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Some pretty funny stuff happening in the latest MyMobile magazine:

They warn people that buying a current telecom phone may not be a great idea, as they are launching a new network next year. Annoying thing is that they say it nicely as if Telecom never screwed up and its the greatest thing ever.

It pisses me off how this magazine is so pro-telecom sometimes though. I guess they are trying to be unbiased, but because they feel like they had better be nice to Telecom, they overdo it a bit... Hahaha. Anyway, they are all over the OKTA Touch (A crappy looking iPhone copy also known as the HTC Touch elsewhere i believe.) God it looks terrible. But I counted 22(!!!!) images of the phone in the single (very small) magazine. I think they are being paid out!

Then they have a smart-phone feature where they fail to even mention any SEs. Oh well. SE needs to do some marketing here.

Heres a quote that made me laugh...

From David Craig, Telecom's general manager of Consumer Marketing on the new OKTA Touch:

"Most New Zealanders won't have seen anything like this before - from listening to music to checking a Facebook page, it's now all possible on the move with this device"

Yeah, right, anyone on Vodafone has been able to do that for a few years now. And it ain't at all new to most New Zealanders. Oh and from what I've seen, Facebook ain't all that popular here either.

In the magazine there is also a "How to" on getting Telecom sports updates. Suddenly I have realised that I've never seen a "How to" for any Vodafone features in this magazine. Hilarious, this magazine is biased! And I've been buying it since it began (and was more Voda orientated lol)!

Actually I have just thought: Maybe its because the Voda service is so good, it doesn't need an explanation! Yeah that must be it.

Anyways, Telecom sucks.
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Posted: 2007-12-04 12:13:25
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MyMobile Magazine is not biased. It's just that the take a non-confrontational viewpoint of the industry. Other magazines have taken a similar view in the past such as the AA Directions magazine. Thier roadtests during the eighties and ninties were laughable! When the Automobile Association restructured itself as a Finance and Insurance company, Directions became a lifestyle magazine. In truth very little changed.

I've been concerned for sometime about the way MM is soft on Telecom and Vodafone. Teresa Gattung once said that 'all Telco's lie to thier customers'. MM just helps to keep the coverup in place... the recent 'review' of the Gold coloured Moto KRZR should have been labelled an advertorial. But I guess they need do something for MotorolaNZ after getting tickets to the celebrity-packed New Zealand launch of the RAZR Mk2.

I'd like to see pressure applied to the networks to release sales figures for individual models and how about testing the SAR to see if manufacturers are being honest. And decent explanations on why models like the W900 and K810 were'nt released here!

MM certainly won't bite the hand that feeds it though.

p.s. did you know that I wrote two articles featured in MyMobile in 2005? And provided info for thier spec list?
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Posted: 2007-12-05 01:37:30
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Wow thats very cool! I might have read your reviews! What ones did you write?

Yeah, their specs sheet used to be great, but they really need to update it now. I mean, all but 2 or 3 phones on the NZ market have speakerphone now and almost every phone can download ringtones and games. I no longer think they are something that we need telling. Also, some of their info is misleading or wrong. Are you by any chance still able to contact the editor or anything to put forward a few suggestions?
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Posted: 2007-12-05 07:32:48
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I've been thinking about that for a while now. The Carkit spec sheet I wrote for them needs updating to include A2DP and GPS functionality while the external antenna category could be dropped.

And you're right the phone spec sheet need updating too. I'd like to see A2DP and Wifi listed; and WAP, Ringtones and MMS dropped. And some of the info is wrong such as K800i listed as having no proprietary Carkit - it uses the HCA-60 and it compatible with BT carkits too.

The Editor I dealt with was David McNickel, but the current editor is Rob Bridgman. Rob published a photo I sent in response to an open request by former acting editor Vicki Bland, other than that I've had no contact with MM since 2005.

The address to email MyMobile is printed inside the front cover. Anything I send them will have to wait 'til my laptop is fixed. I have a replacement keyboard on it's way courtesy of trademe.
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Posted: 2007-12-06 23:35:01
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Ah, so still using the library computers?

I think thats great that you had your efforts published in a nationwide magazine! I might contact them myself and possibly even offer to make changes for them, although I believe you would be better for the job with your knowledge of carkits, etc.
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Posted: 2007-12-07 15:18:17
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Anyone eles getting thoroughly irritated by those Telecom ads???

That rabbit... I don't know how it has survived. If I was Telecom staff member, I would have taken it and burnt it by now. That voice... Aaaagh!

And that Terry... Oh I could go on for ages. I really hate those ads!

Vodafone on the other hand...
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Posted: 2007-12-15 12:34:23
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I have just moved to NZ from SA and am sorry to say that I am stunned at how primitive the Vodaphone network is here, especially when it comes to data usage for something as light on data as Opera Mini. On top of that, the company's business franchise system is a flop, with rude franchisees who do not honour any business ethic. The company could not care about customers and overcharges radically for data. I bought a simcard in Christchurch and only discovered in another town that it did not work, and took it to a Vodaphone shop. They washed their hands on my problem and said I had to courier the pack back to the shop I had bought it from. I asked them why the data was so expensive, and their answer was that they are the only show in town and can charge what they like. Shame! I hope that crappy attitude will one day translate into a loss of market share. In SA (where data is dear) the most expensive data on prepay costs about R2 per Mbyte, equivalent to about 33 NZ cents. The equivalent NZ cost is $10 per Mbyte, almost 30 times more. No wonder no-one in NZ uses data. How can these guys ever hope to make money out of heir network? On top of that, their servers seem to be wrongly set up. You barely use a few kilobytes on Opera Mini, and the next thing your phone has gone down by $20. What a ripoff! They also seem to short-change customers in terms of call centre services and use a very primitive SMS system for onine balances etc. Any competitors ready to take these clowns on? In this day and age they could more than make their money back by selling affordable data and texting!
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Posted: 2008-02-16 10:42:17
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Welcome to NZ mate! I'm afraid that's just how it is. Telecom is even more primitive, so we have to stick with Vodafone. I don't think there will be a new player in NZ for a long time because its a small country and both our operators have around 50/50 market share, so to take either of them on is quite a task.

Telecom is being forced to change to the sim card system very soon (next few years) and so maybe when that happens we will see some more competitive rates. I definitely agree that Vodafone rips its customers off for data, though I think it can be cheapened by going on a plan if you're interested in doing so!
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Posted: 2008-02-16 10:49:04
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Nah! I feel too burned. As much as I view mobiles as a magic technology, I think I will just do what everyone else does. Use broadband at home and just use my phone as an emergency device only. No point in giving these guys any more of my money. At least with the bestmates system I can stay in contact with my wife and kids without breaking the bank.

I just hope someone at Vodaphone goes and reads the IBM Redbook on i-mode. (The semi-walled garden). The point is that the success of i-mode in Japan had absolutely nothing to do with a technological model. It was all due to a revolutionary business model, and was achieved almost by accident despite a really crappy network ...

What happened there was that the engineers were faced with a network that was falling apart. They resolved to figure out how to redirect most of their customers to data usage rather than voice usage, as data is less demanding to a network than voice.

Their plan had simle rules.
1. No sites were allowed to have advertising.
2. No porn - not even at a third remove
3. Cumulative services had to be cheap and could not cost a customer more than say the price of a fashion magazine per month.

Hey presto ... within months they had created a legendary internet network and achieved their goal of shunting the bulk of their customers to data usage rather than voice, thereby giving their crumbling network a new life - and at the same time creating a cultural phenomenon that US and European business experts (inclding the guys at Vodaphone in the UK) are still trying to emulate, mostly without success.

The problem is that they all miss the point. I-mode is not a technological model . It is a business model. Based on simple business rules. Sell for cheap and you get lots of customers ...
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Posted: 2008-02-16 11:05:29
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Yeah thats what I do too. I just don't really find the need for using the internet when I'm out and about, I just use it while I relax at home. And I think that most of NZ prefers it that way, or they are just too ignorant to realise that theres such thing as internet on a mobile phone! I use BestMate for texting an calling my girlfriend, and TXT2000 for texting my mates and my family.

A few years ago, Telecom started the $10 text deal, and this resulted in a huge wave of people selling up their Vodafone phones and switching to Telecom. Nobody cared that it is a shit network with terrible phones and out of date technology, all that mattered was that it is cheap! I think Vodafone needs to do this, because if they do, hell, they could easily have 100% market share in my opinion.

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Posted: 2008-02-16 11:19:04
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