CUE A RANT: Three UK is ALL OVER THE PLACE with their Nokia N95 strategy
Look at this, it really does wind me up. Not Jon’s comment, but the fact he’s EVEN HAVING to post the comment.
Link: SMS Text News » Three’s X-Series launches in Italy WITH NOKIA N95s!
jonmul Says:
I swapped a few emails with the X-Series blog team this morning, as I want to join up to X-Series, but am waiting for the N95.
I was told that that 3 UK are “waiting on some final test results before deciding on timings for the N95″. They also said that they expect to know more next week, but that this of course could change.
I have my fingers crossed this is true, I will be switching my T-Mobile contract for 3 immediatley if so!
I think Three UK need their heads examined.
Look at THIS!! This chap Jonathan Mulholland, OBVIOUSLY a mobile geek of sorts and therefore, I think it’s entirely safe to assume, a high spend user, is MAKING A PURCHASING DECISION based on Three UK’s ability to knock out the N95.
It’s no use bringing it out now. Everyone and their dog’s been away and got it from Vodafone, o2, Orange or T-Mobile - you know, the MARKET LEADERS.
How annoying. It really does GET RIGHT UP MY NOSE. You want the company to do well, you really do. You LOVE the X-Series range of applications, you like how they’re performing, then they arse it all up delaying and poncing about with the N95.
I understand that the X-Series applications need to be tested. I understand that, yes, the GPS on the N95 isn’t necessarily as good as your TomTom, but please, for the LOVE OF MOBILE, release-the-handset!
Or don’t.
OR commit your testers to a timescale.
I’ve been going on about this for effing ages.
Three have lost £50k’s worth of customers who I know personally who would have SWITCHED to them for the N95.
What happened? Nearly everyone did the shoulder-shrug and stayed with their existing operator TO GET AN N95.
Geez it winds me up, it really does.
Someone, somewhere in Three UK should have grabbed the testing team by the scruff of the neck and explained, using small words and big pictures, just e x a c t l y what motivates the UK buying public.
Jon is just one tiny example — he’s making a buying decision based on hardware. Not price plans. Not how many free text messages. Those are also-rans. They need to meet his expectations but it’s the hardware and X-Series he’s after. Making him wait all this time — and STILL being unable to give him a yes or no definitive public answer as to when and whether the N95 is arriving isn’t good enough.
Knocking out the N95 after goodness knows how many maybes and dunnos from the call centre is a really limpwristed gesture, particularly given that A) The Italians seem to have managed it perfectly fine… IN ITALIAN.. you know, applications IN ITALIAN, in a DIFFERENT LANGUAGE. I can’t be bothered to write the other B, C or D.
I know there are perfectly reasonable commercial reasons for the delay. That’s why Three is sat in the position they are, though, right? Come on. Oh it’s so annoying sitting there, tubthumping, telling everyone what a wicked service Three is (something I do genuinely believe) only to have all the folk who were sat, salivating at the ‘oh-I-will-get-N95-and-X-Series’ moment go back to their existing operator.
Don’t forget that the moment’s gone now.
Remember that a few months ago, Orange and Vodafone still hadn’t launched their new data plans. Yes there’s a few ..er.. questions about the Orange one, and well, the 120mb for 7quid a month Vodafone one is reasonably ok… but during all those months of uncertainty, that was the time to launch the N95.
So, moment’s gone. We move on.
I’m glad I’ve got that out of my system.
Ewan,
what makes matters even worse is that the N95 has been available on Three in Australia roughly for the past 2 weeks!
You’d think if it’s good enough for the Australian market it’s good enough for the UK market, I mean it’s probably the same firmware.
Posted by andydigitale on June 13th, 2007 at 5:29 am.Here’s the deal: The current software is not that great.
A conscientoius and savvy operator won’t release a *heavily subsidised* handset unless they are pretty damn certain that it
a) will work very well for the end-user
b) Won’t drive loads of calls to the customer care centre
c) (and this is the kicker) won’t result in a high % of returns due to dissatisfaction - handsets that they will then loose tons of ca£h on.
Only once all 3 of these areas are sorted should a handset be released. Just because everyone else jumped off the cliff, should 3UK?
Yes, you can say that some users are smart enough to make their own decisions having read all the reviews and weighed up the pros and cons (like battery life!).
But that sort of user is a fraction of the market. You yourself have noted that the N95 is very attractive to ‘Normobs’. If you knew from bitter experience (Nokia 6288 anyone?) that 20%+ of these people would return the handset because it didn’t reliably do something like, er, make calls, you would be stupid to launch it.
Good things come to those who wait
Posted by Mike on June 13th, 2007 at 8:46 am.I did want to add to Ewan’s post that I was very impressed by the speed and openness with which the X-Series blog team responded. I had expected a lengthy wait and a non-committal response. I was pleasantly surprised by the very quick reply to my enquiry, the fact that they had gone to the trouble of properly checking, and that I got a real answer and offer of help rather than a sales fob off.
Whilst it is frustrating that the N95 is not currently available, I think that 3’s open appraoch through their X-Series blog is very posative and should be encouraged.
Posted by jonmul on June 13th, 2007 at 11:30 am.I’ve been with 3 the entire time that as a phone company in this country they have existed, I had just signed a contract with O2, but on seeing video calling a day later I returned the handset and went out and got the immensly HUGE NEC e606, as did about 10 or 11 of my friends, and through a random series of events we all ended up as the 3 contract test panel, which was great as we found about new services etc… coming out.. anyway… cut a long story short I’m still with 3 some 4 or so years down the line, now I’ve happily kept my Nokia 6680 for just over 2 years now as it does everything I need, but upon seeing the release of the N95 to the Euro market 3rd quater of last year I was massively excited and have been waiting since for 3 to release it, and especially so on the xseries as my best friend has the N73 which is top phone, but seems to break and crash alot (also doesn’t have a 5M pixel camera!). Now to be honest as a top whack spender with 3 (spend @ least £60 a month) I’d be prepared to have the N95 with bugs, as with all data businesses continual evolvement and upgrades are made/needed, I know because I work for a business ISP, and staying up to date with the latest tech is a must if you want to keep customers interested, look @ BT for example, doing everything they can to hang on to a rapidly dissolving customer base for normal telephone lines (personally think they’ve stifled the market for too long ((Business and consumer)), but thats another story)..
Anyway, all over the web I keep reading about will they won’t they release the N95 on the 3 UK Network, as I say I’ve had the 6680 for just over 2 years now as I’ve been more than happy with it, but its got to the point now where the phone is just too beaten and battered and I need a newer one, with more features etc… and getting the X-Series for me really is the only way forward using all the cool stuff on the move is such a good idea, and having played with several peoples N95s really has made me salivate at the thought of using the services and the cool software thats preloaded, so my question is 3, why can’t u realise that your loosing so many customers through not having the N95 out?? I understand the bugs with the N95, but surely the people who predominantly use the X-Series have some technical understanding already and know that things come with bugs and take time to sort the kinks out, otherwise why buy the xseries!
yours,
A Long Time 3 Customer, thats now wondering whether he can do all the xseries stuff on other networks….
Posted by Luke_113 on June 21st, 2007 at 12:49 pm.