Kurt's Thoughts

Y’know, recently I’ve been reading a lot about LG Electronic’s comments regarding Windows Phone 7.

• LG:  “Windows Phone 7 hasn’t performed as well as expected”
  http://windowsphonesecrets.com/2011/01/14/lg-windows-phone-7-hasnt-performed-as-well-as-expected/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

The quote that’s getting a lot of airplay is this one in particular:

“From an industry perspective we had a high expectation, but from a consumer point of view the visibility is less than we expected”, James Choi, marketing strategy and planning team director of LG Electronics global said.

When I first read this, something about it bothered me because I just got back from CES 2011 in Las Vegas and in perusing their booth  – which incidentally, was one of the top 5 largest in the Central Hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center (it took a couple minutes to walk across it at a steady pace) – and despite allocating about 25% of their booth space to their mobile phone offerings, they had almost no floor space dedicated for their lone US entry into the Windows Phone 7 space as far as I could see.

REALLY?
To put this into perspective, the following photo is the only place that the LG Quantum was even on-display, much less available to the public to touch, try, use:

Youi’ll notice that the device on display is BEHIND GLASS.  It’s also not even on.  There’s no literature available and had no one near it from LG representing the device to talk to anyone about what it does.  In fact, the only indicator that it RAN Windows Phone 7 as an operating system was the Windows logo on the glass and the TV ad that ran in the white screen below the logo.  Naturally, there was no one interested in the phone at all since they didn’t know what it was.

To put this imbalance at CES into perspective, imagine your entire house being covered with Android phone marketing & representatives from LG talking about Android.  The walls, the coffee table, the shelves, the cabinets, the windows, etc. would be covered with demos & booth staffers holding LG Vortex devices & other Android phones. Now imagine all of your family members talking to people that come through your house about the Vortex or another Android offering LG has.

Now at the same time, imagine the bathroom sink console in the guest bathroom having a Windows Phone 7 on it, but behind glass with no one around it.  That’s about the extent of LG’s marketing for the device, yet they go and say, “…the visibility is less than we expected.”

Understand why I’m a little tweaked?

I HEART LG QUANTUM
Now, for the record:  I LOVE THE LG QUANTUM.  I have one, and it’s the first Windows Phone 7 device that I’ve owned and I don’t regret it one bit at all. 

For anyone reading this, here’s why:

1. KEYBOARD
   It’s the only Windows Phone 7 device on AT&T with a keyboard.  Done.
2. BATTERY LIFE
   The battery life is clocked at being at/near the best of all Windows Phone 7 devices offered in any market – US or International – and on any network – AT&T or T-Mobile.
3. SOLID CONSTRUCTION
   Despite providing a slide-out keyboard, the unit feels good in your hand with a good weight and interestingly enough, a cold, brushed metal plate protecting the battery.  If the capacitive screen had Gorilla Glass like it’s bigger brother the LG Optimus 7, I’d be in hog heaven because it’d be near-indestructible.
4. DESIGN TOUCHES
   USB connection on side, brushed metal plate on the back, large landscape keys on the keyboard, physical Windows/Start Page button.
5. DLNA SUPPORT
   This is the unique ability to transmit stereo audio wirelessly over 802.11g to my Xbox 360 and play the music over my Bose home theatre stereo system.  My new phone is a “Zune” and is now fully connected to my living room’s home audio.
6. EXCLUSIVE SOFTWARE
   There’s one application that comes exclusively with the LG Quantum that I want to highlight and that’s “Voice-to-Text”.  It’s a simple tool that allows you to speak into your phone and translate your voice to text for immediate use in a SMS Text Message, Email, Memo-to-yourself, Twitter Tweet, or Facebook Status.  Yeah.  Awesome.  And only on the Quantum.

So LG?  Amongst all the SmartTV stuff, vacuums, washing machines, prototype closet organizers, all of which had a lot more people & floor space dedicated to them… next time, y’think you might be able to spare at least ONE table for your Windows Phone 7 device with a staffer that knows something about it?

Please?  Just a thought.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 16th, 2011 at 12:07 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.