ArchiveAugust, 2007

This morning I came across an article describing the Finnish World Championships of Mobile Phone Throwing, held Saturday in Savonlinna…

The freestyle winner was nineteen-year old Taco Cohen, who credits a unique blend of juggling and artistry for his gold medal win.

Somehow or other, I missed this sport and its highlights on ESPN’s SportsCenter this weekend — I’ll be looking forward to seeing if a video of the cell phone throwing contest (and the winning throw) surfaces on YouTube this week.

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I recently returned from a trip to India where the business desk at the hotel had a charging station for multiple cell phone manufacturers. The same was true at the airport. For many in India, cell phones have replaced landlines; as a result, downtime is a precious opportunity for the locals to charge their cell phones. But not having to carry your own cell phone charger when you’re traveling, or worry about converters, is a great convenience for anyone. And charging stations are becoming more common throughout Europe.

It’s an idea I can only hope will catch on here in America.

Chargebox provides a secure locker where you can charge your mobile devices. Imagine, you’re waiting between planes at an airport or having dinner at a restaurant and need to charge your iPod, Treo, BlackBerry, or cell phone. You locate a Chargebox, open the locker door, plug in your device, insert a few coins or send a text message to pay, then close and lock the door (which begins the charging process). Since it’s secured, you can safely walk away and do something else – a marked improvement over being tethered to a charging kiosk or wall outlet while your cell phone recharges out in the open.

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RedHerring reports that Motorola sold 39.4 million cell phone handsets in the second quarter of 2007, to hold on to 14.6% of global market share. With that, Motorola holds on to its title as the world’s second largest cell phone manufacturer, though its share dropped significantly from the 21.9% global share it had the previous year. Samsung, the world’s third-largest cell phone brand, came close to overtaking Motorola with 13.4% of the global market.

Unlike Motorola and Samsung, Nokia actually increased its global market share last quarter; the Finnish cell phone maker gained 3% on its existing market dominance by selling nearly 1 billion phones — in emerging markets as well as established markets in Western Europe – to a Q2 total of 36.9% of total worldwide unit sales.

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J.D. Power and Associates has good news for anyone considering the switch to a prepaid cell phone plan: overall customer service for such providers has improved considerably over last year’s levels.

This has been a successful year for carriers like Virgin Mobile, AT&T GoPhone and T-Mobile To Go, which all boast above average ratings in customer service according to the 2007 U.S. Wireless Prepaid Customer Satisfaction Survey, released today. The study weighs factors like call quality, company image, cost of service, service plan options, and customer service to determine an overall rating for each prepaid cell phone provider.

Improvements in the “cost of service” category are seen industry-wide; this category saw the largest overall improvement in the customer service scoring index, pointing to what’s often cited as the selling point for prepaid plans. In fact, the J.D. Power survey discovered that the average prepaid user spends $38 a month, while traditional monthly customers average a $71 bill – this is tied directly to a difference in “minutes used�?, which highlights the flexibility of prepaid plans.

Call quality also got a significant boost, ranking second among all elements on the “satisfaction�? scale, indicating an improvement in network access and handset quality.

For the record, Virgin Mobile, which uses the Sprint cell phone network to handle its calls, topped the list of prepaid carriers, receiving high marks in cost of service, account management, initial activation, and service plan options.

There’s a lot of talk these days about mobile advertising and whether or not it’s intrusive. To me, it’s all about context. Are you currently interested in the product you’re receiving information about? Or is there a specific reason you’re getting it at that moment?

With so many new cell phones coming equipped with GPS, I think we’ll be seeing more location-sensitive advertising. For example, a Starbucks advertisement when I’m looking for an afternoon latte that could also direct me to the closest Starbucks would be a lot more interesting. Or a Ticketmaster alert that arrives as I pass by a venue that sells tickets would be extremely helpful – I would pay for that.

In order for services like that to be helpful, however, we have to be willing to sacrifice some privacy – to share our information about what we want, our shopping habits, even our location. How much is too much? For the most part, I’ll take the added value and convenience of mobile advertising (though I don’t yet have a GPS enabled cell phone).

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The Washington Post featured an eye-catching lead over the weekend:

Fed up with dropped calls and a string of defective cell phones, Corey Taylor said he became irate when he learned he’d have to pay $175 to get out of his long-term contract with Verizon Wireless. So he resorted to a rather extreme measure. He faked his own death.

We’ve heard of people desperate to get out of their cell phone contracts, but this has to take the cake. In the end, Mr. Taylor wound up paying his cancellation fee anyway… no word on whether he faced any fraud charges. He gets points for moxie, though.

The issue of lengthy cell phone contracts – and the associated cancellation fees – is a concern we see pop up regularly in customer service data, industry-wide. In response, most of the carriers have developed more flexible policies related to early termination. Verizon Wireless, for example, prorates its fees; the amount of the penalty is reduced if you are near the end of an initial contract.

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Rather than asking visitors to put away their cell phones, the Baltimore Museum of Art is letting people use cell phones to learn more about the exhibitions.

Rather than those unwieldy audio sets that require you to move in order and listen to little snippets about each exhibit, a new service – Guide by Cell – allows curators to provide visitors with a more interactive experience. Some have the artists record information about their works, others allow visitors to record their impressions as well. The service is currently available at 150 museums, parks and gardens including the Phillips collection in Washington, DC, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Brooklyn Art Museum.

The service draws great reviews from curators and visitors alike, because there’s no equipment to lend out and collect, and people are already familiar with the features of their cell phones, so they don’t have to spend their time learning how to use a device just to access the content. It’s also less expensive for the museums and more easily updated. I think I’ll head out to the Phillips collection this weekend and check it out.