
Using your car analogy, a car without an engine wouldn’t be much use for a test drive, and so devices without a valid sim card and network connection may not be much use either?
Comment by steve procter on 21 September 2006:
oh my oh my, are you guys mind-reading! I was going to email you yesterday with my thoughts on this most terrible of sales methods - plastic toy versions of several-hundred pound devices…hideous…simply hideous.
I too went shoppping for a new handset over the weekend and it is the most depressing experience one can have. I stepped in to the first shop shivering with excitement at the thought of getting my hands on an n93. But what do I see, plastic toys that my 2 year old nephew would consider rubbish. At the 2nd shop I stepped in through the door and had eye contact with a spotty 17 year old who looked like he had got a deer in his site, I turned and walked very quickly out. I made it to the window of the 3rd shop, peered inside and just couldn’t do it. I then went home.
You stupid stupid people, you have absolutely no idea what you are doing. Can you imagine going in to Micro Anvika and looking at plastic non-working versions of PC’s with fake screens and broken keys!?
Wake up mobile operator/shop people - smell the coffee and come in to the 19th century!! Your shops and fake-toy approach to selling stink, they are an embarrassment!!
steve/itagg