Memo To Motorola: You Aren't Apple
from the yeah,-do-that dept
Fresh off the underwhelming launch of the iTunes phone, Motorola says it's going to take a page out of Apple's book and start selling phones the day after it announces them, rather than follow mobile-phone industry custom and announce them months before they're ready. Ever since the success of the RAZR, Motorola's tried to portray itself as the phone equivalent of Apple in terms of design, so it's slightly ironic in light of the new pronouncement that the RAZR follow-ups that are supposed to cement that reputation were announced months ago and are still nowhere to be found. The point for Motorola is that to be like Apple, it takes more than flashy design and quickly putting your products on sale; it helps to have good products, too. The cynic in me, though, can't help but wonder if the new plan was prompted by the ROKR's launch, when all the details of the device were known well before it was officially announced, making the device DOA.
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I've always though of motorola as very applesque.
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People are more likely to wait for something they know is coming if they already have a functioning cell phone. If people didn't know there was a new RAZR coming out in X months, what would keep them from buying the cool new Nokia whatever that just came out?
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I have yet to see a single phone that would make me want to jump to a new provider and be willing to pay an early-out fee.
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With the release of new phones EVERY WEEK, there really is no incentive to purchase the latest & greatest phone... unless of course you enjoy having advertisements in your face that something better has just come out -- for exactly the same price you paid for your top-of-the-line model just a few days before.
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