Disqus
Yep, I’ve been out with my mobile device and it’s camera, and have been surveying the shops in the UK to see what they are aiming to sell us in the run up to Xmas this year. First, for part 1, are Orange and O2. What do the two (current) iPhone carriers have for us?
Orange
As you might be able to see, from the (admittedly) small pic, Orange are very happy to be selling the iPhone 3G(S) this Christmas. They were the next carrier to launch it after O2 (Vodafone should be bringing the pain in the New Year), and are making a bit of a thing of it! Good idea too, since the O2 shop where I was surveying was only 2 doors down! Orange stand alone in the carrier shops I checked the other day, because they were promoting a high(er) end handset (certainly in terms of cost) – whereas you’ll see the other carrier shops are all about the deals – speaking of which:
O2
As noted above, O2 (and other carrier shops) are all about the budget deals this Xmas – could this be solely due to the global recession, which hit the UK particularly hard? Probably. Does it make for very interesting shop window signage? No. Puzzlingly to me, there’s no mention of the iPhone and the Palm Pre, which may not deserve a large banner, but are a strong part of O2′s device portfolio – hey ho though, I’m not part of their product marketing team, am I? No.
Join me for part two of the carrier shops survey in the run up to Xmas, where I’ll have a quick nose around the shop fronting of T-Mobile and Vodafone….
About The Author
Ben Robinson
Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.
