XDA is a mainly community of developers. However we all use mobile devices, they are sometimes faulty, damaged, bricked and so on.
In highly developed countries customers are usually respected, quality control of products for these markets is usually better. In less developed countries customers are sometimes held in contept when it comes to warranty service.
I think as a community we may also bring a bit of light on subject of after sales services - divided by brands/countries.
Why do that?
Buying product is not only about its functionality but also about after purchase services.
We like to tinker in stuff we unlock permanently bootloaders, root devices and some producers claim that it affects even warranty of charger, water resistance of phones and similar things that are ridiculous so it should be exposed. Phone(or any mobile device) is just like PC. Which producer will claim that we broken PC hardware by changing or tinkering with OS? None! Why it does not fully apply to mobile devices world?
There should be a place to describe our experiences with customer support by brands not just a single devices.
Quality of hardware repairs in some cases is LOW, we may apply a bit of pressure on producers to change it.
This forum should require more posts and thanks to actively participate in to prevent large scale abuse - black marketing .
Related
I get annoyed when I buy a phone or piece of software only to find I need to wait for firmware or other patches to fix it.
Microsoft have got away with it for years.
Take the magician, T-mobile say now no further upgrades. How easy would it be to add native a2dp, it claims bluetooth 1.2
The universal no working fax s/w, modem drivers, native usb disk drivers as opposed to active sync. No a2dp
Avantgo and other s/w not working on the supplied t-mobile build requiring a firmware upgrade and newer version of wm5 from t-mobile.
What constitues a working device? How many of you have had to use hacked or ftp'd rom's to get a stable device, no memory leaks.
How many people have bought a web camera?, printer only to find that the latest windows version does not have a driver, manufacturer won't supply one.
I think under environment and disposal laws , manufacturers should be made to support the devices for at least 5 years.
Consumers invest money and expect some care for their hard earned $.
I think there should be a better enforced 'suitability for intended purpose' on electronic equipment... we are unlucky with PPCs in that they are such an emerging technology right now, so they are full of bugs.
It is a valid issue you've raised.
The problems inherant in rushing a product to market are as old as the capitalist system!
If a company delays too long trying to get all the bugs out of a product they risk being beaten to the market by a competitor ... which is apparently bad. We have seen cases where superior hardware platforms have failed because they took too long to get to market, and software development was all committed to the first product, even though it was far inferior.
Continued development for an old product is less profitable than releasing a new product.
The irony is that companies can get away with releasing new products which have MORE bugs than the old one ... and people will actually pay money to upgrade. Often because they are attracted by features that they don't need, and which aren't properly implemented anyway.
But new or 'upgraded' laws will never stop this. Companies regularly break laws with little concern because they know that they can reap large profits which will offset the problems that may arise IF they are caught.
A pefect example of this is the body of laws governing the environment and abuse of it for dumping etc.
Companies react much more readily to market forces ... really bad publicity will do more to change a company's activities than laws. Look at Sony and their lovely little rootkit.
And the majority of consumers are simply apathetic.
At the risk of inflating egos ... people who can actually be bothered to seek out and participate in a forum like this are the elite. To actually consider flashing a new ROM onto your device is a concept that most members of the public would find overwhelming.
Blogs, webforums, and participating in projects like those carried out by XDA-DEV are more likely to impact on the future of Pocket PC's than laws which are unlikely to be written, and if they are, won't be enforced properly anyway.
That is true... it would be nice to think that perhaps the developers of Windows CE visit this site and learn from what the greatest members of this community has achieved.
Well topic/discussion purposed is Samsung's muddled delivery of ICS part of a larger rumoured back lash from manufacturers whom seem to be upset at Google for three reasons? First is Google’s acquisition of Motorola mobility apparently still doesn’t sit well with OEM's, the discontent has been amplified by reason number two. Some still don’t buy the party line of patent purchase only. This seems ungrateful from an outsiders point of view should this speculation hold true.
See such an article here:
http://www.androidauthority.com/google-motorola-deal-android-manufacturers-73966/
Second is Google trying to execute more control as many in blogs and tech articles have suggested Google should. This has been to address the issues of diversity and “fragmentation” that Google has faced criticism for. To what degree is Google executing control still remains to be seen. On a side note I and others have suggested the OEM’s give a stronger and narrower focus with fewer new devices but more polish and support.
Third is that Google with Android has not shown the preferential treatment the big players would have preferred; allowing smaller brands to gain ground and market share using this open platform. Brands like Archos, ZTE, and Huawei. Also allowed ASUS to gain a foot hold in the mobile market, ASUS who now seems to have a strong relationship with Google.
Samsung’s fudged ICS upgrade alone may mean nothing. But with HTC recent delivery and overhaul of ICS, combined with Sony decision to possibly hold ICS upgrades because it feels they miss the mark of quality could be indications of such unrest with the Manufacturers is more than just rumours. If such unhappiness is present and being actioned or plotted that’s where things turn interesting or concerning.
Many would think this unwise considering the lack of success with Manufacturers own proprietary OS’s. Nokia's Symbian slowly lost out, Bada is nowhere near the success Sammy had hoped for, despite cited as being more popular at the beginning of this year than Windows Phone. Meego didn't see much of a life.
Let me hear what you have to say on this topic
I think regarding the purchase of Motorola, it is definitely seen as simply a patent buyout. There are plenty of rumours of them already trying to sell the hardware side of Motorola.
Gaining 17,000 (or was it 12,000) patents is going to be a very good thing for manufacturers, knowing that they are much less likely to be sued with the added protection from the extra patents. However, if rumours are true and Google is looking to sell to Huwaie (?) then that will be another manufacturer up there all vying for a shot at the big time. The good thing is competition breed competition, so we will see devices continuously being updated and bettered, whereas the iPhone will not see this at such a rate.
I think Google trying to take a bit more control over Android is overall a good thing, even if manufacturers may not like it so much because it means it is harder to put out the cheaper handsets that have been selling so well.
siravarice said:
I think regarding the purchase of Motorola, it is definitely seen as simply a patent buyout. There are plenty of rumours of them already trying to sell the hardware side of Motorola.
Gaining 17,000 (or was it 12,000) patents is going to be a very good thing for manufacturers, knowing that they are much less likely to be sued with the added protection from the extra patents. However, if rumours are true and Google is looking to sell to Huwaie (?) then that will be another manufacturer up there all vying for a shot at the big time. The good thing is competition breed competition, so we will see devices continuously being updated and bettered, whereas the iPhone will not see this at such a rate.
I think Google trying to take a bit more control over Android is overall a good thing, even if manufacturers may not like it so much because it means it is harder to put out the cheaper handsets that have been selling so well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So far Google hasn't appeared to have had much influence on Motorola, many because it hasn't been fully approved/finalized. Oddly enough the hold up is China. The strength of the rumour Google selling the Hardware division to Hauwei is the ability to capitalise on the lucrative Chinese market where Android already is dominating.
Time will tell about the patent side, although no evidence is apparent that supports its more than a patent purchase. We'll have to see who gets the next Nexus smartphone and tablet.
So Ive had a few Xperia phones. I wanted Z3 but reading in these forums makes me scared of getting a defective phone -.- how likely is it that I will get a phone that is leaking light or with waterproof issues? Is the phone worth it?
It's a superb phone, but a minority do have build issues which may be inevitable given the volume that are manufactured. The compromise would be to test the phone thoroughly upon purchase with a witness present, particularly if you choose to submerge the handset directly. As far as I'm aware water ingress is subject to sony's own investigation, whilst liability for thermal cracks or a loose magnetic port, over time, is generally denied, at least on the forums. If I run into issues and amazon and sony are keeping their heads down, I'd consider an independent report as a means of pushing the ball into their court, even though the onus is initially on them to prove I'm responsible. Don't be disheartened as the phone is astonishing. Just be ready to defend your position if and when you need to. Clearly, no manufacturers can produce a flawless stock line, and forums tend to exaggerate the issues given those without a complaint have less reason to speak. The test I use is to reverse the position. If the product was discontinued for financial reasons on sony's part, and you found you'd missed the boat, would you be disappointed? There's your answer.......
Why do mobile companies restrict the use of SIM cards from phones from being used in tablets?
While phones were mostly less powerful than the new tablet devices and the larger screens meant there was a greater data demand by tablet devices, this is certainly no longer the case.
Phones are now more powerful than most tablets and the rest are simply equal. Processors are quad core clocked at similar speeds, if not not higher speeds, the working memory is again the latest 1-2Gb configuration with 16-32GB internal NAND flash memory. With phones having the latest 128GB external SDXC memory support to compliment the superior camera resolutions of 22 Mega pixels. Cloud services are now just beginning to gear thewmselves up to cope with this data interchange whereas tablets still have only modest cameras. Phones do now have front and back facing cameras and the similarities continue to converge.
But crucially the screen resolution has become irrelavent because of technical innovation and it is commonsense the data is sent highly compressed through the Internet where it is decompressed and interpolated to match the local screen resolution by the local graphics processing unit, GPU. This item is again of superior design, as a matched technology to the central processing unit, CPU where the mobile phone market is concerned. Both CPU and GPU are expected to have multiple cores to improve performance and the designs are optimised to consume as little power as possible. A great advantage for a mobile phone. The competition leads to great performance in wider world applications and this is the reason for the extreme competition that has been encouraged in the mobile phone marketplace. But of course we, the public, are paying for this R&D whereas it used to be hideously expensive top secret military R&D budgets. The senate was worried about the cost of a hammer and a handfull of screws at one stage.
There has been a complete change in the definition of mobile phone and tablet where the OS is now exactly the same for each, being Android 4.x.x.
So why are telcos forcing people to purchase a separate SIM for each device? I am disabled. I need specialist communication software to assist me in communicating when I am travelling. For this the tablet is better. But while at home or when meeting friends during the evening the mobile phone is the better option. But the telcos refuse to let me use the same SIM in both devices. I cannot use both devices at the same time so I don't see the logic behind this situation.
The situation continues because the telcos think we cannot see they are continuing to enforce this barrier so that they can make a greater profit from users. Please help get people to recognise the false pretence that prevents us all from exercising a freedon of choice to use either device according to our intended purpose without the need to purchase separate SIMS. Afterall, because I can only use one device at a time why am I forced to pay for two 3G or 4G contracts with separate data components?
I don't see any common sense in this situation and I do think we are all being ripped off by this legacy programmed system restriction.
And I did install the phone SIM in my tablet after being told by the telco staff it was OK, where it worked happily for approx 12 hours. Later when I enquired how I could set up the voicemail and SMS services an arrogant technician then told me I could not install this SIM into a tablet, followed rather weakly by, it will stop working after a time.
Given the conflicting statements and the fact the SIM was working when I was being told it would not work I question the reality of the reason for it not working. It may be recognised by a systematic ID check. But the blocking of the data services after an arbitrary period of time raises the question, "Why shouldn't a SIM now work regardless of whether it is a Phone SIMor a tablet SIM.
The legacy rationale a history of tablets as they were originally a platform for advanced circuitry and software to be released and the resulting extra data demand to their internet connection lasted only as long as the phone market had not become so competitive that their technical facilities raced ahead of tablets. In fact the technological improvements in hardware and saftware have brought both devices to an equal status where users can choose the device according to the context of their intended purpose.. So much so that having more than one device to suit practical applications in varied social settings with no impact on the data portion of their respective uses. Example, you can now watch films or TV series while commuting.. Preferable to use a smartphone here. But you can continue exactly where you left off on a tablet or even a smart TV! The data compression and local pixel mapping to suit the resolution of the device is done locally and absolutely without any impact upon the data demand or stream.
There is no reasonable argument to continue differentiating between Phones and Tablets other than to enforce an obsolete regimen and to unfairly extract money from phone and tablet users who unwittingly pay twice for the same telephone and data services! Copyright(CC) Arclite 13-03-2015
I swap my SIM between my phone and my tablet several times a day. Never had a problem with it...
There is a bit of a problem brewing in my home country of Canada: A couple years ago the Canadian government passed a bill BANNING all Hauwei devices from all Canadian wireless networks. This ban will be going into FULL effect by the end of this year, (the time the government gave all Canadian tech companies to ban & remove all hauwei devices from their install bases.) People here in Canada still use Hauwei devices today, and by the end of the year a lot of Canadians will be stuck with glorified overpriced mp3 players. (The ban only applies to networking, not local functionality.) This is going to be a LOT of e-waste.
My personal perspective is this: I agree with the ban, screw Hauwei and their stupid spyware. However, in my personal use situation, I buy cheap chinese, (currently using a cheap walmart onn), tablets. I want a big screen but no expensive horsepower. I just want to read comics on the thing, not play steam games. I own nearly 30 game systems and a capable gaming PC. I don't need a tablet to game lol There IS a use for these cheap devices.
The problem with these Hauwei devices is not that complicated, but it's one that the average end user isn't going to be able to solve themselves: spyware. I have thought about this, we just need to gut these devices of this crap and they would be perfectly fine to use, but the end user wouldn't know how do that--forcing our government to implement this ban.
This is why I come to these forums, to prevent this massive pile of e-waste. First and foremost we must deal with the root problem and purge these things of the spyware. My thinking is:
1. Wipe every byte of firmware/data from these devices and install custom roms/firmware. (You could probably just kill the soft spyware without going this far, but we may as well make these divices suck a little less in the process right?)
2. Disable any sketchy hauwei chips on the boards that we can do without.
Techs like myself have been disabling security chips and putting custom firmware on game systems for over 20 years, and hauwei devices are generally not very sophisticated in comparison.
I have looked at several hauwei devices (phones) personally, but did not have the time to do a deep dive and properly assess the boards/chipsets. I will try to get my hands on a hauwei phone and do just this, (these things are usually dirt cheap anyway.)
Took me a while to get to the point, but I'm sure there are people on these forums that already know full well the security and the location of nasty bits of spyware that we need to purge, yes? I would appreciate any insight any of you could provide on exactly what we are dealing with here.
I know these devices are largely garbage that we probably shouldn't care that much, but at a minimum we can cut down on the e-waste right?