Switched On: Gluts and glory

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

Before the mass adoption of smartphones within the U.S., many fretted that the heavy subsidization model was feeding a free handset model that could keep Americans hopelessly addicted to basic voice plans and phones optimized for them. The cost consumers paid in terms of the price of the handset, it was argued, was hopelessly out of whack. This year, a string of successful smartphones have shown that an increasing percentage of U.S. consumers are willing to pay $200 for a flagship device. Nonetheless, there’s still ample evidence that price and price can remain disconnected. And the carriers aren’t making it much easier.

The smartphone surge has been driven partially by a want to acquire definitely the right and by a response to carrier advertising. However, a up to date run-up in advanced smartphones have made it difficult to define a clear superior at many carriers, and carriers simply cannot promote them all with an analogous attention lavished on the iPhone or original Droid. Take the turn of events at Verizon, as an instance, which within the space of a number of months has rolled out the Droid Incredible, Droid X and Droid 2, with the Samsung Fascinate within the wings. At the least the first three had been all priced at $199, with strong precedent for the Fascinate coming in at that level. And while AT&T has been a piece more diverse within the operating systems of its recent spate of high-end contenders — the iPhone 4, BlackBerry Torch and Samsung Captivate — they too have all been priced at $199.
And for those that find that moderate confusion level of this uniformity humdrum, Sprint has thrown things for a loop with with its recent pricing of the Epic 4G at $249. Probably the most feature-packed of the Galaxy S quadruplets with its sliding keyboard and front-facing camera, Sprint has taken a risk in pricing the Epic 4G above its own recently launched EVO 4G and its larger, enthusiast-beckoning 4.3-inch display. Against this, while the Droid 2 is just not an ideal counterpart to the Epic 4G, Verizon’s highest-end keyboard-packing Droid has not crossed the $199 transom. But counter to Sprint’s concentrate on the keyboard, Verizon has implied that the Droid X is its highest-end handset — and its feature set matches up fairly well against the EVO 4G.

Sprint has even released a video explaining the diversities between the EVO 4G and Epic 4G wherein surname-excised Sprint employee Heather asks, ” how can you ever decide which one is ideal for you?” While the WiMAX-supporting carrier would clearly be pretty happy if customers (especially those defecting from other carriers) bought either, its justification for the Epic’s 25% premium is anything but airtight. Sprint highlights the Epic 4G’s display, noting that it makes for a thinner form factor and longer battery life, but the EVO’s screen is, after all, larger. It also highlights the keyboard (” a third method to send messages” and an advantage diminished by the efficiency of typing on the EVO’s larger display),

But probably the most dubious contrast is Sprint’s positioning of the DLNA support of the Epic 4G vs. the HDMI support of the EVO 4G however the EVO could certainly gain DLNA capabilities via a software update (or maybe an app). More importantly, though, HDMI and DLNA are really concerned about different tasks. Despite the will for a cable, more consumers are in a smarter position to use the former for displaying HD video.

Another deviation, though, is more promising for consumers hoping to peer lower prices for premium hardware. Sony Ericsson’s XPERIA X10, with its 1GHz processor and four-inch display, is launching on AT&T at $149. While the XPERIA X10 ships with an older version of Android, and Sony Ericsson has not committed to an upgrade period of time yet, it’s put its own TimeScape and MediaScape eye candy experiences on top of the stock Android experiences, and maintains that, unlike some manufacturer modifications, consumers don’t must use them.

With the re-entrance of Microsoft coming before the top of the year providing a new alternative to a bevy of hardware manufacturers, the cycle of recent hardware smartphones coming to market may continue to compress. Gone are the days when carriers were holding out for a hero device. Now, as an entire league of them rush to the scene, the bigger burden is choosing your champion.

Ross Rubin is executive director of industry analysis for consumer technology at market research and analysis firm The NPD Group. Views expressed in Switched On are his own.

Source

This post is tagged: glory, Gluts, On, Switched