Handset makers, carriers try to build on Phone 7 buzz
I hope you’ve been enjoying as much as I have the Microsoft Windows Phone 7 TV ads that show people obsessed with their smartphones. In one ad, a man texts while lying in bed oblivious to his wife standing before him in her negligee, a bride texts while her father walks her down the aisle and a guy drops his phone in a urinal and picks it right back up (without flushing), prompting the man next to him to ask “Really?”
“It’s time for a phone to save us from our phones,” the narrator says, delivering the Phone 7 marketing pitch.
The concept of the Phone 7 OS is to simplify the use of the smartphone, so they say, but the idea is also to offer compelling apps that interest and entertain users. So I think people may still end up glued to their phone screens even while they are in a restroom or walking down the aisle.
As Nov. 8 approaches when the first Phone 7 handsets go on sale in the U.S., Microsoft is hoping to connect with potential buyers in that advertising void between the end of the election season and the beginning of the holiday season. Handset makers and carriers are also doing their best to promote unique apps to differentiate one device or network from another as buyers ponder their decision. LG Electronics today announced, along with Microsoft, the availability of a selection of free applications that users can download from the LG Application Store onto their Phone 7-equipped handsets as soon as they buy them. The companies said they’ll be subsidizing a “revolving portfolio” of applications, up to 10 at a time, for 60 days. From the way they describe it, one set of apps will be available for 60 days, then they’ll be replaced by another 10 apps available for the following 60 days.
LG will be introducing the LG Quantum model running on AT&T Mobility’s network in the U.S. sometime this fall. A similar model, the LG Optimus 7, will be sold through carriers in France and the U.K. LG and Microsoft didn’t identify which apps will be available for free, just that they will be a range of apps for social networking, gaming and utilities.
This strategy is the mobile phone equivalent of giving away free samples of food in a supermarket. Whet the users appetite for applications that can customize their Windows Phone 7 experience and they’ll come back to the application store for more.
Carriers are also pushing unique apps to lure subscribers. AT&T for instance, is installing an app on its Phone 7 devices to deliver its U-verse Internet Protocol TV service. It’s already available on iPhone and Android devices. Subscribers to U-verse at home get a free version of it for Phone 7 while those who aren’t already subscribers get it free only for a limited time, after which it’s an extra $10 a month.
Apple created the mobile application market as profit center model with the iPhone and other carriers and device makers are following suit. Google Android, RIM BlackBerry and now Phone 7 are building free and paid app inventories. Sprint, which won’t get its first Phone 7 device until the first half of 2011, invited Microsoft to pitch developing on Phone 7 at a developers conference last week in Silicon Valley.
Given that smartphones generally perform the same functions and have largely the same capabilities, the apps are the way to differentiate products and increase revenue for the carriers and device makers. Starting next week, we’ll see how well Microsoft plays at this game.
