The Wireless Industry. At one time it was a vibrant, growing thing. SMS, data, calling? all for a reasonable price from your choice of carrier. Enter the age of the smart phone: where in the eyes of the industry it is nothing more than a way into your wallet.
It?s been so very long since I?ve sat down and wrote a great rant. One of those rants where I?ll be exhausted from writing it? my hands cramped from pounding the keys in anger as I type. The kind of rant where I?ll either be praised by my readers for expressing the same opinion they have, or I?ll be called a bluthering idiot for being totally off base. Whichever way it goes? I really don?t care. I?ve voiced my opinions on this topic a few times via Hangouts on Google Plus, but now it?s time to actually put it all down.
For the purpose of my article, I will assume that you use a smart phone. Note that a smart phone is a device that requires a data package from a wireless carrier to use all of its features. This could be an Android device, a Windows Phone 7 device, or even an iPhone. The primary feature here is that you pay an additional amount to a carrier to be able to have a data connection in order to use your phone.
Let?s start with the wireless carriers.
I?ll use the national (big four) carriers in this article as I have no experience with the regional carriers in the United States. That means AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Sprint. Each one of these carriers has been around for some time now, under one name or another (Voicestream, Cingular). They?ve played this game, they?ve made money, and they know what they are doing. They are experts in their industry.
As the carriers have evolved into their current states, they have continually managed to limit their customer?s experiences on their networks. Each points a finger to the others about how THEY limit you or charge too much? yet the very company doing the pointing is often doing similar to their own customers.
Let?s talk SMS. Back in the infancy of wireless, we were introduced to SMS (text messaging). I can recall picking a plan where I could select different tiered plans of messaging? 400 monthly, 200 monthly, 50 monthly. Packages would range in price from $10 a month to $50 a month depending on which amount of SMS you wanted. If you went over your subscription level, you were charged?ridiculous?fees per SMS that you went over your plan (some has high as .30 per message!). Despite the incredibly high prices of SMS packages, it cost the carriers next to nothing to send a text message from your phone to your buddy?s. Despite that, SMS grew to the point where many people rely more on SMS for communication than they do actual phone calls. This was just the beginning of the carriers ripping off their customers.
Check this out:
Analyst firm Ovum says that consumers? increasing use of IP-based messaging services on their smartphones cost telecom operators $8.7bn in lost SMS revenues in 2010, and $13.9bn last year?
Software such as BlackBerry Messenger, iMessage and Skype already offer compelling ways for consumers to circumvent telco?s calling and texting charges. But the rise of mobile apps such as Viber and instant messaging through Facebook are rapidly becoming preferred options as the smartphone market matures. Even most mobile software and games, such as Zynga?s series of mobile games, all incorporate some form of internal messaging system with a ?push? capability.
That?s $22.6 BILLION DOLLARS in revenue that has been lost by wireless carriers in the last two years since people are finding other ways to communicate with their devices than SMS. That?s a huge number. So how do carriers make up for losing so much money?
By turning mobile data into the new SMS.
All of these new methods of communicating are sent over the wireless data network, not over the (traditional) voice network like SMS. In order to recover that lost revenue, carriers are looking for a way to charge/limit that data pipe that we used to have unfettered access to (remember your ?Android package? with your G1 for $25?).
While SMS usage has?plummeted?over the last few years, data use has grown exponentially. AT&T has seen a 20,000% increase in data use over the last five years? I?ll assume that the other carriers have seen similar numbers (maybe not as drastic though, considering the exclusivity of the iPhone on their network). To be certain a good portion of the money you spend on your wireless data every month goes to expanding the network and build-out, but rest assured that they make a tidy profit off of it as well. Unfortunately I am unable to back that claim up, as no amount of searching on Google produced any type of hard numbers on how much data transmission actually costs a carrier.
Even so, there is only one carrier in the US that has successfully expanded their network to LTE to handle this new frontier? Verizon. Yet the other carriers that lack any (or?negligible) presence when it comes to ?true 4G? still have the data caps, throttles, overage charges, etc. Yes, Sprint still?advertises?an ?unlimited package with no throttle?? but we all know that will be coming to an end very shortly.
Have you been throttled? I have, after 2 GB of usage? it turned my state of the art Android device into nothing more than a Nokia 3310, able to make calls and send SMS. Sure, the data is still THERE? at a whopping 40 kbps. My carrier already had my money for the data, so in order to stop my erosion of their margin, here came the cut. It?s sure a lot easier to throttle data than bill for thousands of dollars in usage fees that the carrier will never get.
So? that? s the carriers part in all of this. They control your pipe. But let?s get to the other half of the problem: The OEMs.
HTC, Samsung, LG, Apple, on and on and on? those guys. The OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers). They have their part in the erosion of your wireless experience as well.
MWC was this week? where many of the OEMs showcased their upcoming devices for the next year. Many of them were lust worthy, to be sure (OMG HTC One X!!). Others? not so much.
Let?s get one thing straight about the OEMs though? there really are only two OSs that matter in wireless tech: Android and iOS. Since iOS is proprietary to Apple, that leaves every other OEM in the world using Android. Since we are an Android-centric website, I?m going to focus mostly on that? well, and since they have the majority of the market share right now.
The most important thing I can say about OEMs and Android is this:
We have handsets that are being released with 2.3, and tablets that are just now being brought to market with 3.1 on them. Are you kidding me?? ICS has been out for 4 months now (the cycle for an Android device to remain relevant and ?cutting edge? is typically three months) and we?re being sold devices with software that is over a year old at premium price??
Toshiba is releasing a new tablet today? a beautiful device, to be sure. But? IT RUNS HONEYCOMB.
On top of the archaic software (really, would you buy a Windows Vista box today?), we?re also being force fed third party OEM UI?s. Manufacturers have every right to put a UI on top of Android. There are no rules saying that they can?t (this was the topic of a fairly heated debate in a Google Hangout a week ago?), but in order to remove it one must gain root access to the device, thereby voiding your (valuable) warranty. Third party UIs are ruining the Android experience.
It also seems that the business model that most OEMs are taking is to flood the market with multiple devices in a short amount of time. This gives the appearance of offering ??choice? to the customer, but in fact does the opposite. Releasing a slew of new devices every three months wouldn?t be so bad? if the OEM would continue to support it. By supporting it, I mean two things:
- Develop software updates and get them to the devices in a timely manner for 18 months after release.
- Manufacture, market, and sell accessories for said devices, releasing a fair amount of accessories at time of device launch and continue to offer accessories for 12 months after device release.
All too often a device is released, and then completely forgotten about in favor of the next release a few months down the road. Rather than focus money and resources on supporting current customers with accessories, they are put aside for new devices with the hopes of gaining new users.
The Android economy has been referred to as the ?Wild West? many times. It?s been compared to the walled garden of iOS and Apple devices in countless examples. Truthfully, something is wrong here. Android continues to gain users? but not so much because of how great the products are (even though there are some amazing ones) but more because of price point and flooding the market. While Android devices are being sold like hot cakes, so are iOS devices. It?s not just Android that has taken off? it?s smartphones of any type.
When it comes to Android, the only?entity?that could possibly have the authority to set or enforce those standards is Google. They?ve got certain requirements for any OEM that wants to use Android and Google Apps on their devices. In the effort of promoting a better user experience, Google needs to put their foot down. Require an option for third party UI?s to be disabled on Android devices. Require device support for 18 months after a device release. Google should actually take control of the Nexus line of devices with even higher standards, perhaps even working hand in hand with OEMs to release a Nexus device from each OEM every year.
Wireless service is no longer a?luxury. Everyone has a cell phone, most have a smart phone? hell, my 10 year old daughter has a SGS. It?s time we as consumers start demanding better service from our carriers and the OEMs. It?s time that the customers user experience is of a higher value than the number of devices that can be pumped out month after month.
What do you think about my opinion? Am I off base? Maybe I?m looking too far into this, or not enough? Do you have ideas that could better the wireless ecosystem? I?d sure love to hear your thoughts in the comments below?
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