Android Costs Cell Phone Carriers Over $2 Billion
November 23rd, 2011 Filed under: Android — Cell Phone Author
I never really thought much of this but did kind of see it comming. Once nice thing about Andriod is that you have so many choices in your hardware, but it’s proving to be a nightmere for your cell phone provider:
Androids Big Problem: Multiple phone manufacturers with one or more carriers apiece, simultaneously supporting more than one active version of the operating system. One can’t help but think that Microsoft has handled Windows platform transitions better than this, but then again, Windows doesn’t have to appease the interests of carriers and manufacturers.
Now, an intensive 12-month study by mobile communications analysis firm WDS Global has come up with a quantifiable metric for the cumulative effects of platform fragmentation on carriers, and subsequently on consumers, based on estimates of 2011 Android smartphone shipments: The frustration from customers who have been unable to resolve their hardware and software issues through customer support, and end up returning their phones for replacement, ends up costing U.S. carriers a combined total of $2 billion annually.
Contrary to numerous reports, the WDS report published yesterday did not say that Android-based smartphones were more susceptible to hardware failures or problems. In fact, the report explicitly states, “Android devices are no easier, nor more difficult, to troubleshoot than a comparative product from an alternate OS vendor.” What the report states is that Android smartphones (excluding tablets), by virtue of the multiplicity of versions actively in the market, incur more carrier costs with respect to time spent conducting customer support, coupled with the wide array of brands both large and small that carriers find themselves supporting.
“At the point-of-sale many consumers (and retailers alike) are assuming a degree of consistency across Android devices that in some cases doesn’t exist,” reads the WDS report. “Even migrating from one Android device to the next can bring about problems as consumers’ expectations for performance are dismantled by a different hardware build and by potentially resource-hungry operator and manufacturer overlays.”
See the Original Story here
