cdma

This past week I read an Engadget Mobile post indicating that Samsung is the "most favored phone brand in US". Seeing as I am not partial to Samsung phones, I have not been able to get this article out of my head ever since I read it last week. I continually ask myself the question, how can this be? I do not dispute that Samsung makes attractive phones (some very attractive) that work well for their intended purpose. And I am not at all a Samsung hater, but I just don't see how they are "favored". They match Motorola in sex appeal (but lack the marketing might), the base functionality of a Samsung device usual pales in comparison to that of a comparable Nokia, and not much compares to the snappy Sony Ericsson UI. That being said, I feel that Samsung's American success can be attributed to one key factor, American carriers stock more Samsung models, kudos to their sales team. The bottom line is Americans use Samsung phones because they are sold Samsung phones, possibly for some of the reasons I mention below:

1. Samsung makes a lot of CDMA phones, Sprint and Verizon are big CDMA carriers (check out Nokia vs Qualcomm)
2. Samsung phones are cheaper in general and USA carriers tend to offer fewer high end services requiring higher end phones (compared with Europe/Asia)
3. The American smartphone market is Blackberry and Windows Mobile dominated, hardly a Symbian (read Nokia) device in sight.
4. American carriers and Samsung share the same attitude towards third party software developers...

I hope you picked up a hint of bitterness on that last point. These past few months, I've been trying to figure out what devices we at EQO can support with our upcoming service. Thanks to the great developer sites provided by Nokia and Sony Ericsson and the pretty good one from Motorola, a glance at a spec sheet tells me all I need to know. Conversely, I've found no useful developer content online for Samsung. Both the Samsung Mobile Developer Club and the SMCS (whatever that is) appear to be officially sanctioned, but neither are of much use. I'm of the opinion that Samsung will never garner as much fervor until they embrace third party application development, starting with a good developer site. At the very least, I will remain bitter until Samsung emails me back.

Recall my mentioning that I am not a Samsung hater. I have an A706 from Rogers and a privately acquired E900 that I find quite delightful and cooperative, shame I had to buy them to find out what they can do. If anyone has any accurate sources of Samsung device info, I'm all ears.

Note to prospective EQO users with Samsung phones: if we don't support your device its not for lack of want or trying. We just can't get our hands on every Samsung phone out there, not even a good chunk. However, we are very encouraging of user involvement in our Samsung endeavors. If interested, send us an email to support@eqo.com and we'll work with you to prove whether or not the new EQO Mobile will work on your device. I look forward to hearing from some of you.

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

I need a few testers to give the latest EQO Mobile pre-beta for CDMA Treo 650 a try. I had many a month or two ago and those I've emailed recently haven't replied back to me yet. This is fairly urgent as we'd like to release immediately if our latest attempts proves sucessful. If you have a Treo 650 on the Sprint or Verizon network and you don't mind taking part in a fairly complicated process please let me know as soon as possible. Just to let you know that my requests for testers sometimes result in my receiving an enormous and unmanagable number of responses, so don't be upset if I turn your down. T-shirts, SkypeOut credit, fame and fortune, honour and prestige are the spoils that go to the chosen few testers. Email me, chris@eqo.com, if you are up for the challenge.

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist