Verizon Wireless offers help on smartphones, but...

Some buzz that Verizon Wireless is launching something called Smartphone Resource Center. This Center on their site is supposed to include smartphone specs, training videos, FAQs, and comments from other VZ customers. This is a step in the right direction. We hope that customers find it useful. It is so important to simplify and 'decode' what the carriers say in their mass media campaigns. The way carriers and their phone vendors pump out barely improved and slightly modified 'new' phones every month is peculiar, and more helpful to the companies than to their customers. Until we see it, we have reservations about whether a company-owned site with such info will offer an improved way for its customers to figure out what they want. Without such understanding & decision making criteria, customers walk away thinking they got a cool latest/greatest phone at some sweet deal, and the carriers accomplish their true goal of either taking someone away from a competitor or renewing a contract that locks you in for another two years.

Of course, one of the good things with the explosion of information on the internet is that there are some good 3rd party (non-carrier/manufacturer) sites/blogs that can help you catch up to everything service providers throw at you. There are many 'established' blogs and info centers online that pump and dump information, but search for some new ones that offer a fresh perspective without sounding overly technical or complicated, and always get more than one side to every topic.

Tell us what sites you use and we will add them to our list of "recommended" sites.

RIM falling into same 'ol trap? Get Fresh!

C'mon RIM! Why waste more development resources and customers' limited attention spans on 'new' smartphones that are not much different from recently launched versions?

A recent blog entry on phonearena.com about a new Blackberry 9700 coming to TMobile prompted this note.

What I find intolerable is when device manufacturers start pumping out similar-looking models with very few tweaks and changes in form factor and/or feature set. This 9700 seems to basically replace the trackball with the trackpad, and offer WiFi. This is hardly different from the 8900 Bold, and Tour form factors (though the Tour does have global network support).

Each new smartphone should be developed to address either a new segment, or appeal to upgraders with updated form factors, feature sets, and marketing splash. Otherwise, what made RIM & Apple's smartphones unique will give way to similarities with customers' current perception of me-too handset manufacturers like Samsung & LG. Analogy to reference and learn from within the Automotive industry - we just don't want yet another Camry or Ford Taurus where nothing much is different except the model year.

As always, regardless of which popular smartphone you select, save time & money by getting hand-picked accessories at pdacart.com.

Please let me know if other customers agree with my POV on smartphones and what we expect from manufacturers.